Jews Of Africa - History

Jews Of Africa - History

More than 2,700 years ago, on a tiny strip of fertile land on the far eastern edge of the Mediterranean, a small band of farmers, metalworkers and merchants lost a war and, at least temporarily, their land. A haughty Assyrian army swept in from the north, and as they advanced through Sameria they ravaged the communities of Hebrews who dwelled there. The Hebrews fought to protect their homes but in the end they had no choice but to flee. Some took their families and escaped to the east, disappearing into unfamiliar Asian nations. Others fled southinto Africa, through the desert that their people had crossed in the other direction five hundred years before while escaping enslavement Egypt. A tiny group of Hebrews did remain in nearby Judea, but a century later the Babylonians conquered them, laying waste to their capital city, Jerusalem, and their most sacred structure – the Temple at which they worshipped God. The Hebrew people were homeless, wandering as they had through the Sinai, taking root, as they had become accustomed, in foreign lands. Such devastation would have marked the end of most peoples, but the Hebrews did not allow their defeat to finish them. Perhaps their Jewish religion made them different enough from the people who conquered them that they had to cling to one another to retain it. Perhaps those who opened their lands to the Hebrews distrusted, disliked or feared them enough to keep them separate. Whatever quirks of culture and history allowed them to maintain their identity, the Jewish people were able to survive domination by Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians and Romans, as well as Muslim conversions, Catholic Crusades, centuries of Inquisition, even the Nazi Holocaust.

Though Jews maintained their own religious beliefs, rituals and core customs through these

tribulations, they did not remain entirely separate from the people whose lands they inhabited. In fact, Jews often intermarried with other peoples, bringing local genetic characteristics (and often local cultural traits) into their community. When the Jewish people began their journey they were dark-skinned people, like any other tribe that originated in the so-called "Fertile Crescent," who spoke Hebrew and dressed in the robes and fabrics of the region. In the Diaspora, some Hebrews found themselves in Asian and African countries; over centuries, their collective skin darkened, they began to speak local languages and live, work and dress in a local fashion. As they developed over centuries into a substantial European population, the Jews there became white as their fellow countrymen, adopting their languages and day-to-day culture. This wandering nation may have maintained its identity through shared history, core beliefs and religion, but it could not reliably define itself by superficial characteristics like skin color, language or style of clothing.

Even today, when more than three quarters of the fourteen million Jews live in North America, Europe, and the largely white nation of Israel, one certainly does not have to have white skin and be identifiable as a "European" to be Jewish. In fact, there are more then a hundred thousand people self-proclaimed Jews in Africa today. Some of the Jews of Africa are white as their Western cousins, but others are dark-skinned as other North Africans, or as black as any African dwelling in the heart of the continent. They dress and speak like their neighbors, live in the same kind of dwellings, work the same type of jobs – upon a cursory glance one might not be able to tell that they are different.

But they are different – religiously different from other Africans, culturally different from the Jews who live in other parts of the world and substantially different from one another, for each Jewish community in Africa has its own history, character and view of what exactly "being Jewish" means. Many African Jews are "transplanted" Jews, those who have come to Africa from European nations. Some of them, like the Spanish Jews fleeing the Inquisition who arrived in North and West Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries, have intermingled with the local community so entirely that one can no longer call them "European." Others, like the clearly European Jews of Mozambique, seeded a Jewish community which remained when the political climate of the nation became unfavorable to non-Africans. Still others, like the white Jews of South Africa, have built their community on the African land but, so far, have retained their European identity.

There are "Jews by choice," such as the Abayudaya in Uganda and the Jews of Rusape, Zimbabwe and of Sefwi Wiawso and Sefwi Sui in Ghana, Africans who acknowledge their non-Jewish lineage but in recent years have chosen to practice Judaism. Some of them want Israel’s Orthodox Rabbinate to accept them as Jews, others do not seek others’ recognition of their faith. These Africans find solace in Judaism and identify with some aspect of the rituals, history or culture of the Jewish people. There are Jews by lineage, black Jews who some researchers call, "African Hebrew Israelites," such as the Beta Israel of Ethiopia and the Lemba of Southern Africa, who still practice some Jewish rituals of the ancient Hebrews or Jewish traders who they claim seeded their communities. There are also Moroccan, Tunisian and Egyptian communities which have been practicing Judaism continuously since the ancient Hebrews fleeing Babylonian or Roman domination founded them almost two thousand years ago. While the variety of Jewish communities in Africa today may confound those who have a narrow concept of Jews and Judaism, such a variety is only natural considering that the history of Jewish influence on Africa is a complex, often contradictory jumble of roaming tribes, crusading traders and proselytizing marauders who crisscrossed the continent imposing their own way of life.

According to some historians, Jews first crossed into the Nile Valley nearly two thousand years before the birth of Jesus, perhaps in some relationship with the Hyksos "Shepherd Kings" who may have originated in ancient Canaan. The Hyksos arrived in Egypt in the Second Intermediate period in the 17th century B.C. and roamed the Northeastern region of Africa for centuries. There is scant archaeological evidence to verify the Jews’ wanderings, but there is a general agreement that a substantial number of Israelites settled in ancient Egypt in the time of the Pharaohs. The Exodus from Egypt led by Moses most likely took place during the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II (1279-1212 BC). After the Jews fled Egypt they settled in Canaan. The twelve tribal families of Hebrews unified under the Kingdoms of Saul, David and Solomon in the 10th and 9th centuries B.C. The Hebrew kings were powerful rulers who expanded their empires’ influence by trading throughout North Africa, Egypt, the Arab Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. By the 7th century B.C. the Jewish state had already split into the two kingdoms of Judea in the south and Samaria in the north. The Assyrians attacked this divided kingdom in the 6th and 7th centuries B.C. defeating the ten tribes that comprised Israel and scattering them so widely that no one, not political leaders, historians, anthropologists, theologians nor even the true believers, all of whom have claimed to have known their whereabouts to suit their own purposes or satisfy their own needs, has been able to prove to have found them.

The Babylonians destroyed the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and exiled the southern Hebrew kingdom in the 8th century B.C. Some of the defeated Hebrews settled in Babylonia itself, others set up Jewish communities all around the Mediterranean, including Egypt, where they set up a Temple in Elephantine, and on the North African coast, especially in the Tunisian city of Carthage and on the island of Djerba. The Jews used these footholds as a base from which they could explore (and, in some cases, exploit) African tribes further inland and into the Sahara. There are recorded accounts of Jewish traders in ancient Ghana, Tekrur and Tuat in the first centuries after the birth of Jesus. Some historians believe that in this period Jews from either Elephantine or Yemen moved into present-day Ethiopia and gave root to the Beta Israel, and perhaps into the Bantu lands of Southern Africa that

are home to today’s Lemba.

Many of Jewish merchants moved further inland as Muslims conquered North Africa in the 7th century -- Jews were in Tamentit by then; one can still see traces of Jewish architecture today. By the 8th century there were also reports of Jewish merchants in the Saharan regions of Mzab, Tafilalet and Sijilmasa. In this time Jews (and with them, through intermarriage and some proselytizing) influenced nomadic Berber tribes in the Atlas Mountains both economically and culturally. The Spanish-born, 12th century geographer al-Idrisi, 13th century Arab historian Ibn Khaldun, and the 16th century historian Leon Africanus, wrote extensive tomes about Berber and black Jews they encountered in their research and travels in Africa. The Jewish population in North Africa, Cape Verde and the Guinea coast swelled in the 15th and 16th centuries as both Jews fleeing the Inquisition and those who had "converted" to Catholicism, many of whom still practiced Judaism secretly, settled there. The Jewish communities thrived, especially in North Africa, and though they faced repeated waves of persecution at the hands of Muslim rulers, there were Jews throughout the region until the 20th century. Today most former Jews – especially those in the Sahara and West Africa – have long since converted to Islam or Christianity, leaving only travelers’ legend, tribal lore and the odd artifact of their centuries of Jewish observance. A substantial number of the Jews in Africa, especially those in Northern Africa, emigrated to Israel after 1948. The Beta Israel followed suit in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, leaving only a portion of the community in Ethiopia. Even many white South African Jews have left Africa for Israel or the West.

Despite nearly two millennia of persecution, forced conversion and the constant drain of migration, once can still find Jews in most every part of Africa. Perhaps the Jews have been so determined to stay in Africa because they penetrated the continent slowly – they chose Africa as their land with purpose, and have struggled to remain there because, after all, over centuries Africa became their home.

AFRICA:The history of the Jews in the various subdivisions of the African continent is treated under separate headings. Here only a general survey of that history is presented.

After Ethiopia, Egypt and Libya are the two most important lands of Africa. The Hebrew name for Egypt is (compare the Phenician Muẓra, for which read Musra in Stephanus Byzantinus under the word Αίγυπτος; Babylonian, Muẓri, Miẓir—(Schrader, "K. A. T.," 2d ed., p. 89; ancient Persian, Mudraja; Septuaginta, Mestrem; South Arabian, Miẓr; Arabic Maẓr). The Hebrew term has not been sufficiently explained, but it certainly shows a dual form which can best be interpreted as referring to the upper and lower districts.

