What do you think?
Rate this book
Nigger A Divine Origin
The big question is Why is it o.k. for Blacks to use the 'N' word and not others? Amidst this controversial dialogue, the author Shaba Shabaka introduces a surprising and enlightening point of view on the origin of the 'N' word. She has researched the hieroglyphic writings and other historical texts as well as incorporated empirical linguistic evidence to support her thesis.
112 pages, Paperback
First published October 31, 2003
47 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 19, 2012
October 2000
What I love about myself, is that I’m a niGer.
Nigger,
I remember as a kid seeing mother looking in the mirror, fixing her hair and singing this song. It was adapted from a popular jingle from a Clairol commercial for hair dye:
“It is true niggers have more fun?
Oh, com’on and be a nigga, a Lady Clairol nigga,
com’on and be a nigga, a Lady Clairol nigga
is it true niggers have more fun?”
Now in the original it was,
Is it true blondes have more fun?
A Lady Clairol blonde....that's silky, shiny blonde...
A Lady Clairol blonde....that's silky, shiny blonde...
Is it true blondes have more fun?
This little paper is about niggerology - the study and science of niggers. You see, I am a niggerologist, a self proclaimed expert on niggers.
I took my 16 year old son to see BAMBOOZLED by Spike Lee. It was interesting to see how this movie affected him. My son was sort of “jump started” to the realization of how far in advance I have been in my niggerology and black awareness generally, something he had taken for granted. He saw in Spike Lee’s satire what his daddy had been trying to relate to him for years. He is now starting to put 2 and 2 together so to speak. In the movie one of the novel emblems of racism depicted meant to negatively caricature Blacks are the infamous "Jolly Nigger Banks." My son has seen these before because I have two of them on the shelf of my office. I purchased them in the United Arab Emirates the first time I went to the Persian Gulf. I imagined they were left over trinkets of the former British occupiers of the Arabian Peninsula. I am a collector of images and icons of racism. It is to me the representation of “blasphemy.”
Anyway while surfing the net on the etymology of words, a peculiar idea came to me to see if there was an etymology on the word “nigger.” This is what I found; I got the following from http://www.takeourword.com/Issue026.h...
“Etymologically nigger is a doublet with negro as they both ultimately derive from NIGER, the Latin word for "black". Note that it does not necessarily mean "a black person", just "black" the color. On the other hand, Africa's Niger River and the country of Nigeria were given those names because of the color of the people there. Nigger entered Middle English as neger, a form of the Old French negre, itself borrowed from the Spanish negro, "black". Never in its history has it ever been connected with the word niggardly. Well, not until now, that is.”
Niger river and Nigeria is originally pronounced with a hard "g."
NiGer- black,
NiGeria - black land ,
Nigger - black person,
Niggerland (self explanatory),
Niggeroe - black male,
Niggerine - black nic nac or statuette,
Niggerina - black female,
Niggeritta - young female black,
Niggeress - black female,
Niggeramous - like a nigger,
Niggeroid - pertaining to niggers of mixed race,
Niggerfied - in all ways a nigger,
Nigglet - black children,
Niggeritis – crazy nigger disease,
Sand Nigger - Arab,
Prairie Nigger – Native American,
Beach Nigger - White's getting tan on the beach,
Niggerlover – A person (especially white) enamored of blacks.
Ethnic Classifications of Black People
Colored - an archaic term for black people and is meant as a polite term for socially and politically unaware blacks, the term is still used in NAACP still used by older blacks.
Black - a pre '60's pejorative term for black people. Now a acceptable, secular and popular genitive for a black person, a term made acceptable by Elijah Muhammad (Black Muslims) and Malcom X.
Negro - meaning a generic "black" now has the connotation of a acceptable polite and politically correct "Christian" black person, e.g., Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr., and Colin Powell. Can also be used to refer to a person such as Justice Clarence Thomas who arose to his position because of the work of Dr. King.
