Setting aside their bigotry, the Southern settlers hit upon a fact which is studiously ignored by modern anthropologists and historians: the natives of Hawaii, America’s 50th State, were Black people whose ancestral roots extend back to the continent of Africa.
The story of the Black Hawaiians is one of the most tragic of modern times. It is a tale of adventure and gaiety in paradise that turned into a cultural nightmare. It is America’s best kept secret.
We must venture into antiquity to learn of the roots of the Black Hawaiians, whose glorious star, now vanished from the Heavens, once brightened the Pacific for two thousand years.
Most anthropologists, paleontologists and archaeologists around the world generally believe that human beings evolved on the continent of Africa, from 3 to 5 million years ago, and that they eventually spread from Africa into Europe, Asia the Pacific Islands and finally the Americas.
In time, these Black settlers developed very advanced societies that sent navigators to explore and settle various islands of the Pacific Ocean. They reached such places as New Guinea, Fiji, New Hebrides, New Zealand, the Society Islands, Tahiti, Easter Island and thousands more.
The first people to reach what is now Hawaii were Blacks from Polynesia – a name which means “many islands” – in the central Pacific. They sailed to Hawaii in giant canoes about 2,000 years ago.
The Hawaiians and their neighbors in the Pacific have long been the subject of controversy among scientists. The people in this part of the world are generally divided into three groups: Melanesians (the word means black islands), who are unmixed Black people; Micronesians (which means small islands), an ancient Black people who are now largely mixed with Asians; and Polynesians, a people who were also originally Black but have mixed historically with Asian Mongoloids and White Europeans.
BLACK ROOTS A PUZZLE
The Black people themselves are an ethnological puzzle. Many like the Tasmanians, who were exterminated by English settlers were “pure” Blacks. The Australian Aborigines were also very dark with African features and curly hair.
“The basic strain of the original Hawaiians, as seen in their color and their faces,” writes historian J.A. Rogers in Sex and Race: Negro-Caucasian Mixing In All Ages and All Lands, “was undoubtedly Negro, with an admixture of mongolian.”
These people were of black and brown complexions with wavy or close-curled hair, broad facial features and fine physiques. In short, they had the same physical characteristics as millions of other people who now live in the Pacific Islands.
According to one early legend, these early settlers named their new home Hawaii in honor of a chief named Hawaii-Loa, who is said to have led the Polynesians to the islands. But the name Hawaii is also recognized as a form of Hawaiki, the legendary name of the Polynesian homeland to the west.
The ancient land of Hawaii was much like an African society. It was a series of islands ruled by strong-willed chiefs or kings who believed that they had descended from gods.
(LIKE THE PHAROH )
No written records of the islands were maintained, so a court genealogist, similar to the African griot, recited names, family exploits, battles and past glories of a proud people and their royal leaders.
Hawaiian life revolved around religious ceremonies. The heiau stone platforms, generally enclosed by stone walls, served the Hawaiians as temples. Inside these centers of worship were a number of objects for ceremonial use in various rituals.
They were used on numerous occasions, for to the Hawaiian people any new undertaking in life was cause for religious celebration. The principal Hawaiian gods were Kane (life), Lono (harvest) and Ku (war).
Closely linked to Hawaiian religious traditions was the kapu or law administered by the king. It was a rigid system of “rules and guides, do’s and dont’s, what’s and what-not’s” governing events from love-making and marriage to the season for catching certain fish.
It separated kings from commoners, men from women, and Hawaiians from foreigners. It was probably one of the most complex legal systems of the ancient world.
HEAVEN ON EARTH
If ever there was a paradise on earth, the Hawaiians appear to have had it. Blessed by a glorious climate, the people basked in the sun, swam in clear water and participated in competitive games and sports.
They worked, to be sure, in order to live; but there was a fine line between work and play. Fishing, for example, was probably as much a water sport as a source of obtaining food.
The people shared their harvest so that no one was without food; and everyone found shelter in the marvelous huts built mainly from the leaves of palm and hala trees.
