My Africa Today

In school, in history classes, students are taught about the African Slave Trade: how the black people were taken from the Continent of Africa to be slaves; how the black people were captured and raped and robbed of their culture; how the black people were forced to accept the religion of their captors; and how the black people had to, and still do, live according to the customs of their slave masters.

But did slavery all start on the continent of Africa? Were Hebrew/Israelites part of this slave trade? Were the Hebrew/Israelites even in Africa? And were the Hebrew/Israelites in Africa during the time of the African Slave Trade? .

George E. Lichtblau, author of "Jewish Roots in Africa," said "Claims of a historic presence of Jewish communities in certain regions of Africa, notably West and Southern Africa, seem esoteric when first mentioned. This presence goes back not just centuries, but even to biblical times." How many children know this? Mr. Lichtblau also said, " . . . the subsequent scattering of a Jewish presence and influence reaching deep into the African continent is less widely acknowledged." Why?.

If everything is left up to the school systems, black people in America will continue to live in darkness, especially, concerning the slave trade and its connection with the Hebrew/Israelites. There is a connection!.

First, it should be understood that the Hebrew/Israelites are black people. If that's not clear, please read "The Hebrew People of the Bible, What Color are they?" This will clearly explain what our captors do not want you to know. .

All through the biblical history of the Hebrew/Israelites, you will read how they disobeyed God, their Father, the God of Israel. In that the children of Israel are His only son (Exodus 4:22), they had to be disciplined by their Father, the Creator ofheaven and Earth, for their wicked deeds..

How did God discipline his children being a spiritual and not a physical being?.

The spanking that the Children of Israel received was through being defeated on the battlefield and by being taken into captivity by the nation or nations that their father, the Creator, raised to power. For example: Judges 2:11&14 says, "The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord . . . and the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that plundered them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies." Judges 3:7&8 says, "The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord . . . Therefore the anger of the Lord burned against Israel and he sold them into the hand of Kushan-rish'atayim, king of Aram: and the children of Israel served Kushan-rish'atayim eight years." And, Judges 3:12-14 says, "The children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord: and the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel . . . And he gathered to him the children of Ammon and Amaleq, and went and smote Israel . . . So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab, for eighteen years." So as you can see, the discipline came through the other nations by the God of Israel..

As the Children of Israel continued to do evil, and the God of Israel continued to bring other nations against them, knowing that they were going to be persecuted, and forced to serve another nation, they would run into other countries trying and thinking they were fleeing from their captors, that the Lord their God had raised and strengthened against them..

Although, the children of Israel was constantly wicked, they were already warned by the God of Israel that if they disobeyed Him that they would be cursed. As the Christians have the book of Revelations for their last book, the Hebrews have the book of Deuteronomy for their last book of revelations. And their curse is thoroughly outlined in Deuteronomy 28th Chapter. I am not going to quote the 28th chapter because it is very lengthy. But, please read it!.

There were several times when the Israelites, out of defeat, ran for shelter, and the Bible and other history books of the Jews hold the specific details of this matter. .

Second Kings 18:9-13 says, "And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hosea son of Elah King of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it. And at the end of three years they took it: even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, (that is, the ninth year of Hosea king of Israel) Samaria was taken. And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes: because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them. Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them."

Knowing that king Shalmaneser did carry away Israel, and that king Sennacherib did take Judah into captivity, did any Hebrew/Israelites try to escape their wrath? Did any Hebrew/Israelites run into other countries? Is it all possible for them to have also run into Africa? I say Yes!

Solomon Grayzel, a white Jewish historian, wrote in his book, "A History of the Jews," in the ninth century CE (AD), a man appeared in north Africa among the Hebrews there, his name was Eldad from the tribe of Dan, he was a Danite. He said the members of his tribe had escaped Israel after Sennacherib had conquered Israel, and other Hebrews from other tribes also live in the land from where he came from.

Menasseh ben Israel, the author of "The Hope of Israel," said in his book there were Hebrew/Israelites that had been scattered into the Americas since the time of Sennacherib.