 Egypt, according to the testimony of Philo, was inhabited, as far as the borders of Libya and Ethiopia, by Jews whose numbers were estimated at a million. The great mercantile city of Alexandria was the intellectual and commercial center of African Jewish life. Alexander the Great had conferred upon the Jews full rights of citizenship, and they guarded these rights jealously.

While in the Latin districts they not only founded communities, but built synagogues, some of which were very beautiful. According to Jerome, the Jews dwelt in a continuous chain of settlements, from Mauretania eastward, throughout the province of Africa, and in Palestine, reaching as far as India.

Only in Egypt, particularly in Alexandria, where the path to Christianity had been smoothed by Jewish Hellenism, undoubtedly great masses of Jews went over to Christianity; but even there they continued to exist until the beginning of the fifth century, when Bishop Cyril expelled them from that city, which had been their home for many centuries.

Rabbinical sources show much familiarity with, and great interest in, this part of the world. The Biblical names of Hamitic peoples are explained in the Talmud and Midrash from the standpoint of Greco-Roman geography.

The undeniable relationship of the Ethiopian language (Geez) to other Semitic dialects stamps the Ethiopiansas a Semitic tribe, an assumption that is confirmed by their physical appearance. The nomadic Zalans, who live apart from the state church, also consider themselves Israelites.

From the eighth to the tenth century the Maghreb was, after Babylonia, the most important country for the Jews.

The persecutions of the Almohades forced Moses Maimonides to leave Spain, and, after remaining for a short time in Fez, he took up his abode in Fostat, near Cairo, Egypt. Thus, through this great philosopher, the center of African Judaism became, for a time, transferred to Egypt. Egypt had become, as it were, a second holy land for Judaism.

 In 1521 an anonymous Italian pilgrim reported that all classes of Jews were to be found in Jerusalem, there being among them Mostarbino, or Moriscos, and Maghrebim from the Barbary states "Shibḥe Yerushalaim," p. 21). Jews took a prominent part in the Portuguese conquests and discoveries in and around Africa. The Jews of Saffee and Arzilla also distinguished themselves by their bravery.

Meshullam Volterra, about 1490, found in Alexandria only sixty Jewish families (Luncz, "Jerusalem Jahrbuch," 1881, i. 176), yet the Jews there remembered the time when 4,000 families had dwelt within the city. Meshullam found neither Samaritans nor Karaites there. Jacob Safir ("Eben Sappir," Lyck, 1866) found no Jews in Upper Egypt or the Fayum, but 30,000 were reported to be in Syene (Assouan). South of Egypt, in Abyssinia, live the Falashas with a population variously estimated between 80,000 and 200,000 souls. If that was the cypher back then there shouldn't surprise us that today there be hundreds of thousands or even a few millions of Ethiopians (& from surroundings) of Hebrew origins.

In the Sahara there are about 8,000 Jews, whose settlements reach as far as Timbuctoo. Mordecai Abu Sereur, who traveled through Morocco, mentions a warlike tribe in the Sahara, the Daggatouns, who claim to be of Jewish origin (see his book, "Les Daggatouns, Tribu d'Origine Juive Demeurant dans le Désert de Sahara," translated from Hebrew into French by I. Loeb, Paris, 1881. English translation by Henry S. Morais, Philadelphia, 1881).

Loeb, in the article "Juifs" in "Dictionnaire Universel de Géographie" of Vivien Saint-Martin, p. 28 of the reprint, Paris, 1884, gives the following numbers for Jews in Africa: Egypt, 8,000; Abyssinia (Falashas), 200,000; Tripoli, 60,000; Tunis, 55,000; Algeria and Sahara, 43,500; Morocco, 100,000; Cape Colony, 1,500; total, 468,000. Of these, the estimate for the Falashas is probably double the reality, while the numbers at the Cape have been largely increased—probably to 25,000.

Israel has allowed an ingathering of nearly all the Jews expelled from eleven Arab countries and now constituting more than half the Jewish population of Israel. Most were driven out by the Muslim conquests from Saudi Arabia to Persia and across North Africa to Spain. Many Muslims insist today that both Spain and Israel are Arab lands.

The Words of Africa

Decolonization has in many ways remained superficial with regard to the peoples of Africa, within that compact landmass that was physically carved out – from what subsequently became Eurasia – by the very enslaved Egyptian forced labor that dug the Suez Canal.

Most present African states are colonial inventions literally imposed on the peoples of Africa without regard for the geographic distribution of peoples and idioms. Indeed, more often than not, international borders in Africa cut through communities, peoples, idioms and nations with insensitive map lines drawn in Europe without regard for the very people whom these borders affected indeed very negatively and continue to adversely affect.

The post-colonial political and economic systems in Africa have worked rather poorly, precisely because these systems were imposed by European Christian imperialists without understanding that African cultures emerged through ecological adaptation of the plural human species and the many human subspecies of that continent. One can surely take for granted that failure would ensue, were Sotho or Yoruba traditional structures of power to be imposed on genetic Europeans by African conquerors and subsequently by “post-colonial” local administrators using only African idioms in places such as Paris and Helsinki.

Yet, what is generally known as so called “anti-racism” is merely the latest cultural incarnation of European supremacism in the sense that “anti-racism” as it is generally articulated is based on an idealized racial, White European, cognitive genetic norm to which members of all other human species and human subspecies are expected to uncompromisingly adjust to through externally imposed normalization and especially so through cognitive White-norm systems of education and White racial idealization imperialistically “extended” to other species and subspecies of the Homo genus. This is in addition to mass Anti-Jewish propaganda and legitimization of Anti-Jewish prejudice in Durban I, Durban II and now Durban III and the systemic, paradigmatic exclusion from legal personhood of persons with emotions belonging to taxa external to the Homo genus.

Eurasian colonial idioms with great prestige – the dead Arabic, English, French and the Portuguese literary dialect of Roman – have remained the official idioms in most African states. While this world era experiences a Cold War with Islamism, Africa is made to choose between distinctly Muslim patterns of imperialism and distinctly Christian patterns of imperialism as a culmination of an historical cultural implosion whereby most Africans have converted to either of these two imperialist religious civilizations and increasingly so at the expense of pre-colonial, indigenous African cosmologies & cultures.

African idioms are far too often not valued and thus considered secondary in relation to the four great, Eurasian colonial idioms in Africa. As far as possible in the people’s own local idioms. Hence, political borders in Africa need to be redrawn in accordance with the distribution of appropriately standardized national heritage idioms. Indeed, the vast majority of Africans speak a national heritage idiom of theirs that have at least one million speakers each. Yet, for participatory political systems to work in Africa, the political geography of this landmass needs to be redrawn through establishment of federations of idiomatic states within the present borders of African countries and later independence for idiomatic nations, including as parts of unions of idiomatic micro-states in regions where large numbers of small and very small idioms fortunately remain spoken. Indeed, the realms of most small African idioms are located in such regions of very rich idiomatic heritage. Yet, the peoples of Africa need to first become literate in their own national heritage idioms, not those of past Eurasian colonialists, colonial idioms that constitute indeed very significant political obstacles between rulers and ruled.

The idiomatic situation in the Atlantic region and in the Indian Ocean is even more absurd where dialects of regional national heritage idioms that emerged as pidgin contact idioms and later became natively spoken national heritage idioms (as so called “creoles”) are considered mere “dialect” subsets of French, of English as well as of the Portuguese literary dialect of Roman. Haiti is an important exception and indeed a political model for the African world generally in nurturing and affording official prestige to its own national heritage idiom of Haitian that merely happens to be historically related to French. Ethiopia is of course another political model for the African world to emulate in having long since established its own federation of idiomatic states.

While the former British colonies in Africa tend to be in better shape than former French colonies in Africa, which in turn tend to be in better shape than former Portuguese colonies in Africa; development of participatory political systems must begin with retaining and integrating what is good in traditional, pre-colonial structures of power. Imposing wholesale societal models of genetic Europeans in African contexts, including genetically European theories of economics and genetically European theories of governance, obviously does not work and does tend to create far more problems than what it resolves. The key is thus to do like the Japanese and retain what is valuable and important in one’s own culture, while fusing it with what is valuable and important in cultures of others. The fact that there are significant genetic differences, both cognitive and somatic within, but also among the various human species and human subspecies is only problematic if genetically European economic and political norms are imposed wholesale on other human taxa without regard for existing human genetic diversity, both somatic and cognitive.

Eurasian forms of economics & politics are no longer arbitrarily imposed by default. While relatively free markets and participatory political systems are no doubt important and indeed crucial, the modern nation state needs to be thoroughly deconstructed, considering that participatory political systems and relatively free markets could potentially and quite possibly indeed be organized in many different ways and not merely the way current systems historically evolved in Europe.

