Claims of a historic presence of Jewish communities in certain
regions of Africa, notably West and Southern Africa, seem esoteric
when first mentioned. This presence goes back not just centuries, but
even to biblical times.
Of course in two areas such a communal presence on the African
continent remains a firmly acknowledged part of Jewish history and
experience (North Africa and Egypt/Ethiopia). A Jewish presence in
Egypt and the former Kingdom of Kush are described in the Book of
Exodus. Yet even after their exodus from Egypt and their settlement
in the land of Israel, the Jewish tribes retained certain nomadic
characteristics which are reflected throughout their history.
For example, in the 10th and 9th centuries B.C.E. Kings David and
Solomon sought to expand Jewish influence and trade throughout the
Mediterranean, including North Africa, Egypt, the Arab Peninsula and
the Horn of Africa, as well as Persia. Often such trade promotion and
colonizing drives were arranged in cooperation with the Cananites and
the neighboring Kingdom of Tyre.
These kingdoms often lent their
military backing to these colonizing efforts, which led to the
establishment of numerous settlements by Jewish artisans and traders
throughout these regions. But the subsequent scattering of a Jewish presence
and influence teaching deep into the African continent is less widely acknowledged.
Pressed under sweeping regional conflicts, Jews settled as traders
and warriors in Yemen, the Horn of Africa, Egypt, the Kingdom of Kush
and Nubia, North African Punic settlements (Carthage and Velubilis),
and areas now covered by Mauritania.
More emigrants followed these
early Jewish settlers to Northern Africa following the Assyrian
conquest of the Israelites in the 8th century B.C.E., and again 200
years later, when Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians, leading
to the destruction of the First Temple.
This catastrophic event not only drove many Jews into exile in
Babylon, but also led to the establishment of exile communities
around the Mediterranean, including North Africa. Then, with Israel
coming under Greek, Persian and later Roman rule and dependence,
renewed waves of Jewish traders and artisans began to set up
communities in Egypt, Cyrenaica, Nubia and the Punic Empire, notably
in Carthage, whence they began to scatter into various newly emerging
communities south of the Atlas mountains. Several Jewish nomadic
groups also started to come across the Sahara from Nubia and the
ancient kingdom of Kush.
The Jewish presence in Africa began to expand significantly in the
second and third centuries of the Christian era, extending not only
into the Sahara desert, but also reaching down along the West African
coast, and possibly also to some Bantu tribes of Southern Africa
(where some 40,000 members of the Lemba tribe still claim Jewish
roots). The names of old Jewish communities south of the Atlas
mountains, many of which existed well into Renaissance times, can be
found in documents in synagogue archives in Cairo.
In addition, Jewish, Arab and Christian accounts cite the existence
of Jewish rulers of certain tribal groups and clans identifying
themselves as Jewish scattered throughout Mauritania, Senegal, the
Western Sudan, Nigeria, and Ghana. Among notable Arab historians
referring to their existence are Ibn Khaldun, who lived in the 13th
century, a respected authority on Berber history; the famous
geographer al-Idrisi, born in Ceuta, Spain in the 12th century, who
wrote about Jewish Negroes in the western Sudan; and the 16th century
historian and traveler Leon Africanus, a Moslem from Spain who was
raised by a Jewish woman working in his family's household, who is
said to have taught him Hebrew and emigrated with the family to
Morocco in 1492.
Yet, indeed, there are a number of
historical records of small Jewish kingdoms and tribal groups known
as Beni Israel that were part of the Wolof and Mandinge communities.
These existed in Senegal from the early Middle Ages up to the 18th
century, when they were forced to convert to Islam. Some of these
claimed to be descendants of the tribe of Dan, the traditional tribe
of Jewish gold and metal artisans, who are also said to have built
the "Golden Calf".
Jewish presence is said to have been introduced into Senegal,
Mauritania and numerous other West African countries south of the
Sahara in part through the migration of Jewish Berber groups and
later through some exiles who had been expelled from Spain, had first
settled in North Africa, and had then crossed the Atlas mountains.
Other even earlier arrivals are said to have come from Cyrenaica (now
part of Libya, Egypt, the Sudan and Ethiopia), having crossed the
Sahara to West Africa and eventually also moved further south.
In addition to the Jewish tribal groups in Senegal who claim to be
descendants of the tribe of Dan, the Ethiopian Jews also trace their
ancestry to the tribe of Dan.
Some of these transmigrants established
communities in such still renowned places as Gao, Timbuktu (where
UNESCO still maintains notable archives containing records of its old
Jewish community), Bamako, Agadez, Kano and Ibadan. A notable number
of Berber and African nomad tribal groups joined up with the Jewish
communal groups trying to resist aggressiqve Arab Islamic efforts or
as bulwark against Christian proselytizing, sometimes going so far as
to convert to Judaism. Notable among these were some Tuareg, Peul and
Ibadiya groups.
Jewish presence is also confirmed by numerous surviving accounts of
Portuguese and other European visitors in the 14th and 15th
centuries, as well as North African and Arab historical records.
Gradually most of these communities disappeared. Since they existed
largely in isolation, there was a good deal of intermarriage which
for a while reinforced their influence and expansion. As a result
they were increasingly viewed as a threat by Muslim rulers, and most
of the Jewish communities and nomad groups south of the Atlas
mountains were either forced to convert to Islam or massacred; the
remainder fled to North Africa, Egypt or the Sudan, and a few also to
Cameroon and Southern Africa.
Reviewing the various Jewish and non-Jewish sources on the origins of
these Jewish communities involves complicated and at times seemingly
contradictory stories about tribal and religious wars and resultant
alliances and transformations. These originated with the Roman and
Byzantine persecutions of Jews and the promotion of Christianity
beginning under the emperors Diocletian and Constantine.
There was
also a wave of Jewish proselytizing and conversions of nations and
tribal groups to Judaism. For instance, the people of Yemen converted
to Judaism in the fifth century under King Du-Nuas, as did a major
Berber tribal group under their Queen Kahina in the seventh century.
These were followed by additional forced conversions of Jewish
communities to Christianity and later to Islam, but with some Jewish
consciousness and traditions surviving.
These conflicting references to biblical sources by Jewish, Muslim,
Berber and Christian sources survive not only to legitimize their
respective spiritual claims but also as indicators of their
transitions through a common past.
There has been a historical Jewish ambivalence about legitimizing
mass conversions to Judaism and to look askance at those who do
not "look Jewish". In part such attitudes are reinforced by the fact
that certain Jewish communities, for historical reasons or due to
prolonged isolation, had evolved ritual and ceremonial standards
linked to older sources and traditions, thus becoming somewhat
differentiated from those authorized by the dominant rabbinical
authorities. These differences may involve such questions as
acceptance of talmudic interpretation. This had placed into question
at times even the authority of so prominent a Jewish sage as Moses
Maimonides.
Even before Maimonides these issues had led to the by now virtually
forgotten split by the Karaites, who rejected the Talmud as divine
law as well as the hierarchical authority of the rabbinate. Yet,
despite their current obscurity, the Karaites played a significant
historical role in the expansion of Judaism and also as advocates of
a greater religious role for women. Karaite influence extended to
Judeo-Berber communities and West African tribal communities such as
the Malinke, Peul, Foulani, Mossi, Fanti, Songhay, Yoruba and Hausa.
Photo: Black Jews of Harlem, N.Y. who trace their ancestry to King Solomon
NY 1967