Nigger - still considered a derogatory term for any black person of color invented by white people (because of the double “g”), but used as a term of endearment by blacks used among themselves as in "my nigga" (sic), or "my nigger." A somewhat counterculture, socially embarrassing, aggravating or agitating black person. Examples of niggers are Paul Mooney, Richard Pyror, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Dick Gregory, Stokley Carmichael, H.Rap Brown, Huey Newton, Bobby Seal, Angela Davis, etc.
New Age Nigger - a somewhat self graciating or gratuitous and opportunistic black person, whose talents have been used to advance the civil rights of black people. This is what you call a "politically correct nigger", i.e Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Harry Belafonte.
Black Nigger - also formally called a "crazy nigger" by whites or other blacks. A rebellious, politically astute non conforming black person, e.g. Malcom X, Nat Turner, James Baldwin, Gil Scott Heron, Heavy D., Spike Lee and so forth. Also can mean a term of anger between blacks or what a "negro " would call a non conformist black. This is the highest compliment or badge of honor that one can call an "awake" black person.
Afro-American – a term that approached to recognize the African roots of Blacks made popular in the late 70’s and 80’s.
African American – a term that fully recognized the African roots of Blacks.
African- the proper ethnic term for any black person whether from the continent or among the Diaspora (though the word Africa was originally derived from the Roman province of a section of what we call North Africa today).
NiGer– the original name for black people in Latin or Greek and what blacks were first called when brought to the western hemisphere, potentially the next and last step of proper recognition.
Saint Nigger's Day - Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal or national holiday given to Blacks by white people.
Black Nigger's Day - Malcom X's Birthday (May 19). All Black Niggers celebrate this day.
The term "nigger" is the most powerful word in the English language. There is no other word that can call forth an almost an instant or immediate emotional response. No word should have such power over a person unless it is the word of God. I have since discovered that the word "Nigger" IS THE WORD OF GOD!
Etymologically it is derived from a word that means "GOD." This is what the original word for nigger which is "NIGER" (hard "g") means. OF course when Webster wrote his dictionary he could not put that Niger means God (or Black God), so he had to invent the word "nigger" put 2 "g's" instead of one to mean what whites were already calling Blacks.
Nigger is from the Latin word neger, from the Cushite word "negus" which means "king" from the Egyptian word "neg" which means "God."
Nigger, Neger, Negus, Neg is from HAM or I AM.
HAM means Black, since linguistically the H and I are interchangeable it means I AM, which means God.
Now for me the word niGer is a holy word. I have adopted it as my holy name because it is found IN THE BIBLE as the name of a prophet of the early Christian church (who was a Jew).
Acts 13:1 ¶ Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. (Simeon or Shimon is a Hebrew name).
Strong”s Greek Concordance of the New Testament renders the word and its pronounciation as follows
“3526 Niger neeg’-er of Latin origin; ; n pr m AV-Niger 1; 1 Niger = ‘black’.” Now you will note it is not pronounced “nijer” (with the soft “g” of the French) but rather niGer as in the original Greek (and Latin).
Neg = Negus = Neger = Black = NIGGER = Ham = I AM = GOD.
Even the word "AMEN" is the name of a Black God. Go check it out!
NiGus(a) NiGhast (transliterated as NeGus(a) NeGhast) means King of Kings in Amharic (Ethiopian)and NAGAS.
So guess what I am? I am a AMEN BLACK NAGA god, king and priest – niGer neGus naGa. This is my name, it is my title, it is me. Use the name with reverence because it is empowering, powerful and holy.
