Two cultural powerhouses, Malik Zulu Shabazz and Captain Tazaryach, came head-to-head to debate the trustworthiness of the Bible versus African history. They discussed which is the truth and which benefits Black America the most during an intense five-hour-plus discussion. 

An attorney, Malik Zulu Shabazz previously served as chairman of the New Black Panther Party. Since 2013, he has been the national president of Black Lawyers for Justice, an organization he co-founded in 1996 to advocate for victims of constitutional rights violations and other injustices specific to Black people.

Captain Tazaryach is from the Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge (ISUPK) — a nonprofit organization based in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. The group is part of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, which regards Black Americans as descendants of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

The Twelve Tribes of Israel refer to the sons of the Jewish patriarch Jacob, who provide the tribal lineages of those who established the nation of Israel.

The April 5, 2022 debate was live-streamed by BlackNews102 on the YouTube channel Sa Neter Studios.

Here is Part 3 of the highlights from the debate. (Part 1 can be read here; part 2 can be read here.)

Malik Shabazz started and doubled down on his belief that Africans were the original man and thus superseded anything in the Bible.

“I’m coming here to challenge them and overturn this false teaching,” he opened his third 15-minute time allotment. He charged that his debate opponent, Captain Tazaryach, had misconstrued his evidence, and he would now straighten this out.

“Despite what my opponent said, Khalid Abdul Muhammad at no time said that the only solution of our people was in the Bible from Genesis to Revelations. He never said that,” said Shabazz. (time code:1:39:21)

Khalid Abdul Muhammad, a Muslim minister and activist, was at one point a prominent figure in the Nation of Islam in the 1990s before leaving and joining the New Black Panther Party.

Shabazz went on to explain that what he actually said was that the “Honorable Elijah Muhammad gave us the proper interpretation of the Bible, and from that interpretation would be a road map to our liberation.” Directing his comment to Captain Tazaryach, Shabazz added, “Some of these teachings you have taken from Elijah, yourself, such as a white man is a devil– you get that from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.” (time code: 1:39:51)

Shabazz attacked Captain Tazaryach’s attachment to Israel and his anti-Africa stance. “Black bro, we want to be everything but ourselves…Black people want to be everything but ourselves because we have been taught to,” he pointed out. (time code: 1:40:14)

According to Shabazz, Elijah Muhammad actually warned people off of the Bible and did not embrace the Bible, unlike what Captain Tazaryach claimed.

Shabazz explained that Muhammad said, “the Bible is a poison book. It’s a poison book unless you are divinely inspired with the correct interpretation…it is the white man’s Bible, the same Bible-toting white man that ravished Africa.”

Shabazz went on to attack Captain Tazaryach for wanting to be “everything but our Black selves. We want to be everything but African.”

In the previous session, Captain Tazaryach claimed that Black Americans weren’t wanted in Africa, and even if Black Americans did decide to go back to Africa, where would they go? There is no way, he said, for them to know their true ancestral land.

Shabazz countered that argument by asking, “The bottom line to it is if you can’t go to Africa, where the hell are you going to go?” (time code: 1:41:55)

He continued, “You can’t go to Israel. I have been to Africa. You have not been to Africa, and you cannot get into Israel. Israel is not a home to you, and you will not be allowed into Israel.”

Shabazz said that he felt that Bible proponents tended to hold a hatred of Black people. White Bible toters, he said “teach us that the African is a savage, that the Black man is bad and that somehow or another, the Israelite, or the jew, is morally superior.” (time code: 1:44:15)

Shabazz named notables who believed that African history held the truth for Black Americans. They included revolutionary Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana; Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey, who launched a Back-to-Africa movement in the mid-1900s; Kwame Ture (also known as Stokely Carmichael), a prominent organizer in the civil rights movement.

When it was time for Captain ​​Tazaryach to take his third turn in the debate, he reiterated the one-sided relationship Black America seems to have with Africa.

“Don’t tell me to love Malcolm; tell Africa to love Malcolm,” he said of Malcolm X and the activists who visited Africa. Malcolm X made at least four trips to the continent, with the first in late March-early April 1959 and then again two months later and, finally, two trips in 1964, according to AfricaIsACountry.com. According to Captain ​​Tazaryach, Black American activists leaned toward Africa, but Africans didn’t support Black Americans in their fight for civil rights in the U.S.

Captain ​​Tazaryach also claimed that although Marcus Garvey was calling for Black Americans to relocate to Africa, Garvey also preached the word from the Bible. He even pointed out that Marcus’ middle name–Mosiah– is a Biblical name. (time code: 2:02:30)

“The religious beliefs of Marcus Mosiah Garvey were rooted in Christianity and Pan-Africanism, a movement and political ideology aimed at unifying the Black race,” Classroom.com reported. Garvey had been a member of the Roman Catholic Church before joining the African Orthodox Church, which is Episcopalian.

Captain ​​Tazaryach went on to address how the Bible was used as a tool to liberate the poor. It was an empowering book, he said, especially for the poor.

“The Bible is about liberating the poor from their oppressor…When you’re talking about Black power, you’re talking about Jesus Christ,” Captain ​​Tazaryach said emphatically.

He added, “The Bible is Black power!”

Captain ​​Tazaryach stressed that the Bible is unifying, whereas people in Africa have not embraced Black Americans.

“Africans don’t risk their life for you,” he directed to Shabazz, “you risk your life for them.”

Photos: Left, Captain Tazaryach Of ISUPK discusses how he found out he was an Israelite, screenshot from YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEFMoQMYbUs. Right, Dr. Malik Zulu Shabazz, former chairman of the New Black Panther Party, leads a protest for reparations for slavery at the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., Sept. 1, 2001. (AP Photo/Hillery Smith Garrison)