Moors and Hamites(Gam/Xam)

[autshumato]

First let me introduce myself. I'm Autshumato, and I'm from South Africa. I've been following EgyptSearch for a long time and even registered but has yet to be approved. What I like about that forum is that it's full of information, and it's all in one place. The people I currently follow or bookmarked, is Mike111, Mindovermatter, Lioness, KING and a few others.


But my post here is about Moors and Hamites(Gam/Xam). The reason for creating this thread is that I want know what a Moor and a Hamite is, reason being that I've read many times that Moors are people of Moroccan descend and Hamites being Somalians​, Ethiopians​ etc. Problem with this is that in South Africa, if you can understand Cape Dutch(so-called Afrikaans), is that the locals were also called "morre or more/murre or mure". For instance a white farmer would sometimes say, "die fokken murre het op my plaas ingebreek", which would translate to "die fxcking Moors broke into my land/farm".


And when we were little our own parents would sometimes tell us if we did something wrong, "gaan speel daar, Hamites se kinders" = "go play there, Hamites children". And playing on the nearby farmers dam we would also be called "Hamites se kinders". So I asked my grandma once before she passed away why she would call us "murre" or "Hamites se kinders" because we are Nama/Khoekhoena people not Moors or Hamites. She told me that when she was younger her parents were called that by whites during those harsh times and them during apartheid. My mother has the same story, and she sometimes call us(me and my brothers) that too.

So the thing is, why did and still do whites call southern Africans, who had no connection with Moroccans or Hamites, these names? I've also ask some of my friends if their parents called them these names and our stories were similar. Some were called "Gam", I don't know what it really means but some say that it's actually "Ham". In our language however, !Xam means lion.


So, I'd like to hear your opinions on this.

Thank you.

[zarahan]

How would you define a Moor and how would you define a Hamite? You say you
have read several things- give some definitions from your readings.

[autshumato]

What I've read is that a Moor is an African, on other sites it's a Moroccan and to some a religion meaning Muslims. Hamites I've read are Egyptians, Somalians, Ethiopians etc, all those with the 'high-bridge-narrow-nose' type. But we are not, if you've seen the Khoi(Khoekhoena) people(not the San) you'd see we don't have the 'high-bridge-narrow-nose'type at all, but still we were called "Gam"(Hamites).

[anansi]

Simply those are just some oft the names used for Black folks in general, Ham is related to Khem or Kam in certain Afrisan languages it meant Black or burnt, some said it have links to the word Chemistry meaning to blackened things.
Moor is another term for Black,the term had it's origins among the Greeks, every black is a Moor in the middle ages whether Christians or Muslims later it became almost exclusive to Muslims from Africa.
Btw it was not uncommon when I was a child to here older folks calling very dark skinned ppl Blackie Moor in Jamaica a term that was meant to be derisive.

[autshumato]

Of course, my problem with this is that whites now claim these titles. So I'm a bit confused.

[autshumato]

Are you on EgyptSearch too?

[anansi]

Jun 5, 2017 1:53:10 GMT -5 autshumato said:

Of course, my problem with this is that whites now claim these titles. So I'm a bit confused.

Don't be, just follow the etymological origins of the term plus examples the ancient gave to them and ignore the noise, as one of ma favorite online scholars said..stop playing Simon sayz.

[autshumato]

Thanks, I'll check up on it.