‘“WHEN APPLIED TO AFRICA AND AFRICANS THE HAMITIC

HYPOTHESIS AND SCIENTIFIC ARE TWO SIDES OF THE

SAME COIN.” DISCUSS.’

The Hamitic Hypothesis and scientific racism were used to validate many

injustices to blacks in Africa and around the world throughout history.

However, they were met with much forceful arguments, in an effort to

debunk their theories. They are said to be two sides of the same coin in

reference to Africa and Africans.

“Racism… referred to a form of racial prejudice that was justified by the

dogma that some groups of people inherit characteristics – intellectual and

temperamental- that make them inferior to others.” 1

throughout Africa and

spreading outward as well, it was deeply felt that black people were born to

serve white people and were as such, considered as an “inferior black race”.

This ideological racism emphasized that Negroes were physically built in

such away to serve their white masters2. After the nineteenth century

however, the full blown systematic racist ideology with “scientific” support

took shape.

Scientific Racism entailed justifying the inferior position and treatment

placed upon blacks due to their physical make- up and biological features.

These ‘inferior creatures in the “The Great Chain of Being”’3 , Africans, were

placed according to Darwinism, “closest to the ape”. Biased note and

1
Drake, St. Clair, Black Folk Here and There, Volume 1, 1987, p. 20
2
Drake, St. Clair, Black Folk Here and There, Volume 1, 1987, p. 21
3
Drake, St. Clair, Black Folk Here and There, Volume 1, 1987, p.24
recording are made regarding the African’s resemblance to the ape and their

connection. Anthropologists in a futile attempt were on the verge to

characterize “race” according to measurements of the cranium and the

body. However, journalists and politicians vigorously applied the word to

nationalities, thereby, further spurring on scientific racism as some degree of

physical likeness is assumed or imagined when the word “race” is used to

designate a group.

As anatomy was stressed as the social marker, the belief was also widely

stated that external traits of physiognomy reflected inner states of mental

ability and personality orientation. Negroes’ features classified them as very

coarse, therefore, being dull- minded. Supplementary to this, French

biologist Cuvier published in his book The Animal Kingdom:

The negro [sec] race is confined to the South of Mount Atlas. Its

characteristics are black complexion, wooly hair, compressed

cranium, and flattish nose. In the prominence of the lower part of

the face [prognathism], the thickness of the lips, it manifestly

approaches to the monkey tribe. The hordes of which this variety is

composed have always remained in a state of complete barbarism.

He contrasted the Blacks to the Europeans:

 The Caucasian [race], to which we ourselves belong, is chiefly

distinguished by the beautiful form of the head, which approximates

to a perfect oval. It is also remarkable for variations in the shade

of the complexion, and colour of the hair. From this variety have

sprung the most civilized nations, and such as have generally

exercised dominion over the rest of mankind. 4

In the mid- 18th century natural scientist, Carolus Linnaeus, published

System of the Natural World. Linnaeus coined the term Homo sapiens to

describe humans and established the first scientific definition of “species”

and “race”. He classified race based on skin colour and stated what he

considered unique to each “race”; Homo europaeus were said to be of fair

complexion, mannerly, orderly and intelligent, Homo afer were black in

complexion, possessing a crafty, indolent and careless disposition. Also

existing were the Homo asiaticus/ yellow and the Homo americanus. Homo

europaeus was placed above all others in the ‘race- tree’ classification. 5

Dominantly, scientific racism expresses the outlook stating that Africans

were inferior to the whites due to their mere physical features and make- up.

However, the Hamitic Hypothesis is said to express the same school of

thought. Similarly, both speak of racism in Africa against blacks and of

4
Drake, St. Clair, Black Folk Here and There, Volume 1, 1987, p.27
5
Bernal, Martin, Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Volume 1: The
Fabrication of Ancient Greece, 1987
European discrimination though stemming from very different approaches

altogether.

The Hamitic- Semitic Hypothesis is the theory of the history of Africa. This

theory engages in the reverse of the curse of Ham. The curse of Ham is said

to be the origin of black persons. According to the Bible, Ham, one of Noah’s

three sons, walked in on his father naked. Due to this grave sin, Noah cursed

the land of Canaan where Ham was to serve as a slave to this brother and

pass down a race of slavery. Between the second and sixth century A.D. a

Jew of Babylon, writing in the Torah, shifted the curse form Canaan to Ham

himself. Now, the entire race was cursed and was to serve as slaves. All

places in Africa now, Hamites were liable to slavery. Amid all this

controversy, Ham castrated Noah to prevent him from producing anymore

offspring so that he could gain Noah’s inheritances. In retaliation, Noah

cursed Ham with blackness of skin and for the first time in history, was

blackness referred to as something bad and detestable.

Came the twentieth century and now anthropologists reclassified Hamites as

Caucasian rather than black. Egypt was flourishing with wealth and riches at

this time. Politicians and anthropologists could not allow blacks to be

inheritors of this and so reversed the curse. Western scholars who based

their studies, teachings and beliefs on the Bible claimed that “Ham was

black”. Eastern scholars who were anthropologists declared that “Ham was

white”. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries with the slave trade, the
“Black Ham” was invented to justify the enslavement of people of Canaan

and the Hamities.

“At the ideological level, the Hamitic Hypothesis emerged to explain that all

advanced cultural development in Africa had derived from lighter- skinned,

more Caucasoid, less Negroid people.” 6

So, civilizations, wherever found in

Africa were the work of “superior Hamites- Semites”. 7

Here, the Aryan race

is seen as a superior race above all others and it cuts out the role of both the

“Hamites- Semites” and the “Hamiticized” Egyptians in the building of

Western civilization. By the late 1850’s Frenchman, Count de Gobineau

published Essay on the Inequality of Human Races (1853- 1854). Considered

the “Father of Racism”, Gobineau proclaimed Africa and Africans “a

civilizational nullity”. He believed everything originated from the superior

Aryan race from which everything good stemmed. 8

The Hamitic Hypothesis and scientific racism differ in their sources and their

methods of approach. Scientific racism is science based and looks at one’s

biology and external features as well. However, the Hamitic Hypothesis is

biblically based and is examined by anthropologists and scholars who study

the Bible and base their teaching and beliefs of the Bible.

Though differing in their approaches, both theories speak of European

discrimination of blacks. Also, they both promote racism. They can therefore

be considered two sides of the same coin in this way. Controversies did not
6
Drake, St. Clair, Black Folk Here and There, Volume 1, 1987, p.31
7
Seligman, C., Races of Man, 1930
8
Bidiss, Michael, Gobineau and the Origins of European Racism.
fail to proceed later in history but such discrimination and justifications have

continued on throughout the world and are even being combated today still.