In Genesis chapter 9 verse 18, we are told that the sons of Noah were Shem, Ham and Japheth, and that Ham was the father of Canaan. The story continues that Noah got drunk and lay naked and that Ham went and told his brothers, Shem and Japheth. But exactly what did he tell them? That their father was drunk and that he was naked? The Bible doesn’t say. In verse 24 of the same chapter, Noah awakens and learns what his younger son has done. But what was that? If Noah was drunk, it had to be something that his other two sons told him what Ham had done.
It is on the premise that Ham had done something unforgiveable that European-oriented religionists suggest, deliberately or otherwise, that Ham was cursed. That is simply not true. Chapter 9 verse 25 tells us that it was Canaan, one of the sons of Ham, who was cursed by Noah. Was it Canaan who did something wrong of which his father knew and conveyed to his brothers?
In chap 10 verse 6 of Genesis we are told that Ham’s sons were Kush (mentioned first), Misraim, Phut and Canaan (mentioned last). Then in verse 7 we are told that Kush had Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Roamah and Sabtecha. Now reader, please do not forget the names Sabta and Sabtecha. I will refer to them somewhere ahead.
Very surprisingly, while we are told that Canaan was cursed by Noah, Kush and his descendants were elevated in the mind of God. In Amos chapter 9 verse 7, God tells the Israelites: “Are ye not as the children of the Ethiopians are to me, O children of Israel?” In the Bible, the Kushites are referred to as Ethiopians.
Not only were Kush and his descendants blessed, but also Havilah, another son, was given a land blessed with an abundance of gold bdellium and onyx (chapter 2 verse 11). I am pointing out all these records in order to give Biblical support to the role that the Kushites have played in world history.
In 701 B.C., Sennecherib, King of Assyria, advanced toward the land of Judah after having subjugated everything in his path. Many Judahite towns and cities either capitulated or were conquered. Now Sennecherib’s sights were fixed on the fortified city of Jerusalem. Both Hizekiah, the Judahite king, and Isaiah the prophet, lived within the city’s walls.
In an annal in the cuneiform script of Assyria, first translated into English in 1878, then in a modified version by Daniel David Luckenbill, it states, “Hezekiah the Judahite … had called for help upon the kings of Egypt and the bowmen, the chariot corps and the cavalry of the king of Kush, an army beyond counting, and they came to their assistance.” The Kushites were renowned for the breeding of large powerful horses for pulling chariots and there are records that show that even the Assyrians imported some of these horses, since the horses imported from Iran were small and tired easily.
The threat that Sennecherib posed to Hezekiah, the king of Judah, was real. Sennecherib had sent his Tartan, his sab-shakeh and his rab-saris, three of his most important officials, to frighten Hezekiah into surrendering the city, but Hezekiah had commanded the citizens to remain quiet (Kings II chap 18 v 36). The Assyrians would never be aware that the Kushite army was close by until the last minute when the “report,” the “rumor” (Kings II chap 19 v 7) would come to Sennecherib and cause him to depart. In Kings II chap 19 v 9 and in Isaiah chap 37 v 9, Sennecherib is made aware that Tirhaka, King of Ethiopia, was coming with an army.
In 759 B.C. the Kushites under their king, Kashta, moved up into upper Egypt to settle political matters which were spiraling out of control under various warlords, the remnants of other dynasties. Kashta’s son, Piye (also Piankhi) continued the intervention and occupation, re-established law and order and founded the 25th Dynasty. The Kushites were a sub-Saharan people renowned for their chariots, horses, bowmen and cavalry. The Kushite Pharaohs resided at Napata, the Kushite city south of Egypt.
Piye’s brother, Shabako, succeeded him, and like his brother successfully administered the affairs of Upper and Lower Egypt in much the role of an overseer. Quite interestingly, there is mentioned another name. Shebitku was supposed to be a co-regent along with Shabako. It was like having two Pharaohs. Some historians speculate that these names may be synonymous with the Biblical Sabta and Sabtecha mentioned earlier.
It is supposed that Tirhaka was chosen by both Pharaohs to lead the Kushite forces. Noted historian Donald B. Redford notes that a stela at Karnak reflects Tirhaka’s involvement in a military campaign in Libya. Archaeological records also indicated that Tirhaka defeated Easarhaddon, son of Sennecherib, in 674 BC.
