Hebrews, Africa, and the Politics of Historical Erasure: Reclaiming Black Identity Without Conspiracy

Written By Ace Kashir

In recent years, works like Hebrews to Negroes have reignited global conversations around Black identity, Jewish history, and the politics of religious truth. At the center of these debates lies one fundamental question: Who were the original Hebrews, and how does their legacy live on today—especially among African and African-descended peoples?

This article will not traffic in antisemitic conspiracies or pseudo-history. Instead, it presents a Black-centered, historically grounded narrative that challenges colonial whitewashing while remaining committed to truth, nuance, and justice.

I. The Myth of “Sub-Saharan Africa” and the False Borders of Race

To understand the African roots of the Hebrew people, we first have to deconstruct the very language we use to talk about race and geography.

Terms like “Sub-Saharan Africa”, “Middle East”, and “North Africa” were not created by ancient peoples. They were coined by European colonizers who sought to divide Africa along racial and civilizational lines:

• North Africa was painted as “Arab” and “Mediterranean,” and therefore culturally “closer to Europe.”

• Sub-Saharan Africa was framed as “Black,” “tribal,” and “primitive”—a concept invented to justify slavery and colonization.

But in reality, Africa is a unified, deeply interconnected continent, and ancient peoples—including the Hebrews—didn’t divide themselves along these lines. Race in antiquity wasn’t Black vs. white—it was tribal, national, and cultural. Skin tone was just one factor, not the organizing principle.

II. The Hebrews Were Born in a Black and Brown Afro-Asiatic World

Historically, the Israelites—or Hebrews—emerged in a region called the Levant, geographically located in what is today Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon. But to view this area as separate from Africa is a colonial mistake.

• Ancient Egypt ruled over parts of the Levant during the time of the early Israelites.

• The Israelites sojourned in Egypt, intermarried with local populations, and were shaped by African cosmology, culture, and political structures.

• Moses married a Cushite woman—from Cush, the Biblical name for Nubia, or present-day Sudan.

In other words, the early Israelites were not “white Europeans.” They were Afro-Asiatic people, living in a cultural matrix that stretched from Egypt to Canaan, from Nubia to Arabia. Their physical features would’ve been closer to today’s Black and brown peoples of North and East Africa, not to the whitewashed figures found in Renaissance paintings or Hollywood films.

III. Judaism Is (Also) an African Religion

Let’s be clear: Judaism did not begin in Europe. It was born out of the Afro-Asiatic world and maintained strong roots in Africa from the very beginning.

African Jewish Communities:

• Ethiopian Jews (Beta Israel): An ancient Jewish community practicing pre-Talmudic traditions, possibly dating back to the time of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

• Igbo Jews of Nigeria: A people with oral traditions tracing their ancestry to the tribes of Israel. Their customs—circumcision on the 8th day, kosher-style dietary laws, and ritual purity—mirror Biblical laws.

• Lemba Jews (Southern Africa): This group has genetic markers in their male line (Cohen Modal Haplotype) consistent with ancient Israelite priests.

• Historical Jewish communities have also been documented in Mali, Ghana, Senegal, and other West African regions.

These communities show that Judaism’s roots and branches reach deep into African soil. That history has been deliberately downplayed in Eurocentric religious education and media narratives.

IV. Conversion and the Myth of “Genetic Jewishness”

Some critics of mainstream Judaism claim that modern Jews are not “genetically Hebrew” but are instead converts who discourage discussion of their own adopted status. That’s not an antisemitic statement in and of itself—it’s a historical conversation that requires honesty and nuance.

What’s True:

• Ashkenazi Jews, the largest Jewish population today, include descendants of converts, especially from European and Turkic tribes (like the Khazars).

• The Khazar Kingdom famously adopted Judaism around the 8th century. While historians disagree on how much Khazar ancestry remains in Ashkenazi Jews today, the conversion is not disputed.

• Many other Jewish communities—including Sephardi (Spain, North Africa), Mizrahi (Middle East), and African Jews—also contain long histories of both descent and conversion.

But Here’s the Key:

Judaism has always included converts. The Torah itself says, “One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you” (Exodus 12:49). To be Jewish is not solely a matter of bloodline—it’s also covenantal, spiritual, and communal.

So yes, it’s historically accurate to say not all Jews are “genetically Hebrew.” But it’s dangerous to say that disqualifies their Jewishness. That kind of purity test echoes white supremacist and fascist ideologies, which are antithetical to both Black liberation and Jewish tradition.

V. What About the Suppression of African Hebrew Identity?

This is where things get real—and complicated.

Many African Jews and Hebrew Israelites have documented experiences of racism, marginalization, and exclusion from dominant Jewish institutions:

• Ethiopian Jews in Israel have faced systemic discrimination, forced sterilizations, and second-class treatment.

• Black Jews in the U.S. are often treated with suspicion or asked to “prove” their Jewishness in ways white converts are not.

• African-descended Hebrew Israelites are routinely dismissed as “cults” or “fake Jews,” even when practicing deeply Torah-rooted forms of Judaism.

So when people say, “They suppress our identity”, they are often responding to real experiences of gatekeeping, institutional erasure, and Eurocentric bias within the global Jewish world.

VI. Where Hebrews to Negroes Gets It Right—and Where It Goes Wrong

Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America struck a chord because it says what many Black people already feel: Our histories have been stolen, whitewashed, and weaponized against us. And that is undeniably true.

But the film also:

• Leans heavily on discredited sources, like The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (a known antisemitic hoax),

• Pushes the idea of a global Jewish conspiracy to suppress Black identity—without historical evidence,

• Frames modern Jews as deliberate imposters, not spiritual descendants or sincere practitioners.

These ideas cross the line from historical correction into conspiracy theory, and they can cause real harm—not just to Jews, but to the credibility of Black liberation movements.

We can—and must—reclaim our history without falling into hate. The enemy is not Jewishness—it’s white supremacy, colonialism, and systems of erasure that affect both Black and Jewish people in different ways.

VII. Conclusion: A Shared History, Not a Stolen One

Reclaiming the African identity of the ancient Hebrews is not an act of hate. It is an act of healing, truth-telling, and self-determination. But it must be done carefully—avoiding the traps of anti-Jewish rhetoric and binary thinking.

Judaism is not white by default. It is not European by origin. It is a spiritual and cultural tradition that emerged from a Black and brown world—a tradition that includes Africans, Arabs, and yes, converts of all kinds.

Black people are not outsiders to the Biblical story. We are central to it. That story includes Cush, Kemet, Sheba, Canaan, Egypt, and Israel—and it lives on in our DNA, our culture, our spiritual memory.

Let’s reclaim it boldly—without scapegoating, and without permission.