In Genesis, Ham is named as the ancestor of Canaan.
Genesis 9:18 identifies Ham as one of Noah’s three sons and explicitly calls him the father of Canaan. The verse also names Shem and Japheth as Noah’s other sons. This genealogical statement appears after the Flood narrative and after God’s covenant with Noah.
The next passage, Genesis 9:20–27, tells of Noah’s vineyard and an incident involving Ham’s conduct toward his father. Noah then pronounces words concerning Canaan, not a general curse on every descendant of Ham. That distinction matters because later readers have sometimes misused the passage to support racial interpretations that the text itself does not establish.
In the Genesis genealogy, Canaan becomes the ancestor associated with the Canaanite peoples. The passage does not say that Ham was the ancestor of all African peoples, a claim found in some later interpretations but not stated by the biblical text.