African Roots PDF

# Chapter 1 ## African Roots 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 Af...

# Chapter 1 ## African Roots 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. Origen 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: Let us look at the passage which we quoted... about the queen of Sheba, who also was an Ethiopian; and concerning whom the Lord bears witness in the Gospels that in the day of judgement she shall come together with the men of this faithless generation, and shall condemn them.... This queen came, then, and, in fulfilment of her type, the Church comes also from the Gentiles to hear the wisdom of the true Solomon, and of the true Peace-Lover, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Solomon is a type of Christ, and just as the queen of Sheba came to Solomon to consult him because he was wise, so the church comes to Christ who is Wisdom himself. As a result, since the queen of Sheba is black, so must the church be black and beautiful. Her very blackness is the symbol of her universality; all nations are present in from her. "She came to Jerusalem, then, to the Vision of Peace, with a single following and in great array; for she came not with a single nation, as did the Synagogue before her that had the Hebrews only, but with the races of the whole world, offering moreover worthy gifts to Christ."3 Origen looks to the Old Testament for examples of blackness that foreshadow the mystery of the church. For him, there are two: the wife of Moses and Ebed-Melech, the Kushite who saved the life of Jeremiah when the latter had been abandoned in an empty cistern. In the Old Testament, the land of Kush usually meant Nubia, the land south of Egypt from the first cataract of the Nile to the point south of the sixth cataract, now the modern city of Khartoum, where the Blue and White Nile come together as one river flowing northward. In other words, it is the northern part of the country now known as the Sudan. The black-skinned people of Nubia were the earliest beneficiaries of Egyptian civilization. They in turn were the corridor between Egypt and the interior of Africa, a corridor that brought the civilization of Egypt to sub-Saharan Africa and the riches of Africa to Egypt. The Nubians, on the other hand, were not only a colony of Egypt that received from it its culture but a people who took that culture and made it an integral part of their own. Nubia was a black African nation with its own pharaohs. The people built their own pyramids, constructed their own majestic temples with their own style of architecture, developed their own writing-in fact, founded their own empire. By the eighth century before Christ, the former colony of Egypt became the dominant power. Shortly before the middle of the century, the Nubian king Kashta assumed power in the region of Upper Egypt. He died in 750 B.C., having returned to his home in the south. That same year his son Piankhi (or Peye) assumed the title and the trappings of office of the pharaoh of both Upper and Lower Egypt. With Piankhi began the XXVth Dynasty, the reign of the black pharaohs, who would rule Egypt and Nubia together for almost a hundred years. During this period Nubia and the black pharaohs made their appearance in the Old Testament. Isaiah speaks of the powerful Nubian warriors: Ah, land of whirring wings which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia; which sends ambassadors by the Nile, in vessels of papyrus upon the waters! Go, you swift messengers, to a nation, tall and smooth, to a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide. (Isa. 18:1-2) In chapter 19, Isaiah speaks of Egypt and its eventual defeat by Assyria. This critical juncture in the history of Egypt was described in 2 Kings 19 (repeated in Isa. 37:5-11). The prophet Isaiah promised Hezekiah, the king of Judah, that the Assyrians would abandon the siege of Jerusalem because the king of Assyria had been called to meet an invasion of Egyptian troops under Tirhakah (or Taharqa). This ruler was the next to the last and perhaps the greatest of the black pharaohs; he ruled from 690 to 664 B.C. In 663, under the rule of Tanoutamon, nephew of Tirhakah, the Assyrians invaded Egypt and took over the empire, seizing the city of Thebes, the home of the black pharaohs. With this defeat, the Nubians returned to Nubia and never again held power in Egypt. It is, however, a Nubian who emerges from the pages of the New Testament as the one person there who was undeniably black. He is often referred to as the “Ethiopian Eunuch," and his story appears in Acts 8:26-40. This text is significant, since it places this individual of non-Jewish origin as a proselyte, or believer in the Jewish religion, in the chapter before the conversion of the apostle Paul and two chapters before the Roman centurion Cornelius, who is converted by the apostle Peter. The text in Acts describes a very wealthy and powerful man who was definitely black, yet it never gives us his name. We know that he was wealthy because he journeyed in a chariot, not on foot like Philip the Deacon, who baptized him. We also know that he was wealthy because he was a royal treasurer in a country that clearly from the text is not Ethiopia but Nubia. "Ethiopian," as pointed out, is the generic name in Greek for a black African. In fact, the text indicates that this man is from Nubia inasmuch as he is described as the treasurer of the "kandake," a title used in Nubia at the time to refer to the queen mother or perhaps a queen reigning in her own right. At any rate, it seems that in Nubia at this time the mother of the sovereign wielded much influence. Another sign of this man's wealth is his possession of a personal scroll of the prophet Isaiah, which he read in the Greek Septuagint version. Like most people of ancient times, he was reading aloud, so that Philip was able to hear him and use the text that was cited as the beginning of his catechesis. This unnamed African is the first black to enter the Christian faith. It was more than five