Hetepu Family.
Have you ever wondered how Africans were enslaved? I mean Family I have looked at this from every perspective, but I think I finally figured it out after so many years of study and contemplation. But, before sharing with you my theory, let’s take a trip down my religious memory lane.
Now, when I was a kid around 13 years of age and first becoming aware, that’s when I started having some strong opposition against the church. This was partly due to the rising crack cocaine violence occurring in the streets of Detroit, but not happening Dearborn, Southfield, Bloomfield, Royal Park and other nearby suburban communities, which made me ask, “Why is this happening to us?”
When I asked the ministers at my church, I remembered being taught that Jesus saved us all when he died on the cross for our sins. When I asked how did we become sinned in the first place and I was told about Adam and Eve’s fall, and how we were not God’s “Chosen People” but Gentiles. Not knowing a lot about history, biblical history or anything about Jewish people at that time. “Chosen People” in my young mind meant non-black and brown people, and Gentiles meant black and brown skinned.
To escape the onslaught occurring in Detroit, the thought came to mind that I needed to be saved, but when I gave myself Jesus he didn’t accept me, at least not for long. My faith was not strong enough because I couldn’t just accept that I was meant to be a pawn in some Divine scheme, so I left the church and began reading about the ancient Egyptians.
The ancient Egyptians fascinated me as a kid despite the popular belief that they were idol worshippers and the so-called enslavers of the Children of Israel or God’s Chosen People. It was something about them that attracted me to them, and now when I look at it, it was because they were also considered to be Gentiles in my young mind.
To me this meant that out of all of the biblical civilizations, while the “Chosen People” wandered from dessert to dessert. These pagan idol worshiping Gentiles called the ancient Egyptians stood as the greatest nation of all during this time. It was at that moment I realized that there was more to meet the eye about the ancient Egyptians and that they probably were not idol worshippers as everyone had claimed in Sunday school.
That’s when I received divine instructions to study everything I could about the ancient Egyptians. Twenty or so years later, I discovered the Maa Aankh and that’s when I realize that the reason I was given that instruction was to rid or reprogram my mind with constructive and positive images about ancestry. Since that time, thanks to history and metaphysics, I learned that there is no such thing as a “Chosen People.” Every race of human beings believe he or she is “chosen” because one of the faults of being human is our ego, but the Divine does not pick and choose or play favorites. As I have said before, the same air fills my lungs just like it does my enemy’s, which means God doesn’t put anyone on a pedestal. In God’s sight, we are all the same.
Therefore, this “Chosen People” idea is a manmade conception.
So how did the descendants of Kamit become slaves?
Well, with a better self-image and a better understanding of history, I began to read and study how the Transatlantic Slave Trade began. I remembered hearing that the Africans were forced into Christianity but after careful study, I found that this was a myth.
The truth is that when the first Europeans stepped foot on the West African Coast, the first people they encountered were the BaKongo people. The relationship and history between the BaKongo and Portuguese is similar to the relationship that occurred across the Atlantic between the various Amerindians and other European colonizers and settlers. Initially it began with the BaKongo people at first noticing the different physical traits and strange customs of the foreigners and gradually evolving to marveling at the foreigners advance technology. It can be said that it begins first with fear, followed by wonder. The BaKongo like many Native Americans were simply amazed by the Europeans gunfire, which was a technology they did not possess. As soon as they began to admire the Europeans’ weapons, they began to admire other things brought from Europe including religion. Even though most people believe that Africans were forced into Christianity, the truth is that the BaKongo people willingly converted to this new faith, just like a number of Native Americans had done. It all began with the envious desire to possess European weaponry to defeat one’s enemy.
If we look at this from a superficial perspective we will be led to believe that slavery began over the use of guns, but that is only a piece of the puzzle. Yes, eventually it led to the trade of ivory, gold, sugar, cotton and of course people, which means money, but those are still pieces of the puzzle.
I beat my head trying to figure this out, until I remembered the Story of Osar, and in the Story I was reminded that after Osar (Asar, Ausar, Osiris in Greek) came into power his envious youngest brother Set killed him and usurped the throne. How did Set kill his wise and powerful brother? He dangled in front of him a beautifully decorated chest, which became the model chest used in all royal funerary rites in ancient Egypt. It was an elaborate empty chest – meaning it had no real power – which everyone desired.
That’s right. It is the allusion and illusion of power.
Osar was already powerful and could have easily made the chest himself, but he fell for Set’s trick because of the allusion of power the chest represented, which is the ability to cheat fate.
I hope you see that Set has numerous elaborated chests. In pre-imperial and pre-colonial times, Set’s elaborated chest was the European gun. In another period, Set’s elaborated chest was religion. Today due to social media, it is fame and money, and doing what is “good” or “right” in order to receive social acceptance. In other words, Set’s chest is anything that you think will quickly give you peace, prosperity, power, love, success, etc. Anything that leads you to compromise your principles at the risk of harming yourself and others is an elaborate and beautifully decorated coffin created by your ego. There is only one way to get peace, prosperity, power, love, success, etc. No one and no thing can give it to you because they are ethereal. The only way to get these attributes is to within.
Hope that helps.
Hetep.