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African Jew has a variety of meanings:

Ancient Jewish communities

Ancient communities of African Jews, in one of the meanings above, would include the Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews of North Africa, as well as a number of Black African groups, specifically the Lemba of Malawi, Zimbabwe, and the South African region of Venda who claim descent from King Solomon, as well as the Beta Israel of Ethiopia claim descent from the Tribe of Dan, although their actual history is controversial. The Igbos a Maghrebi (West African) Jewish community in Nigeria also claim descent from Yemenite, Moroccan, and East African Jewish communities.

North Africa

Remnants of longstanding Jewish communities remain in Morocco, Tunisia and the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla, with a strong Jewish community remaining as Djerba in Tunisia. However, as in the rest of the Arab world since the founding of modern day Israel, most have emigrated, mostly either to Israel, France or Spain.

Ethiopia

Main article: Beta Israel

The Beta Israel of Ethiopia were recognized by the Israeli government as "official" Jews in 1975, and many of them were air-lifted to Israel during the time of Prime Minister Menahem Begin; significant immigration continues into the 21st century. Begin had obtained an official ruling from the Israeli Sephardi Chief Rabbi (or Rishon LeTzion) Ovadia Yosef that they were descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes, probably from the Tribe of Dan, as there are rabbinical responsa that discussed issues concerning them going back hundreds of years; however, historical and DNA evidence suggest different origins. Rabbi Yosef ruled that upon arrival in Israel they must undergo a pro forma conversion to Judaism, and declare their allegiance to a halachic way of life and the Jewish people in conformity with practices followed by Orthodox Rabbinical Judaism, but didn't demand the normal rigid requirements the halacha imposes on potential gentile proselytes, (such as a brit milah or immersion in a mikveh). (Although some Ashkenazi Orthodox rabbis do require that members of Beta Israel undergo a formal conversion and regard them the same as "converts" with no Jewish ancestry.) Many rabbinic authorities consider the conversions to be actual conversions, not pro forma.

The practices of the Beta Israel differ significantly in some areas from those of other forms of Judaism. Since in Ethiopia the Beta Israel community was for the most part unaware of the "Talmud". They did however have their own Oral Law, which in some cases was similar to the practices of Karaite Judaism. However, their religious elders, or priestly class known as "kessim" or "qessotch", interpreted the Biblical Law of the Tanach in a not completely dissimilar way to that used by other rabbinical Jewish communities in other parts of the world. In that sense the Beta Israel had an analogous tradition to that of the Talmud, although at times at variance with the practices and teachings of other Jewish communities throughout the world. Today, they are a community in flux with many of the kessim accept "normative" Judaism, while other traditionalists insist on maintaining their separate and distinct form of Judaism as practiced in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Many of the Ethiopian Jewish youth who have immigrated to Israel have assimilated to the dominant form of Orthodox Judaism as practised in Israel, while others have assimilated to a secular lifestyle in Israel. One significant difference is that they lack the festivals of Purim and Hanukkah. This might be because they branched off from the main body of Judaism before these holy days were developed. Today, most members of the Beta Israel community who have migrated to Israel do observe these holidays.

Jews of the Bilad el-Sudan (West Africa)

According to the Arabic records the Tarikh el-Fettash (16th cent.) and the Tarikh el Soudan (17th cent.) there were several Jewish communities who existed as a part of the Ghana, Mali, and later Songhay empires. One such community was formed by a group of Egyptian Jews, who traveled by way of the Sahel corridor through Chad into Mali. Manuscript C of the Tarikh el-Fettash describes a community called the Bani Israeel that in 1402 CE existed in Tirdirma, possessed 333 wells, and had seven princes as well as an army.

Another such community was that of the Zuwa ruler of Koukiya (located near the Niger river), whose name is only known as Zuwa Alayman (meaning “He comes from Yemen”). According to local legends Zuwa Alayman was a member of one of the Jewish communities transported from Yemen by the Abbysinians in the 6th century C.E. after the defeat of Dhu Nuwas. Zuwa Alayman is said to have traveled into West Africa along with his brother, and eventually established a community in Kukiya near the Niger River. According to the Tarikh el-Soudan, there were 14 Zuwa rulers of Kukiya after Zuwa Alyaman before the rise of Islam in the region.

Other sources say that other Jewish communities in the region were formed by migrations from Morocco, Egypt, Portugal, and possibly Gojjam, Ethiopia. Some communities are said to have been populated by certain Berber Jews like a group of Kal Tamasheq known as Iddao Ishaak that traveled from North Africa into West Africa for trade, as well as those escaping the Islamic invasions into North Africa.

