The first two diaries of this series explored myths and facts about the histories of the two largest Jewish groups in the world, the "Ashkenazim" of Central and Eastern Europe, and the "Sephardim" who dispersed from Spain and Portugal.
Because of their distribution throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, and later the Americas, the Ashkenazim and Sephardim have been an essential component of Western Civilization throughout the ages.
Now I will move on to exploring some Jewish groups that have been removed and isolated from the Western world. In the last diary I dismissed as myth the notion that the Sephardim should be viewed as more 'exotic' or some such. But in this diary we will encounter people who are indeed fascinatingly exotic to Western eyes.
Preview
This diary will discuss the fascinating, forgotten, and newly uncovered history of the Jews of sub-Saharan Africa. Those of North Africa were (partially) covered in my previous entry.
However, for continuity, I will start with the far-flung Jewish community of Yemen.
Yemen
Yes, I know it isn't quite Africa, but I'm going to start this journey by examining some Jews who live pretty darn close to it. The Jews of Yemen (the very southern part of the Arabian peninsula) are an ancient group, dating from at least 2000 years ago, and possibly much farther back.
In fact there may have been several waves of Jewish migration to Yemen, as early as the time of King Solomon (he married the queen of Sheba, who was from Yemen), and until the diaspora era during Roman rule of Judea.
So, can we conclude things about their history from the Yemeni Jewish genome, like we did from the Ashkenazi and Sephardi ones? Yes!
As shown in the famous M. Hammer et al. 1998 study published in PNAS, Yemeni Y-chromosomes tell a similar story to Ashkenazi and Sephardi ones. They show a common link with these Jewish groups, and with contemporary Arab populations in the Levant.
Yemeni Mitochondrial DNA, on the other hand, show major influences from Africa. From a study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics (R. Martin et al, 2003)
We have analyzed and compared mitochondrial DNA variation of populations from the Near East and Africa and found a very high frequency of African lineages present in the Yemen Hadramawt: more than a third were of clear sub-Saharan origin. Other Arab populations carried 10% lineages of sub-Saharan origin
Therefore, we can conclude that the Yemeni Jewish population was founded by perhaps several waves of largely male migration from Judea, from the same stock that founded the Jewish communities of the Mediterranean and Europe. However, the men mixed with a large portion of local and African women to establish the community.
The Yeminite Jews then developed largely in isolation from the Jewish communities elsewhere. They had their own kingdoms, and had alternated between severe persecution and tolerance at the hands of the Islamic dynasties that came to rule the area.
Being in relative isolation resulted in some unique cultural traits for the Yemenites. Their manuscripts and songs often alternate between Hebrew and Arabic. Yememi Jews have a tradition of prostrating themselves during prayer, similar to Muslims, and historically did not sit in Synagogue, but rather knelt.
By the 20th century there were 50,000 Yemenite Jews, and they largely resettled in Israel after its founding, where they today form one of the largest communities. Yemenite Israelis are prominent as singers and models, and, more notoriously, include Yigal Amir, assasin of Rabin.
Ethiopia
150,000 people, mostly currently living in Israel, are Jews from Ethiopia, the so-called Beta Israel. Historically, they were one of the most impoverished groups in the world. Being so seemingly isolated from the Middle East and Mediterranean for so long, their origin is a mystery.
It appears that genetically the Ethiopian Jews do not follow the typical pattern we have seen up to this point, that of male lineages showing significant connection to the Middle East and other Jewish groups. Again, citing M. Hammer et al.
...paternal gene pools of Jewish communities from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East descended from a common Middle Eastern ancestral population, with the exception of the Beta Israel, who were affiliated more closely with non-Beta Israel Ethiopians and other East Africans.
So the Ethiopian Jews appear to be descended from converts. But when and how?
Most theories have the converters travelling south from Yemen or Egypt during Roman times or later. Another idea places the conversion very early, in Solomonic times, during which there was exchange between the Hebrews and Sheba, and presumably the ancient Ethiopian kingdom of Axum to the farther south, or even earlier, when Judeans from Hezekiah's kingdom joined on an Assyrian campaign to defeat the Kingdom of Kush.
The most extreme theory places the origin of Judaism - like the Semitic languages themselves - actually in Ethiopia! There is certainly an intimate link between Ethiopia as a whole and Jews. The Christian emperors of Ethiopia claimed descent from King Solomon. Ethiopian culture is chock full of Jewish iconography, from stars of David through the alphabet to the title of the Emperor, "The Lion of Judah". Legend (obviously false) holds that the Ark of the Covenant is currently stored in a Church in Ethiopia, having arrived with ancient Jews.
In any case, it is clear that Judaism was probably established in Ethiopia before Christianity, and may have have paved the way for Ethiopians to by-and-large adopt Christianity. As seems to be the pattern everywhere, tolerance could only last so long. Beginning in the 1500s, the Ethiopian Jews were subject to persecution, wars, and the usual. By the 20th century they were rural and impoverished, living a thoroughly pre-modern lifestyle. They have almost entirely relocated to Israel.
In almost complete isolation from other Jewish communities, the Ethiopians developed unique traditions. They abandoned Hebrew, and their liturgical language was Ge'ez, which is also the liturgical language of Christianity in Egypt. Interestingly, even the Torah copies they had were in Ge'ez, which may again support the mass conversion hypothesis. The vernacular languages are Amharic and Tigrinya, as with much of Ethiopia. There does not appear to be a creole language that was developed. The Ethiopian Jews also have an additional holiday, known as Sigd, where members of the community gather on hilltops to prostrate themselves.
