ellauri108.html on line 375: In school, when we were taught of the slave trade, we did mot hear of the glory of the kings and the Kebra Nagast. We heard about "his story." We did not hear of African glory black my story, the truth as revealed in the Kebra Nagast We came to realize that even the Bible is just a version of
ellauri108.html on line 379: Solomons hubris, his tragic flaw, is the meat and bone of the Ethiopian bible, the Kebra Nagast, which, translated, is the glory of the kings. In this work, unlike the King James' bible, we see King Solomon struggling with his own mortality. Bayna-Lehkem, or David, as he is called by Solomon because of likeness to the boy's grandfather, King David, is a man of virtue who will extend his glory to Ethiopia. So, Solomon's weakness for women, which brings about his dissolution, gives him the thing he is truly seeking: a son to walk his own footsteps, like Shakespeare's Hamnet, a son wiser, by dint of his virtue, than himself. A son wiser than himself, that sounds rather like a stone too big to both create and throw. Solomon is disinherited by the lord when he marries the daughter of the Pharaoh and worships her golden insect idols. A hairy spider on its back. For this he is punished severely. We discern his absolute nihilism. His ultimate disillusionment. Knowledge is nothing but sorrow. He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. In the bitter nutmeat of the Ecclesiastes. Who was the mother? Of course, Queen Sheba. She was, by all reports, black.
ellauri108.html on line 453: Because of what they regard as the corruption of the Bible, Rastas also turn to other sources that they believe shed light on black African history. Common texts used for this purpose include Leonard Howell's 1935 work The Promised Key, Robert Athlyi Rogers' 1924 book Holy Piby, and Fitz Balintine Pettersburg's 1920s work, the Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy. Many Rastas also treat the Kebra Nagast, a 14th-century Ethiopian text, as a source through which to interpret the Bible.
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