Nsaa -- Adinkra Symbol meaning "he who does not know the real design will turn to an imitation". Credit: W. Bruce Willis, Adinkra Dictionary	Blacks the Cursed Descendants of Ham? By Lamont (Master V) Veasey First the text of the curse then my commentary. 20 Noah was the first tiller of the soil. He planted a vineyard; 21 and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said, "Cursed be Canaan; A slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers." 26 He also said, "Blessed by the Lord my God be Shem; and let Canaan be his slave. God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his slave." (Revised Standard Edition) My Commentary Now lets see what this infamous curse is about. Well it appears that Noah got drunk and passed-out naked in his tent. (Verse 21) Ham saw him lying there drunk asleep and told his brothers about it. (Verse 22) So it appears that Noah spoke his curse because he was pissed that his youngest son, Ham, saw him naked. I guess he was pretty uptight about being seen naked (but drinking so much that he passed-out didn’t bother him) although he was lying were anybody passing by could see him, including Shem and Japheth. Ham just happen to see him first. Now here’s where it gets interesting, Noah’s pissed-off at Ham but he curses his grandson, Canaan. (Verse 25) He says "A slave of slaves shall you be to your brothers." Why is he cursing his innocent grandson who’s not in this story at all; who’s only mentioned in passing? (Verse 22) And what’s so bad about being seen naked that he’d wants to curse anybody anyway much less his own grandson? Since Ham committed this horrible offense why doesn’t Noah curse him? Let’s dissect this curse. All the white supremacist and their sympathizers say that blacks are the cursed descendents of Ham because, Ham was cursed by God with blackness and all black people (Africans) descend from him. They also say blacks were cursed to be slaves. (A good justification for enslaving Africans during the European slave trade.) As you can see by the text that’s not true. God doesn’t curse anybody Noah does. Noah doesn’t curse Ham he curses his innocent grandson, Canaan, and the text doesn’t say he was cursed with blackness. (If you believe this is a true story, which I don’t, but lets play the game anyway) Noah says Canaan shall be a slave of slaves to his brothers (Verse 25) and his uncles Shem and Japheth (Verse 27) not white racists or any other group) Now who are his brothers? Get out your bibles, move down to genesis 10:6 where it says the sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. These are all ancient civilizations in Africa. These are the black people who are supposedly cursed by God, but as you can see from the text this is not true. God doesn’t curse them neither did Noah. So Canaan is to be a slave (the text doesn’t say his descendents just Canaan) to his brothers Cush, Egypt, and Put. Canaan is to be a slave to the ancestors of the blacks? (Not to mention that if these brothers are blacks (they weren’t cursed with blackness) that Canaan is black too. And since they all have the same mother and father I’d say that Noah, his wife, Shem and Japheth are black as well. That’s how silly this whole thing about blacks being cursed with blackness is.) Let’s trace the descendents of the innocent cursed Canaan. Go to genesis 10:15-20 and you’ll see that the descendents of Canaan actually end up populating a large portion of the Middle East. Canaan was the Promised Land (roughly were present day Israel is now) that Moses led the children of Israel to, which means they were actually fighting their own relatives for the so-called Promised Land. Canaan’s descendents are the fabled cursed descendents of Ham not the descendents of his brothers Cush, Egypt, or Put (who are also Ham’s descendents) who populate Africa. So what happen to the fabled curse on black people? Unless you’re psychotic, I think you can see from the text that this whole thing is just racist propaganda, used for centuries to justify enslaving and abusing blacks for economic gain. And to relieve the guilt of white Christian racist for enslaving their fellow man, and to allow other racists to feel superior about themselves. Always check the ingredients of the can before eating its contents. May the light never cease to lighten your mind! Master V! Copyright 1999, L. Veasey