History of the Jews in Africa
In the seventh century, many Spanish Jews fled from the persecution which was occurring under the rule of the Visigoths and migrated to North Africa, where they made their homes in the Byzantine-dominated cities along the Mediterranean coast.
[1] Ibn Khaldun reported that Kahina, a female Berber warlord who led the resistance against the Muslim Arab conquests of North Africa in the 680s and 690s, was a Jew of the Jarawa tribe.
Begin had obtained an official ruling from the Israeli Sephardi Chief Rabbi (or Rishon LeZion) Ovadia Yosef that the Beta Israel were descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes.
Rabbis believed that they were probably descendants of the Tribe of Dan; rabbinical responsa discussing issues related to the people date back hundreds of years.
They had to declare their allegiance to a halachic way of life and the Jewish people, in conformity with practices which are followed by adherents of Orthodox Rabbinical Judaism.
He did not demand the normal formal requirements that the halacha imposes on potential gentile proselytes, (such as a brit milah or immersion in a mikveh).
Over time, due to their community's isolation from those in Europe and the Middle East, the practices of the Beta Israel developed to differ significantly from those of other forms of Judaism.
[3] In that sense, the Beta Israel had a tradition analogous to that of the Talmud, although at times at variance with the practices and teachings of other Jewish communities.
One significant difference is the fact that the Beta Israel lacked the festivals of Purim and Hanukkah, probably because they branched off from the main body of Judaism before these non-Biblical holidays began to be commemorated.
A certain segment of traditionalist kessim insist on maintaining their separate and distinct form of Judaism, as it had been practiced in Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Many of the Ethiopian Jewish youth who have immigrated to Israel or been born there have assimilated either to the dominant form of Orthodox Judaism, or to a secular lifestyle.
Several scholars think that they broke off from the Beta Israel community several centuries ago, hid their Jewish customs, and outwardly adopted Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity.
According to an isolated local legend, Zuwa Alyaman was a member of one of the Jewish communities transported from Yemen by Abyssinians in the 6th century CE after the defeat of Dhu Nuwas.
The well-known 16th Century geographer Leo Africanus - an Andalusian Berber convert to Christianity - mentions a mysterious small village of African Jews southwest of Timbuktu, who traded in exotic spices, weapons, and poisons.
[citation needed] The largest influx of Jews to Africa came after the Spanish Inquisition after the Fall of Granada and the end of Islamic Spain.
[9][better source needed] 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.
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 Songhai, as it did in Catholic Spain that same year.
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.
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.
Most died, but in the early 17th century "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.
[16] Theories suggesting Israelite origins particularly of the Masai abounded in the nineteenth century and were gradually absorbed into religious and societal practices throughout the area.
[18] Of the many Judaic manifestations in the religious sphere is a small emergent community in Laikipia County, Kenya, which has abandoned Christianity and taken up Judaism.
Works by the French scholar Alfred Grandidier and Augustus Keane, the British professor of Hindustani at University College, London provided what they saw as conclusive proof of these ancient connections.
Certain Nigerian communities with Judaic practices have been receiving help from individual Israelis and American Jews who work in Nigeria with outreach organizations like Kulanu.
One of these was Samei Kakungulu, one of the most remarkable Ugandans of his generation, a brilliant military strategist and a man who had a great amount of spiritual and intellectual curiosity.
He died a Jew (albeit one with a residual belief in Jesus) and his followers in Mbale, who are known as the Abayudaya, continued to practice Judaism, despite the persecution which they were subjected to during the rule of Idi Amin, when many of them converted to Christianity or Islam, and today, they are some thousand strong.
[29] At its peak in the early 1970s, it numbered some 7500 people (80% Ashkenazi Jews) who lived primarily in the two communities of Salisbury (now Harare) and Bulawayo in Matabeleland.
In 2003, the Bulawayo Hebrew Congregation Synagogue burned down; this was followed by several letters justifying the fire based on economic antisemitism.
[30] The Lemba,"wa-Remba", or "Mwenye"[31] are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group native to Zimbabwe and South Africa, with smaller, little-known branches in Mozambique and Malawi.