Mr Lichtblau, the writer of "Jewish Roots in Africa," speaking of the Jews said, "Pressed under sweeping regional conflicts, Jews settled as traders and warriors in Yemen, the Horn of Africa, Egypt, the Kingdom of Kush and Nubia, North African Punic settlements (Carthage and Velubilis), and areas now covered by Mauritania. More emigrants followed these early Jewish settlers to Northern Africa following the Assyrian conquest of the Israelites in the 8th century B.C.E...."

And, Rabbi Dahton Nasi, the author of the "Basic Jewish Studies Handbook," has placed the Hebrew/Israelites all over the African continent.

Shalmaneser king of Assyria and Sennacherib king of Assyria were not the only kings to have come up against Israel. Another very important time in the history of the Hebrews, and I say important because the Temple was destroyed for the first time, is when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon came and took Israel and destroyed the temple.

Here too, we tried to escape persecution and ran into the continent of Africa. Mr. Lichtblau statement above goes one step further, when mentioning the emigration of the Hebrews to Africa during the conquest of king Nebuchadnezzar. It says, " . . . and again 200 years later, when Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians, leading to the destruction of the First temple."

So, again two hundred years later the Children of Israel ran into Africa trying to flee persecution.

The people, not wanting to serve king Nebuchadnezzar, went into Egypt, even after they were instructed by the God of Israel, their Father, not to. Jeremiah, the prophet, in chapter 42, 43, and 44 tells the people that God said to stay in Babylon because he would be with them. But instead, they went to Egypt and when Jeremiah caught up with them in there, he said, due to them not listening to the God of Israel, he was going to push king Nebuchadnezzar into Egypt and take it and them.

I don't know what my reaction would have been if I had been informed of this by the Prophet. But as Rabbi Nasi stated in his handbook above (regarding this situation, and something I do agree with), "This warning would cause many Israelites to migrate deeper into Ethiopia and the Sahara desert."

After serving the Babylonians for 70 years, the Hebrews returned to Israel to rebuild the kingdom. Thinking that they would have known how to act, they had to be disciplined again because they wouldn't listen to the word of God.

In the year 334 B.C.E., Alexander the Great, came down from Macedonia and took Babylon, Egypt, Israel, and other areas that were occupied by the Persians. After Alexanders death, his kingdom was divide and the Hebrew/Israelites caught trouble again.

Around 176 B.C.E., king Antiochus ruled the Greek Kingdom and came up against Israel. Approximately two years later, the king attacked Jerusalem and destroyed the city, burned it down, and took the women and children captive. He also wrote a decree to all of his kingdom that the people should give up their particular practices and be as the Greeks, to be as one people.

The king told the Hebrews to "put a stop to whole burnt offerings and sacrifices and drink offerings at the sanctuary, and to break the Sabbaths and profane the feasts and to build altars and sacred precincts and idol temples and sacrifice hogs and unclean cattle; and to leave their sons uncircumcised and defile themselves with every unclean and profane practice." The king made it known to the Hebrews, if they did not obey the command, they would be put to death. After the Greeks came, the Romans and around 70CE destroyed Jerusalem again. The Romans, too, refused to let the Jews circumcise their boys, observe the Sabbath, and study the laws of the God of Israel. Here, too, the Roman government said if we were to do the things that we are commanded to do by the God of Israel, that the Hebrews would be put to death.

The restrictions on the Hebrews forced them to emigrate in even greater numbers than before. Rome's vengeance forced the Hebrews that lived in Cyrenaica, which was approximately a hundred thousand and a million in Egypt to flee into the south of Africa and the west of Africa. Solomon Grayzel said, "such is the explanation how the Sahara desert first acquired Jewish tribes . . . "

But it wasn't always another kingdom that forced the Hebrews to flee their homeland.

