\u201cWherever I went, I found that my Master had been there before me.\u201d So declared Dr. H. Ph. Junod, a missionary and researcher, after a 30- year sojourn in Africa. (From A History of Christianity In Ghana, p .1 under the heading \u201cHe came into His own Home\u201d).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In speaking of his experiences in Africa, Dr. Junod was not exaggerating nor was he romanticizing African beliefs and practices. The fact is, African culture resonates with Biblical traditions – what some scholars call \u201cHebrewisms\u201d- which point up a strong Israelite identity.<\/p>\n
Among these traditions stands out the seventh-day Sabbath ordained by God as a perpetual sign between Himself and the children of Israel (and subsequently all true believers of all nationalities ) \u2013 Exodus 31:16 -17; Isa.56:1-5; Heb. 4:4, 9-10. And, indeed, from Jerusalem to Ethiopia to West Africa, the Sabbath truth occupies a pride of place in the culture of the people.<\/p>\n
The Ashantis of Ghana, for instance, possess such a profound and biblically apposite knowledge of the seventh day as \u201cthe Sabbath of the Lord\u201d that they have made it part of the Creator\u2019s Name. In Akan society ( the larger clan to which the Asante belongs), a boy or girl born a particular day of the week is given a name derived from that particular day. A boy born on Saturday, for example, is called \u201cKwame\u201d, which means \u201cGod\u2019s child.\u201d Thus the Ashantis, in recognition of Saturday as the holy day dedicated to the worship of the Creator God, call the heavenly Father \u201cOtwedeampong Kwame\u201d which means \u201cAlmighty God of Saturday \u201c. The Akan word for the seventh day itself leaves no doubt as to whom the day belongs. It is called \u201cMemeneda,\u201d which translates as \u201cthe day of the I AM.\u201d(Exodus3:14).<\/p>\n
In the 1920\u2019s, at a ceremony to present a wedding gift intended for princess Mary of England, Nana Serwaa Akoto, the then queenmother of Asante Mampong, made a speech which eloquently affirmed the Saturday- Sabbath tradition of the Asante nation:<\/p>\n
I place this stool in your hands.
\nIt is a gift for the king\u2019s child, Princess Mary.
\nAsante stool makers have carved it and Asante silver-smiths have embossed it. \u2026
\nWe pray that the great God Nyankopon, on whom men lean and do not fall, whose day of worship is Saturday, and whom the Asante serve just as she serves him, that He may give the king\u2019s child and her husband long life and happiness.
\n(Emphasis mine. From the Asante Monarchy in exile by Ivor Agyemang\u2013Dua, pp 27-28).<\/p>\n
Indeed as Charles E. Bradford observes in the introduction to his revealing book SabbathRoots: The African Connection, \u201cThe Sabbath has vital roots in Africa, an African connection, if you please, carried forward by a people who bear, in some mysterious way, visceral memories of the Sabbath, however faint.\u201d (p 11).<\/p>\n
Well entrenched is the Sabbath tradition in Africa, but it\u2019s by no means the only \u2018Jewish relic\u2019 showing a connection with ancient Israel. It\u2019s only one of a number.<\/p>\n
Other Hebrew customs found in Africa include but not limited to:<\/p>\n
Now arises the question : How did Africa come to possess such distinctive Hebrew customs if it were not related to Israel? Does the fact that some few elements of African culture are decidedly pagan suggest a mere coincidence?<\/p>\n
No. That even serves to put the connection with Israel in the appropriate historical and prophetic context. Biblical Israel for this very sin of idolatry and flirtation with paganism came under divine judgment, which among other punishments, led to their banishment from the Holy land as enemy troops overran the land and laid it to waste. In the ensuing flight from the enemy\u2019s sword, historical accounts show that, many Jews came to mainland Africa resulting in Jewish communities springing up in North Africa.<\/p>\n
In the course of time, these Jewish escapees and their descendants, facing further waves of gentile persecution, fled southwards to the Western Sudan where they settled to building such great empires as the Ghana and Sonhay Empires.(Rudolph Windsor\u2019s From Babylon To Timbuktu treats this subject in depth).<\/p>\n
Still unrepentant, divine visitation was not through with them, however. A series of invasions by Arab forces set the African Jews on another southward march, this time to the west coast of Africa.<\/p>\n
Today, under the onslaught of modernity and the imposition of European gentile traditions in the guise of religion, such as Sunday worship and Saturnalia (Christmas), the Hebrew cultural heritage of Africa appears to be on the wane. Nevertheless, it\u2019s still recognizable.<\/p>\n
And God\u2019s sentence for sin and covenant breaking remains in force. To this day, Africa still bears the scars of the curses prophesied to afflict Israel for her violation of God\u2019s covenant. Deut. 28:15-68 gives the prophetic background to the many tragic episodes in the history of the Hebrew world community in general and the African Hebrew in particular.<\/p>\n
The recent daring, but dangerous, attempts by hordes of hungry, unemployed<\/p>\n
African youths to cross the Mediterranean Sea to the supposed greener pastures of Europe – at risk to life and limb – illustrate once more the life of curse being lived in Africa. (Verses 29, 65-67).<\/p>\n
The sad reality is that even though Africa is the richest continent in terms of mineral resources, its people are among are the poorest in the world. Now we know why. It\u2019s time Ethiopia stretched out her hands unto the Lord God of Israel (Ps 68:31).<\/p>\n
Gospel Message to Africa (GMA) calls the African Hebrew to his true roots. Rest is found only in Jesus, the seed of the woman who was ordained to bruise the head of the serpent who caused the first fall in Eden, which embraced Ethiopia or East Africa (Gen. 3:15; Gen. 2:13).<\/p>\n
In typical African fashion (where in a town or village plagued with curses refuse from the town are dumped on the town\u2019s outskirts to signify the removal of the curses), Christ \u201csuffered without [ie outside] the gate\u201d of Jerusalem to remove all our sins and curses. (Hebrew 13:12, Gal. 3:13).<\/p>\n
He still calls: \u201cCome unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden [which is true for many Africans], and I will give you rest.\u201d (Matt. 11:28).<\/p>\n
A genuine response to the call demands repentance and faith in Christ which entails the abandonment of all pagan beliefs and practices, \u2018home\u2013grown\u2019 or otherwise.<\/p>\n
Christ is prepared to heal the land; He is prepared to RESTORE! (2Chron.7:14; Jer.6:16; Joel 2:25-26). Amen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWherever I went, I found that my Master had been there before me.\u201d So declared Dr. H. Ph. Junod, a missionary and researcher, after a 30- year sojourn in Africa. (From A History of Christianity In Ghana, p .1 under the heading \u201cHe came into His own Home\u201d).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apostolic-doctrines","category-gospel-message"],"yoast_head":"\n