“The people worked, swam, sang and danced, isolated from most of the scourges of the rest of the world,” writes Maxine Mrantz in Hawaiian Monarchy, The Romantic Years. “But that was soon to be changed. The ‘Garden’ would be discovered.
“Gone would be the sunny static days of peace and order. Disease, decadence and cultural shock were to take a terrible toll of the Hawaiian people, decreasing their numbers alarmingly.”
This great change, however, was still far off in 1758, which was about the time of the birth of Kamehameha, nephew of King Kalaniopuu who ruled the island of Hawaii and the Hana district of the island of Maui.
At this time Hawaii was not ruled by a single king, but was a chain of islands (Kauai, Maui, Oahu, Hawaii, Molokai, Lanai, Niihau and Kahoolawe), each ruled by a different monarch.
In 1780, before a council of chiefs, King Kalaniopuu officially named his older son, Kiwalao successor to his throne. But this was not to be. Kamehameha coveted the throne and set out to do all in his power to become king.
Following the death of King Kalaniopuu, Kamehameha aligned himself with a number of chiefs in battle against his cousin Kiwalao. Kamehameha defeated Kiwalao and thereafter proceeded to battle against the chiefs of Maui, Lanai and Molokai.
By 1810, King Kamehameha was the first to rule all the islands. Six other kings and a queen would succeed him to the throne.
Generally described as very dark and “extremely handsome,” Kamehameha (or Kamehameha, The Great, as he is often called) was a very capable ruler. He encouraged industry, promoted international trade, checked oppression and suppressed crime. His greatest drawback, however, turned out to be the faith he had in Europeans.
Captain James Cook was the first white man to reach Hawaii. He visited the islands in January of 1778, traded with the natives and was well treated. After returning to Hawaii in November of 1778 and remaining into the next year, he was killed when a quarrel arose between his traveling companions and the Hawaiians.
Legrand H. Clegg II, Editor and Publisher, July 1997
Hawaiki
good posting.i like it. thank u. :)-
I have read this, it’s the only article that has answer my question about who the Hawaiians were. Thank you so much for the truth, that’s what I was looking for. It is a very sad story.
It’s not the truth, it’s a total lie! He talked about evolution and 3.5 million years ago?
That already tells you that it’s a deceptive lie.
No its not I saw a documentary saying the same thing u sound upset history is history
Good article. Ive heard from reading a book called God of Light God of darkness that some Hawaiian people worshipped a god with no human sacrifices thye called “IO”
if there is further knowledge about this it needs to be shared too. Im not sure what to make if it all but it rang tru in my soul when i read that book…
You are on the right track…and yes…before Kamehameha the first, before the battles, before the arrival of other Polynesians; there was and always will be “I’o”. I have never read that book but was always told of the time when all was of pure light and the development of the spirit was at a higher level by all than it is today. There was only one, omnipotent.
if anyone has known of these people who have passed down this name “IO” let me know please at kingdomseeker49@yahoo.com
The truth will set you free
Hawaiians aren’t black there polynesian
What does polynesian mean? Is it a race?
Original Hawaiians do have black skin and woolly hair like Africans.
Exactly, I hate when people try to say a name that someone made to classify brown or black people
They are of Moorish descent originally. The Moors were ancient seafarers and traders long before the Europeans. We lived and settled all around our Earth including the Americas. Many of us were already here. Peace and Joy!!
Elizabeth get a clue. The only reason some Hawaiians do not look black today is because they are walking around with the blood of their conquerors and those the conquerors brought from Asia to dilute their blood. this entire continent was covered with so called black people long before the white man decided to set sail looking for blood. You are probably one of those that believed so called black people came out of Africa as a result of slavery. Africa had black people and so did the other 6 continents. Black people’s migration out of Africa did not start with whites. And there were black people sailing the seas long before the white man decided he needed to spill the bloods of other races to satisfy his thirst for blood. I know a native woman who told me that her ancestors were trading with black tribes long before the white man came along.
Hawaiians are genetically more closely related to Asians then Africans, they are an offshoot of Asians. It doesn’t matter what a person looks like.
Why must black people adsorb other cultures to feel good about themselves?
