Paulina Opoku-Gyimah
says: I read about the Ashanti’s [Akans] possibly coming from Ashan in Israel
years ago via YouTube and just discarded it -even though I had no trouble
believing our links to Egypt (we share soo many names –usually with Egyptian
Gods) …As we all know, YouTube –where I
first stumbled across this possibility, is full of craziness, but then I slowly
started to see some similarities between ancient Israel and modern Ghana…
Anyway the following looks into said possibility…..
Title:HEBREWISM OF
AFRICA
It's a historical fact
that the mass majority of captive slaves broughtof captive slaves brought to
the Americas, came from West Africa, although some were brought from East
Africa, they were the minority. The west African tribal nations that our
forefathers were taken from, have many ancient Hebrew customs in there culture.
The KAFFIR, BO, GREBO, MARIBUCK, MAVUMBA, AKRA, FANTI, AKIN, YORUBA, KONGO, AND
ASHANTI. Just to name a few of the many sub-Saharan nations that engage in
ancient Israelite rituals.
Such rituals includes
CIRCUMCISION,
THE DIVISION OF THEIR
TRIBES INTO TWELVE, BLOOD SPRINKLING UPON THEIR ALTARS AND DOOR POSTS,
MARRYING OF THEIR
BROTHER'S WIFE AFTER DEATH,
SEPARATION AND
PURIFICATION AFTER CHILD BIRTH,
UNCLEANNESS DURING
CHILD BIRTH,
UNCLEANNESS DURING
MENSTRUATION
NEW MOON CELEBRATIONS.
Plus many more.
Among the ASHANTI tribe
the priesthood is hereditary to a specific family such a family has little or
no possessions, is exempt from all taxes, supplied with food and advises the
king. Compare this with the Levities of ancient Israel and you will see that
both are exactly the same. The name
ASHANTI has Hebrew origins, the "TI" at the end means race of or
people of, Ashan was the name of a city located in southern Israel Judah
(Joshua 15:42 - 19:7 / 1st chronicles 4:32 - 6:59). The word Ashan in Hebrew means smoke city /
burning city. ASHANTI means the people of Ashan or the people of the smoke
city, This was the reference to the city of Ashan after the Romans destroyed it
in 70 C.E. In a very informative book
entitled HEBREWISM OF WEST AFRICA By Joseph J Williams. He gives detailed
description of the Hebrew customs in many of the west African tribes. These
were the tribes who were the main suppliers of slaves during the slave trade.
And these are the tribes that the majority of Hebrews in the west are
descendant from. I will present a few excerpts from his book, and this should
further convince you of who the children of Israel are.
NOTE: I must say here
that this book was written in the 1930's and the author who is white quotes
some "racist" authors, from as far back as the 1700's. He also makes
some misguided comments himself, as he tries to find out how so much Hebrew
culture and lifestyle, got to West Africa. He would have known the answer to
that had he known the prophecies. But nonetheless there is still A LOT OF
useful information contained in HIS book.
PAGE 23, It was indeed
surprising how many HEBREWISM, either real or at least apparent, were to be
found among the unislamised tribes.
PAGE 52 In both ASHANTI
and Hebrew the traditional vowel sound is equally important for the true
signification of words.
PAGE 56, Thus in
conjugation of the verb the ASHANTI prefix the personal pronouns to the verb
stem, the same as it is found in the imperfect of Hebrew.
PAGE 61, One cannot
help being impressed by the number of customs and practices there described
that find their counter part among the ancient Hebrews. Thus, for example the
Mosaic law of intra-tribal-marriages, which was devised expressly to preserve
the inheritance of the daughters in the tribe and family of their father
(NUMBERS 36:12) finds a close verification among the ASHANTI of today. And the
cross-cousin marriages, so characteristic of the latter, are strictly similar
to that of the daughter of salphadd who wedded the sons of their uncle by their
father (NUMBERS 36:2). Again the preserving of certain names in a family is as
much sought after by the ASHANTI as it was of old among the Hebrews, as shown
in the case of naming of John the Baptist when the objection was made,
"there is none of your Kindred that is called by this name" (Luke
1:61).
