All black history begins in Africa. In one way or another, Africa became part of the self-understanding of American blacks throughout the nineteenth century. The black Catholic com... All black history begins in Africa. In one way or another, Africa became part of the self-understanding of American blacks throughout the nineteenth century. The black Catholic community in America was no exception. It sought its roots in the religious experience of Africa and its self-definition in the African saints of the early church. American blacks, both Protestant and Catholic, found their roots in the black Africans who appeared in the pages of the Scriptures, both in the Old Testament and the New, and most particularly in the many references to Ethiopia in the Psalms and the Prophets. Origen, the great Alexandrian church father of the third century, paved the way with his famous commentary on verse 5 of chapter 1 in the Song of Songs (“I am very dark, but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem”). For Origen the bride in the Song of Songs was the church. Famous for his spiritual interpretation of Scripture, Origen believed (as most did in his day) that the great love poem of the Old Testament was a composition by King Solomon, in which was set forth the love songs between Solomon and the queen of Sheba. Origin followed the traditional belief of the time in seeing the queen of Sheba as an Ethiopian queen, a beautiful woman with black skin. The Septuagint version of the Scriptures in fact uses the wording: “I am black and beautiful,” commenting on this verse; Origen wrote in his commentary on the Song of Songs: Read more