The Lemba

The Lemba or Lembaa are a group of people in southern Africa. Although they speak Bantu languages similar to their neighbours, they have specific religious practices similar to those in Judaism, and a tradition of being a migrant people with clues pointing to an origin in the Middle East or North Africa.

They have restrictions on intermarriage with non-Lemba, with it being particularly difficult for male non-Lemba to become part of the tribe. The presence of a disproportionate number of particular polymorphisms on the Y chromosome known as the Cohen modal haplotype suggests an ancestral link to the Kohanim or priests, a distinct subgroup of Israelites. This Y cromosome marker is present in 50% of Israelite men while it was found that roughly 85% of Lemba men had the Cohen model marker.

While it is certain that the Lemba are descended from Israelite tribes, they have not practiced Judaism for many centuries. Although the vast majority of Lemba do not see a contradiction in proclaiming their Hebrew heritage while practicing Christianity or Islam, there has been a movement as of late to shift towards mainstream Judaism, and outside sources have been aiding in their desire to become full members of the world-wide Jewish community.

Igbo (Ibo) Jews

The Igbo (Ibo) of Nigeria are one of the Jewish components of the Igbo (Ibo) ethnic group who are said to be descended from North African or Egytian Hebraic and later Israelite migrations into West Africa. Oral legends amongst the Igbo state that this migration started around 1,500 years ago.

According to the Igbo lore of the Eri, Nri, and Ozubulu families, Igbo ethnic groups with Israelite descent are comprised of the following 3 lineage types:

  • Benei Gath:(Gad) Igbo people said to have descended from tribe of Gath ben-Ya`aqov, who was the 8th son of the Israelite patriarch Ya`aqov (Jacob). This group traces its lineage is through Gath's son Eri ben-Gath. These groups from this lineage comprise of the Aguleri, Umuleri, Oreri, Enugwu Ikwu, Ogbunike, Awkuzu, Nteje, and Igbariam clans.

  • Benei Zevulun: Igbo people said to have descended from the tribe of Zevulun ben-Ya`aqov, who was the 5th son of Ya`aqov (Jacob). These groups comprise of the Ubulu Okiti, Ubulu Ukwu clans in Delta State who settled in Ubulu Ihejiofor. According to oral tradition, it is said that a descendant of the tribe of Zevulun named Zevulunu, on the advice of a certain Levite, married a woman from Oji, whom descended from the tribe of Judah, and from this union was born Ozubulu ben-Zebulunu. It is said that Ozubulu then went on to have 4 sons of his own who settled into other regions. These sons were: Amakwa, from whom a clan in Neni, Anambra State descended, and Egbema, from whom the Egbema Ugwuta clan in Imo State and the Ohaji Egbema clan in Rivers State descended.

  • Benei Menashe: Peoples whom Igbos theorize may be descendants of the tribe of Menasheh ben-Yoseph. Menasheh who was one of the grandsons of Ya`aqov (Jacob) through his 11th son Yoseph (Joseph). According to the Torah, Jacob claimed both Menasheh and his brother Ephrayim as his own sons. It is theorized that this is the liniage of the Igbos of the Amichi, Ichi, Nnewi-Ichi clans descend from.

Igbo oral legends also state that certain Nri families may be descendants of Levitical (Levite Priests) migrants from North Africa. These oral legends state that the ancestors of the Igbo were made up of familiar clans of Israelites who left the northern kingdom of Israel before and during the Assyrian and Babylonian sieges. This might explain how their current oral traditions contains the specific tribes these clans originated from.

Groups called Godians and Ibrim maintained much of the Hebraic traditions of the Igbo people. These groups maintained the Jewish traditions that the majority of the communities lost over time, due to their isolation from the rest of Nigerian society. Certain Nigerian communities with Judaic practices have been receiving help from of individual Israelis and American Jews who work in Nigeria, out-reach organizations like Kulanu *, and African American Jewish communities in America. Two synagogues in Nigeria were founded by Jews from outside Nigeria, and are maintained by Igbos in Nigeria.

Because no formal census has been taken in the region, it is unknown how many Igbos residing in Nigeria identify themselves as being either Israelites or Jews. There are currently 26 synagogues of various sizes, and some estimate the possibility of as many as 30,000 Igbos practicing some form of Judaism.

