such circumstances there could be but one end: the virtual uprooting of
ancient African culture, leaving only misty reminders of the ruin in the
customs and work of the people. To complete this disaster came the
partition of the continent among European nations and the modern attempt
to exploit the country and the natives for the economic benefit of the
white world, together with the transplanting of black nations to the new
western world and their rise and self-assertion there.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] Ham is probably the Egyptian word "Khem" (black), the native name of
Egypt. In the original myth Canaan and not Ham was Noah's third son.

The biblical story of the "curse of Canaan" (Genesis IX, 24-25) has been
the basis of an astonishing literature which has to-day only a
psychological interest. It is sufficient to remember that for several
centuries leaders of the Christian Church gravely defended Negro slavery
and oppression as the rightful curse of God upon the descendants of a son
who had been disrespectful to his drunken father! Cf. Bishop Hopkins:
_Bible Views of Slavery_, p. 7.




III ETHIOPIA AND EGYPT


Having viewed now the land and movements of African people in main
outline, let us scan more narrowly the history of five main centers of
activity and culture, namely: the valleys of the Nile and of the Congo,