Buddha The First Black Revolutionary
By Anthony "Amp" Elmore
Sr.
We who are Nichiren Shoshu Buddhists practice the religion of the Buddha of the latter day of the law Nichiren Daishonin. Many things have been written about the 1st historical Buddha Siddhartha Guatemala Shakyamuni Buddha of India. The Buddha has been thought of as many things to different people. We who are proud of our African heritage are starting to look upon the first recorded Buddha as the 1st Black Revolutionary hero. One may ask where such ideas of the Shakyamuni being described as a Black Revolutionary arrive? To many people worldwide
Shakyamuni is thought of only as the Buddha, a worldwide religious leader and certainly not as a Black Revolutionary hero who fought racial oppression. The prevailing question that I as an African/American get from white people and from even a Nichiren Shoshu Priest who had indicated to me that he thought Shakyamuni was of an Indo-Aryan heritage,-- was what difference does it make----meaning the color or ethnicity of Shakyamuni Buddha? One African/American who frequents the
Nichiren Shoshu Temple in Taisekiji Japan recently asked the question about the
Black ethnicity of Shakyamuni . The Priest of Nichiren Shoshu declined to answer
the question? An African/American Nichiren Shoshu member in San Francisco,
California who styles his hair in the African lock hair style reported that former San Francisco Nichiren Shoshu Priest Rev. Takahashi explained that Shakyamuni wore a style like that of the African lock.
