O Lord, hear the cry of Judah and bring them together as a people. Give them strength to defend their cause; help them against their enemies!
-Deuteronomy 33:7
Note: It is recommended to read the House of Judah before reading this.
Judah was the 4th son of Jacob, so far in this series, I have talked about the anthropology of the Hebrews and where the largest dispersion of Hebrews are in the world today. In the House of Judah article, I talked about the Romans (Gentiles) invading Judea and Jerusalem in the 1st century, the migrations of the Southern Kingdom exiled into pockets of Africa and eventually being taken into the Americas and surrounding islands on slave ships. I also talked about many taking part in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade knowingly buying and selling Jews (Hebrews).
Igbos and Hebrews
The Nigerian author Onwukwe Alaezi explains some terminology associated with “Igbo” for clarity:
And today, even among all Ibos, there is a big confusion between the two names: Ibo and Igbo, which must once again be made clear. As has been pointed out earlier, whereas Igbo is the name of the stubborn, aggressive and adventurous cousin of Agulueri who was sacked from the kingdom of Eri because of his bad behavior and who ironically later became more successful than all his brothers, Ibo on the other hand is the corruption of the English word Hebrew (corrupted as Heebo, Eboe and Ibo) the equivalent of the Jewish word Ibrit or rather the English version of Ibrit, Jewish name for the Israelites.
-Onwukwe Alaezi M.A.Ed, IBOS: Hebrew Exiles from Israel - Amazing Facts & Revelations (1999)
And here a French geographer notes:
East of great PoPo begins the Dahomey territory guarded by the important town of Glehweh, known to Europeans by the various names of Fida, Hevedah, Whyda, Wida. The old writers called it Juda, and it's inhabitants were said to be Jews…"
-Elisée Reclus, The Earth and Its Inhabitants: West Africa (1892)
Igbos Taken into America
Even on St. Simon's Island just off the coast of Georgia in the United States, there is a historic site that commemorates one of the largest mass suicide attempts by enslaved Hebrews. During the voyage of the slave ship ‘the Wanderer,’ about 75 of the Hebrews revolted, took control of the ship, drowned the slavers and during the process caused the ship to be grounded at Dunbar Creek. Led by their high chief, they marched into the marshy waters singing. It is unclear how many drowned and how many survived this suicide episode but this site at Dunbar Creek is now known as Igbo Landing and gets its name from this horrific event where these (Ibo/Igbo) Hebrews chose death over slavery. With this information we know that Igbo Africans were brought into America and we know that the term is associated with Hebrews.
In a White House memo dating back to 1969, then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger describes the Ibos:
The Ibos are the wandering Jews of West Africa-gifted, aggressive, westernized, at best envied and resented, but mostly despised by their neighbors in the federation
-Foreign Relations, Volume E-5, Documents on Africa, 1969–1972
As we can see, there is more than enough clear evidence that it was known there were Hebrew tribes all along the African West coast and European slavers knowingly took Hebrews to be slaves into the Americas and have been suppressing and whitewashing this evidence ever since.
Identity Crisis of Israel
But why is it that so many of the Hebrew tribes (if not all) no longer realize who they are (even those Jews still in Africa) and why are we just now beginning to wake up to the truth of the Hebrew dispersion? Jewish Biblical writings prophesy of Israel’s enemies conspiring against them to make them forget their identity:
2 For behold, Your enemies make a tumult;
And those who hate You have lifted up their head.
3 They have taken crafty counsel against Your people,
And consulted together against Your sheltered ones.
4 They have said, "Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation,
That the name of Israel may be remembered no more."
-Psalm 83:2–4
This is exactly what we have seen among the Hebrews of which I have covered throughout this series, the entirety of Israel and all the tribes have been cut off from who we are in the world. It’s even mentioned above that the counsel would be “crafty,” we see this thinking in the amount of thought and the perfecting of slavery and psychological warfare that the American slaveholders aspired to. There were some slaveholders that even specialized in the breaking of the Hebrew (Negro) mentality:
Master Thomas at length said he would stand it no longer. I had lived with him nine months, during which time he had given me a number of severe whippings, all to no good purpose. He resolved to put me out, as he said, to be broken; and, for this purpose, he let me for one year to a man named Edward Covey… Mr. Covey had acquired a very high reputation for breaking young slaves, and this reputation was of immense value to him. It enabled him to get his farm tilled with much less expense to himself than he could have had it done without such a reputation.
-Frederick Douglass (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Hebrew Slave, 1845)
And here in Isaiah it states:
2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth!
For the Lord has spoken:
"I have nourished and brought up children,
And they have rebelled against Me;
3 The ox knows its owner
And the donkey its master's crib;
But Israel does not know,
My people do not consider."