However, inclusive idiomatic statehood will necessarily need to be the first step in this direction in genetically diverse Africa. Yet, both left and right cling to distinctly unhelp elements of what is known as “the nation state,” which is certainly a misleading term when applied to most contemporary African countries. Simply because State Marxism is generally bad, does not automatically mean that State Liberalism (in its many incarnations from social democracy to libertarianism) should be accepted wholesale without comprehensive deconstruction to weed out what is distinctly unhelpful and prejudicial from what is indeed ethical and helpful in European political and economic thought. One primary duty of political responsibility is therefore, as Leo Strauss would say: to strive for the best regime possible.

While the national achievement of Israel’s restored Jewish independence in 1948 constituted historical liberation from Christian imperialism, Israel is still fighting the battle of liberation from Muslim imperialism. Israel could indeed have become African had the digging of the Suez Canal taken a route to the east of Sinai. Yet, Hebrew is an idiom that belongs to the Afro-Asiatic family of idioms which is of course really an African family of idioms; most idioms of which are indeed of course spoken almost exclusively in Africa. Yet, being caught between Asian Muslim imperialism and European Christian imperialism is not only a Jewish and Israeli condition but an African condition as well – that is severely detrimental to African societies and indeed for the wellbeing of Africa’s people.

Yet, imperialist attempts at drawing lines from afar that divide peoples from within is not merely an imperialist practice of systemic injustice, it should be unacceptable in our time and age. Bearing this in mind, I consequently call on Israel’s many friends among the governments and peoples of Africa to be courageous in opposing this campaign of attempted Asian imperialist injustice from being further attempted, considering that the sovereign, indigenous Jewish nation of Israel no less than African nations deserve unity in self-determination independent of imperialist impositions from afar. Africa knows the truth better than most others in this regard, that arbitrary, anachronistic borders serve no good: rather the opposite is true since these are serious obstacles to the realization of unity in self-determination for every idiomatic nation.

This is the time to do the right thing and move beyond the clichés of the predominant political dichotomy between culturally Christian religious/ideological imperialism on the one hand and culturally Muslim religious/ideological imperialism on the other and indeed embrace unity in self-determination for every idiomatic nation as part of an ethical agenda of universal emancipation adjusted to local conditions. Let us move beyond not only Christian imperialism, but Muslim imperialism as well and indeed make the appropriate ethical decisions in New York City by casting our votes in ways that does not repeat the historical evils of imperialist lines that divide the people from within. Let us therefore join together to turn down this anachronistic, imperialist paperhood provocation on the part of the imperialist Islamist nexus in favor of unity in self-determination for the Amian nation, for the Jewish nation and indeed for every other idiomatic nation in Africa and beyond.

Are people from Giyon (Ethiopia), people from Zion?

In Rabbi Eliyahu's book "The Tribes of Israel" he afirms that the people from Giyon/Gihon/Gayon (Ethiopia) also called Waliso have Israelite origin. Does the name of their location prove that these Ethiopians have Israelite origin in Zion (Tsayon)?

I say that because the "Gion" festival in Kyoto started with the wish that no pestilence would occur among people. This is similar to what King Solomon started, in the wish that no pestilence would occur in the country, the feast which continued for 8 days (including the last meeting day) from the 15th of the seventh month (2 Chronicles 7:8-10). Over 120 years ago, a business man from Scotland, N. Mcleod, came to Japan and investigated the customs of Japan. He wrote a book titled "Epitome of Japanese Ancient History." In the book, he wrote that the "Gion" festival in Kyoto resembled Jewish festivals very much. Rabbi Tokayer made a similar comment. He said that the name "Gion" reminds him of "Zion" which is another name used for Jerusalem. In fact, Kyoto used to be called "Heian-kyo" which means "peace". Jerusalem in Hebrew also means "peace". "Heian-kyo" might be Japanese for "Jerusalem."

That this city is in the Oromia region is interesting because some people have considered Oromos a Hebrews because of their monotheistic believes etc... From the Oromos (or Gallas)  the Boranas are the ones that more oftten are considered Israelites.

FROM AFRICA TO THE TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE

The African Jews, as all other Romanized-African of this era, were caught in a rebellion in Cyrene (Cyrenaica) during 115 C.E. against Roman imperialism and colonialism. This rebellion also marked the beginning of a mass Jewish migration southward into Soudan (Sudan or West Africa) along the way of the city Aer (Air) and into the countries of Futa Jalon and Senegal (Sene-Gambia) which lie below the curve of the Niger River's most northern reaches, where the City of Tumbut (Timbuktu, Timbuctoo, etc.), Melle (Mali) presently stands." ("African Origins of the Major Western Religions," 1970, p. 76).

                                                        Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

Dr. Ben goes on to relate that Israelite immigrants from northern and eastern Africa merged with indigenous groups in western Africa to become the Fulani of Futa Jalon, Bornu, Kamen, and Lake Chad. They also formed the parent-stock of groups such as the Ashanti, the Hausa, the B'nai Ephraim (mentioned in earlier posts), and the Bavumbu (Mavumbu or Ma-yomba, descendents of the famous Loango Jewish kingdom). All of these groups suffered tremendous population decreases during the years the Atlantic slave trade was in operation, others were completely eliminated. Thus, every so-called African American has Israelite ancestry in their family tree whether he or she knows it or not. Even in the very crucible of slavery the descendants of West African Hebrew captives in America struggled to keep their heritages from being obliterated by forced assimilation and acculturation. Their distinctive traditions became submerged in Christianity but always remained a part of the oral tradition via the so-called Negro Spirituals which praise the memory of ancestors and kinsmen like Moshe (Moses), Dawid (David), Yehoshua (Joshua), and Dahnniel (Daniel).  

The Kushim Jews are the Jews of Kushitic mixture (Beta Israel, Beta Avraham, Agaw, Qemant, Tutsi, Hema, Banyamulenge, Maasai, Lemba, Sena)

Abyssinia comes from Habesa & Habesa is considered to come from the Semitic words ha (the), be (ben, son in Hebrew) & sa (Sam or Shem). The stories-legends & historical accounts of the peoples of the Horn of Africa trace their origin in Semites mingled with local negro peoples. The DNA also confirms this origin. The question is which Semites are their ancestors?: Hebrews, Arabs...? Several black African peoples claim to have Arab origin, some Hebrew origin... In Saharan white Africa & deeper into Negro Africa there are other claims of Semitic (Hebrew, Arab...) & other Middle Eastern origin?:  Yibir Israelites, Ashanti Israelites, Falashmura Israelites, Masai Israelites, Banyamulenge Israelites, Hima Israelites, Ibo Israelites, Tutsi Israelites, Lemba Israelites, Sena Israelites, Gadangme Israelites, Dan Israelites, Ma'di Israelites, Ishaq Arabs, Yoruba Assyrians, Iberogen Iddaosahak Israelites... Some of the ethnic groups with Arab origin had roots in Jewish tribes living in Arabia, therefore they also have Israelite origin. Ancient accounts tell of Jews among several black African ethnic groups like the Mandingos, Yorubas... They aren't considered to be Israelites like the Ibos or the Ashantis, but rather to have Israelite population pockets among them. As British & Scandinavians are white Israelites Ibos, Lembas ... are black Israelites. As Eastern Germans, Poles... are white Assyrians, Yorubas are black Assyrians. The word Yoruba is considered to come from Jerobam, the name of one of the kings of Israel. This & several Hebrew traditions would prove the Israelite element within  the Yorubas. Even the name manDiNgo may include the name of DaN in it, a tribe that is very widespread all over Africa as I said before.

In Genesis 46:16 we read "The sons of Gad: Zephon, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi and Areli." Do the Aari people of Ethiopia have anything to do with Arodi or Areli & therefore with some Igbo clans?

The Beta Avraham are only a part of the Falashmuras, the Ethiopian jews that were forced to be Christians in the 1800s. The Falashmuras are trying to go back to the religion of their ancestors & were once part  of the Beta Israelites.

Among the Ethiopian monarchs there were tons with Israelite first or last names, even if they didn't pactised Judaism anymore: Kaleb, Siyon, Ishak, Za'ra, Ya'kob... After all Menelik is considered the son of King Solomon. Minas, King of the Falashas only, may have taken his name from Menasseh, if we consider the Hebrew vowelization.

It's believed that in the area south from Egypt, current Sudan & even further south there are Danites. It's noteworthy that the Ethiopian Israelites, or part of them, are attributed to be Danites. suDaN means blacks Bilad al-Sudan country of the blacks in Arabic, but it also has the name of DaN in it. According to proffesor Bwejeri Eldad HaDani was a Tutsi, therefore Danites went as far as current Rwanda & Burundi. The tribe of Dan is widespread among the Tutsis as well as the tribes of Judah & Levi.

