Denzel Washington lands role of African general Hannibal Barca in new Netflix Epic

Moor forbidden Black history enters into the pop culture domain because it's TIME.

As reported on the Variety Magazine website on November 13, Denzel Washington will play the decorated African general Hannibal Barca for a Netflix epic. Denzel will be reunited with Training Day and Equalizer director Antoine Fuqua for the project. The film will be written by John Logan who wrote the Gladiator starring Russell Crowe.

Hannibal is one of the greatest military strategists in the history of the world. He lead a war campaign against ancient Rome during the second Punic War (218 - 201 B.C.E.). The news about his new film brought me back to one of the earliest references I had for him in literature.

I remember when the Desert Storm War kicked off in early 1991 my dad and I watched Nostradamus propaganda films posing as eschatology documentaries.

I was only 12, but I was intrigued by the concept of the world coming to an end, and the thought that this medieval Frenchman predicted all of the details for my reading pleasure. My dad wasn't buying it, but he was curious to learn, as was I, so we watched the films together.

I’ve since learned that many of Nostradamus’ prophecies were remixes from the Sibyls of the Mediterranean. It’s not a popular view, but I’m convinced that this is true.

The Sibyls were oracles from North Africa. Their distinct style of emotive ecstatic trance can be seen by Black women in African spiritual ceremonies, or even the Black southern church of the US. At the height of ecstasy the Sibyls would have visions of future worlds and “speak in tongues.” Their prophecies were often delivered in a poetic stream of consciousness style. That is the universal language of the Dream Vision.

The Sibyls were highly concentrated in Rome. This may explain why Italy figures so prominently in Nostradamus’ “prophecies” in contrast to his own native country of France. These weren’t actually his prophecies. He merely translated them from Latin to French while taking creative license with the text.

Something told me to take a look at what Nostradamus “prophesied” for OUR future and what I found was something that spoke directly to the legacy of Hannibal Barca of Carthage. I remember that Nostradamus mentioned him, but I didn’t remember that timeframe or context for the response. This is what Nostradamus said: 

“The easterner will leave his seat…he will transpire the sky, the waters, and the snow, and everyone will be struck with his rod. One who the infernal GODS OF HANNIBAL will cause to be reborn, terror of mankind. The Romans will never have seen more horror or worse days than through Babel…The kingdom of the FEZ shall come to the throne of Europe. The Moorish law will be seen to fall and replaced by another form that is more seductive” – 

Nostradamus; 1555 C.E.

The word “seductive” usually denotes something sensual in nature. Nostradamus’ words were published more than a half a century after the fall of the Moors in Southern Europe. When he mentions “The Kingdom of the Fez” Nostradamus was talking about the Moorish dominions of old Europe.

I think that the Sibyls foresaw the transformation of the Moorish troubadour tradition into the American R&B Love Movement with singers like Sam Cooke, Barry White, Isaac Hayes, and Marvin Gaye seranading the Western world with amorous thoughts (AM-MOOR-US) of spiritual entanglement and romance.

The Love Movement was anticipated by Western occultists in multiple industries who moved in to squash it before it reached its full expression in America before conquering Europe, the “Middle East” and Asia.

The Dark Magicians took the musical instruments out of the public schools, leaving young men to make beats by banging on lunchroom tables. Then the fear of intimate sex was spread through the AIDS epidemic so that the rise of the new Kingdom of the Fez would be postponed, although not completely averted.

It would not be odd for Hannibal’s legacy to resurrect in America through the Black male crooner who conquers the heart through sensual seduction. Apparently, Carthage—where Hannibal was from—was no stranger to the Americas.

The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus wrote in the first century B.C.E. that Carthaginians from North Africa ventured past the Pillars of Hercules to occupy a distant land with forests and navigable rivers. Spanish writer Bartolomé de las Casas (November 11, 1484 - July 18, 1566) expressed the sentiment that this land that Diodorus spoke of centuries earlier was in the Americas.

Love is the climax of war. Those who excel at expressing love are worthy of Hannibal’s reputation for leading with the heart against all odds. Let the music play.