Why do people like you make such a big effort to whitewash history to fit your agenda? This article is talking about the original Hawaiians, not the influx of other people that came later. You would be saying the original Americans were European if Native Americans didn’t fight so hard to make their history known to the world. You got racist hillbillies calling the Hawaiians the n-word. It’s no need for black people to make up history. It is what is. Also, I wonder if you have ever seen the Khosian people of South Africa. One of the oldest people on the face of the Earth and more than likely the blueprint for the Asian phenotype from eyes, coloration and body type. Not only that, the Negrito people were the first inhabitants of large areas of the Asian mainland. People like you will never be able to keep real history from being discovered.
The oldest evidence of human existence was found in alkebuland(Africa). Ignorance is what make some whites ignore the evidence. Blacks gave humanity it’s first civilization. Math,science, philosophy, music, and many other forms of art was the result. “Black” exists in all that’s human. Why is there a comprehensive study of black civilization “Egyptology “? What were “whites” prior to 2500 BBC..? Why aren’t we studying europeantology? In truth it was the white man that absorbed and destroyed other cultures. Once we as people realize that we’re all connected, the world will be better served.
Amen! Great Response… The truth will set u free!
This Asian scientist didn’t think Asians had any African DNA, and Asians developed outside of everyone else. He came to find out Asians do have African DNA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka_IwxaIupI
Your confused. The human race started with black people. There for black people and civilizations is the source of everything else. If you took the time to actually read you would understand that since black people were the first race to exist, explore, and populate the world. The people who have less melanin in their skin and there for have lighter skin are a product of genes and climate. That is all. So obviously over centuries or longer when your in a less heated climate and you have white europeans raping your people, it’s going to lessen the melanin in those people. This is not a self esteem issue. This is a matter of accurate history that is being kept from the public to enslave their minds to a world where white supremacists are in control. And it seems they have done a good job of enslaving your mind as well.
Important question.
Dna proves otherwise… may I have your sources please… and you know budda and ancient asia was also black… don’t be evil. Maybe if they didn’t take credit for and dehumanize blacks saying they lived in the stone ages and were made slaves….. maybe ull realize that a lighter hue can not make a black person so the original race was black… everyone DIDNT POP UP EVERYWHERE…. THE HUE WAS BLACK FOR THOUSANDS OF DECADES…… SUCK IT UP. What your feeling now is something you should observe.. Observe the jealousy of your ancestors revived in the age of information. They new the work may be plagiarized… DNA ACTUAL EVIDENCE IS PROVING… OH yea Europeans murdered these AFRICANS WHO OBVIOUSLY PROVED TO ORIGINATE THE FREAKING BOAT… Do you HONESTLY BELIEVE… THAT EVERYONE HAD THEIR OWN VERSION OF A BOAT THAT LOOKED EXACTLY THE SAME? OMFG LIKE DAM….do you think Egypt was made by ALIENS.. or are you smart enough to understand wich hue had to carve and paint themselves in the face of you… I guess aliens are black…. or really loved black people… you even tried to steal beetoven… this if anything is karma.. and your loving ansestors so ruthless hid this from you to protect the insecurity and the neckadness and shield the hidden truth under the garments… Lets count the bodies now… a number in wich you can not grasp. You will refuse to grasp… your only option is to say you are mixed in with every other race.. lol blend in now but its obvious that this sht happened like 300 years ago… whoever is black in America of the north down to America of the south … came here on a boat….FIRST…
Anytime a black person observes himself publicly he’s silenced…yet there’s no quarrel if a German can trace his ancestry to the White House…go figure
Deal with the fact that we all have that blood (African/Black).
Sorry, your people weren’t the 1st to do ANYTHING, you might have been lastte
Black People are the origin of all races except the White race. The White race started out as Neanderthals (caveman). Read your history. We don’t have to do anything to feel good about ourselves because we are Original and a unique race of people. Who do you think Asians are? The Asians were Black until you people whitewashed them. There were dark skin Mexicans, Brazilians, Hawaaiians, Chinese, Japanese, Native Americans, Latinos, etc. The world started out as a dark race of people. Do your research. Of course the White man covered all our history because they didn’t want us to know our history even to this day. They even shot off the noses of the artifacts of our people, don’t that tell you something? That’s the reason why you people hate us because you know exactly who we are.
