THE Hamitic theory was used by Hellenic Jews in Babylon to justify the enslavement of blacks by calling blackness the ‘curse of Canaan’ along with servitude.
This theory was further expanded after the time of Charles Darwin to justify the false notion of supremacy of whites over blacks.
Darwin believed humans evolved from lesser forms like apes. The white race was viewed as the new race which, according to the theory of Darwin, was to dominate earlier series of human beings — blacks.
This interpretation of Darwin’s theory was based on his theory of natural selection and used in the racial science of Eugenics.
Darwin taught that natural selection was a way of preserving and accumulating advantageous genetic mutations.
These advantageous mutations are inherited by the offspring and other members of the same species who do not have that advantage are inferior and would eventually die out, leaving only the advantaged or superior members of the species because they would have better chances of competing on earth.
The genetic traits Darwin hypothesised about ranged from standing erect, losing fur, tails and pigment of the skin, eyes and hair.
This is what led to the phrase: ‘Caucasian whites are the new race’ school of thought. Pale skin, blonde hair and blue eyes are deemed as the most desirable human traits. Blacks were considered less evolved and placed in-between an ape and a whiteman.
In that era, Caucasians were accustomed to seeing colonial regimes like Greeks, Romans and Turks in black lands such as Israel, Egypt and Arabia.
They believed blacks were unsophisticated, uncivilised and had no place in antiquity.
This bashing of black greatness peaked in the post-Moorish period when a new world order was established.
The glorious near and distant past of blacks in Africa, Asia and Europe would be purposefully hidden.
Black lives, customs, books, paintings and history were destroyed by acts of ethnic cleansing.
The Spanish Inquisition held by the Catholic Church against the blacks of Granada in the 1490s is one example of these acts of ethnic cleansing.
Maps were turned upside down, alphabets were twisted and black art and literature was whitewashed.
The following generations of whites began to think very lowly of blacks.
White scholars and researchers began venturing into African lands like Egypt and West Africa.
Inevitably, they witnessed irrefutable evidence of earlier and more sophisticated civilisations than their own.
Then came the question: “If blacks are so sub-human and uncivilised, why are the earliest civilisations of mankind found in Africa?”
Concerning Egypt, it was clear to the Persians, Greeks and Romans who colonised Egypt beginning 500 CE that the land was inhabited by blacks and these blacks were behind the construction of the pyramids, and came up with hieroglyphics and mathematics, among other sciences and technology.
This was even acknowledged and recorded by renowned ancient European intellectuals like Herodotus and Hypocrites.
This puzzled many Europeans and left dents and holes on both the Darwin theory and the science of Eugenics.
Several Europeans would attempt to explain away the overwhelming evidence of blacks in ancient civilisations like Egypt and even more recent ones like the Moors in southern Europe.
One of these Eurocentric thinkers was an Englishman called Charles Seligman.
Whites had classified blacks as Hamites and Canaanites to justify their enslavement in ancient Babylon.
Blacks were called ‘inferior humans’ with no ability to found sophisticated civilisations yet ancient Egypt was called ‘Metsrium’ after a son of Ham and brother of the likes of Canaan and Cush.
The people of Metsrium were called ‘Khem’ after Ham and their civilisations were called Khemitic.
Seligman therefore revisited the Hamitic theory to make it less obvious that Hamites, particularly Egyptians, were blacks.
He hypothesised that there were two racial types of Hamites – northern and eastern.
He argued the great civilisation of Egypt was founded by northern Hamites who were not black but white.
These were argued to be the ancestors of the Caucasian white race and the eastern ones who were not credited for the Egyptian civilisation were considered ancestors of the black race. According to Seligman, northern Hamites were: “Pastoral Europeans who arrived wave after wave, better armed as well as quicker witted than the dark agricultural negroes (eastern Hamites).”
As absurd as it sounds, it is this baseless theory that has led ignorant or gullible people to confidently portray figures of ancient Egypt such as the Pharaohs as whitemen.
In the ancient monuments, one finds blacks of ranging complexions carved or painted on walls, with the darkest of them depicting Egyptians.
The figures of the populous and people in positions of distinction are all black.
Non-blacks are only portrayed as foreigners such as Edomites from neighbouring Seir.
Gigantic statues such as the sphinx, which clearly depict blacks in all attributes were set aside by many Europeans to make room for the Seligman theory which is based not on anthropological evidence, but an attempt to support the Darwin theory and the Eugenics school of thought.
Egypt was in its prime over 2 000 years before Christ and white civilisations, beginning with Greece, would only begin to manifest 1 600 years after that.
Even after the time of Christ, the Egyptians were blacks and were among the first Christians.
They would reduce in number after the invasion of Egypt by Turks and so would black Arabians.
The lightskinned Turks who now make up the majority in Egypt are called ‘Mashriks’.
They cover themselves with sheets from head to toe in order to prevent their skin from getting damaged by the sun.
This is contrary to how the indigenous Egyptians lived in ancient times as they were portrayed living comfortably, yet topless in the midst of extreme heat.
Regardless of the settlers, blacks can be found in Egypt to this day.
Anthropological evidence also debunks Seligman’s Hamitic theory because evidence of whites in ancient Egypt cannot be found.
On the contrary, fossil remains of humans with negroid features are regularly unearthed in Egypt.
Dreadlocks and mummies with black skin were preserved.
When tested by geneticists, fossil remains of Egyptian kings like Ramses III were found to have the same genetic marker with sub-Saharan African blacks.
The paternal genetic marker that was found was E1b1a which is the predominant marker among African blacks in Western and southern African populations, including Zimbabweans.
On top of genetics, the same activities of livestock rearing and cultivation, with the same animals and crops such as cattle, sheep, chickens, millet and so on can be found in both ancient Egyptian and modern sub-Saharan populations.
It is therefore believed that with the drying of the Sahara region and the expansion of the desert came a migration of Egyptians to western and southern Africa.
These belong to the Negro-Bantu race and language family. They would introduce mining, cultivation, livestock rearing and irrigation to the lands they would settle in.
They did not settle in the rainforest areas around the Congo because the climate was not suitable for their crops which they carried from Egypt, Nubia and other places in the Sahara region.
Rather, they preferred the savannah grasslands that were inhabited by hunter-gatherer groups like the Khoi and San Bushmen prior to their arrival.
Such findings leave no room for theories like that of Seligman if one thinks logically.
It should be remembered that the author of the hypothesis had an agenda which he prioritised over facts and evidence.
Therefore, accepting such biased theories as truth is not intellectually sound as modern science has proved.
Sadly, to this day, ancient Egypt is deemed and depicted as non-black by many among both whites and blacks in literature, film and media.