ASSYRIA TO WEST AFRICA: THE JOURNEY OF THE YORUBA ISRAELITES

“Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:”

Ezekiel 37: 4-5 KJV

BROTHER CASSIOUS ISRAEL (a.k.a. Chazaq Ben Yahudah, Ade Ben Judah Dawotola, Mikhael Jeshurun Ben Yisrael), STAFF WRITER, THE WALLZ OF JERICHO

Based on comparative studies between the dynastic tradition of the Ọyọ-Yoruba and ancient Near Eastern history the claim that the Yoruba traditions of origin, claiming immigration from the Near East, are correct. According to Oyo-Yoruba tradition, the ancestral Yoruba people of Nigeria saw the Assyrian conquests of the Israelite kingdom from the ninth and the eighth centuries B.C. from the view of the Israelites. After the destruction of Samaria in 722 B.C., they were deported to eastern Syria and adopted the ruling Assyrian kings as their own. The collapse of the Assyrian empire is mainly seen through the eyes of the Babylonian conquerors of Nineveh in 612 B.C. After the defeat of the Egypto-Assyrian forces at Carchemish in Syria in 605 B.C., numerous deportees followed the fleeing Egypto-Assyrian troops to the Nile valley, before continuing their migration to sub-Saharan Africa. From the 7th century B.C to the 1900s, a span of 2,500 years, the people, that are known as Yoruba, who initially were not known as the Yoruba, were dispersed throughout the African continent. This is a brief description of the journey of Yoruba, who were of the tribes of Israel, from Assyria to West Africa even through the darkness of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. We examine origin, migration route, history customs, and languages as it connects to prophesy.

THE BATTLE OF CARCHEMISH

The Battle of Carchemish was fought in May/June of 605 BC between an allied army of Egyptians and Assyrians against the Babylonian army. When the Babylonians overran the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in 612 BC, the Assyrians moved their capital to Harran (now in Turkey). When the Babylonians captured Harran in 608 BC, the Assyrian capital was moved to Carchemish. Egypt was allied with the Assyrians and marched to their aid against the Babylonians. In 609 BC, the Egyptian army of Pharaoh Necho II was delayed at Megiddo (in Israel) by the forces of King Josiah of Judah. Josiah was killed and his army was defeated. The migration of the Yoruba and the Ancient Israelites is an exact match. This is the beginning of the Yoruba migration from Nineveh in 612, then to Harran in 609, Carchemish in 605, and then to Egypt in 586.

The map above displays the migration of the Yoruba. This migration mirrors the exact route of the Ancient Israelite after the fall of Nineveh. Nahum 3:7, 9-10 King James Version (KJV),

The Account of Muhammad Bello

The first and only Sudanic author to provide precise information on the origin of the Yoruba is Muhammad Bello, the son of the founder of the Sokoto Caliphate and his later successors. In his “Infaqmaysur,” written in 1812, he included a brief account of Yoruba origins, stating that the Yoruba were remnants of the Canaanites of the tribe of Nimrud who were expelled from Iraq by Ya’rub B. Qahtan and who fled to the west before they proceeded via Egypt and Ethiopia until they came to Yorubaland (Bello 1964:48; Arnett). Assyria was known as the land of Nimrod that reveals where the Yoruba migrated. Note, that the Yoruba are considered a Canaanite tribe because they dwelt in Canaan. Micah 5:6-7 King James Version (KJV)

The Israelite Refugee Camp

Zephaniah 3:10: "From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering."

The geographical area of the Slave Coast stretched from the Volta River in Ghana to Nigeria. Four countries that include Ghana, Togo, Dahomey aka Benin, and Nigeria now occupy this area. During the slave trade, this territory was known as Eve-nyigba, which translates in English as the land of Eveo or Eve-land( Erh-verh land). A direct translation of the name of the Israelites is IVRI (pronounced Eve). The name Hebrew is the English translation of the name pronounced Eve from Latin. You will not find slaves calling themselves Hebrew but Erverh which translated to the word Hebrew.

Transatlantic Slave Trade

Deuteronomy 28:64-68:

64 "And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone. 65 And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: 66 And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life: 67 In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. 68 And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you."

Deuteronomy 32:26: "I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men:"

There were eight principal areas used by Europeans to buy and ship slaves to the Western Hemisphere. The number of enslaved people sold to the New World varied throughout the slave trade. As for the distribution of slaves from regions of activity, certain areas produced far more enslaved people than others. Between 1650 and 1900, 10.24 million enslaved Africans arrived in the Americas from the following regions in the following proportions:

· Senegambia (Senegal and the Gambia): 4.8%

· Upper Guinea (Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, and Sierra Leone): 4.1%

· Windward Coast (Liberia and Ivory Coast): 1.8%

· Gold Coast (Ghana and east of Ivory Coast): 10.4%

· Bight of Benin (Togo, Benin and Nigeria west of the Niger Delta): 20.2%

· Bight of Biafra (Nigeria east of the Niger Delta, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon): 14.6%

· West Central Africa (Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola): 39.4% Southeastern Africa (Mozambique and Madagascar): 4.7%

The different ethnic groups brought to the Americas closely correspond to the regions of heaviest activity in the slave trade. Over 45 distinct ethnic groups were taken to the Americas during the trade. Of the 45, the ten most prominent, according to slave documentation of the era are listed below.

1. The BaKongo of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola

2. The Mandé of Upper Guinea 3

3. The Gbe speakers of Togo, Ghana, and Benin (Adja, Mina, Ewe, Fon)

4. The Akan of Ghana and Ivory Coast

5. The Wolof of Senegal and the Gambia

6. The Igbo of southeastern Nigeria

7. The Mbundu of Angola (includes both Ambundu and Ovimbundu)

8. The Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria

9. The Chamba of Cameroon

10. The Makua of Mozambique