-Isaiah 1:2, 3
It also states in Jeremiah:
And you, even yourself,
Shall let go of your heritage which I gave you;
And I will cause you to serve your enemies
In the land which you do not know;
For you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever.
-Jeremiah 17:4
Now these passages above in Isaiah and Jeremiah are specifically speaking to the House of Judah (as they were referenced earlier in the writings of those Hebrew letters, I recommend readers to check the context of the passages I give so you know I’m not manipulating scripture), Judah is singled out regarding the loss of identity and that is exactly what we see today. The nationality and heritage of a people are the binding ties that connect them to their ancestors, documentation of historical lineage is all throughout the Bible giving the ancestral background of prominent Biblical figures including Yeshua. The passageways that Hebrews were pushed through in chains on the African West coast before making the middle passage was even nicknamed the “door of no return” because once you went through those doors, you were cut off from your heritage, your language and your ancestors.
This is why many Hebrews of recent slave ancestry (African Americans) show their love for the African continent in its entirety, we do not know the country we came from nor the language our ancestors spoke on the African West coast, these were taken from us.
400 Years of Affliction
It was also spoken of that the Hebrews would be enslaved for 400 years, Moses wrote about what God told Abram (later known as Abraham) regarding this:
13 Then He said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. 14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
-Genesis 15:13, 14
Recently there was a United States bill introduced and enacted: HR 1242 and signed by President Trump in January of 2018.
400 Years of African-American History Commission Act
(Sec. 3) This bill establishes the 400 Years of African-American History Commission to develop and carry out activities throughout the United States to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Africans in the English colonies at Point Comfort, Virginia, in 1619.
There is some real ridiculousness with the way that bill is worded but let’s stay on track for now… 2019 will make 400 years according to this bill but what about the 13th amendment? The 13th amendment was passed and ratified by the end of 1865, here is the text for this amendment:
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
-13th Amendment of the American Constitution (1865)
So here we can see it clearly states the abolition of slavery except under criminal punishment. This explains why so many Negro Hebrews disproportionately fill American prisons and why we are unjustly targeted/jailed/murdered by our own country. How is it that Blacks make up only 13% of the United States and yet make up nearly 40% of U.S. prison population? The 13th amendment did not eradicate but instead revolutionized slavery in America, this is why some people believe the 2019 Juneteenth may hold extra significance as it may be the last Juneteenth held for Judah under the curse of the 400 year affliction. I want to clarify that I am not saying that I think Yeshua will come back in 2019, I’m saying that it is possible that the 400 years of affliction may be ending in 2019 and that the oppressors in these nations over the Hebrews will be held accountable for these atrocities at some point according to the above scripture (I will go into this more in the conclusion article of this series). Here is what Moses had to say about the tribe of Judah, named after Jacob’s fourth son:
9 Judah, my son, is a young lion
that has finished eating its prey.
Like a lion he crouches and lies down;
like a lioness - who dares to rouse him?
10 The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler's staff from his descendants,
until the coming of the one to whom it belongs,
the one whom all nations will honor.
11 He ties his foal to a grapevine,
the colt of his donkey to a choice vine.
He washes his clothes in wine,
his robes in the blood of grapes.
12 His eyes are darker than wine,
and his teeth are whiter than milk.
-Genesis 49:8–12
Awakening of Judah
Judah is a strong tribe and that strength can be seen even still, the athleticism among American Negroes has not been overlooked. Of the 13% of the nation (United States) that is Black, just over 6% are male and yet nearly 70% of the National Football League are Black players. The National Basketball Association is 74% Black players. Our true identity has been hidden for nearly 2000 years at this point but now we are beginning to awaken. The era of the Gentiles may be coming to a close, I encourage all and anyone reading this to pray for the Hebrew oppression around the world but I especially encourage my Hebrew mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters whose ancestors came to American shores in chains and those indigenous to the Americas to pray that YHWH will hear the cries of His people and save us. This is the message YHWH sent to His children via Jeremiah when they were living in Babylonian captivity, He directly tells His children, the Hebrew Israelites to cry out for Him, here He tells us that He will bring His children out of captivity of the nations we are in and will one day bring us back to Israel:
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.
-Jeremiah 29:11–14
Note: I saw someone brought up a great point regarding the 400 years affliction, I went by the Gentile calendar of 365 days in a year. It is very possible that the 400 years affliction may be according to the ancient Hebrew calendar which is 360 days in a year. If that’s so, then 400 * 365 = 146,000 days / 360 days = 405.56 years. In this case, the 400 years would be up sometime in 2024.
Sources:
http://polohco.com/get/Tribe_of_Judah.pdf
http://www.deuteronomy28.org/lostidentity.html
http://sonsofjacob.com/site-content/the-foundation/item/260-the-tribe-of-judah
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1242
https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_race.jsp