Bnai Ephraim

The Bnai Ephraim are different from other Nigerian Israelite groups in that they live among the Yoruba instead of the Igbo people.The Bnai Ephraim ("Children of Ephraim") of Nigeria numbered in 1930 about 2000 people in 400 families in 20 small villages in the Ondo district of southwestern Nigeria. According to their traditions, they came to Nigeria by way of Morocco sometime in the 16th century after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. Their language is a mixture of Moroccan Arabic with Yoruba, but with bits of Aramaic, such as ima for "mother." In their aspect and most of their customs they cannot be distinguished from their Yoruba neighbors, but the Yoruba call them Emo Yo Quaim - the "Strange People." They call themselves Bnai Ephraim and keep copies of portions of the Torah in their sanctuaries unlike the other African Israelite community in Nigeria, among the Igbo, who practiced a form of Ancient Hebraic way of life without torah. The Bnai Ephraim are unique in being among the Yoruba.

Cameroon

There are some who believe that a Jewish presence may have at one time existed in Cameroon via merchants who arrived from Egypt for trade. According to some accounts these communities observed rituals such as separation of dairy and meat products as well as wearing tefillin. There are also claimes that Jews migrated into Cameroon after being forced southward due to the Islamic conquests of North Africa.

The claims of a Jewish presence in Cameroon are made by Rabbi Yisrael Oriel. Rabbi Oriel, formerly Bodol Ngimbus-Ngimbus, was born into the Ba-Saa tribe. The word Ba-Saa, he said, is from the Hebrew for `on a journey' and means blessing. Rabbi Oriel claims to be a Levite descended from Moses. Reportedly, Rabbi Oriel made aliya in 1988 and was ordained as a rabbi by the Sephardic Chief Rabbi and appointed rabbi to Nigerian Jews.

Rabbi Oriel claims that in 1920 there were 400,000 'Israelites' in Cameroon. But by 1962 the number had decreased to 167,000 due to conversion from Christian and Islamic missionaries. However, he admitted that these tribes had not been accepted halachically although he could prove their ,Jewish status from medieval rabbinic sources. *.

Tutsis of Rwanda and Burundi

Many members of the Tutsi tribe in East Africa are believed to be of Ancient Hebrew heritage. According to some reports, the ancesters of the Tutsi migrated from what was once known as the south Kushitic Empire, down into present day Rwanda and Burundi. Hebrew customs continued to be followed via oral transmission of the laws laid out in the Torah up until the late 1800's when missionaries arrived in the area and converted a large portion of the population to Catholicism. However, there is an effort today to return to the Ancient Hebraic customs that they abandonded in favor of Christianity in the recent past. It is also believed that the name for the Tutsi homeland, "Havila," derives from Hebrew, and until recently, the flag of Burundi sported three red Stars of David, a commmon representative symbol of Judaism worldwide. *

Medieval arrivals

North Africa

The largest influx of Jews to Africa came after the Spanish Inquisition and expulsion of the Jews in Spain in 1492, and Portugal and Sicily soon afterwards. Many of these Sephardic Jews settled in North Africa.

São Tomé é Príncipe

Additionally, King Manuel I of Portugal exiled about 2,000 Jewish children to São Tomé and Príncipe around 1500. Most died, but in the early 1600s "the local bishop noted with disgust that there were still Jewish observances on the island and returned to Portugal because of his frustration with them." * Although Jewish practices faded over subsequent centuries, there are people in São Tomé and Príncipe who are aware of partial descent from this population. Similarly, a number of Portuguese ethnic Jews were exiled to Sao Tome after forced conversions to Roman Catholicism.

Mali

There are several thousand people of undoubted Jewish ancestry in Timbuktu, Mali. In the 14th century many Moors and Jews, fleeing persecution in Spain, migrated south to the Timbuktu area, at that time part of the Songhai empire. Among them was the Kehath (Ka'ti) family, descended from Ismael Jan Kot Al-yahudi of Scheida, Morocco. Sons of this prominent family founded three villages that still exist near Timbuktu -- Kirshamba, Haybomo, and Kongougara. In 1492, Askia Muhammed came to power in the previously tolerant region of Timbuktu and decreed that Jews must convert to Islam or leave; Judaism became illegal in Mali, as it did in Catholic Spain that same year. As the historian Leo Africanus wrote in 1526: "The king (Askia) is a declared enemy of the Jews. He will not allow any to live in the city. If he hears it said that a Berber merchant frequents them or does business with them, he confiscates his goods."

