Thank you for sharing your reflections on this subject. You made some very good points. I will provide a reply to the question you raised. You asked:

"In regards to the curse of Ham and Canaan, why was the curse so severe and so long lasting? If the poverty, slavery and exploitation of Africa is due to the curse that Noah pronounced then this would explain why Africa has been so ineffective in resisting foreign exploitation over the years, is the curse still in effect? If so, isn't that unfair after all the years that have passed since Noah? How was Noah able to authorize such a potent curse?"

There is a curse that all men suffer from that is far more severe and inescapable that the curse pronounced by Noah. That is the curse upon Adam and his descendants. There is nothing "unfair" about all mankind experiencing the consequences of the curse brought upon the creation through Adam's transgression, and I believe we can find similar correlations with Noah, Ham, Canaan, and their descendants.

If you are interested in further reading on the subject, I have written of the curse upon Adam and his descendants in the blog post "Divorced From Truth – Part 2." A search on the title using the search field on the blog should return the link.

I would mention that I believe there is an element of prophecy bound up in the blessings and curses that men from ancient times have spoken upon their descendants. Surely Jacob must have had some divine revelation to speak those things he declared to his descendants in Genesis Chapter 49. I think there was an element of prophecy in Noah's words as well. He was not speaking merely his own mind, but the mind of Yahweh as well.

At the same time, I also believe there is inherent in these blessings and cursings pronounced by men of old a revealing of the power Yahweh has granted to men, for He created man in His own image and likeness. Yahweh's words are powerful, and in these historical examples we see that the words of men can also be immensely powerful.

May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days,

Joseph

When I was about 14 yrs I came across a book called 'the right knowledge' it was black hebrew type book and full of images of 'black' characters from the bible. I must admit as a young black youth I was quite intrigued but I knew it was factual incorrect.

One thing that I've noticed over the years will all these different types of deception is that they will usually follow a pattern set to entice the flesh. The either appeal to racial pride, national pride or imagination pride(usually aliens and fallen angels to appeal to a generation raised on sci-fi tv shows and movies and super heroes).

The particular book I mentioned went on to promote the worship of the Egyptian gods as the true gods of the black people and that these gods came from the Orion star system.
The book was laced with pseudo astronomical science which would be very convincing if somebody had little knowledge of astronomy. For example the stars in Orion are not physically linked or even bound by gravity, it our relative perception of these stars from earth that makes them appear in the constellation that we are familiar with. If fact the distance between the stars in Orions belt is greater than those stars and the distance to the earth…A point the book failed to mention lol.

Even though I know the book had serious biblical and astronomical errors I was very intrigued because (a) I was a young black boy (b) I was into astronomy (c) I loved sci-fi, so it appealed to my flesh/pride on many levels: Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life

Another common thread that I've seen with these deceptions is a leaning towards an extraterrestrial explanation for spiritual concepts, Ezekiel's wheel is often depicted as some kind of UFO transport for an alien posing as a god. In fact the book I mentioned earlier went on to say that white people were the creation of the fallen angels and were brought to earth as a punishment for the black people who had abandoned their god(s) and when these star-gods returned they would punish white people for the evils they had done to black people….this is another very potent trick of satan to appeal to the flesh and the desire for revenge.

I think the problem with these race worshiping cults is a lack of basic education of not only the bible but of world history. As Joseph said, Egypt underwent many regime changes where different nations held power. Even today there are many black people who esteem egypt as a great black civilization, although it did have black pharaohs, not all of the pharaohs were black.
Cleopatra is depicted as some great black matriarch when the truth is that Cleopatra was a descendant of the Ptolemy who was in fact Macedonian (European).

In regards to the curse of Ham and Canaan, why was the curse so severe and so long lasting? If the poverty, slavery and exploitation of Africa is due to the curse that Noah pronounced then this would explain why Africa has been so ineffective in resisting foreign exploitation over the years, is the curse still in effect? If so, isn't that unfair after all the years that have passed since Noah? How was Noah able to authorize such a potent curse?

On a lighter note, there is a video on youtube of radio phone-in type show, where a black hebrew type person is taking calls. The presenter is preaching how everybody in the bible was black and one guy phones in and says, if everybody in the bible is black..does that mean the devil was black too? That made me laugh.

Thanks