The History of KEMBA: From Bondage to Emancipation to Human Acceptance A Book of American Truths, Accomplishments and a Spiritual life

By Jr. Rev. Perry L. Carlton

The worst feeling in the world is to not know who you are or where you came from. That is the essence of lost hope. Hope is the belief that good does still exist and will occur in the coming days. Lost hope is the belief that good does not still exist and will not occur in the coming days. Believing that only bad things will occur is a miserable

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
• Release date: Feb 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9798885905879

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PREFACE

A

s I began this exercise in discovery, I truly understand that there will be critics who will find this book offensive and best left out of discussion and dismissed. I assure you that there is a burning within my soul that insists on never allowing America to forget an attempt by many not only to oppress and enslave but to openly and legally dehumanize the African people on the shores of this nation.

It is to her credit that America appears to be losing the longest and most essential war ever fought on the soils of this wonderful land—the war to deny human acceptance to the African people. Some would call this a perspective rather than a historical event however: I for one, believe that this is more than a perspective but a history of America unfolding.

I am writing from the mindset that we as Americans and a diverse people can do great things if we don’t mind someone else taking the credit. I am aware that leaders in my lifetime have made such assertions in order to tell this story and how it manifested a culture and lifestyle that has since gone with the winds of change and inevitability. This attempt by the elected officials of the United States of America to dehumanize the African man on the soils of this nation is truly remarkable in its context and done totally from the perspective of profit, superiority, ignorance, and fear. The early settlers of the New World never meant to dehumanize anyone, but it happened, and they allowed it to saturate their souls.

To begin this odyssey of affirmation I chose to start from the beginning of our plight as slaves in the New World (America), even though our history is from the creation of man by God Almighty himself.

As we live we discover things in life that truly astound us. I have discovered such a thing, and it touched me to my soul. It had to do with the politics of the northern African world during the time Jesus of Nazareth walked upon this Earth. Because of who he was and what he was, we cannot ignore some of the most profound statements made and recorded in the Gospels of the Holy Bible, the King James Version in particular.

That discovery was that the first time Jesus’s life was in danger as an adult—we all are aware of the decree put forth by Herod seeking to destroy the child foretold by the prophets—was when he went to the synagogue and saw White priests and proclaimed that there were plenty of lepers (white-skinned people) during the time of Elijah the prophet. Luke 4:27–30 (KJV) says, And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath. And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way (where Jesus’s reference on that day came from). Second Kings 5:1–27 says,

Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man of valour, but he was a leper.

And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman’s wife.

And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.

And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.

And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment.

And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.

And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.

And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.

So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.

And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.

But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.

Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?

Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordon, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant.

But he said, As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused.

And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules’ burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord.

In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing.

And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way.

But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought: but, as the Lord liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him.

So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him, and said, Is all well?

And he said, All is well. My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets: give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of garments.

And Naaman said, Be content, take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him.

And when he came to the tower, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house: and he let the men go, and they departed.

But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went no whither.

And he said unto him, Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants?

The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.

Never in my wildest imagination would I have ever thought that Jesus actually spoke to the rising tide of the Caucasian race’s authority over the church.

I didn’t bring this matter up as a means of shocking contrast to what we all have been taught about Jesus but to identify with the truth as we grow and learn. Jesus Christ was a proponent of the truth, which he preached would set us free, and indeed it does.

I began the thought process of this literary offering as a means of recording a specific event in history and a specific time and mindset perpetrated on a particular people, the African American. The history of the people involved has already been traced back to Egypt, Kush, and Carthage. It was during the era of these flourishing African political unions that areas such as present-day Zimbabwe and the savanna lands south of the Congo basin witnessed different civilizations that rose on the sites of their predecessors. Ethiopians have a recorded history that goes back over two thousand years. Other kingdoms are of more recent origin. The Zulu people of southern Africa didn’t form a powerful nation until the nineteenth century. To a great degree, all had some connection with the African-descended people of the New World (America). I could never tell this truth without the extensive use and study, research, and records of Dr. John Hope Franklin. Most Americans have never heard of the man, but I assure you he is truly the father of African American history.

From the beginning of European exploration of the Americas, Africans came as explorers, servants, and slaves. Even before, many thousands of Africans were brought to the New World. To work for sugar, coffee, and tobacco plantations, African slaves and free Blacks entered the New World alongside the early explorers, and yes, it is very ironic that some slaves gained fame as well as their freedom for participating in the conquest of America. They played a role in helping conquistadors claim the land as well as the lives of Native Americans.

Very little is known about most of these African-descended conquistadors, but sixteenth-century record and memoirs offer fascinating accounts of a few of them, such as Juan Garrido, who left a record of his life in a petition to Spain’s monarch Charles V in 1538. He was born around 1480 off the West African coast and arrived in Lisbon as a free person during his teenage years. The son of an African king, in 1503, Garrido left Seville as part of a Spanish expedition to the Americas. He also accompanied Juan Ponce de León on his two expeditions to Florida in 1513 and 1521. Upon the death of León, Garrido served under Hernán Cortés in the army that destroyed the Aztec Empire in Mexico.

Garrido received land for his military service and established himself in Mexico City, which the Aztecs called Tenochtitlán. For a time he held the important position of caretaker of the city’s water system. There were other outstanding African explorers who bore Spanish names, such as Estevanico, who led expeditions to Florida in 1528. That group suffered tremendous loss of life. Estevanico was one of the only four survivors who made a torturous journey across the continent back to Mexico City. In the journal kept by Cabeza de Vaca, another member of this two-year trek, it was recorded that Estevanico proved especially valuable because of his superior ability to learn and interpret the language of the Indian tribes among which the Spaniards traveled.

The story of this journey inspired