The following are additional notes:
Another word with a somewhat similar history is "nigger." The Canaanite verb ngr means "to gush forth, flow or vanish." In Hebrew, one finds the words niggarim and niggarôt as "torrents" or "streams". Throughout, the Arabian and Saharan deserts there are ancient place names of the type Gerrha, Nagara and Negra. These derive from the Phoenician dialect of Canaanite and mean "oasis" or "river that flows into the desert." It is from the last that the name of the river Niger seems to have derived. Classical writings refer to a people called Nigretai, Nigretes or Negritai, who were Western Ethiopians or lived to the west of the Ethiopians. Together with their neighbours the Pharusai they were described as having ridden across the desert on horses and chariots to raid and destroy 300 Phoenician cities on the coast. The Roman writer Pliny( 23-79 C.E) believed they came from the Niger but it would seem more plausible to suggest that they came from the Saharan oases(v.43). There is no doubt that they appeared as "black" to the peoples of the coast. (note the niger or “niagra” falls).
It is not a coincidence that the best known Latin word for "black" is niger. There is no common Indo-European root for "black" and although niger has descendents in all the Romance languages, negro, nero, noir etc. there are no cognates to it in other Indo-European languages and its origin is unknown to orthodox lexicographers. In early Latin there were many words for the color, the commonest of these being ater used for the dull black of shade or night and niger. The meaning of niger was originally restricted to the brilliant black, with a violet tinge found in southern products such as ebony and opals. Although not attested for people in the early period, this color fits exactly with the beautiful complexions of the Haratîn in the oases of the Sahara, and the Latin word niger would seem likely to derive from them as the Nigretai, Nigretes or Negritai. Later niger displaced ater and the other terms to become the standard Latin term for "black." The fact that the Portuguese used their word for "black" negro, to describe the people they raided and enslaved on the African coast seems to be simply a coincidence and the negative connotations of "negro" and its derivative "nigger", in the era of race-based slavery more than justify the distaste with which they are held today. Nevertheless the terms have an honourable prehistory showing once again the intricacy and intimacy of relations between Africa and Europe in antiquity. (source: see Black Athena)
Nigger
This most offensive of words in American speech dates back to the late 16th century, although the modern spelling doesn't appear until two centuries later. The OED2's earliest cite of the modern spelling is from 1786 in Burns's Ordination. (The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, however, claims that this is an editorial error and Burns's original manuscript uses the older niger.) The obsolete spelling niger dates to 1574. It derives from the Latin niger meaning black. It shares this common root with negro.
The offensiveness of the term has increased over time, especially in the 20th century. Two 16th century quotes that are commonly cited in dictionaries are from scholarly tracts. A 1700 quote by judge Samuel Sewall uses the term in a denunciation of slavery. Gradually, however, polite discourse increasingly used the term negro (which dates to at least 1555) and nigger became relegated to the vulgar tongue, increasing in offensiveness over the centuries.
So for instance, when Mark Twain uses the word in Huckleberry Finn, by the standards of his day he is not being especially offensive (although even then it was a term that would not be used in polite society), but is using the term as a marker of class and socio-economic status of the characters who utter it.
In the 20th century of course, it has become extremely offensive. It, along with cunt are just about the only taboo words in American discourse today (it's interesting that the most offensive terms have strong racial or gender discrimination components). About the only acceptable use is in Black nigga,English when African-Americans use it to refer to themselves. (There is a similar reclamation of the word queer among homosexuals to rob the term of its offensiveness of the term by using it to refer to themselves.)
It is etymologically unrelated to the word niggard. http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorn.htm
"Make that nigger stop saying nigger! He's giving me a nigger headache! Well, white folks you shouldn't have ever made up the word. You fucked up. I say nigga 100 times every morning; nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, it makes my teeth white.”
Paul Mooney
What I love about myself, is that I’m a niGer.
Nigger,
I remember as a kid seeing mother looking in the mirror, fixing her hair and singing this song. It was adapted from a popular jingle from a Clairol commercial for hair dye:
“It is true niggers have more fun?
Oh, com’on and be a nigga, a Lady Clairol nigga,
com’on and be a nigga, a Lady Clairol nigga
is it true niggers have more fun?”
Now in the original it was,
Is it true blondes have more fun?