It's noteworthy that the few really tall peoples in the world are considered to be Israelites: Watusis, Dutchmen, Pashtuns... This doesn't mean that all Israelites are tall though. It's the same with many war areas, in them you find Israelites often: Afghanistan, Pakistan,  Kashmir, Mizoram, Great Lakes of Africa... According to the archaeologist & historian Simcha Jacobovici the different scenarios of war might training areas for the future war of Armaggedon in which all the nations will wage war against Israel. Will the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel join Judah in a future widened Greater Israel that would encompass the lands between the rivers Nile & Euphrates? 

The Jewish Kingdoms of the South Kush (commonly called the African Great Lakes) and the Jewish Kingdoms of West Africa. The Tutsi (or Batutsi/Watutsi/Abatutsi/Tutsi/Watusi/Wahuma) are the traditional keepers of the South Kush Jewish Kingdoms. In West Africa, the Toubous are the traditional keepers of the West Africa Jewish Kingdoms.

The Tutsis (at least some clans) claim the Zagwe Ethiopian monarchy to be their origin. Apparently the Zagwes have origin in Zage, son of Solomon & the lady escort of the Queen of Sheba.

The Judeo-Ethiopian Zagwe dynasty received its name from the Agaw people. The number of Jews in Ethiopia was counted (many centuries ago) at least in one million, but now, between the ones left & the ones in Israel there only about 200,000. The Agaws must be added as Jewish group since  Beta Israel speak (and are related to them) the same language & one of the Jewish monarchies came from them, the mentioned Zagwe monarchy. The Qemants are the other ethnic group, with the Beta Israel, that follows Jewish laws & is part of the Agews. The Agaw or Agew people sum one million & lived next to the Beta Israel & Qemant. In fact Beta Israel & Qemant are considered part of the Agaws. Some toponyms of the area recall Israelite names: Tana, Soqoto, Dangila... The t & d have similar sounds & are close linguistically. If I add that in Hebrew vowels are not important then TaNa can render as DaN. So the lake Tana found in a Hebrew area of Ethiopia would  be a llake called after Dan. Dan is the main tribe from which these Israelites claim to come. Soqoto has the consonants in "SoQoto". According to Yair Davidy "Keren" has a Hebrew origin & it's the very name of one Ethiopian town in the mentioned Agaw area. Dangila has the name of Dan inside. Melka, a toponym found in different parts of Ethiopia is very similar to Hebrew word for queen (Malka). Shewa, also a place in Ethiopia, could come from Sheba or Saba.

The Tutsi and the Toubous share the same origins as their cousins, the Jews of Ethiopia, tracing their common ancestry from King Solomon and Queen of Sheba. Israeli Chief Rabbis Avraham Ytzchak Kook and Ovadia Yosef, and US Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof, would have included the Tutsi and the Toubous as descendents of Dan, following the 1500s responsum of a renowned Orthodox Rabbi, Rbadaz, Rabbi David ibn Zimrah. In fact, numerous branches of the Tutsi elite belong to the Judah lineage. The Tutsi Jewishness was obstructed by the Christian Inquisition that took place since the 1920s, and was never addressed until the late 20th Century. At that time, Havila Institute in Brussels dedicated huge efforts to enhance the re-connection of the Tutsi people to their Jewish heritage, and helped raise awareness among concerned Jewish institutions.

The Toubous face a similar but more ancient case of obstruction. They were forcibly converted to Islam centuries ago by the successive Jihads that took place in Northern Africa from the Arabian Peninsula, but they kept the remembrance of their Israelite origins.

Today, Tutsis in increasing numbers are seeking t’shuvah, return. Like the Western Jews, they envision ge’ulah, redemption. They deserve pro-active support and monitoring from concerned Jewish organizations and networks. Like the Western Jewish Diaspora, the Tutsi Jews, some parts of which have been forcibly converted to Christianity and forbidden to practice the ways of Y’’H, are People of Israel, no less than the Falasha Mura of Ethiopia.

Beta Abraham: The size of the community is estimated to be somewhere upwards of 150,000 in number.

Qemant people

The Kemant claim to be Jews who arrived to Ethiopia during the time of the Avrahm. They maintain the same tradition as of the time of Avraham. They worship in the woods just as the pagan Israelites did.

The Qemant (Ge'ez: ቅማንት) are a small ethnic group in Ethiopia, who, despite their close historical and ethnic relationship, should not be confused with the Beta Israel. The ethnicity's population is roughly 172,000, according to the 1994 national census. Adherence to the traditional religion has dropped substantially, as most of the population has converted to Christianity.

The Qemant live along an axis stretching from Ayikel in Chilga woreda to Kirakir north to Lake Tana in the woredas of Lay Armachiho, Qwara, Dembiya, Metemma and Wogera; most remaining speakers of the language are near Ayikel, about 40 miles west of Gondar. They are mainly farmers.

The Qemant are divided into two patrilineal moieties, the Keber and the Yetanti; the Keber is higher in rank. A traditional Qemant can only marry a member of the other moiety, so, while the moieties are exogamous, Qemant society as a whole is endogamous.

The Qemant traditionally practiced a religion which is often described as "Pagan-Hebraic," combining elements from both Judaism and paganism. According to the American scholar Frederic C. Gamst, their "Hebraism is an ancient form and unaffected by Hebraic change of the past two millennia". A recent sociolinguistic survey notes that the Qemant religion is in a very precarious situation since very few people still adhere to it. According to this study, the ratio of those who follow the Qemant religion vs. those who are baptized and converted to Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity is about 1% vs. 99%.

Their religious observances include a literal reading of the 11th chapter of Leviticus (see Kashrut). As with mainstream Judaism, even permitted animals can only be consumed if they are properly slaughtered (see Shechita). Their practices include animal sacrifices, and the tending of sacred groves (called degegna). Worship is conducted outdoors, usually at a site near a sacred tree (called qole), wrapped in variously-colored strips of cloth. This appears to be a survival of a biblical tradition: Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there the name of God (Genesis 21:33). ...where the women wove hangings for the grove (II Kings 23:7).

However, due to their dislike to being observed by the increasingly pervasive Christians, they have latterly constructed a prayer-hall at Chelga. The Sabbath is observed on Saturday, when it is forbidden to light a fire. The extent to which other prohibitions, as are found in Judaism, are observed, is unclear.

The Qemant call the Deity Adara (God) or Yeadara (My God) or Mezgana which seems to be his proper name. He is described as omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, and anthropomorphic. He is approachable directly or through qedus which are angels or culture heroes.

The highest political and religious leader among the Qemant is their High Priest, called the Wember (also transliterated Womber and Wambar), an Amharic term meaning "seat." There were formerly two superior wambars, at Karkar and at Chelga, with the first being senior, and a varying number of subordinate wambars in other parts of Qemantland. All wambars are chosen from certain lineages in the Keber moiety. The last wambar of Karkar died in 1955, and since then the only wambar has been Mulunah Marsha, Wambar of Chelga (born 1935). Each wambar chose (from the Keber moiety) one or more delegates with the title of afaliq to represent him in judicial matters. These men traveled the countryside, settling disputes, seeing that the laws were obeyed, and punishing wrongdoing, usually with a fine. Each wambar also chose two stewards with different titles, one from each moiety, who served different elements of the sacred meals.

There are two orders of priesthood, the kamazana, the higher, of the Keber moiety, and the abayegariya, the lower, of the Yetanti moiety. Each Qemant locality has at least one of each; they must work together to conduct the traditional sacrifices and other religious ceremonies. When offering a sacrifice, the abayegaria holds the legs of the victim and the kamazana wields the knife. The priests also have a subordinate judicial function. The Qemant don't consider themselves as Jews.

The origins of the Qemant are unknown, for they lack a written history. According to oral tradition, the founder of the Qemant was a man called Anayer, who is said to have been a grandson of Canaan, son of Ham, son of Noah. After seven years of famine in his own country, he is said to have come to the area of Lake Tana, in Ethiopia. As he traveled with his wife and children, he met the founder of the Beta Israel, who tradition states were traveling in the same direction. According to Wember Muluna Marsha, they were from the same country (which they called Canaan). As Anayer traveled on the journey with his wife and children, he met the founder of the Beta Israel, also traveling on the same journey with his wife and children. A marriage alliance was discussed between the two groups, but it did not succeed.

—Muluna Marsha, The Sign and the Seal, interview by Graham Hancock, Aykel 1990

According to the early 19th century missionary Samuel Gobat, their Amharic-speaking neighbors considered the Qemant boudas, or sorcerers, along with "the Falashas or Jews (Beta Israel), most Mussulamns (Muslims), and some Christians." Gobat knew little more about this "small Pagan people inhabiting the mountains in the vicinity of Gondar."

According to traditional Amharic-speaking historians, the Qemant were descended from Canaan through his son Arwadi ('the Arvadite') and grandson Ayner. Ayner and his wife Entela are said to have crossed from Asia into Ethiopia in 2101 BC, as one of three Canaanite groups to immigrate when Ethiopia was ruled by Cushites — the other two groups being the Shanqella (Nilo-Saharans) descended from Sini ('the Sinite'), and the Weyto descended from Samri (the 'Zemarite').