The Lemba
So at first blush rural Ethiopia would seem to demark the limit on how isolated a Jewish population could be from the Middle East, and expose the limits of how far afield the Y-chromosomes associated with Jews originating in the Middle East could travel.
However, there are more surprises in store.
The Lemba are a tribe in Southern Africa (South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique) numbering some 70,000 individuals, whose folk tradition maintains that they are descended from Jews who left the Middle East 2500 years ago. They have many customs and stories eerily similar to the Jewish religion, and have the Star of David as a symbol.
As far-fetched as it might seem, genetic evidence supports the Lemba's claim to be the direct descendents of Jews. In a study in the American Journal of Human Genetics (A. Spurdle & T. Jenkins, 1996),
The results suggest that > or = 50% of the Lemba Y chromosomes are Semitic in origin, approximately 40% are Negroid...
Recall from the previous diaries that the rate of clearly Levantine Y-chromosomes among the Ashkenazim and Sephardim are around 80%, so in this regard the Lemba are much more similar to other Jews than they are to their neighboring populations.
Furthermore, the Lemba maintain a hereditary priestly class, the Buba, who are very similar in custom to the Jewish Cohenim. And sure enough, the Buba males contain, at a very high rate, the distinctive Y-chromosome mutation associated with Cohenim throughout the world (see eg. M. Thomas et al., Am Journ Hum Gen, 2000).
It is clear that the Lemba tradition of being founded by Jews from elsewhere is essentially correct. In this way of being a blend of Jews who arrived from afar and some local influences, the Lemba resemble the Ashkenazim, Sephardim, and Yemini Jews we've seen already, but not the Ethiopians. How Jews from elsewhere managed to get to Southern Africa and 'go native' without leaving a trace along the way remains a profound historical mystery.
Other claimants
There are several groups in West and Central Africa that claim descent from Jews, and/or follow Jewish rituals to varying extents.
The Igbo of Nigeria are one such group, claiming descent from Middle Easterners who arrived after the Islamic conquest of the Levant.
There are claims of many Jews living in Cameroon. The actor Yaphet Koto was raised Jewish by his father, a Cameroonese prince, and claims that his family's Judaism is ancient, and the result of a community established in Cameroon by Jewish traders 1500 years ago.
Lastly, there are historical accounts of Jews throughout the Sahara desert, and in Timbuktu, mostly attested by travelling Jewish Rabbis and traders. As late as the 1850s a travelling Moroccan Rabbi, Mordechai Aby Serour, held services in Timbuktu with indigenous Jews. However, by the 20th century, these communities had vansihed.
There have yet to be genetic studies of the Igbo and Cameroonese populations, but if the Lemba are any indication, the results will be quite interesting.
South Africa
This list would not be complete without mentioning the Jews of South Africa. Mostly European immigrants who settled before WW2, the South African Jews now number some 70,000.
In spite of being about 2% of the white population of South Africa, the Jewish people there have been prominent throughout society. They include the anti-Apartheid activists Joe Slovo, Harry Schwarz, and Helen Suzman, and famous (at least in my circles) radio astronomer Bernard Fanaroff.
Black Americans
Over the years a number of black Americans have been drawn to Jewish culture and/or religion - with a variety of motivations. In some cases, it has been the result of positive contact with Jewish Americans - Louis Armstrong and Sammy Davis Jr. are prominent examples.
Others are intrigued by the presence of black African Jews such as the Beta Israel and the Lemba discussed here, or the stories of the Old Testament, and pursue Hebraic religion and/or Jewish culture. Our first lady Michelle Obama's cousin, Capers Funye, is a mainstream Rabbi who decided to adopt the religion in this way.
However, there are a small number of groups of black Americans that have taken on disprovable mythologies of being lost tribes, often to the point of denying the 'authenticity' of other Jews. While it is not completely impossible, as we have seen above, that a very small number of the victims of the West African slave trade were Jewish, the notion that Black Americans (or any other Americans!) can constitute a 'lost tribe' is not supported by any genetic or other evidence whatsoever. In fact, the genetic and historical evidence, as we have seen in this and the previous diaries in the series, support the claim of mainstream Jews to be the direct, albeit heavily mixed, descendants of the ancient Israelites.
Summary
The long-established Jewish population of Yemen seems to follow the pattern we have seen for other groups, having been founded by Hebraic men who migrated there, and the result of the interchange of them with the local and other populations.
It is clear that since ancient times Jews have been venturing into Sub-Saharan Africa. Jewish culture and symbols have had a significant influence on the development of Ethiopian civiliztion, and a sizeable Jewish population has existed there for centuries if not millenia.
While it appears that the Ethiopian Jews themselves are not largely the direct descendants of Jews from elsewhere, the Lemba tribe of Southern Africa - while being even more remotely removed from the Middle East - do indeed appear to be. Further study is needed to determine the origin and antiquity of the Jewish affiliations of other Africans, includign the Igbo and some Cameroonese. Hopefully research will shed light on this fascinating and ancient journey of the Jews through Africa.
This series:
- Jewish history: fact and myth I - The Jews of the Shtetls, Khazar or not Khazar
- Jewish history: fact and myth II - The far flung Iberians
- Jewish history III: Africa - Back in Black
- Jewish origins 4: Babel on - Iraq, Persia, Central Asia
- Jewish origins 5: India and China - Call center cousins
- Jewish origins: Vol 6: Continuity, and what is a Jew?