A Lady Clairol blonde....that's silky, shiny blonde...
A Lady Clairol blonde....that's silky, shiny blonde...
Is it true blondes have more fun?
This little paper is about niggerology - the study and science of niggers. You see, I am a niggerologist, a self proclaimed expert on niggers.
I took my 16 year old son to see BAMBOOZLED by Spike Lee. It was interesting to see how this movie affected him. My son was sort of “jump started” to the realization of how far in advance I have been in my niggerology and black awareness generally, something he had taken for granted. He saw in Spike Lee’s satire what his daddy had been trying to relate to him for years. He is now starting to put 2 and 2 together so to speak. In the movie one of the novel emblems of racism depicted meant to negatively caricature Blacks are the infamous "Jolly Nigger Banks." My son has seen these before because I have two of them on the shelf of my office. I purchased them in the United Arab Emirates the first time I went to the Persian Gulf. I imagined they were left over trinkets of the former British occupiers of the Arabian Peninsula. I am a collector of images and icons of racism. It is to me the representation of “blasphemy.”
Anyway while surfing the net on the etymology of words, a peculiar idea came to me to see if there was an etymology on the word “nigger.” This is what I found; I got the following from http://www.takeourword.com/Issue026.h...
“Etymologically nigger is a doublet with negro as they both ultimately derive from NIGER, the Latin word for "black". Note that it does not necessarily mean "a black person", just "black" the color. On the other hand, Africa's Niger River and the country of Nigeria were given those names because of the color of the people there. Nigger entered Middle English as neger, a form of the Old French negre, itself borrowed from the Spanish negro, "black". Never in its history has it ever been connected with the word niggardly. Well, not until now, that is.”
Niger river and Nigeria is originally pronounced with a hard "g."
NiGer- black,
NiGeria - black land ,
Nigger - black person,
Niggerland (self explanatory),
Niggeroe - black male,
Niggerine - black nic nac or statuette,
Niggerina - black female,
Niggeritta - young female black,
Niggeress - black female,
Niggeramous - like a nigger,
Niggeroid - pertaining to niggers of mixed race,
Niggerfied - in all ways a nigger,
Nigglet - black children,
Niggeritis – crazy nigger disease,
Sand Nigger - Arab,
Prairie Nigger – Native American,
Beach Nigger - White's getting tan on the beach,
Niggerlover – A person (especially white) enamored of blacks.
Ethnic Classifications of Black People
Colored - an archaic term for black people and is meant as a polite term for socially and politically unaware blacks, the term is still used in NAACP still used by older blacks.
Black - a pre '60's pejorative term for black people. Now a acceptable, secular and popular genitive for a black person, a term made acceptable by Elijah Muhammad (Black Muslims) and Malcom X.
Negro - meaning a generic "black" now has the connotation of a acceptable polite and politically correct "Christian" black person, e.g., Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr., and Colin Powell. Can also be used to refer to a person such as Justice Clarence Thomas who arose to his position because of the work of Dr. King.
Nigger - still considered a derogatory term for any black person of color invented by white people (because of the double “g”), but used as a term of endearment by blacks used among themselves as in "my nigga" (sic), or "my nigger." A somewhat counterculture, socially embarrassing, aggravating or agitating black person. Examples of niggers are Paul Mooney, Richard Pyror, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Dick Gregory, Stokley Carmichael, H.Rap Brown, Huey Newton, Bobby Seal, Angela Davis, etc.
New Age Nigger - a somewhat self graciating or gratuitous and opportunistic black person, whose talents have been used to advance the civil rights of black people. This is what you call a "politically correct nigger", i.e Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Harry Belafonte.
Black Nigger - also formally called a "crazy nigger" by whites or other blacks. A rebellious, politically astute non conforming black person, e.g. Malcom X, Nat Turner, James Baldwin, Gil Scott Heron, Heavy D., Spike Lee and so forth. Also can mean a term of anger between blacks or what a "negro " would call a non conformist black. This is the highest compliment or badge of honor that one can call an "awake" black person.