Beta Yisrael: A Historical Analysis

At first glance one might incorrectly assume that the only thing Ethiopian Jews, who call themselves Beta Yisrael (The House of Israel), have in common with black Jews in other parts of the world is that their ancestors once lived on the same continent. While not entire true, this small fact is significant because Africa whether we acknowledge it or not is a crucial link that historically unites all Jews. Those whose African connection is more obvious because of race share this, too, as a bond for better or worse.

Actually, our similarities are more than skin deep. The direct connections between the Beta Israel and my community of black Jews in the United States antedates the recent public fascination with the African tribe by at least sixty years. The existence of all of our communities raise important questions about the ancient history, current composition, and future of Judaism. This essay covers the ancient history, culture and tradition of the Beta Yisrael. My analysis of their current status in Israel is covered on a separate page devoted to black Jews in Israel today.

History

The Beta Yisrael are perhaps the best known black Jewish sect in the world. Despite their ancient and well-documented history, they, like all black communities, have had their historical connections to Judaism challenged, the validity of their religious practice scrutinized, and their acceptance within the white Jewish world hindered. When the Ethiopians left the cultural isolation of their remote villages, they entered a world prefigured by race. They soon learned that their Jewish heritage was not the only thing that made them  Falasha,  (outsiders). For the black Jews of America, the existence of Ethiopian Jews was living proof that black people have a connection to Judaism that is as old as any claimed by Europeans.

They called themselves Beta Yisrael because for centuries they believed that they were the last remnant of the ancient Israelites. In fact, in the nineteenth century when a French linguist named Joseph Halevy reached one of their villages on a mission from the Alliance Israelite Universelle, they did not believe that he, the European, could be a Jew. As Halevy described it, the Ethiopians said What! You a Falahsa! A white Falasha! You are laughing at us. Are there any white Falashas? Imagine the irony of that moment: black Jews questioning the Jewishness of white Jews; and the white Jew trying to convince them of his authenticity. The levity of that scene is surpassed by a far more serious point: when different Jewish communities come together, one will usually occupy the superior position; the one of dominance, authority, and control. Not surprisingly, the dominant group is in a position to judge the subordinate. That is an exercise of power, and power underlies all of these relationships.

Dominance or power in this context is established by a combination of any or all of these factors: (1) numeric superiority, (2) access to wealth, (3) primo-occupancy; i.e. the act of being there first, (4) higher social status (this could be based on a privilege afforded one Jewish group by a Christian or Muslim authority that is more powerful than either Jewish group (5) racial or ethnic superiority (this would be true in racialized societies of the West and was evident in the interaction of Ashkenazim and Sephardim in Europe and Israel).

The Beta Israel maintain that their ancestors were descended from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. That union produced a child called Menileck (in Hebrew Mem Meleck literally means  from king). This child was then trained by the wise men of Solomon s court. They further assert that when Menileck left Jerusalem with a large retinue of Israelite nobles for Ethiopia they took with them the Ark of the Covenant that God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai. The Ethiopian claim is based on oral history that has been passed down from generation to generation by their elders, scholars called Dabtaras, and their priests, called  Kahens (an Amharic word linguistically similar to the Hebrew word for priest, Kohen). The written account of ancient Ethiopian history is known as the Kebra Nagast and it corroborates in even greater detail what the Beta Israel have always affirmed. Moreover, the Biblical record tends to substantiate their claim. It vividly describes the Queen of Sheba arriving in Jerusalem with a large entourage shortly after the completion of the temple. She is granted an audience with the king, they engage in a colloquy in which the queen is impressed with his Solomonic wisdom to the point where there was  no more spirit left in her .And King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired, whatever she asked, in addition to all that he gave her of his royal bounty.

Notice how the 15th century painter whose work is shown of the left depicted King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba as being white, archetypal Europeans. The Israeli artist whose work is shown on the right presents a more realistic depiction showing Makeda as the African queen that she was. These conflicting images reflect the old presumption of whiteness that was traditionally applied to all Biblical characters and the new multicultural realism that acknowledges the Eastern and African origins of Biblical figures respectively. Such realism is to be embraced and celebrated rather than denied and discouraged.

Rudolph R. Windsor examined the validity of this claim in his book From Babylon to Timbuktu. There he argued that the queen who visited King Solomon in 1012 B.C. was indeed an Ethiopian queen known variously as Makeda or Bilkis. Her dominion at that time included a province on the Arabian peninsula called Sheba; hence the title Queen of Sheba. That area would be in the region of Yemen today. Geographically, the Arabian peninsula is a peninsula of the African continent.[Judaism could be thought of as an African religion or at least, a religion with deep African roots.] Yemen and the ancient boundaries of Ethiopia are adjacent points, separated only by a very thin isthmus. Further, the renowned Jewish historian Flavius Josephus identified the ruler of Sheba as a  queen of Egypt and Ethiopia. Not only does this comport with the view that Sheba was a vassal state of Ethiopia, but as Windsor contends, lends credence to the view that the people of this region were black since Upper Egypt, the area once ruled by Ethiopia, is today called the Sudan and the indigenous people there are very dark. [Windsor also takes the controversial position that the Arabs who occupy these areas today are much lighter in complexion because of centuries of intermarriage with Europeans.]

If the Beta Israel are the product of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, then they have been in Ethiopia since the 10th Century B.C. That is twelve centuries before the writing of the Mishnah and sixteen centuries before the codification of the Talmud. Eldad Ha-Dani did not stumble into their village until the 9th Century A.D. Eldad Ha-Dani (which in Hebrew means Eldad of the tribe of Dan). He reported that he discovered Israelites in the mountains of northern Abyssinia. Moreover, he believed that these Israelites were also of the tribe of Dan. He saw that they were Jews and assumed that they had to be of the tribe of Dan, like him,  because of the tradition among Sephardic Jews that members of that tribe had emigrated when the Kingdom of Solomon split after his death, and they did not want to be ruled by Jeroboam in the northern sector known as Israel. Other travelers were  Benjamin of Tudela, Solomon of Vienna (the first Ashkenazi Jew to reach them in 1626), and the apostate James Bruce in the 18th Century.  Their intermittent logs created the lore about black Jews in Ethiopia that the aforementioned Joseph Ha Levy came to investigate.

And when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the Name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions. She communed with him of all that was in her heart. And Solomon answered her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the King, which he told her not. I Kings 10:1-3

Beliefs and Practices

How Jewish were the Beta Israel? Dr. Wolf Leslau spent ten months in 1947 living among the Beta Israel. He primarily studied the most urban of their isolated villages in Gondar, which is near Lake Tana and the Blue Nile. The influential book he published from his journals, Falasha Anthology, has become the source of much of the secondary literature on this subject. He observed that every Friday all work in the village stopped early in the afternoon so that the cooking, cleaning, and baking needed for the Sabbath could be completed before sunset. Their synagogues were humble, austere structures having at best a Star of David on display. Inside, the rooms were divided into two sections: the outer chamber for laymen who faced east toward Jerusalem while saying their prayers and the inner chamber representing the  holy of holies  of the Mosaic Tabernacle into which only the priests could enter.

Priests of the Beta Israel pray seven time a day. Like the Levitical Priest of old, they sacrificed kosher animals on small altars built in front of their synagogues. Unlike the Levites, however, their positions were not hereditary; aspiring clerics had to study, apprentice, and live exemplary lives in order to be selected for the office. Once initiated, the priests wore a white cotton headdress that distinguished them from other Ethiopians. Their Torah, written in the Ge'ez language on parchment, contained all the books of the Old Testament and some from the Apocrypha, but none of the New Testament and no references to Jesus at all. Some devotees have attempted to lead lives of solitude and quiet contemplation as nuns and monks.

Judaism for them was not just an act of faith, it was a way of life governing almost every activity. All marriages were arranged by parents and elders. Individuals who married outside the group and women who were not virgins at the time of marriage could be banished. Their diet prohibited the eating of foods deemed  unclean  including beef slaughtered  by non-Jews or beef that has not had the sinew removed.  They used a solar calendar for secular activities and a lunar calendar to calculate all Biblical festivals such as Passover, Shavuot, and the Day of Atonement. For example, the Feast of Tabernacle was celebrated in the seventh month with palm branches and weeping willows.

Circumcision was performed on male children eight days after birth as the Torah proscribed. However, some have adopted the practice of female circumcision from their neighbors.[Although female circumcision is admittedly not Jewish in origin, the fact that they practice it just proves that despite their isolation their culture has not been impervious to outside influences, no Jewish community has.] Burials were performed on the same day of death, if possible. Special blessings were said before and after eating and performing other rituals. In fact, the Beta Israel went to such great lengths to avoid spiritual defilement that local gentiles referred to them as the people who  smell of water  because of their frequent baths and the  touch-me-nots  because of their aversion to physical contact with non-Jews.