The Kehath family converted with the rest of the non-Muslim population. The Cohens, descended from the Moroccan Islamicized Jewish trader El-Hadj Abd-al-Salam al Kuhin, arrived in the Timbuktu area in the 18th century, and the Abana family came in the first half of the 19th century. According to Prof. Michel Abitbol, at the Center for the Research of Moroccan Jewry in Israel, in the late 19th century Rabbi Mordoche Aby Serour traveled to Timbuktu several times as a not-too-successful trader in ostrich feathers and ivory. Ismael Diadie Haidara, a historian from Timbuktu, has found old Hebrew texts among the city's historical records. He has also researched his own past and discovered that he is descended from the Moroccan Jewish traders of the Abana family. As he interviewed elders in the villages of his relatives, he has discovered that knowledge of the family's Jewish identity has been preserved, in secret, out of fear of persecution.*

Emergent modern communities

  • Jews of Uganda - The Abayudaya of Uganda are a group who have enthusiastically embraced Judaism in relatively recent times—their practice of the religion dates only from 1917. *

  • Kenya - A relatively small emergent community has been forming in Laikipia, Kenya, abandoning their Christian beliefs in exchange for pure Judaism. There are an estimated 5,000 of them at the present time. This group has connections to the Black Hebrews movement. Although at first Messianic, they had realized that their beliefs are incompatible with Judaism and are now waiting to be instructed in pure Judaism.Some of the younger children of this community have been sent to the Abayudaya schools in Uganda to be instructed in Judaism and other subjects. There are also some amongst the ethnic groups in Kenya that claim to be one of the lost tribes of Israel. [http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/6085/edition_id/113/format/html/displaystory.html

  • The House of Israel community of Sefwi Wiawso and Sefwi Sui in Western Ghana claim that their Sefwi ancestors are descendants of Jews who migrated south through Côte d'Ivoire. The continuous practice of Judaism in this community, however, dates back to only the early 1970s.

  • Zimbabwe - The Jews of Rusape, Zimbabwe claim ancient Hebrew tribal connections—in fact, they claim that most Black Africans (especially the Bantu peoples) are actually of Ancient Hebrew origin. However, the active practice of Judaism in the Rusape community dates back only to the early twentieth century; in this case, to 1903. (Despite the chronological proximity of the beginnings of observance in these two communities, a historical relationship between them should not be inferred: there is no evidence whatsoever to indicate the existence of any relationship between them, aside from their interest in Judaism.) This community, although they no longer believe in Jesus as Messiah as Christian people do, they do believe that Jesus was a prophet, however that all people on Earth are prophets as well and so Jesus had no high or special status. Currently the community is moving towards more mainstream Judaism. This group believes that the majority of African peoples are descendants of the 12 lost tribes of Israel and that most Africans have Hebraic practices.

Modern communities of European descent

See also

External links

General

Lemba

Nigeria and Uganda

Ghana

House of Israel

Timbuktu

Northern Africa

Resources

General

  • Wars of the Jews: A Military History from Biblical to Modern Times, Hipporcrene Books, New York, 1990, by Monroe Rosenthal and Isaac Mozeson
  • Jewish Communities in Exotic Places, Jason Aronson Inc., Jerusalem, by Ken Blady
  • Jews In Africa: Ancient Black African Relations, Fact Paper 19-II, By Samuel Kurinsky
  • Jews in Places You Never Thought of, Ktav Publishing, by Karen Primak
  • Hebrewisms of West Africa: From Nile to Niger With the Jews, The Dial Press, NY, 1931, by Joseph J. Williams

Northern Africa

  • Jews in Africa: Part 1 The Berbers and the Jews, by Sam Timinsky (Hebrew History Federation)
  • Tarikh es Soudan, Paris, 1900, by Abderrahman ben-Abdall es-Sadi (trad. O. Houdas)
  • The Jews of Timbuktu, Washington Jewish Week, December 30, 1999, by Rick Gold
  • Les Juifs à Tombouctou, or Jews of Timbuktu, Recueil de sources écrites relatives au commerce juif à Tombouctou au XIXe siècle, Editions Donniya, Bamako, 1999 by Professor Ismael Diadie Haidara

Nigeria

Cape Verde and Guinea Coast

  • Jews in Cape Verde and on the Guinea Coast, Paper presented at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, February 11, 1996, by Richard Lobban

Ethiopia

  • Stigma "Gojjam": The Abbyssianian Pariah Orits, Guihon Books, University of Geneva, 1993, by Muse Tegegne

Ethnic groups in Africa | Jews by country | Jews

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "African Jew".

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