Afro-American – a term that approached to recognize the African roots of Blacks made popular in the late 70’s and 80’s.
African American – a term that fully recognized the African roots of Blacks.
African- the proper ethnic term for any black person whether from the continent or among the Diaspora (though the word Africa was originally derived from the Roman province of a section of what we call North Africa today).
NiGer– the original name for black people in Latin or Greek and what blacks were first called when brought to the western hemisphere, potentially the next and last step of proper recognition.
Saint Nigger's Day - Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal or national holiday given to Blacks by white people.
Black Nigger's Day - Malcom X's Birthday (May 19). All Black Niggers celebrate this day.
The term "nigger" is the most powerful word in the English language. There is no other word that can call forth an almost an instant or immediate emotional response. No word should have such power over a person unless it is the word of God. I have since discovered that the word "Nigger" IS THE WORD OF GOD!
Etymologically it is derived from a word that means "GOD." This is what the original word for nigger which is "NIGER" (hard "g") means. OF course when Webster wrote his dictionary he could not put that Niger means God (or Black God), so he had to invent the word "nigger" put 2 "g's" instead of one to mean what whites were already calling Blacks.
Nigger is from the Latin word neger, from the Cushite word "negus" which means "king" from the Egyptian word "neg" which means "God."
Nigger, Neger, Negus, Neg is from HAM or I AM.
HAM means Black, since linguistically the H and I are interchangeable it means I AM, which means God.
Now for me the word niGer is a holy word. I have adopted it as my holy name because it is found IN THE BIBLE as the name of a prophet of the early Christian church (who was a Jew).
Acts 13:1 ¶ Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. (Simeon or Shimon is a Hebrew name).
Strong”s Greek Concordance of the New Testament renders the word and its pronounciation as follows
“3526 Niger neeg’-er of Latin origin; ; n pr m AV-Niger 1; 1 Niger = ‘black’.” Now you will note it is not pronounced “nijer” (with the soft “g” of the French) but rather niGer as in the original Greek (and Latin).
Neg = Negus = Neger = Black = NIGGER = Ham = I AM = GOD.
Even the word "AMEN" is the name of a Black God. Go check it out!
NiGus(a) NiGhast (transliterated as NeGus(a) NeGhast) means King of Kings in Amharic (Ethiopian)and NAGAS.
So guess what I am? I am a AMEN BLACK NAGA god, king and priest – niGer neGus naGa. This is my name, it is my title, it is me. Use the name with reverence because it is empowering, powerful and holy.
The following are additional notes:
Another word with a somewhat similar history is "nigger." The Canaanite verb ngr means "to gush forth, flow or vanish." In Hebrew, one finds the words niggarim and niggarôt as "torrents" or "streams". Throughout, the Arabian and Saharan deserts there are ancient place names of the type Gerrha, Nagara and Negra. These derive from the Phoenician dialect of Canaanite and mean "oasis" or "river that flows into the desert." It is from the last that the name of the river Niger seems to have derived. Classical writings refer to a people called Nigretai, Nigretes or Negritai, who were Western Ethiopians or lived to the west of the Ethiopians. Together with their neighbours the Pharusai they were described as having ridden across the desert on horses and chariots to raid and destroy 300 Phoenician cities on the coast. The Roman writer Pliny( 23-79 C.E) believed they came from the Niger but it would seem more plausible to suggest that they came from the Saharan oases(v.43). There is no doubt that they appeared as "black" to the peoples of the coast. (note the niger or “niagra” falls).