In his book, Acts of Faith: A Journey to the Fringes of Jewish Identity, Dan Ross described how the Beta Israel literally applied purity laws by building  blood huts  as temporary housing for women during menstruation:[Although the separation of women during menstruation may seem quite severe, it is actually based on Leviticus 12. Orthodox Jews have a set of laws called Niddah that govern the activities of Jewish women during menstruation as well. Theirs is a modification of Biblical practices.]

Like Samaritans, Falashas do not touch women during menstruation or after childbirth. But unlike Samaritans, Falasha women spend their menstrual periods in separate huts. Circles of stones mark a perimeter around those tukuls beyond which men may not pass. Additional huts are built for women to live in during their forty or eighty days of impurity after childbirth; these are burned afterwards.

Dr. Leslau described the Judaism of the Beta Israel as being  primitive  because these people were not aware of all the rabbinic changes that have taken place since the redaction of the Talmud in the sixth century. From his perspective in the twentieth century, the menstrual huts and animal sacrifices must seem barbaric and a sure sign of ignorance. What he fails to recognize or perhaps is ashamed to acknowledge is that the customs of the Beta Israel today are a reflection of what the ancient Israelite must have looked like when they offered burnt offerings, incense, and libation to the same God that we as Jews worship today. Perhaps on some level this is unsettling. It is not often that a people can be confronted with their past in the present. Or, because Judaism outside of Ethiopia has changed so much over the centuries, those without the proper historical reference may not recognize their roots when they see them. Primitive, after all, is something associated with those  uncivilized  black tribes of Africa. Well, if that is true, then that is who, where, and how our Judaism evolved. I argue that rather than accept these possibilities, many scholars have blinded their eyes to these implications and have attempted to distance and disassociate themselves from the Beta Israel by discrediting their culture.

Despite all the evidence that has been adduced about the history and origins of the Beta Israel, there has been a profound, and often irrational, reluctance to accept that their claim is plausible. Scholars who are quite adept at understanding that the Bible may not always state the literal and unbiased  truth  of events, may yet remain an important tool in understanding how a people explained and preserved their culture. Nonetheless, many of these scholars seem incapable or unwilling to apply the same standards to their examination of the Beta Israel. Dr. Leslau asserted that  from all historical evidence it would seem that the Falasha never have been a Hebrew-speaking people. Yet, before his eyes and throughout his text Hebrew words and names of months frequently appear. The fact that only a few Hebrew words have survived over the millennia does not mean they  never  had a working knowledge of the language. After all, Hebrew had ceased to be the lingua franqua of Israel long before the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. Would a traveler in the Holy Land at that time be correct in assuming that those Greek-speaking Jews never spoke Hebrew? Subsequent scholars have looked at words such as masia ( messiah ), mizvat ( charity ). Sanbat ( Sabbath ), Saitan ( Satan ), which bear remarkable similarity to Hebrew words but could derive from Amharic, another Semitic language and the offical language of Ethiopia. However, the following words only appear in Falasha texts:  safur (shofar), gadol (great), El Shaddai (Almighty God), goyyim (gentile) and Torah. It seems perfectly logical that if one finds Hebrew words among people who claim to be descended from Hebrews, then the Hebrews are a likely source for how the words got there. It also does not require a great leap of faith to assume that if they know these words now, then they probably knew more words in the past since the tendency is for words to be lost over generations.

Falashas are descendants of Moses's followers who turned right out of Egypt instead of left, ending up in Ethiopia instead of Palestine, or they are descendants of the lost tribe of Dan (as Israel's chief rabbis claim), or of Jewish soldiers posted in upper Egypt by the Persian emperors (as President Ben-Zvi believed) , or of refugees from the destruction of one Jerusalem Temple or the other. Most historians now believe that the ancestors of Falashas were Ethiopians, who adopted their Judaism long ago. What they are less sure of is when, and how."  If these so-called scholars neither know  when  nor  how,  then how can they be so sure of their conclusions. And, how can they be so brazen as to make such an assertion and then admit that they lack the evidence to substantiate it?

It is extremely instructive for scholars looking anew at the Beta Israel to comprehend what Dr. Leslau admitted. Despite all the information he had in his possession, in the end, the Beta Israel did not look  ethnically  Jewish and because of that he and his colleagues were never able to overcome their doubt. Therefore, they concluded that the Beta Israel must have been converted even though  historical evidence is lacking  to support such a position. What effrontery. To dismiss a body of evidence that points in one direction in favor of another position for which there is no evidence.

Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochanan took issue with Dr. Leslau dubious reference to ethnic Jews.  For Professor Leslau to have reached the conclusion that the Falashas are not ethnically Jews, he must have produced for public scrutiny at least one of his own  ethnic Jews  from any part of the European and European-American communities where they still allegedly exist.

What exactly is an  ethnic Jew?  This is the question that Dr. Ben-Jochannan and others have raised. Those who use this term assume that we know what it is. They can spot one when they see one and they know who looks Jewish and who does not.  However, we need to examine more closely what is meant by these terms and how they are used. Naomi Zack defined and clarified terms such as this in her recent book, Thinking About Race. She argues that race and ethnicity are nebulous concepts into which and out of which a host of meanings can be put in order to socially construct an identity. As such, neither of these constitutes a fixed, universal, or objective reality; i.e. they mean whatever the society that uses them wants them to mean at the time. She points out that what masquerades today as the building blocks of ethnic identity (language, common origin, shared culture, etc.) are the same things that social scientists used prior to about 1920 when Jews, Poles, Italians, Germans, and others were classified as races. What has changed since that time particularly in this era of political correctness is that  the word ethnicity is often used as a euphemism for race when speakers want to refer to race without causing offense to diverse listeners or readers.

Karen Brodkin has chronicled this process in her book, How Jews Became White Folks. Although she focused on explaining this phenomenon within the United States, I argue that how one defines American Jews, who are essentially European Jews transplanted, is to a large extent the standard against which all other Jews will be judged since Americans Jews are the largest, wealthiest, and most influential group of Jews in the world. And these American Jews have, despite rigorous resistance, become white folks. Like Dr. Zack, Dr. Brodkin recognizes this racial dimension to how Jews are perceived and how they often perceive themselves. She actually prefers the term  ethnoracial,  but uses it inconsistently. Nonetheless, heir works help us to decode the hidden racial messages embedded in terms like ethnicity.

In the 1930s, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan advocated another way of thinking about Judaism. His movement led to a new denomination of Judaism in the United States called Reconstructionist Jews. One basic tenet of Reconstructionism is that Judaism is not necessarily a race, religion, or an ethnic group, but can be experienced as part of a  civilization.  Here the emphasis is on  Jewish culture  rather than any particular Jewish practices or beliefs. If Judaism is a culture, as Reconstructionist hold, does that culture have any bearing on race?

Beta Israel, and black Jews in other areas, are discovering that neither who they are nor what they do guarantees their membership or acceptance within a racial context.

European Contact with Beth Yisrael

In 1904, Dr. Jacques Faitlovitch (1880-1955) was given a grant by Baron Edmond de Rothschild and the blessings of the Chief Rabbi of Paris, Zadok Kahn, to go to Africa and investigate persistent rumors of there being black Jews in Ethiopia. He returned to France the following year to report that the people he saw  are really Jews.  By 1906, Dr. Faitlovitch was trying to convince the rabbis of Europe that the black Jews of Ethiopia were  our flesh and blood. [Faitlovitch had, in fact, been a young, energetic student of Professor Halevy.] This announcement by a prominent Jewish scholar was soon followed by photographs, articles, and speaking engagements. Unlike his predecessors, Dr. Faitlovitch was steadfastly committed to winning recognition for the Beta Israel. For the rest of his life he worked tirelessly on three continents and through two world wars to remedy the plight of black Jews in Ethiopia. Although his methods and actions are open to scrutiny, his sincerity and dedication are not.

The first major victory that Faitlovitch won for the Beta Israel came in 1906. He persuaded forty-four eminent rabbis to sign a letter addressed to the Beta Israel that referred to them as  our brethren, sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob our flesh and blood.  The signers included: Herman Adler (Chief Rabbi of London), Raphael Meir Panigel (Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Jersusalem / Palestine) and Jacob Reines of Russia (head of the Mizrachi movement) and others. For a moment, it looked as if the world Jewish community was going to come to the immediate and unconditional aide of their fellow Jews in Ethiopia. But, the following year a Turkish rabbi named Haim Nahoum made his own journey to Ethiopia and upon his return he reported that  It does not seem to me desirable that anything should be done.

Thus would begin a cruel pattern of expressions of enthusiastic support and solidarity followed by long periods of inactivity and indifference. Because the Beta Israel were frequently forgotten, they have been repeatedly rediscovered most recently again during the dramatic airlift of fifty thousand Ethiopians to Israel in the 1980s. However, individuals like Faitlovitch consistently tried to keep the Ethiopian issue on the agendas of major Jewish organizations. In March of 1914, just prior to the outbreak of World War One, Faitlovitch established the Pro-Falasha Committee as a lobbying group solely dedicated to this cause. They had officers in several European countries and one in New York City. The Alliance Israelite Universelle, which had been an early sponsor, thought the best way to help the Ethiopians was through vocational training.

Dr. Faitlovitch fervently fought for the advancement of Ethiopian Jews, but he defined progress by his ability to make Ethiopian Jews more like European Jews. Tragically, his program began to resemble a Jewish version of the  White Mans Burden;  i.e. it was the moral duty of European Jews to save and civilize the Jews of Africa.

He was determined to rescue the Falashas and to bring them into rabbinic Judaism, the pattern known in Western Europe as  Torah im Derkh-Eretz  (lit. Bible together with the Way of the Land), which signified strict religious Orthodoxy together with modern behavior in manner, clothing, shelter, fine arts and careers.[In his youth Dr. Faitlovitch pursued secular studies at the Sorbonne, but he became a very devote Orthodox Jew who practiced a religious Zionism. Rabbinic law is often referred to Halakha, which literally means  the way. For Faitlovitch it was the only way.]

When the first of Faitlovitch s students, Getye Jeremias, returned to his Ethiopian village  dressed in a European jacket and high leather riding boots,  he was an envied model of what others should become. His next student, who would become the well-known Professor Taamrat Emmanuel and have an important interaction with the black Jews of Harlem, was literally rescued from a Chrisitan mission that had already converted his parents.

There was a hope and optimism of creating a new Ethiopia and a new Africa. The significance of Haile Selassie s rise to power in 1930 and the struggle for Ethiopian independence against Italian aggression, profoundly affected black people all over the world particularly black people in America and the Caribbean.

Though well intentioned, Faitlovitch and those that followed him made what has become a classic liberal mistake: they setout to remake those they helped in their own image. This often has the consequence of saving the people, but destroying their culture. Complete cultural assimilation unintentionally leads to the cultural annihilation of the dependent group. The Nobel laureate, Chinua Achebe, described in his fictional novel, Things Fall Apart, how the stable social fabric of a pre-colonial Nigerian village began to unravel before the juggernaut of Western conformity. In this context, European Jewry is the juggernaut that black Jewish communities fear, admire, resent, and need.

In December of 1930, Taamrat ignored the urging of his handlers at the Pro-Falasha Committee in New York and journeyed uptown to Harlem were he met with Chief Rabbi Matthew and addressed the Commandment Keepers Congregation. Shortly thereafter, dozens of black Jews left the United States to establish a colony in Ethiopia that lasted until the Italian invasion and the death of Rabbi  Arnold Ford in 1935.  During the years that followed, individuals from both communities would seek each other out whenever possible, but neither has been in a position to significantly help the other. Yet, the cry of Ethiopia continues to loom large in the hearts of black Jews all over the world for we share a common struggle.

Emperor Haile Selassie greeting Rabbi Hailu Paris, an Ethiopian-born leader and teacher in our community at a gathering in New York City in which he and Chief Rabbi W. A. Matthew went to meet the  Lion of Judah,  a direct descendent of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

The Kechene Jews of Ethiopia

Background and early history

The Jewish presence in Ethiopia was known to the world hundreds of years ago. Many travelers gave witness to their existence and Jewish emissaries tried to reach the community. The Jewish population during those centuries was clustered primarily in the northern part of the country, mostly in the vicinity of Gondar. Today, these Jews are known as Beta Israel (House of Israel, sometimes called Falasha). Over the last 30 years, the majority of them have emigrated to Eretz Yisrael.

The main purpose of this paper is to introduce a little-known Jewish community, which was once part of Beta Israel. These Jews migrated South nearly 300 years ago and settled in the central part of the region known as North Shewa. Members of this community have been known as Baliij, Teyib, Moreti (named for Moret, the area of North Shewa where they originally settled), Beit Avraham, or, most commonly, as Kechene Jews, named for the area of Addis Ababa where they live now.

The Kechene Jews share ancestral origins with the Beta Israel and observe pre-Talmudic Jewish practices. There are several views as to the ancestry of the fathers of today’s Kechene Jews. One group claims to be descended from the lost tribe of Dan. A second group claims descent from the Israelites who accompanied Menelik I, the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, on his journey from Israel to Ethiopia. Others, particularly from the Q’uara region, believe they are descended from the Levites who brought the Ark of the Covenant to Ethiopia for safe keeping when Jerusalem was ruled by a pagan King around 500 BC. And still others claim ancestry from those Israelites who fled Jerusalem when Babylon destroyed the city.

Separation of the Kechene Jews form the Beta Israel, however, began at the time Kassa of Q’uara crowned himself Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia in 1855. As was the custom at that time, the new Emperor captured and detained all potential rivals to prevent internal power struggle. One of his prisoners was the young Shewan prince Menelik.

Emperor Tewodros believed in a united and independent Ethiopia. To further this goal he established an arms factory near Debre Tabor. The arms factory employed a large number of Beta Israelis, many of whom also served in his army. However, because of his brutal rule, and his policy of redistributing fallow land owned by the Orthodox Christian Church, there was wide spread rebellion against his rule.

When the young Shewan prince Menilik noticed that Emperor Tewodros was weakened, he arranged for his escape. He convinced many of the Emperor’s crafts men and soldiers to follow him to Shewa with the promise of good positions in his government. That is how the fathers of the Kechene Jews left Dembeya (Gondar) to Moret (in the North Shewa region) in 1865. These Beta Israelis served the young prince and later when he became Emperor Menilik II, they built his palaces and also served in his army. When Emperor Menilik II decided to move his capital from Ankober, they followed him to Entoto and Addis Ababa and settled in Kechene.

The total population of Kechene Jews is estimated currently to be more than 150,000. They are skilled craftsmen, involved in the production of ploughshares, metal agricultural implements, knives, blades, iron spears, swords, pottery, and traditional clothing.

Later history of Kechene Jews

Beginning in the 18th century, the governor of the region of Moret had a positive attitude towards the Jewish community, and their products were in demand. They played a major role in the expansion and settlement of Shewa and a pivotal role in the establishment of the capital, Addis Ababa, providing crafts and manual labor. But despite their economic importance, they were regarded with distrust, fear, and at times, even hatred because of their Jewish faith. Faced with extreme persecution from their Christian neighbors, who called them anti-Christ, they lived as strangers in the region and were denied basic rights such as the ownership of land, which was granted only to those who accepted the Christian faith and underwent baptism.

The majority Christian community used pejorative terms when speaking and interacting with the Jews in their midst, resulting in the segregation of the Jews from their neighbors. As a result, the Jewish community lived, for the most part, in complete isolation from the rest of the country, as one of the poorest segments of society.

In the early years of the settlement in Moret, Jewish community members observed our fathers’ traditions publicly. But their Christian neighbors were outraged to see Judaism practiced in their land. This led to two major bloodbaths. Thousands of people who lived in a mountainous area of the region were slaughtered while they were celebrating a Jewish festival. Another brutal attack took place when a mob of neighboring Christians entered the houses of community members and killed those who could not escape, hanging the bodies of three spiritual leaders in a public square for all to see. To this day, we honor, in our prayers, people who died because of their faith.

To ensure the survival of the community and its continuity to the next generation, and to minimize persecution and gain access to burial grounds from the church, the elders instructed the community to abide by the following rules:

Members of the community were encouraged to adapt outwardly to the environment in which they lived, including going to church. Judaic practices would continue secretly, led by monastery monks. (The monastic system was not new at that point and was common among the Beta Israeli community.) The mode of religious practice was changed from open to secret. Access was denied to outsiders in their quest to learn about the community. Providing information about the community was strictly prohibited. Our fathers’ religious wisdom had to be passed orally from generation to generation. It was strictly forbidden to produce any written document until “The Day” — when God favors the community and their true identity and their religious practice can be made public without persecution. Evidence of secret Jewish practice

In 1843, German missionary Johann Krapf wrote that he had encountered a strange village in Moret a few years before. According to his account, the people in the community did not mix with the larger population. He observed that:

The surrounding Christian populations were in fear of them, considering them sorcerers. Christians did not enter their houses or eat with them. The village was outwardly Christian. Krapf strongly suspected that the villagers were Jews, writing:

They told me that if I had come on Saturday, they wouldn’t have received me, as on that day they neither go out of their houses nor kindle fires.

Another European visitor to North Shewa was Jacques Faitlovitch (1881-1955), a Jewish anthropologist and activist who had studied at the Sorbonne in France. Devoted to the exposure, study, and development of Ethiopia’s Jews, he remains a major figure in Ethiopian Jewish history. As David Francis Kessler discussed in his book, The Falashas (1996), Faitlovitch went to Ankober to learn about the community. The residents were not cooperative.

