Novel Thomas
Believe it, there are stories in the Bible to help us better understand our African history, and there’s much to be extracted as we continue in our individual and collective quest to extract our historic truth from Europe’s historical contrivance and distortion of [our African] history.
Which is what, in keeping with the need to find out and learn more about our history, writer and recurring Montreal Community Contact contributor N’Oji Mzilikazi, delivered a mind-opening lecture, Blacks in the Bible, the evening of Friday, February 23, at the Council For Black Aging center in LaSalle.
Weather conditions notwithstanding, a small crowd was present, all of whom listened intently to Mzilikazi’s discourse as he borrowed from various biblical stories [events] and passages in the Holy Book and how they relate to African [Black peoples’] history.
The stories of names in the Bible, such as Ham, Noah, Jacob… Cain and Abe, Canaan. And historic place names like the White Nile, the Blue Nile, Khartoum, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Kush, Pyramids… Genesis, Civilizations… Having delved into the Bible, N’Oji was well-equipped in providing cogent explanations as to how they relate to Black peoples’ [African] history, and how it all evolved from the beginning, through European Contact and that abominable creation “slavery” (and its by-product the myth of European – white racial superiority) and its long-term debilitating impact on [Black people] as we have come to know the social construct today.
N’Oji also cites from Montreal Gazette columnist Henry Aubin’s 2002 award winning historical book, The Rescue of Jerusalem: The Alliance Between Hebrews and Africans in 701 B.C. (Soho Press), in reference to Black/African history, emphasizing a particular aspect of African history in relation to the Kushite rescue of Jerusalem as “one of the most important battles in history.”
Also historian Robert Draper’s “The Black Pharaohs…” “The ancient world was devoid of racism.
“Only after the European powers colonized Africa in the 19th century did Western scholars pay attention to the color of the Nubians’ skin, to uncharitable effect.”
Again N’Oji emphasizes, the story of Blacks in the Bible is at our disposal – if we have a Bible or three. There’s much for us to learn about our African-Black history.
His ongoing presentations, Blacks in The Bible is just his individual attempt to do just that.