It is not a coincidence that the best known Latin word for "black" is niger. There is no common Indo-European root for "black" and although niger has descendents in all the Romance languages, negro, nero, noir etc. there are no cognates to it in other Indo-European languages and its origin is unknown to orthodox lexicographers. In early Latin there were many words for the color, the commonest of these being ater used for the dull black of shade or night and niger. The meaning of niger was originally restricted to the brilliant black, with a violet tinge found in southern products such as ebony and opals. Although not attested for people in the early period, this color fits exactly with the beautiful complexions of the Haratîn in the oases of the Sahara, and the Latin word niger would seem likely to derive from them as the Nigretai, Nigretes or Negritai. Later niger displaced ater and the other terms to become the standard Latin term for "black." The fact that the Portuguese used their word for "black" negro, to describe the people they raided and enslaved on the African coast seems to be simply a coincidence and the negative connotations of "negro" and its derivative "nigger", in the era of race-based slavery more than justify the distaste with which they are held today. Nevertheless the terms have an honourable prehistory showing once again the intricacy and intimacy of relations between Africa and Europe in antiquity. (source: see Black Athena)
Nigger
This most offensive of words in American speech dates back to the late 16th century, although the modern spelling doesn't appear until two centuries later. The OED2's earliest cite of the modern spelling is from 1786 in Burns's Ordination. (The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, however, claims that this is an editorial error and Burns's original manuscript uses the older niger.) The obsolete spelling niger dates to 1574. It derives from the Latin niger meaning black. It shares this common root with negro.
The offensiveness of the term has increased over time, especially in the 20th century. Two 16th century quotes that are commonly cited in dictionaries are from scholarly tracts. A 1700 quote by judge Samuel Sewall uses the term in a denunciation of slavery. Gradually, however, polite discourse increasingly used the term negro (which dates to at least 1555) and nigger became relegated to the vulgar tongue, increasing in offensiveness over the centuries.
So for instance, when Mark Twain uses the word in Huckleberry Finn, by the standards of his day he is not being especially offensive (although even then it was a term that would not be used in polite society), but is using the term as a marker of class and socio-economic status of the characters who utter it.
In the 20th century of course, it has become extremely offensive. It, along with cunt are just about the only taboo words in American discourse today (it's interesting that the most offensive terms have strong racial or gender discrimination components). About the only acceptable use is in Black nigga,English when African-Americans use it to refer to themselves. (There is a similar reclamation of the word queer among homosexuals to rob the term of its offensiveness of the term by using it to refer to themselves.)
It is etymologically unrelated to the word niggard. http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorn.htm
"Make that nigger stop saying nigger! He's giving me a nigger headache! Well, white folks you shouldn't have ever made up the word. You fucked up. I say nigga 100 times every morning; nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, it makes my teeth white.”
Paul Mooney
Read
September 21, 2011I wish more people could discover this book.
October 9, 2019
Great information! It's another example of a word that was once prestigious, but is now pejorative to deter Blacks from their higher nature, by programming us to think that a positive term is bad, so that we'll strive for the ideals of our oppressors and their descendants. Thanks for this revelation!
December 23, 2014
The book makes the premise that if the core elements of the n word directly originated in the minds of African people to describe their own eternal divine dignity in ancient days, then it remains a divine word with the power to reconnect Black people with their godly essence today. It’s a good argument, but I disagree. I believe that the word has been so horribly and thoroughly mangled, distorted, corrupted, debased, tainted, sullied, tarnished, spoiled, polluted, and contaminated by the past 400 years of white supremacist destruction that it is not redeemable, at least for the next 200 years or so. Although getting in touch with our history and customs and reclaiming our linguistic, artistic, political, spiritual, and martial culture heals wounds from the Maafa, I personally do not believe reclaiming the n word would be healthy; the scars run too deep. Their main argument also needs to be bolstered – that the triconsonant feature of the n word is reflected in divine godly words by Cushitic people all over - north, south, east, and west of Kemet. They don’t tell us the thousands of other words these ancient people may also have used, so we can’t judge if what they found are anomalies or actual systematic expressions of the Kemetic NGR concept as they claim. Anyway, I’m glad the book was written to shine light on the historical feature of the n word so it can be discussed by conscious Africans.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews