AFRICA IN THE COVENANT OF NOAH

The second river of Eden, the Gihon, winds through "the whole land of Cush" (Genesis 2:13). After the flood, Elohim made an "everlasting covenant" with Noah, his seed, and "all flesh that is on the earth" (Genesis 9:9–16). The sons of Ham are listed right after it: "Cush, and Mizraim, and Put" (Genesis 10:6), the peoples of the Nile, Egypt, and North Africa.

The Table of Nations records peoples "by their families, by their tongues, in their lands, by their nations" (Genesis 10:5, 20, 31). It never records color, and it never ranks one people above another. The blessing of Abraham, "In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:3), was spoken over those same families, African families among them.

THE CURSE FELL ON CANAAN, NOT ON AFRICA

"Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers" (Genesis 9:25). The verse names Canaan alone. It does not name Ham, Cush, Egypt, or Put. It names no skin and no color, and Noah speaks it, not Yahweh. Canaan's descendants are listed by name as the peoples of the land of Canaan (Genesis 10:15–19), and none of them is an African nation.

The "curse of Ham" and the later "Hamitic hypothesis" were added by men. They were used to defend the slave trade and colonial rule, but the Hebrew text supports neither of them.

AFRICANS INSIDE THE COVENANT STORY

Africans stand at turning points of the covenant, and the text never treats their African origin as a fault:

Hagar the Egyptian was the first person in the Tanakh to give a name to the One who spoke with her: "You are El Roi," the Elohim who sees (Genesis 16:13).

Asenath of Egypt was the mother of Manasseh and Ephraim, two whole tribes of Israel (Genesis 41:50–52; 48:5).

The mixed multitude went up with Israel out of Egypt and stood at Sinai (Exodus 12:38).

The Cushite wife of Moses: when Miriam and Aaron spoke against the marriage, Yahweh's judgment fell on her critics (Numbers 12:1–10).

Tirhakah, king of Cush, marched against Assyria in the days of Hezekiah (2 Kings 19:9).

Ebed-melech the Cushite drew the prophet Jeremiah out of the pit. Yahweh promised him, "I will surely deliver you … because you have trusted in Me" (Jeremiah 39:15–18).

ONE LAW FOR THE NATIVE AND THE STRANGER

"One law shall be for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you" (Exodus 12:49). The Torah commands Israel to love the stranger as itself (Leviticus 19:34). It even commands, "You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a stranger in his land" (Deuteronomy 23:7). And through Isaiah, Yahweh declares, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples" (Isaiah 56:7).

WHAT THE PROPHETS PROMISED AFRICA

"Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance" (Isaiah 19:25).

"Cush shall hasten to stretch out her hands to Elohim" (Psalms 68:31).

Cush and Egypt are enrolled among those of whom it is said in Zion, "This one was born there" (Psalms 87:4).

"From beyond the rivers of Cush My worshipers … shall bring My offering" (Zephaniah 3:10).

ISHMAEL: THE SON WHOM ELOHIM HEARD, BORN OF AN AFRICAN MOTHER

Abraham's firstborn son, Ishmael, was born of an African mother. His mother was Hagar the Egyptian (Genesis 16:1), and when he was grown, "his mother took a wife for him out of the land of Egypt" (Genesis 21:21). His mother and his wife were both from Africa, so through his family Ishmael's line was joined to Africa from its very first generations.

His name is a promise. Before he was born, the angel of Yahweh found Hagar alone by a spring in the wilderness on the way to Shur and told her: "You shall call his name Ishmael, because Yahweh has heard your affliction" (Genesis 16:11). Yishma'el means "El hears." Hagar answered by giving Yahweh a name from her own experience: "You are El Ro'i," the El who sees me (Genesis 16:13). The Tanakh records an Egyptian woman as the first person to name the One who spoke to her.

He was blessed, not cursed. When Abraham prayed, "O that Ishmael might live before You!" (Genesis 17:18), Elohim answered: "As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him … twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation" (Genesis 17:20). These are the same words first promised to Abraham himself (Genesis 12:2).

He bore the covenant sign in his flesh. On the day the covenant of circumcision was given, Abraham and Ishmael, then thirteen years old, were circumcised together (Genesis 17:23–26). Ishmael carried the sign of Abraham's covenant before Isaac was born. The covenant line, with its oath of the land, was established through Isaac by Elohim's word (Genesis 17:19, 21). The Tanakh records no fault in Ishmael for it.

Elohim heard him in the wilderness. When Hagar and the boy were sent away and the water ran out, "Elohim heard the voice of the lad where he is" (Genesis 21:17). He opened Hagar's eyes to a well, "and Elohim was with the lad, and he grew" (Genesis 21:19–20). The Torah says the same words, "Elohim was with him," of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.

His sons lived on Africa's doorstep. Ishmael's twelve princes "dwelt from Havilah to Shur, which is before Egypt, as you go toward Assyria" (Genesis 25:18). Shur is the wilderness on Egypt's eastern border. Ancient Assyrian records name several of Ishmael's sons as real Arabian peoples, among them Kedar, Dumah, Tema, Massa, and Adbeel. One Assyrian king records posting the people of Adbeel to guard the border of Egypt.

His sons carried Joseph into Africa. When Joseph's brothers sold him, the buyers were "a caravan of Ishmaelites" bound for Egypt (Genesis 37:25–28). Joseph rose in Egypt and kept the whole house of Jacob alive in famine: "Elohim meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20).

The brothers stood together. When Abraham died, "Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him" (Genesis 25:9). Afterward Isaac made his home at the well named for Hagar's meeting with Yahweh (Genesis 25:11). An Ishmaelite's son, Amasa, later led the army of Judah (1 Chronicles 2:17).

The prophets bring his sons to Yahweh's altar. "All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you; they shall come up with acceptance on My altar" (Isaiah 60:7). Kedar and Nebaioth were Ishmael's two eldest sons (Genesis 25:13).

A word of care: ten nations of the Arab League are in Africa, from Egypt and Sudan to Morocco, Mauritania, Somalia, and the Comoros. Many Africans across the north and east of the continent speak Arabic and honor Ishmael as a forefather. But "Arab" today is mainly a language and a culture, and the Tanakh also places other lines of Abraham's family in Arabia (Genesis 10:25–30; 25:1–4). Ishmael's sons are among the forebears of the Arabian peoples, but not the only ones. What the text does settle is that no son of Ishmael is cursed. The covenant is open to them on the same terms as to every son of Abraham: "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples" (Isaiah 56:7).

"And also the son of the maidservant I will make a nation, because he is your seed."

— Genesis 21:13

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR AFRICA TODAY

No one who reads the written covenant has any ground to look down on an African. No African has any reason to think the knowledge of Yahweh belongs to someone else. It is not a foreign possession carried into Africa from outside. The covenant of Noah included Africa's fathers, the blessing of Abraham was spoken over its families, the law of Sinai gave it one law with the native, and the prophets named its lands as places from which worshipers would come.

What remains is the choice the covenant puts before every person in every nation: to join himself to Yahweh and hold fast to His covenant (Isaiah 56:6; Deuteronomy 30:19).

"Have we not all one father? Has not one El created us?"

— Malachi 2:10

THE MESSAGE GOES TO AFRICA FREELY

Miqdash Bethel has ties to assemblies in Kenya, where the covenant documents are being printed and taught. Invitations have gone out to assemblies in Tanzania, and we look forward to fellowship across the continent. No money is asked and no membership is required. The knowledge of Yahweh is given freely, so that Africans may read the covenant in their own words.