hundred years, however, before Nubia itself accepted Christianity. When the Christian faith arrived, it came already divided. ## II Justinian, the Byzantine emperor who ruled the Roman Empire from Constantinople between 527 and 565, sent missionaries to Nubia in the middle of the sixth century; his wife, the beautiful and resourceful Theodora, also sent missionaries. Theodora supported the cause of the Monophysites - those holding the doctrine that Christ's human nature had been swallowed up by his divine nature, making him not human and divine but only divine. The Council of Chalcedon in 451, however, had solemnly declared that Christ had two natures, human and divine. The church of Alexandria in Egypt and other large groups of Christians, for reasons partly doctrinal and partly political and social, rejected Chalcedon's definition and became known as Monophysites, from the two Greek words meaning "one nature." Apparently, the first missionaries to arrive in Nubia were Monophysite priests sent by the authority of Theodora. Justinian, on the other hand, supported the teaching of Chalcedon, the official teaching of the Catholic church. His missionaries finally reached Nubia about 570. By the sixth century the original kingdom of Nubia had broken up into three kingdoms: Nobatia in the north, Makouria in the center, and Alwa in the south. Details regarding the movement and extension of conversion are not known, but by the final quarter of the sixth century, Nubia had become Christian. Apparently both the northern and southern kingdoms were Monophysite, and the middle kingdom of Makouria was Chalcedonian (or, as the supporters of Chalcedon would be known in Egypt, Melkite). By the next century the kingdoms of Nobatia and Makouria were united under one king, and the church was Monophysite, although there are indications of a Melkite episcopal see that lasted for some time. Much of our knowledge about Christian Nubia has only recently been acquired. Unlike Egypt, which was excavated and studied in the course of the nineteenth century, most of the Nubian treasures and ruins remained covered over by sand until the middle of this century. Only in the last half century and especially in the last twenty years (stimulated in particular by the construction of the Aswan Dam, which meant the submergence of many of the temples and churches) has the serious study of Christian Nubia been made. Hence, only in the last several decades has it become clear that in a black African nation in large measure cut off from the rest of the Christian world, an ancient people built their churches with murals depicting the Virgin and the saints (usually with white skins) and their kings, queens, bishops, and nobles (with dark skins), clad in rich vestments and royal insignia in the stylized and hieratic Byzantine manner. The Nubians left their leather manuscripts and documents, both liturgical and legal, written in several forms of Nubian script, some of which still remain undeciphered. The Byzantine influence was unmistakable in this country in the heart of Africa. Not only did the art bear the mark of Constantinople, but the Byzantine titles of the imperial government were reduplicated in the royal administration of Nubia. For instance, the royal governor of the area known as Nobatia was called an eparch; at the court there existed an official called the domestikos, and another was the protodomestikos. Evidence suggests that the upper classes of Nubia used the Greek language as well as the Coptic of Egypt and their own Nubian tongue. Very likely the church also used Greek, at least in certain periods. It is unclear how long the Nubian church remained under the jurisdiction of Constantinople. Certainly, it was under the influence and probably the jurisdiction of Alexandria in Egypt by the eighth century. In 641 the Arab conquest of Egypt was complete, and the church of Alexandria was under the control of the Islamic governor of Egypt. Nubia as a Christian kingdom was in many respects an independent entity cut off from the great Christian centers. Yet this Christian nation survived with its liturgy, which may very well have long been the liturgy of Constantinople rather than that of the Copts of Alexandria; with its monasteries, some of which were very large and extensive; with its cathedrals (at one point, it seems Nubia had thirteen episcopal sees); and with its military forces and fortifications, which stood as a barrier against Islam 10 A great deal remains to be discovered about this unique African church. There are still sites to be excavated and many manuscripts to be deciphered and studied. One thing is certain, however, recent evidence makes it clear that the Nubian church remained as an outpost of Christianity much later into the Middle Ages than was hitherto believed. In 1964 a corpse was discovered in the rubble of a crypt at the church at Q'asr Ibrim (or Kasr Ibrim), a fortified city in the northern part of Nubia. The body had seemingly been buried in haste. Attached to the thighs of the skeleton were two scrolls, one written in the Coptic dialect of the delta region of Egypt and the other in Arabic. They were ordination documents attached to the dead body of a bishop attesting to his episcopal ordination; they gave his name - Timotheos. The documents also attested that the ordination took place in the presence of other Nubian bishops in the city of Fustat (now called Old Cairo) by the patriarch of Alexandria, Gabriel IV, whose episcopacy lasted from 1372 to 1380. The remains of Timotheos, bishop of Faras and Ibrim, are a mute testimony to the survival of a Christian church almost to the end of the Middle Ages, a church that existed on the frontiers of Christianity for almost eight hundred years. It is the testimony of an African Christianity and an African Christian culture that is, despite its Monophysite orientation, part of the Catholic tradition in the same way that all of Eastern Christianity is. We do not know exactly when Christianity died out completely. There were rumors of