The Curse of Canaan

Genesis 9

1And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

...

20Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard.^c 21He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. 22And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. 23Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him,25he said,

“Cursed be Canaan;    (notice Noah cannot curse Ham directly, because Ham was already blessed by God in verse 1, so he curses Ham's firstborn Canaan)

a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” (The subservience of certain dark-skinned peoples - Ham means burnt or black or hot)

26He also said,

“Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem;    (Shem is the father of the Semitic tribes, including the Hebrews)
and let Canaan be his servant. (Again, the subservience of certain dark-skinned peoples)
27May God enlarge Japheth,^d    (Japheth is the father of the Europeans incl. the Greeks)
and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, (Perhaps the cohabitation of Shemites and Japhethites in the same lands)
and let Canaan be his servant.” (A third time, the subservience of certain dark-skinned peoples)

According to traditional Ethiopian histories, Canaan's son Arwadi (lit. "the Arvadite") and his wife Entela crossed from Asia into Ethiopia in 2101 BC, and the Qemant tribe were said to be descended from their son, Anayer. There is further an Ethiopian tradition that two other Canaanite tribes, viz. the Sinites and Zemarites, also entered Ethiopia at the time it was ruled by the Kingdom of Kush, and became the Shanqella and Weyto peoples, respectively.^[6] The Qemant relate that they share their Canaanite origin with the other Agaw groups.^[7] The Omotic speaking Shinasha have a similar tradition of descent from Canaan's son Hamati^[8] Similarly, the Shinasha extend the Canaanite ancestry to neighboring ethnic groups^[9] The Persian historian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (c. 915) recounted a tradition that the wife of Canaan was named Arsal, a daughter of Batawil son of Tiras, and that she bore him the "Blacks, Nubians, Fezzan, Zanj, Zaghawah, and all the peoples of the Sudan."^[10] Likewise, Abd al Hakam tells that "Canaan is the father of the Sudan (Sub Saharan Africans) and the Abyssinians".^[11]

Interesting how an ancient curse from the lips of righteous Noah continues on to modern times - where Africans are subservient to their neighbors, and not so long ago were indeed their slaves. I believe the only way for this curse to be reversed is through the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ - which breaks every curse and blesses us with authority over that which keeps us bound.