Barack Obama and the Curse of Ham

It is interesting that in our modern world of information technology that a web search on the topic, the curse of Ham, would bring up something like this: "The Curse of Ham: Why Barack Hussein Obama Will Never Be President." What is even more interesting is that this post is in a so-called "conservative Christian" blog which declares that "all people of dark skin carry the curse of Ham."

This demonstrates erroneous information, like the lack of information, perpetuates ignorance, and that the modern world's boast of the abundance of information made possible by phenomenal advances in information technology is not equally a boast of increase in enlightenment.

The myth of the curse of Ham states that according to the Bible Noah pronounced a curse on his son, Ham, whose descendants include all black people. The curse is said to have made Ham and his descendants black and confined them to perpetual slavery. The myth of the curse of Ham is a misinterpretation of a Biblical account of Noah pronouncing a curse on his grandson, Canaan.

According to the Bible, Noah once became drunk and lay naked in his tent. Ham, one of Noah's three sons, saw Noah drunk and naked and informed his two brothers Shem and Japheth, who went into the tent backwardly and covered Noah. When Noah awoke and was told what happened he made these pronouncements: "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be to his brethren.... Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem; and may Canaan be his servant" (Genesis 9:25-27).

From the Scriptural account, it is true that Noah for reasons not given in the account cursed Canaan, Ham's youngest son, but it is not true that Noah cursed Ham or Ham's three other sons. In addition, there is no evidence God sanctioned Noah's curse and Canaan and his descendants were enslaved by Canaan's brethren and their descendants, according to Noah's pronouncement. We must always remember that no man can curse whom God has not cursed. A fulfillment of Naoh's curse on Canaan would mean that Canaan including his descendants became enslaved to his "brethren" who would be his three brothers, Cush, Mizraim, and Put and their descendants. Nothing in anthropology and history provides such evidence.

Moreover, Noah's pronouncement in the rest of the Biblical account is ambiguous when examined closley. You need to review Genesis 9:26-27 to follow this argument. It is not plainly stated in Genesis 9:26 whether Noah's pronouncement meant Canaan and his descendants would be servants to "the Lord, the God of Shem" or to Shem and his descendants. The "his" in that passage may refer to either the Lord or Shem. Similarly, it is not plainly stated in Genesis 9:27 whether Naoh's pronouncement meant God would enlarge Japheth and "he" (God) would dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan and his descendants would be "his" (God's) servants, or Japheth would dwell in the tents of Shem and Canaan and his descendants would be "his" (Japheth's) servants. It is unclear to whom the personal pronouns refer in that part of the Scriptural account. And so, it is not plainly stated in the Bible if Noah was declaring that Canaan and his descendants would become servants to Shem and Japheth and their descendants in addition to their enslavement to Canaan's brothers and their descendants.

Anthropology and history seem to situate the descendants of Ham mainly in Egypt, Ethiopia, Lybia, and the rest of Africa. The Canaanites in particular settled in Palestine or Canaan and, according to the Bible, were subjugated by the Israelites who invaded Canaan killing and driving out most of the Canaanites. The Israelites who eventually subjugated the Canaanites were not descendants of Canaan's brothers but were descendants of Shem. And this happened after the Israelites themselves were enslaved in Egypt by descendants of Ham for about four centuries.

Clearly, the idea of the curse of Ham is not derived from a proper interpretation of the Biblical account. It is a myth which unfortunately was used to justify the brutal enslavement of African people and continues to be used in modern times to oppress and discriminate against black people.

The message of the Gospel presents God's salvation and equal entitlement to the blessings of God to all nations through Jesus Christ. It is a shameful contradiction to Christianity and a display of pitiable ignorance that so-called Christians would dare seek to cheat and rob black people of their human dignity and potential achievement on earth on the basis of the myth of the curse of Ham.

To introduce the myth of the curse of Ham into the politics of United States of America, the proclaimed standard bearer of democracy in the world, is embarrassing. Barack Obama, who has nobly distinguished himself for the past two years in his political campaign to become leader of the Democratic party and as of date a strong contender for the presidency of the US, celebrates the fact that good leadership is a potential which is not confined to any particular race of human beings. And this so-called "conservative Christian" group of people who dare to misguidedly propagate that Barack Obama is disqualified to become president of the US on the basis of the mythical curse of Ham shows how far backward we are from true enlightenment in America despite our information technology advances. They need the prayers of all sincere Christians everywhere.

Read the book by G.A.N. James, The Myth of the Generational Curse (Xulon Press, 2007).