Christian villages surviving in remote areas as late as the middle of the eighteenth century.12 What we do know is that the story of one of the world's oldest civilizations is also one of the forgotten dramas of church history. ## III Yet Nubia was not the most ancient Christian community in black Africa. Ethiopia was converted to Christianity some two centuries before the kingdoms of Nubia. A mountainous kingdom in the horn of Africa, across the Red Sea from the more ancient kingdoms of southern Arabia, this earlier civilization was apparently established by Semites from the south of Arabia. A great civilization of indigenous black peoples came into existence in the first century A.D. The major sources for our knowledge of this civilization are the massive archaeological remains at the site of what was the royal capital, Axum. Here a centralized monarchy evolved, and here the language of the people, Ge'ez, received an alphabet and a written form. Ethiopia had a written language with its own alphabet from the second century A.D., having used the South Arabian script in the previous period. By this time also the mountain kingdom had emerged as a commercial center, trading with countries from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, as well as with the interior of Africa. Merchants and travelers from all parts of the civilized world came to Adulis, the harbor, and Axum, the capital. The Ethiopian kings located at Axum gradually extended their dominion over parts of Nubia, northern Ethiopia (Eritrea), and parts of southern Arabia. By the fourth century, the king of Axum had the title "king of kings," for he had become the overlord of other kings in the area. In the first part of the fourth century, the king of kings was Ezana, an excellent and powerful military leader. Ethiopia became a Christian country in the first part of the fourth century through the activity of Frumentius and Edesius, two Syrians who had been slaves at the royal court of Axum during the reign of Ezana's father, whose name it seems was Ella Amida. At his death the queen became regent during the minority of Ezana. It seems very likely that the influence of both Frumentius and Edesius led to the conversion of Ezana and the royal court. Ezana freed them both at his accession, and they were able to return to Syria. Frumentius, who is honored as a saint in both the Catholic and Ethiopian churches, visited St. Athanasius, the patriarch of Alexandria, on his way to Syria in order to apprise the patriarch of the growth of Christianity in Ethiopia, especially at the royal court. He requested Athanasius to ordain a bishop and send him back. Thus he is rightly considered the founder of the church in Ethiopia. Inscriptions on the monuments of Axum and elsewhere in the country as well as the symbols on the coins of the time (Ethiopia was one of the first black nations to have its own coinage) indicate the conversion of Ezana to Christianity. It is not at all clear how rapidly Christianity spread in the countryside among the ordinary people. It is certain, however, that by the last quarter of the fourth century, Ethiopian pilgrims were a frequent sight in Jerusalem. Their presence is attested in documents of the period. By the end of the fifth century, Christianity became firmly established in the country, and by the middle of the sixth century, Ethiopia was a powerful nation whose rulers were militant protectors of Christianity in the neighboring areas, including southern Arabia and Nubia. In the first part of the sixth century, the Ethiopian king, Caleb or Elesbaan, led an expedition into southern Arabia to punish those responsible for the massacre of Christians at Najran in 523. Ethiopia became a Christian nation with its own tradition and culture. By the fifth century it had its own liturgy, derived from the Coptic liturgy of Alexandria. This liturgy had its own unique characteristics in terms of liturgical texts, sacred rites like the dance, music (including the use of the drum that was unique to Ethiopia), and artwork and architecture, like the famous churches hewn out of the living rock at Lalibela. Ethiopia has made its own unique contribution to the Christian heritage with its own translation of the Scriptures, its own version of several patristic texts, and its own rich tradition of monasticism and asceticism. Monasteries began to be established as early as the fifth century, and monks continued to play an important role in the spiritual life of the people throughout Ethiopian history. Liturgically and canonically, Ethiopia was part of the patriarchate of Alexandria. Down to the middle of the present century, the head of the Ethiopian church, the abuna, or the metropolitan ordained by the patriarch of Alexandria, was always an Egyptian. This practice ceased finally in 1951, when an Ethiopian was chosen. Theologically also, Ethiopia (like Nubia) followed the Egyptian church in rejecting the position of Rome and Constantinople in the Council of Chalcedon in 451. As a result, the Ethiopians to this day are Monophysites, except for the several thousand members of the Eastern Rite Ethiopian Church, which is joined with Rome. 17 Politically, however, from the fourth to the seventh century, Ethiopia was a partner with the Byzantine Empire in the Red Sea area. At the same time, Greek influence was very strong, and that language was spoken at the court and by the upper classes. With the rise of Islam and its spread into Africa in the seventh century, links with the Byzantine Empire and the Mediterranean world were almost completely broken. In the history of the church, Ethiopia occupies a special place. Here we have an African church that has its roots in the early church. Before the church was established in Ireland or Anglo-Saxon England or in any country of northern Europe, a Catholic church linked to St. Athanasius blossomed in an African culture. Despite any doctrinal differences that arose later, the Ethiopian church is a reminder that Africa forms part of the rich heritage of Catholicism.