"were not the original hebrews african?
were not the original christians hebrews?"

* just wanted to add some food for thought.

I would say that there are some definite linkages in Judaism with ancient African customs. At the same time though, there are elements within Judaism which point to it most likely being the result of the co-optation and re-interpretation process of ancient African and black practices that occurred with the invasions of Indo-European and Semitic peoples into the lands of the older black civilizations. Evidence of this process can be found in India(Aryan invasions displacing and subjugating the Sudroid(black indigenous)), Sumer(the original inhabitants were described by the invaders as the "black headed people"), Egypt(the Hyksos invasions). In all of these cases a similar pattern of a stratified, hierarchical, patriarchal and warlike value system is brought to these areas with the invaders. The concept of the division of LIGHT and DARK into an opposing duality is also indicitive of the belief systems of these invaders. Judaism most definitely shows these attributes within its doctrines and this, to me, is indicitive fhat Judaism is a result of an Indo-European/Semetic value system imposed on a basic structure that most likely retains an earlier African element.

The original black civilizations revolved around a matri-focal structure, the invaders brought with them a more patriarchal value system and this necessitated the need to re-interpret the original doctrines of the earlier peoples.

According to Gerald Massey, in regards to the process of the reversal of roles from matri-focal to patriarchal:

"The field of Babylonian Mythology is one vast battle-ground between the early Motherhood and the later Fatherhood--that is, the Mother in space, in the stellar and lunar characters opposed to the later and solar Fatherhood, which became more especially Semite; indeed, where the Akkadians wrote the "female and the male," the Semite translators prepensely reverse it, and render it by the "male and the female." (The Hebrew and Other Creations)

Furthermore, this process also involved the subjugation of the original black peoples in these lands that were overtaken and this is reflected in the mythologies which evolved.

"As the black race was first on earth, so is it in the mirror of mythology. These are the "people of the black heads," who are referred to on the tablets, and classed with reptiles, during a lunar eclipse. These typical black heads were the primeval powers of darkness, to which the old black aborigines in various lands were likened or assimilated by their despisers. In the Babylonian prayers we find the many-named mother-goddess is invoked as "the mother who has begotten the black heads." These at times were intentionally confused and confounded with their elemental prototypes. Seven such races are described in the Bundahish, or aboriginal creation, as the earth-men, the men of the water, the breast-eared, the breast-eyed, the one-legged, the bat-men, and the men with tails. These were the soulless people. They are also referred to by Esdras as the other people who are nothing, "but be like unto spittle"--that is, when compared with those who descended from the father, as Adam, or Atum, on earth, and who worshipped a father, as Atum, or Jehovah, in heaven." (ibid.)

It is my opinion that Judaism has as its blueprint the doctrines of the re-interpreted mythologies which evolved as a result of this process, which would explain both the African element within its doctrines, and also would explain the patriarchal and dualistic elements from the Semetic and Aryan influence.

Evidence of African practices within Judaism:

Circumcision:
"the Colchians, Egyptians, and Ethiopians alone of all the races of men have practised circumcision from the first. The Phenicians and the Syrians who dwell in Pal
estine confess themselves that they have learnt it from the Egyptians, and the Syrians about the river Thermodon and the river Parthenios, and the Macronians, who are their neighbours, say that they have learnt it lately from the Colchians. These are the only races of men who practise circumcision, and these evidently practise it in the same manner as the Egyptians. Of the Egyptians themselves however and the Ethiopians, I am not able to say which learnt from the other, for undoubtedly it is a most ancient custom; but that the other nations learnt it by intercourse with the Egyptians, this among others is to me a strong proof, namely that those of the Phenicians who have intercourse with Hellas cease to follow the example of the Egyptians in this matter, and do not circumcise their children."
(Herodotus, The Histories, Book II: 104)

Kosher Dietary laws:
Nabta became a habitable area because of a climatic change that occurred over North Africa around 12,000 years ago. This climatic change was caused by a northward shift of the summer monsoons. This shift brought enough rain to the Nabta region to enable it to sustain life for both humans and animals. Although it was a small amount of rain, usually around four to eight inches (10-15 cm) per year, it was enough to fill the playas with water for months at a time. Between 11,000 and 9,300 years ago, Nabta saw its first settlements. The people living at Nabta herded cattle, made ceramic vessels, and set up seasonal camps around the playa. These people regarded cattle in much the same way as modern peoples of West Africa regard them. The blood and milk of the cattle was more significant than the meat.

http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/africa/nabtaplaya.html