Volume 43, Number 3 · February 15, 1996
A Short History of Anti-Hamitism
By James Fenton
The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide
by Gérard Prunier
Columbia University Press, 389 pp., $29.95
It begins when the Flood subsides. Noah plants a vineyard, makes wine, and falls into a stupor in his tent. Ham, Noah's son, sees his father's nakedness and tells his two brothers what has happened. Shem and Japheth take a cloak between them and, walking backward into the tent, cover their father's nakedness without themselves seeing it. When Noah wakes up and learns what has happened he lays a curse not upon Ham but upon Ham's son: 'Accursed be Canaan. He shall be his brothers' meanest slave.' And he elaborates: 'Blessed be Yahweh, God of Shem. Let Canaan be his slave. May God make space for Japheth. May he live in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his slave' (Genesis 9:20-27).
Review, 2515 words
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