Africans and Christianity have a long history dating back to a few hundred years after the death of Christ. The first African nation to adopt the religion of Christ, which I will unpack later, was Ethiopia, when it was called Aksum. However, the Christianity that Ethiopia adopted was called “monophysite” and Christ was not God Him/Herself. It took some time before we came to depict Christ as God, which is not what he said. No where does Christ claim that he is God or to be worshiped like a God. African Americans have accepted the doctrine of Christ uncritically, as developed by Europeans, not Africans. What would we be like if we were Christians like Ethiopia was Christian? We will never know. All we know now is that when the Roman empire adopted Christianity as the sate religion, history made a sharp turn fort he worst.

It was in Ethiopia, when the Muslim religion was being persecuted by the plutocratic Quraysh of Mecca in Saudi Arabia that the king of Ethiopia granted them aslyum upon hearing the message of Islam. It is said that the King at the time, Ashama ibn Abjar, heard the message and was brought to tears. Realizing that this was a divinely inspired message he chose to grant the newly forming Muslims a place to stay in his kingdom. Such history is not mentioned by Arab Muslims today or Black Christians, part of it has to do with ignorance, the other with religious dogma. How could the King of Ethiopia recognize the same divine message of Islam while being a Christian? The answer is simple. All divinity comes from one source, we call it God, Allah, Jah, whatever it may be. If Black Christians and Muslims could realize today that their religions not only have roots in Africa, but that they are spiritually informed by Africa outside of European adulteration, we may have a chance at peace and unity. Muslims and Christians have lived together for such a long time in peace before the ascent of the European domination of the world, effectively bastardizing religion and using it as a handmaiden for their racism, sexism, imperialism, and xenophobia. However, that doesn’t have to be us. If we can reach back into our history and find the essential truths that once were common knowledge, we can be liberated.

Chris Rock once said that Black Christians have a short memory. I would say they have no memory at all, in general. Most Black Christians I know and interact with, those within my family and otherwise, hold the Bible to be some sacrament of God. When in fact, the Bible of the original Christians, if it could even be called that, would look drastically different than the version you have today; the adulterated King James version and others. King James, as well as many other Europeans have used the Bible in state politics and the governing of people’s bodies which violates the free will that God endowed us with. His interplay of faith and politics would fool people for years to come and to this day that this is the unadulterated word of God, coming from man, how paradoxical. Faith and Religion are hotly contested topics in the Black community and because of dogma and orthodoxy we have been mentally enslaved by our European en-slavers and ourselves. It hinders critical thinking and growth. We must take a step back, analyze the history of where these texts come from; why they were produced; in what context; to what end,; and finally what salience do they hold to us today? Only we can liberate our minds. We were given free will unlike other creatures on this planet, that doesn’t make us better or superior than they, for they have insights and wisdom we don’t, however, because of our unique place on this earth we must realize that we are custodians of this planet. As the first peoples, as Afrikans, we must recognize our role in the history of humanity and our integral role in re-deeming humanity. Until we know our religious, social, and political history we will forever wallow in ignorance clinging onto a book, God, and religion that was tampered with and used to enslave us. None but ourselves can liberate our minds.