But let us continue on Tirhaka’s march to assist against the siege of Jerusalem, Judah’s most important city.
According to the Bible, the prophet Isaiah is against soliciting the help of the Pharaoh, although all of Judah’s other towns and cities have been captured. The popular story is that God’s angel of death struck down the Assyrians. However, the Bible in another parallel also states that the Assyrians fled. Isaiah chap 31 v 8-9 says that as the Assyrians flee they shall abandon their ensigns (flags), perhaps at the approach of Tirhaka’s army.
In their book, “Exploring World History,” Sol Holt and John R. O’Connor tell us that the Kushites ruled Egypt for almost 100 years and that the highlands of Ethiopia lie southeast of Kush, which explains to me that Kush is not present day Ethiopia.
Years after the 701 B.C. rescue of Jerusalem, the Assyrians united with the remnants of the previous dynasties that Piye had conquered and in turn defeated the Kushite dynasty. It is interesting to note that after the Kushites’ defeat, they retreated south to Meroe where an even more powerful sub-Saharan civilization emerged.
Most decendants of Africans living in the Western Hemisphere tend to study only the history of African slaves in the West. The lives of men like Fredrick Douglass, George Washington Carver, Marcus Garvey, Isaiah Morter and others, no less important, are well-known and are sometimes or oftentimes thought to be exceptions to the rule. Mention names like Tirhaka, Shabako, Shebitku, Kan Kan Moussa, Amadou Bamba, Shaka Cetewayo Dingane or Kashta, and everything goes blank. Ask students who was the first president of Nigeria and pop! goes the balloon.
When the Panama Canal was being built, the native Central Americans were employed as a labour force but could not survive vector bourne diseases. They died like flies. Chinese labour was next imported to fill the void. They too died, the result of tropical diseases. Finally, about ten thousand Africans were imported from the Caribbean basin, including Belize, and accomplished what others could not do in spite of horribly discriminatory practices; many of them were covered by landslides or blown to bits in explosion accidents. They conquered the infamous Culebra Pass and went on to link shipping from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans.
When the British knew that their Burmese campaign would grind to a halt if something drastic was not done, they grudgingly solicited the help of African conscripts, probably all descendants of the Kushites, who put the fear of God into the Japanese and finally closed that chapter of the war.
Centuries after King Kashta first consolidated Egyptian power and founded the 25th Dynasty, a Zulu king emerged at the turn of the century. His name was Gashta Buthelezi and he claimed descendancy from kings.
The Book of Isaiah, the same prophet that tried his best to discourage king Hezekiah from asking Kushite Egypt for help, says in chapter 18 v 7, “In that time a present (gift) will be brought to the Lord of Hosts from a people tall and smooth of skin. And from a people terrible from their beginning onward. A nation powerful and treading down (treading underfoot). Whose land the rivers divide. To the place of the name of the Lord of Hosts. To Mount Zion.” Was this present mentioned the act of coming to the rescue of Jerusalem?
The question emerges, however, could Africans have defeated the powerful Assyrans? In Haiti between the years 1795 and 1804 there emerged from an African slave population remarkable military leaders who, after organizing the slave population and whipping them into a fighting force, destroyed both British and French military power on the island. The British and French armies at that time were reputed to be the best Europe could offer. Semi-illiterate and illiterate slaves marched to the beat of the drum to devastate the best fighting forces Europe had to offer, an act that the Haitian people have been punished for ever since.
The North Americans, terrified at the idea that their own slaves could be infected by the events, dispatched an agent to Haiti with a plot so sordid that the Devil himself would have bowed in respect of the details. Afterwards Cathcart, the agent, is alleged to have commented, “I have seen the discipline in their drills and their skill in bayonetry and I swear that had we possessed such troops during our own revolution our military campaign would have lasted half as long.”
In 1902 the Aswan Dam was completed in Egypt. Much of Kushite territory was inundated. When the dam was raised and completed in 1970, even more Kushite territory was inundated, except for some new Kingdom temples and statues. It is unfortunate that many of the ancient sites were lost perhaps forever.
In ending, let me give thanks to Henry T. Aubin for his very valuable contribution in his work, “The Rescue of Jerusalem.” It inspired me to write this article.
Thanks also to the readers for their patience.
L.M.
San Martin,
Belmopan