Throughout my American life, I have heard that black people are only Christian because the slave master gave us the religion. There was an attempted pressure that a true black person should be Muslim instead of Christian because Christianity was the white man’s religion with a white Jesus.
I grew up in a Mexican household as a black girl. My grandmother is a devout Catholic and exposed to me God, Jesus, and the Catholic church. As a young woman, I gave my life to Christ in a Catholic church, though I had no idea what I was doing! In my family, we were the Mexican Blacks; but in the world, I was a Black Mexican and all around me, I was being pulled to devote myself to a race.
As I grew up and discovered the atrocities of slavery in the America, I questioned why? The Black Power speakers around me attempted to guide me into believing that it was because of Christianity and that as a black woman, I needed to denounce the white savior and adopt any form of African Mythology or Islam.
I couldn’t denounce the Christ that had come into my life and turned me from a demon possessed person into a God-loved and God-loving woman, so I decided to denounce the traditional form of Christianity instead. I went on a search to discover the truth about what these Black Power Advocates were attempting to persuade me to believe and found myself proclaiming the Christian Faith in Truth and Power.
Slavery and the Bible
The Transatlantic slave trade began in the late 15th century and lasted for an estimated 366 years with some estimates leaning more toward 400. It was the largest slave trade in history and ended in December of 1865. https://slaveryandremembrance.org/articles/article/?id=A0002#:~:text=The%20transatlantic%20slave%20trade%20can%20also%20be%20understood%20through%20its,and%20life%20in%20the%20Americas.
During the Transatlantic slave trade in America, slaves were prohibited from reading any parts of the Bible, literature, or writing in fear that they would be empowered and rebel as the Haitians.
In Haiti, the slaves staged a revolt which was successful in removing their European oppressors, leading to freedom from slavery. There was speculation that the reading of Exodus 5:1 was the cause of the revolt. In this story, a man named Moses thought his bloodline was of Egyptian Royalty but after killing an Egyptian for beating an Israelite slave, he discovers that his family, with an emphasis on his mother, were slaves.
Moses told Pharaoh that the God of the slaves told him to let His people go and worship Him for 3 days. Pharaoh agrees and then takes it back setting off a series of events that leads to the freedom of the Israelites and the death of Pharaoh.
Three years after the Haitian Revolution, the first Slave bible was published which omitted Exodus, Psalm, Revelation, portions of Ephesians, Galatians, Jeremiah, and portions of Deuteronomy https://www.history.com/articles/transatlantic-slave-trade-facts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Select_Parts_of_the_Holy_Bible_for_the_use_of_the_Negro_Slaves_in_the_British_West-India_Islands#:~:text=British%20missionaries%20used%20it%20in,is%20owned%20by%20Fisk%20University.
Though the Transatlantic slave trade was the largest in number, the Arab-Muslim slave trade was the longest-lasting slave trade in human history spanning over 1300 years. It can also be referred to as the Trans-Saharan/Eastern slave trade. The slave trade involved people from Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, and other parts of the larger sub-Saharan Africa. The only Africans who were free from entering the slave trade were Muslims.
Roughly half of the slaves involved in this trade died during their grueling 3 month trek through Africa. European buyers focused on men to work their plantations while Arabs focused on young women and girls to serve as sex slaves. The men who were purchased by Arabs served as guards and were subjugated to castration https://www.fairplanet.org/dossier/beyond-slavery/forgotten-slavery-the-arab-muslim-slave-trade-sex-trafficking/#:~:text=The%20Arab%20Muslim%20slave%20trade,they%20laboured%20in%20foreign%20lands.
The Arab Muslim slave trade saw an end in Saudi Arabia and Yemen in 1962, Oman in 1970, and Mauritania in 1981 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_Muslim_world#:~:text=Slavery%20in%20Iran%20and%20slavery,to%20refer%20to%20this%20phenomenon.
The Original Language of the Bible and when it was written
The Old testament writings were in Hebrew with Ezra, Daniel, and Jeremiah written in Aramaic. The New testament was written in Koine Greek https://www.biblica.com/resources/bible-faqs/in-what-language-was-the-bible-first-written/.
Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic are apart of the Semitic language family. Semitic languages have their origins in the The Horn of Africa, North Africa, and the Middle East https://www.bibleodyssey.org/articles/where-did-hebrew-come-from/#:~:text=In%20sum%2C%20Hebrew%20is%20part,and%20the%20Horn%20of%20Africa.
Hebrew comes from the Canaanite family under the Semitic language. It’s origins are in modern day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and portions of Syria and Jordan https://www.britannica.com/place/Canaan-historical-region-Middle-East.
Arabic has its roots in the Arabian Peninsula which is located between southwestern Asia and northeast Africa https://alifarabic.com/what-is-the-history-of-the-arabic-language/#:~:text=The%20roots%20of%20the%20Arabic%20language%20can,dialects%20spoken%20by%20the%20nomadic%20Bedouin%20tribes.&text=It%20originated%20in%20the%20Arabian%20Peninsula%20as,is%20considered%20the%20earliest%20form%20of%20Arabic.
Aramaic stems from ancient Arameans, which is roughly located in modern day Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon https://academic.oup.com/book/33589/chapter-abstract/288065135?redirectedFrom=fulltext.
Koine Greek was established after the conquests of Alexander the Great and was spoken throughout Asia and Egypt. This language borrowed from the Phoenician alphabet https://brainly.com/question/7458094. The Phoenician alphabet has it’s origins in the Phoenician language which is a Canaanite language. It should be noted that the Phoenician language and writing were heavily influenced by Egypt https://www.worldhistory.org/article/17/the-phoenician-alphabet–language/#:~:text=Before%20circa%201000%20BCE%20Phoenician%20was%20written,the%20end%20of%20the%2012th%20century%20BCE.
The oldest parts of the bible were written in approximately 1400 BC and the latter around 95 AD https://www.biblica.com/resources/bible-faqs/when-was-the-bible-written/. The first English Bible was translated in the late 1300’s by an Oxford Scholar and his students, while the first complete English Bible was published in 1535 https://www.biblegateway.com/learn/bible-101/about-the-bible/early-english-bible-translations/ https://www.nls.uk/exhibitions/bible-in-english/first-english-bible/#:~:text=The%20first%20Bible%20in%20English%2C%201535&text=The%20first%20complete%20Bible%20in,%5D%20and%20Latin%20into%20English’.
History supports the fact that the Bible was in the Middle East and Africa long before the Transatlantic slave trade was conceived. In fact, history confirms that it was not the slave masters who created Christianity, the Bible or Jesus. What I know to be true, through the reading of the Word, is that it was God who created all three.
How many black people practice Christianity?
71% of Black Americans, 46% of Nigerians, 80% of South Africans, 85% of Liberians, About 63% of Ethiopians, Between 47%-63% of Eritreans, 67% of Jamaicans, and 94% of Haitians identify as Christians https://www.prri.org/spotlight/the-importance-of-christianity-to-black-americans/ https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/2024-05/Nigeria.pdf https://zuidafrika.nl/arts-culture/religions/#:~:text=About%2080%25%20of%20South%20Africans,Source:%20Statistics%20SA https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-report-on-international-religious-freedom/liberia/ https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-report-on-international-religious-freedom/eritrea/#:~:text=There%20are%20no%20reliable%20figures,Christians%2C%20Muslims%2C%20and%20animists https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/11/28/ethiopia-is-an-outlier-in-the-orthodox-christian-world/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Haiti#:~:text=Religion%20in%20Haiti%20*%20Catholicism%20(65.9%)%20*,*%20Spiritist%20(2.7%)%20*%20Other%20religion%20(0.65%) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Jamaica.
There are many more countries that I have not included but felt as though I have provided enough evidence to reveal the facts. Jesus is The Way, The Truth, and The Life. Nobody goes to the Father but through Him.
There are much more Biblical and scientific evidence I could give to present that black people are included in the story of Christ and life on earth, but I would rather focus your attention toward The Most High God that created us all alike, and uniquely different, in a way that only He could.
May we put our covenant to Him above all else, do our best to follow His ways for our lives instead of our own, and study the Bible to show ourselves approved.
2 Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
With Love,
Mother Ocia