History of the Jews in Africa

African Jew has a variety of meanings:

• There are several small scattered groupings of Black African tribes who have not had contact with the international Jewish community, but who cite ancestry to ancient Israel or other connections to Judaism and who practice Jewish rituals or those bearing resemblance to Judaism. Of these, only the Beta Israel of Ethiopia are generally recognized as Jews by the international Jewish community.
• There are Sephardi Jews and Mizraḥi Jews living in North Africa, although many of these have now emigrated, mostly to Israel.
• The Jews of South Africa are mostly Ashkenazi Jews, descended from pre-Holocaust Litvish immigrants. As of 2004, they are the largest group of organized Jews of this descent group who identify predominantly with Orthodox Judaism.

Africans with ancient ties

• Remnants of longstanding Jewish communities remain in Morocco and Tunisia, with a strong Jewish community remaining as Djerba in Tunisia. However, as in the rest of the Arab world since the founding of Israel, most have emigrated, mostly either to Israel, France or Spain.
• The Lemba of Malawi, Zimbabwe, and the South African region of Venda claim descent from King Solomon, and 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 claim descent from Yemenite, Moroccan, and East African Jewish communities.

The Ethiopian Jews

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 without the normal rigid requirements of gentile converts who have no concrete connection with Jews or Judaism; most other rabbinic authorities consider the conversions to be actual conversions, not pro forma. The practices of the Beta Israel differ significantly from those of other forms of Judaism.

The Lemba

The Lemba or Lembaa are a tribe 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 subsection of Jews.

The Igbo (Ibo) Jews

The Igbo (Ibo) Jews of Nigeria, sometimes addressed as “Yehudim Maghrebim” (West African Jews) are the Jewish component of the Igbo (Ibo) ethnic group whom are said to be descended from the southern and westward migrations of both ancient Semitic and later Jewish peoples from the Middle East into West Africa. This migration, said to have started more than 1500 years ago, is believed to have taken deeper roots in the region during the reign of the Dja (Dia) kings of Songhai Empire, especially that of Zael Al-Yaman who is said to ahve been a Jew of Yemenite descent. This group of communities is also connected to the Jewish Berber population such as the Kal Tamasheq and the Iddao Ishaak that traveled from North Africa into West Africa for trade, as well as those escaping the Islamic invasions into North Africa and Mali.

According to Igbo lore the Jewish Igbo ethnic groups are comprised of the following 3 lineage types:

• Benei Gath: Igbos said to have descended from tribe of Gath ben-Ya`aqov, who was the 8th son of the Israeli patriarch Ya`aqov (Jacob). This lineage is traced though Gath's son Eri ben-Gath. [2] The clans said to come from this lineage comprise of the Aguleri, Umuleri, Oreri, Enugwu Ikwu, Ogbunike, Awkuzu, Nteje, and Igbariam.

• Benei Zevulun: Igbos said to have descended from the tribe of Zevulun ben-Ya`aqov, who was the 5th son of Ya`aqov (Jacob). This lineage comprises of the Ubulu Okiti, Ubulu Ukwu, in Delta State, who settled in Ubulu Ihejiofor. According to tradition, it is said that a descendent of the tribe of Zevulun named Zevulunu, on the advice of an 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 parts of the region. These sons being: 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 Menash: Igbos whom it is theorized may be descendents of the tribe of Meneshsheh ben-Yoseph, who was one of the grandsons of Ya`aqov (Jacob) through his 11th son Yoseph (Joseph). According to the Torah Jacob claimed both Menashsheh and his brother Ephrayim as his own sons. It is theorized by some that this is the possible lineage of the Amichi, Ichi, Nnewi-Ichi clans.

It is also more than possible that certain Nigerian Jews in the Nri families may be descendents of Levitical (Levite Priests) migrants from Jerban, Tunisia whom were said to have left Judah and settled in North Africa before and after the destruction of the 1st and 2nd Temples in Jerusalem. The most likely scenario is that the ancestors of the Igbos were made up of familiar clans of Israelis and Judaens whom, for various reasons, left Israel before and during the Assyrian and Babylonian sieges. This would explain how their oral tradition contains the specific tribes these clans originated from.

Groups called Godians and Ibrim maintained much of the Jewish traditions of the Igbo Jews. These groups maintained the Jewish traditions that the majority of the communities lost over time due to their isolation from the rest of Nigeria society. Certain Nigerian Jewish communities have been making increasing connections with world Jewry through the help of Israelis who work in Nigeria, out-reach organizations like Kulanu [1], and members of the Igbo Jewish community outside of Nigeria who underwent Giyyur Khelqi (Orthodox Return Conversion) to the world wide Jewish community. Two Synagogues in Nigeria were formed by Jews outside of Nigeria, and are maintained by the Jews in Nigeria.

From the Middle Ages

• 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." [2] 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.

Africans with modern ties

• 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. [3]
• 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.
• The Jews of Rusape, Zimbabwe claim ancient Jewish tribal connections—in fact, they claim that most Black Africans (especially the Bantu peoples) are actually of Jewish origin. Like the Abayudaya, 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.)
• There are people of undoubted Jewish ancestry in Timbuktu, Mali, although none of them today practice the religion.

Modern communities of European descent

• There is a substantial, mostly Ashkenazic Jewish community in South Africa. These Jews arrived mostly from Lithuania prior to World War II, though others have origins in Britain, Germany, and Eastern Europe. Connected to them were the small European Jewish communities in Namibia (South West Africa), Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia), Lesotho (Basutuland), Swaziland, Botswana (Bechuanaland), Zaire (Belgian Congo), Kenya, Malawi (Nyasaland), Zambia (Northern Rhodesia) all of which had synagogues and even formal Jewish schools usually based in the capitals of these countries.
• Historically, there was a Jewish community in Maputo, Mozambique but in the independence era nearly all left. The government has officially returned the Maputo synagogue to the Jewish community, but "little or no Jewish community remains to reclaim it." [4]

External link

• This article draws heavily on Jay Sand's site about African Jews.
• Information in this article about the Igbo Jews draws heavily on information from Ibo Benei Yisrael Email List.