The white people were not cavemen..Read the Bible
afrocentrics have been doing this for years, comparing phenotype and using it to justify why we’re suppose to be Black. And I just read this somewhere recently about how Europeans are much more genetically similar to Africans than they are to Polynesians.
If anyone should get a clue, it’s you Mike. Why aren’t there any evidence of Africa in any of the islands? And why is it now with DNA, we show no similarities whatsoever with Africans? We’re even much more distantly related with Asians (over 13,000 years) and yet we are related to them versus an African. Remember the year that the first group of people left Africa and crossed the Levant?
The first group of “people ” that left Africa were black. Not white,yellow, nor brown. The latter colors came from the blacks. You don’t have to claim your true heritage, but it’s yours. The creator made one race, man made many ethnicities.
African , NOT BLACK! There is no proof the african source population of Euradians were Black sub saharan bantus whos modern descendants are the now called African Americans. This is the fallacy you guys keep repeating! Besides that, It now looks like Sub Saharan Bantus descend from a ghost population that must of bred with them after the Eurasians got the fuck outta dodge! It could of been Homo Erectus, or Homo Naledi, that all out of African Eurasians DO NOT descend from. Polys, Natives, Asians, and Euros have nothing to do with Africa, and were never black, only in your fantasies.
As a “Polynesian” I appreciate your comment. It is true we have African roots. But we’re also mixed with the blood of our oppressor. I am working diligently to provide this information back to our people to be proud of our African roots. I hate being called Polynesian because it is a term given to us by white man.
Hate is to cause harm. However you feel, you are life. Make it work. I love being Hawaiian during my past, my family our pit falls, ignorance. I still had love not perfect -great proudness. O’hana.
Thanks for your kind of representation with your comment. Only a fool would not recognize everyone evolved from Africa meaning we all were black, and I’m not Afrocentric. Over time travel and climate changes the human evolves to adapt and survive which explains the skin color and feature changes .
Of course, most races other than Black will deny it because they feel today’s “blacks” are far less advanced and intelligent cus we were the more recent wave of Humans to leave Africa. It’s a form of supremacy and a sense of dominance to not claim otherwise.
I don’t understand this cause whites asians Polynesians etc love to bite today’s black culture in the form of hip hop rock n roll Soul blues raggae all an extension of tribal dance and song. But as soon as you get fed a dose of truth you deny deny deny
But then again I do understand it, its like you all are subconsciously still connected to your African roots when immersing yourself in the arts and entertainment .
One love one race !
You are an ignorant stupid white person that doesn’t know shit about anything. Stick to figuring out your own race. What? You really don’t know that a bunch of you white people aren’t pure white and that you have jewish and irish in you. DNA speaks for itself. Jews and Irish people have black ancestry. And for years you guys have been mixing it up in Europe before you came and stole this land from the Natives of America and Hawaii. Also mixing it up with creoles that looked white in the U.S.
Polynesians are of mixed race not black. Categorized on it’s own race. Look it up dumb ass. Also anyone with any tint of color in their skin has black in them. Get over yourself. Inferior my ass, white people were just lazy asses and liers. That’s why they couldn’t wash their own asses and took advantage of good hearted people. The judge over your Gentile asses will come upon you soon. ?
Amen Mike? I agree with you fully!
Polynesian is a subrace of the mongoloid race & the mongoloid race & the negroid race are very similar in skin, hair texture. Many of the indigenous Polynesian groups does have african features.
THANK YOU! We are not African. We are Polynesian. And Hawaiians traveled from Tahiti via the stars as navigation to get to Hawai’i.
Every time your kids kid have kids with less and less African ish humans your DNA washes its African features of itself. Every continent was one land mass and separated over millions of years we all came from Adam and Eve who did not have straight hair or pointed noses actually they probably looked more like apes or caveman more advanced
Adam and Eve did not look like apes. Primates are the result of whites mating with canines. Compare the skulls of dogs and monkeys.
