Jesus Was Aboriginal

Jesus Christ The Indigenous Activist

Jul 13, 2006 Tyson Woorama

The Christ poll I ran was misleading - Jesus' appearance is irrelevant to his African ethnicity, and to his politics - aboriginal activism against colonial oppression.

My June/July poll asked the question, "In the bible it says that baby Jesus had skin like burnt bronze and hair like lamb's wool. It is unlikely that anybody from that place and time had the blue-eyed appearance of western depictions of the Christ. So what was J.C.'s ethnicity?" This was a bit of a trick question, as anybody who has read my articles would know - physical appearance has little to do with ethnicity. But there is much evidence freely available on the web that Jesus was in fact dark skinned - for example,

• He called everybody brother
• He liked Gospel
• He couldn't get a fair trial

But racist joking aside, just take a peek at the picture for this article. It is a Roman mosaic from the era - a snapshot of J.C. himself. But in those days his skin colour had little to do with his ethnicity, as race is only a very recent myth fabricated over the last couple of centuries. Back in Jesus' time your skin tone was no basis for social differentiation. So what was his real ethnicity?

Most people in the poll voted for Middle Eastern indigenous. However, the Middle East is only a very recent political construct as well, formed by invisible borders and man-made canals. In Jesus' time, Nazareth was part of - you guessed it - North Africa! So this makes Jesus an indigenous North African, from what the Bible describes as a Hebrew "tribe".

The Bible also traces his lineage to Africa. The sons of Noah were Shem, Ham and Japheth. Their descendents included the dark skinned peoples of Africa/Arabia. Jesus' lineage from the African branch of the family is through Arphaxad, then Cainan, Salah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David (according to the Bible).

Jesus was one of most well-known aboriginal activists in history. His methods of Passive Resistance were similar to those of Ghandi, and are still celebrated throughout the world. I'm sure we're all familiar with his lore - "Turn the other cheek" and so forth. He was a tribal leader who died while opposing Roman colonists and the native "Jacky-Jacky" leaders who supported them.

It is understandable that these facts might be a little disturbing for people who were raised with an image of Jesus as a mousy little English fella, rather than the African tribal warrior-king that he was. But all the outrage in the world can't hide the fact that the "lamb of God" was actually more like the "lion" we are promised for the "second coming".

Perhaps the second coming will actually manifest as a new awareness of Christ's indigenousness, and a subsequent recovery of western indigeneity. I wonder if this will happen in time to prevent a Revelations-style destruction of the planet through non-indigenous greed and hate?

The copyright of the article Jesus Was Aboriginal in Aboriginal Rights is owned by Tyson Woorama . Permission to republish Jesus Was Aboriginal in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.