The first three centuries of the Christian Era weren't easy for the Hebrews. There was a lot of confusion between the Hebrews and the Christians due to instigation by the Roman government saying the Hebrews killed Jesus. And, that false accusation has followed the Hebrews even until this day. But, at that time it did force the Hebrews to flee from persecution, while at the same time we also fled from the Christians due to forced conversion. It was a do or die situation. You either accepted Christianity or you died.

Next was the rise of Islam some several hundred years later, 6th or 7th century. Islam was gaining some dominance but not enough to convert the Hebrews. Mohammed sought the Hebrews, but the Hebrews didn't want to have anything to do with Islam. Eventually, a choice was given to the Hebrews either Islam or die by the sword. The threat of the sword was definitely carried out by the command of Mohammed, killing the Hebrew males and selling the Hebrew women. After the death of Mohammed, his successor (Abu Behr), with a tighter grip than Mohammed, continued with the caravan.

Africa wasn't the only country where the Hebrews dwelled because of them fleeing their captore and wanting to live a life of freedom. Spain and Portugal, to name a few, were two countries where the Hebrews tried to leave.

Life for the Hebrews in Spain was fair until January 2, 1492. This is the year that king Ferdinand and queen Isabella signed an order to deport the Hebrews out of Spain. Christianity had taken a strong hold in Spain and Ferdinand and Isabella approved the expulsion because the Jews were secretly maintaining their faith as Moses had instructed them and not embracing the Christian religion.

Ferdinand and Isabella gave the Jews until August 1, 1492 to get out of Spain or suffer severe slavery for sure. When August 1, 1492 arrived, a great number of Jews had departed Spain, returning to the northern and western parts of Africa, fleeing to the Caribbean islands, and fleeing into Portugal. "But the last group of Jews did not leave until August 2, 1492," said Rudolph Windsor, author of "From Babylon to Timbuktu."

This date should sound familiar to the world because this is the date Christopher Columbus set sail for the New World. And their were Jews on board his carriers. The Jews that stayed behind in Spain were either forced to convert to Christianity, be a slave, or die by the sword. The Jews that fled into Portugal were allowed to stay for thirteen years but no longer, to the year of 1505. To this date, there are a number of dark-skinned Hebrews in the Caribbean Islands, practicing and living the laws of Moses.

When 1505 arrived, the Hebrews that had stayed behind in Portugal were forced into being slavery by the order of the governor of Portugal. Also, the governor gave permission to import the slaves, those negroes, those Hebrews into the Caribbean islands and the West Indies.

But Spain and Portugal weren't the only culprits in this matter. The African people also played a part in the captivity of African slaves.

Although the slave trade began in 1441, at the hands of the Portuguese, it wasn't until 1619, when the first slaves were reported in English America, said Richard L. Green. He went further to say, "The participation of countries in the African slave trade became so profitable that slaves were viewed as black gold' and beasts of burden."

Black gold and beasts of burden is how Affonso I, king of the Congo, must have viewed the Hebrews of Africa because he gained a great deal of wealth from the slave trade. It is noted that Mvemba Nzinga, who was baptized Affonso I, ruled as the Mani Congo (king of the Congo) from 1506 to 1543. "Affonso I attempted to control the slave traffic," and by 1530, at least 5,000 slaves were exported annually from the Congo, said Mr. Green. Richard L. Green is the publisher and editor of "A Salute to Historic African Kings and Queens."

Of course, Affonso I, the king of the Congo, in the continent of Africa, wasn't the only king to get involved in the slave trade. There were other kings in Africa that did it out of profit, and their were some kings that were pitted against each other by the Europeans. But either way it goes, the Hebrews went into slavery by the hands of the kings of Africa and by the hands of the Europeans.

This document makes the connection between the Hebrew/Israelites and the African Slave Trade and explains how and why the Hebrews emigrated or rather fled to the continent of Africa. At the same time, it explains how the Hebrews got caught up in the slave trade. Many of the black people in America want to associate themselves with the African continent, when in fact it actually has nothing to do with the black people of America.

The history of the black people doesn't stop at Africa. There is more to black people than that. Take the time to study black history, and don't stop at Africa. Why, because it will be you who will make a difference in this world..