Let my people go!

When I was a child, I was made to believe that the reason for Africa's desperate suffering was that our great great grandfather, Ham the son of Noah, was cursed by his father shortly after the flood for laughing at his father's nakedness. He was thereby condemned to become a slave to his siblings Shem and Japheth. While it is true that Africans are the descendants of Ham, it is a blatant lie that we are a cursed race. For Scripture says clearly in Genesis 9: 18 - 24

                   "The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.). These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth. Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan!  The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.”

It is clear from the above Scripture that Noah did NOT curse Ham. He cursed Ham's son Canaan. Ham had other children, for we are told in Genesis 10: 6 - 20:

⁶ The sons of Ham: 
   Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan.

 ⁷ The sons of Cush: 
   Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and Sabteka.

   The sons of Raamah: 
   Sheba and Dedan.

 ⁸ Cush was the father of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on the earth. ⁹ He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD.” ¹⁰ The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Uruk, Akkad and Kalneh, in Shinar. ¹¹ From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah ¹² and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah—which is the great city.

 ¹³ Egypt was the father of 
   the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites, Naphtuhites, ¹⁴ Pathrusites, Kasluhites (from whom the Philistines came) and Caphtorites.

 ¹⁵ Canaan was the father of 
   Sidon his firstborn, and of the Hittites, ¹⁶ Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, ¹⁷ Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, ¹⁸Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites.

   Later the Canaanite clans scattered ¹⁹ and the borders of Canaan reached from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, as far as Lasha.

 ²⁰ These are the sons of Ham by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.

From the above, we see that Ham's descendants with the exception of the lineage of Canaan, were great and accomplished peoples and builders of some of the greatest civilizations of their age. Canaan however, became the father of the Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, and other 'ites' whom God later commanded the children of Israel to utterly destroy as the latter inherited the land that the former had settled in after the Exodus from Egypt. 

Genesis Chapter 9 has been used (or rather misused) to justify all sorts of evil and injustice committed against the African peoples, from the transatlantic slave trade and slavery in the West to colonialism in Africa to segregation in the US to apartheid in South Africa. It has also been used not only to visit unimaginable brutality upon Africans, but also to brainwash them to think that they are the children of a lesser god and that it was divinely ordained from before the foundation of the earth that they should forever be subservient on the basis of the colour of their skin. 

Scripture records that the children of Israel were enslaved in Egypt for 430 years before God sent Moses in to get them out. Africa's children have likewise been held in captivity for millennia by their erstwhile brethren. But no slavery can last forever. Sooner or later, a disillusioned  but troubled old Shepherd lifts up his tired head and notices a burning bush that does not seem to get consumed and, drawing closer, he hears a Majestic Voice command him, "Take off your shoes, for the place where you stand is holy ground. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of their captivity."

In the case of the Israelites, God was 'late' by 30 years bringing them out, for He had promised Abraham, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there." What was the reason of God's seeming tardiness in delivering His people? My guess is that He needed a willing agent who was prepared and courageous enough to go up to Pharaoh's palace and tell him “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go," The other reason that the children of Israel had to endure four centuries of slavery had been intimated by God to their Father Abraham: "In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” (Gen 15:16)"

As I look around at those who hold the children of Africa in captivity in so many ways, I am tempted to weep and ask God, "How long?" But He has already given me the answer that I seek. "The sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." But it is clear that their civilization is in terminal decline and it is just a matter of time before it collapses altogether. My calling therefore alongside other African children who desire liberty for our people above all else, is not to be pre-occupied with collapsing economies and decaying societies, but to ensure that when the sin of the Amorites has reached its full measure, God will find us ready to go and lead His people out of slavery into our Blessed Land of Promise. 

Nkosi Sikelel i'Afrika.