PAGE 62, So also the
remarkable simplicity of the ASHANTI marriage and the distinctive part that
wine plays in the ceremonial reminds one of the ancient Hebrews.
PAGE 63, Not only in
the marriage ceremony itself but also in after marriage customs there is a
strange similarity between the ASHANTI and the Hebrews. Thus, for example, for
8 days after the birth of a child the ASHANTI "mother is considered as unclean".
It is only on the 8th day, at the Ntetea that the child receives its personal
name, and on the 40th day a still further ceremony has to be observe. In all
this we are certainly reminded of Hebrew customs. Further, the ASHANTI women at
the menstrual period, even to the retirement to the bara hut, read like a page
borrowed from the book of Leviticus, (15:19-20). And the system of ASHANTI
ablution to prevent legal uncleanness constantly brings to mind similar
practices which were common among Hebrews.
PAGE 66, Thus far,
however, we have shown certain cultural elements common to the ASHANTI and the
ancient Hebrews, such as the ob cult, religious dances, use of
"Amen", vowel value, patriarchal system, parallel symbolism of
Authority in "stool" and "chair", endogamy, cross-cousin
marriages, familiar names, exogamy, simplicity of marriage rite and the part
wine plays in the ceremony, uncleanness after child birth, purification
ceremony, Menstrual seclusion. and ceremonial ablutions; besides ASHANTI loan
words of apparent Hebrew origin.
PAGE 70, For they
ascribe to god the attributes of omnipresence, omniscience, and Invisibility,
besides which they believe that he governs all things by providence. By reason
god is invisible, they say it would be absurd to make any corporeal
representation of him. Wherefore they have such multitude of Images of their
Idol gods which they take to be subordinate deities to the supreme god.
PAGE 72, In the very
fact that the Hebrews, despite their service of the true god frequently relapsed
into idolatry. Captain Rattray, finds a parallelism with the ASHANTI, where, as
Bosman noted, one finds a belief in a supreme being side by side with
multitudes of their idol Gods.
PAGE 78, And there is a
common saying among the ASHANTI: no priest may look upon the face of his God
and live which sounds remarkably like an echo of "Yahweh's" (YHWH)
warning to Moses at Mount Sinai "Thou canst see my face for man shall not
see me and live".
PAGE 80, The supreme
being of the ASHANTI is identical with the god of the Christians, the Yahweh of
the old testament: and further that their tribal worship is strangely parallel
to that of the divided worship that existed in Jerusalem immediately prior to
the Babylonian exile, as we will see later in more detail. P
AGE 82, The breastplate
on the central figure, the Herald (Osene), who is called by Stanley the
Town-Crier, is strikingly similar to the breast plate of the High Priest among
the Ancient Hebrews, even to its division into twelve parts. The head dress of the
Herald, too with its gold disc in front satisfies the description of the
miznefet as given in the Jewish Encyclopedia. "A tiara, or perhaps a
peculiarly wound turban, with a peak, the front of which bore a gold plate with
inscription "Holy unto YHWH". However, the division of the breast
plate into twelve parts is certainly distinctive. So also is the head dress
with gold disc in front.
PAGE 83, The ASHANTI
Myth might thus record progressive stages in the manifestation of
"Yahweh" (YHWH) to the Hebrews; the burning bush; Sinai and the
Covenant, that established the Nation as God's Chosen People.
This is only a few of
the many comparisons he found out that existed among just ONE of the tribes
that we (in the west) are descendant from. It would be way to lengthy to
include all the tribes of west Africa who have Hebrew culture.
Today all of Africa has
been lumped into one, Meaning that "All black skinned people are of the
same culture, customs, etc." So as a consequence all this Hebrewism has
went unnoticed by the world at large. Most of the customs that are taught to us
as being "Traditional" African culture are actually cultural traits
that can be found right in the first five books of your bible.
Credit /Source: http://www.angelfire.com/ill/hebrewisrael/printpages/hebrewism.html
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