Polynesian means defending out of an admixture of Africans. Why are so many people ashamed of the antiquity of this world?
If they were brown they are so called black. I’m brown
Elizabeth, you are delusional. Sad so sad. PEACE&LUV
You right. I’m part hawaiian/Caucasian hawaiian people ain’t black. Back in my days in the late 70’s visitors from every continent come to Hawaii. These visitors ask the most STUPID and HURTFUL questions You look like African then hawaiian and another stupid question they ask do you live in grass huts and eat fish. That really hurt my feelings the nerve to ask a stupid question I said no we don’t live in huts anymore.
Call them what you may . The origin of the Islanders is African as are all people of color.
Elizabeth, Im sure that you are using the devisive racial and ethnic divides criteria that were put into place by some well meaning but biased thinking old guys in england! hundreds of years ago! Look at Kamehameha the First and Princess Ruth and Queen Lilioukalani and have seat!
They migrated from Africa lime everyone else font be upset its Ok.
Denial…is not only a river in Egypt. A certain type of people have traveled all over the earth destroying other people’s culture, way of life, religion and general peace. Only to late call them, savages uncivilized, murder them, steal their land and blame them for the crime. Sounds like they’re black to me.
This is Incredible! Thank you so much, in sharing it with all my friends. And I went to Hawaii last year and they loved me (I’m black) and when I went to a luau and this gorgeous hawaiian man was telling me how hawaiians hate haoles for taking over their island and telling me how glad they were that king kamehameha killed some, but I find it really sad what they went through… Well thanks for showing this.
Theory strewn with fallacies is no different than a drunk with a good story.
Not one mention of DNA, very odd, because it has been proven through DNA that Kanaka Maoli is not connected to our African brothers and sisters. But, scientists have proven that white Europeans are genetically connected to their sister country, Africa going on 20 years now. DNA is just the seal of proof that for some reason is not being accepted by both of these country men.
The author states it clearly, “The Hawaiians and their neighbors in the Pacific have long been the subject of controversy among scientists.”
The division of race he states historically was not based entirely on scientific knowledge. Yet, scientists today continue to rely on this form of explanation to steer the direction of their own theories.
This author quotes a very honorable, intelligent, well-traveled author, researcher and self-educated scholar who was a well-known humanist. Ultimately pursuing his own ideas of how humanity was interconnected and how Africans had contributed to the world, trying to establish and justify the rights of Africans in the development of the history of this world. Rightfully so.
But here is where the words need to be analyzed: Rogers states that what he ‘Sees’ is ‘undoubtedly Negro with an admixture of Mongolian.’ The word is ‘sees” there is no science behind it, based only on what he has observed and lived. Which I take the liberty in guessing that any person whose skin is not white is ‘black’. Sadly, this is like saying any one whose eyes is slanted is Japanese. Which is obviously not so.
Mongolians is not any closer in relationship to the Kanaka Maoli, either.
For those whose comments refer to modern Kanaka as mixed, I agree with you, partially. There are pure Kanaka whose blood is not mixed and are not dark, nor are their features any where what people stereotype them to be. But, how many could you say you know and how many have seen a pure Kanaka, today? For some reason, there are many people who are not of the blood of Kanaka who claim to be. I am amazed at how many wannabes there are. Which means they are a people to be admired as it is their culture to accept all.
Oh my, to compare ancient Hawaii to that of African society because they both believe that they are decedents of gods. So, are Africans related to those ‘Asian’ people who know their emperors are direct line of the gods, today? You are limited in your knowledge of the history of Hawaii and have not researched enough to speak on this subject.
This is not to disgrace Rogers but to acknowledge his quest for humanity. We are all interconnected.
We share the same land called Earth. We sleep in the same bed, Earth. We share One Race, the Human Race.
All men were created by the Great Spirit Chief, they are all brothers. Chief Joseph.
Thank you Denise. You nailed it!
I think, the word African is a description of colonizers who have labeled all people of brown/black skin to be of African origin. Yet, many people who are so-called African are actually Hebrew by definition and origin.