                                             Ethiopian playing harp like king David of Israel

He (Faitlovitch) found the members of this community deeply suspicious and reluctant to answer his questions. He concluded, however, that they were a breakaway sect who had become completely separated from the Falashas of Dembeya.

He was able to discover that the community had retained a number of Beta Israel customs, including observance of Sabbath, ritual purification, and circumcision on the eighth day after birth.

Views of the surrounding population

Kechene Jews who live throughout the region have never been considered part of the mainstream. Two cases in the more recent past are illustrative.

Twelve years ago, a young Kechene boy on his own initiative tried to sign up for priestly service in the Ethiopian Orthodox church. The church declined the request because he belonged to the community. It is common knowledge that although Ethiopian Jews outwardly engage in activities of the Coptic Christian church, they are not allowed to give service in the church. Balambaras (Commander) Tsegaye Mengistu, an elder of the community, told us that fifty years ago the court made a decision regarding land ownership. A piece of land had been given by a Jew to one of the monasteries. The owner of land surrounding the monastery went to court claiming that the land was rightfully his. His argument was based upon the law as stated in the Kibre Negast (Glory of Kings) that Jews, who crucified Jesus, are prohibited from land ownership. The court ruled in his favor. (The decision was later reversed when the spiritual leaders of the monastery appealed to the governor of the region.)

Beta Israel’s attempt to re-establish contact

Ten years ago, community elder Ato Gebryohanes Wolde shared his memory that an emissary from the Beta Israel had come to Kechene requesting a meeting with the elders. The emissary informed them that he had good news for the community. The elders argued on the subject, concluding that, as they did not know this person or his mission, he might have a hidden agenda to uncover their internal affairs. So they decided to tell him that they were a totally Christian community and were not interested in working with non-Christians. After that, the Beta Israel never made another attempt to contact them.

This incident shows the dominant suspicion within the community, resulting in measures meant to protect the community and its identity. This strategy enabled the Kechene community:

To survive as a minority among hostile neighbors. To keep our fathers’ tradition — Judaic practices. To prevent assimilation. But there are disadvantages, too.

Kechene Jews are not part of the country’s development activities. Kechene Jews never sought religious freedom because it was not a subject for public discussion. Kechene Jews were cut away from the rest of world Jewry. Judaic traditions were passed from generation to generation only through word-of-mouth. Therefore, the community is in danger of extinction. Kechene Jews have little civic organization and live in extreme poverty. It should be emphasized that some practices of the Jewish faith are strictly adhered to by the Kechene community. These are practices in their original form that were recognized before the Second Temple, some of which have become obsolete in normative Judaism. These include isolation of menstruating women for seven days in separate huts, separation of women after childbirth — for seven days if the child is male and fourteen days if female, and circumcision of male children on the eighth day after birth. After the death of a community member, the body is washed according to our fathers’ tradition, wrapped in a shroud (not placed in a coffin), and buried within twenty-four hours. Sabbath is observed by community elders in a secret synagogue on Saturday mornings; they have no contact with Gentiles. Craftsmen and craftswomen stop work early on Friday evening and do not work on the Sabbath.

History of the Zionist movement among Kechene Jews

Throughout the years, there have been attempts to address social and economic issues of poverty, education, and markets for products. However, issues of religious identity were rarely raised. In 1992, one of our community members, Mr. Shiferaw Gullie, brought up the topic for discussion for the first time. He told small circles of his compatriots that while on business in Asia he had met a Jew and exchanged ideas about our community as one of the lost tribes of Israel. Discussion continued among various groups.

From those discussions, it became clear that we lacked adequate knowledge about our history and religion. Younger community members tried to learn more from elders and visited remote secret synagogues to have a clearer picture about the religion. It was noticeable, however, that the elders were reluctant to discuss these things, fearing that information would get back to hostile Christian neighbors.

After two years of information-gathering and sharing, the Zionist movement was established to: promote public Jewish observance fill the knowledge gap regarding our history and religion in order to teach the younger generation establish a synagogue openly secure ground for a Jewish cemetery. In order to achieve these goals, the Zionist movement was legally instituted as the North Shewa Zionist Organization, named for the region where the community settled 300 years ago. The organization has opened a synagogue in Kechene, Addis Ababa called Beth-Selam, which means House of Peace.

Rabbinical Assembly Resolution on Ethiopian Jewry

After assessing the political situation in Ethiopia, the Rabbinical Assembly (the international association of Masorti rabbis) passed a resolution in February, 2002 regarding Ethiopian Jews. They believed that the political climate allowed the creation of public institutions that would help to protect the Jewish heritage of Ethiopia. The resolution stated, “Therefore, be it resolved that the Rabbinical Assembly support Ethiopian Jews with encouragement, literature, advice, visitors and financial support.”

Another 2002 Rabbinical Assembly resolution on helping the poor recalled biblical teachings: “Open your hand [to the poor person] and provide sufficient for the needy” (Deut. 15:8), and “Just as God clothed the naked…so too you must supply clothes for the naked [poor]” (Talmud B. Sotah 14a).

Based on Jewish tradition to help the poor, the Rabbinical Assembly’s 2002 resolutions, and the current poverty of Ethiopia’s neglected and isolated Jewish Kechene community, the leadership beseeches the Assembly to set up a system for meeting the community’s diverse needs.

The Kechene community wants and needs to end the isolation that was originally adopted for security reasons. The Kechene Jewish leadership respects the government of Ethiopia and feels that there is no longer a good reason to hide.

Jewish law requires that Jews must welcome visitors and see to their well-being. Many Jewish tourists — Israelis and Ethiopian Israelis — come to Ethiopia and have had no place to observe Shabbat in Addis Ababa or to meet with the community. Hence, supporting and expanding the newly established Jewish synagogue in Kechene is vital. Meeting other Jews face-to-face is a prerequisite for acceptance by world Jewry.

Reintegration of the Kechene Jewish community with fellow Jews must take into account the historical and traditional values of the community. We cannot be oblivious to the fears of the community. Historically, “foreigners,” both visitors from outside Ethiopia and Ethiopians who are not members of the Kechene community, are viewed with a watchful eye. Recently, however, many members of the community have graduated from institutions of higher learning in Ethiopia and abroad, and have obtained degrees in many fields. Education of the younger generation has built trust among the older generation, who seem more secure about the stands taken by their sons and daughters concerning community issues. However, efforts to help the community will bear fruit only if community members are consulted and if they are directed and administered by community members with a minimum of “foreign intervention.”

Following is an assessment of the needs of the Kechene community. They are discussed in order of precedence, from pressing to more long-term. Some pertain to religious needs, while others concern general economic conditions.

Beta Israel, Maasai & Lemba

Masai in Bible 1 chronicles 9 Cushitic peoples: Afar people, Oromo people, Somali people, Semitic peoples, Amhara people, Arab people, Assyrian people, Druze people, Harari people, Jewish people, Iranian Arab people, Syriac-Aramaic people & Tigray-Tigrinya people.

Web on African peoples:

http://www.afrikanistik-online.de/afrikanistik-online-1/view?set_language=en

Cohaniem travelling South. The Queen of Sheba in Ethiopian and Lemba tradition. Similar to oral traditions, written histories may exist in more than one version. The biblical story of the Queen of Sheba's visit to King Solomon has undergone an extensive elaboration in different literary traditions. Compared to the Jewish and Muslim legends, a fundamental change of atmosphere can be discerned in the Ethiopian version (Kebra Nagast). The story as recorded in the Kebra Nagast might have had an influence on the traditions of other African peoples. The Lemba in Southern Africa are a very specific group with unique traditions regarding Israelite origins. Their oral traditions provide more information than any written sources. The reciprocity between orality and inscripturation of traditions yields valuable information regarding the possible development of traditions in ancient Israel. It shows how the Lemba and Ethiopians have constructed their own iconography and set of beliefs around Biblical stories.

Ngoma lungundu: An African Ark of the Covenant.The Lemba in Southern Africa are a specific group with unique traditions regarding Israelite origins. Their oral traditions also contain significant information on the leading role their priestly family played on their journey from the North into the Arabian Peninsula and eventually into Africa. They blazed their trail southwards into Africa as traders, with the ngoma lungundu ("the drum which thunders") playing a very similar role to that of the Ark of the Covenant. Striking parallels between the two traditions as well as a possible link between these two narratives are scrutinised. Their oral culture constitutes their world-view and self-understanding or identity. It incorporates the role of oral traditions, history and historiography. One could draw parallels between orality in early Israelite and African religions. The reciprocity between orality and inscripturation of traditions yields valuable information regarding the possible development of traditions in the Old Testament.

“Ethiopia”  comes from the word “Cush” which designates the Hindu Kush Mountains

It's interesting that the name of DaN is found in several important toponyms around Ethiopia & this fact gives more weight to the belief of being DaNites in & around Ethiopia: suDan, ogaDeN, DaNakil, aDeN, TaNa (Ethiopia), TaNa (Kenya), TaNganyika. SoCotra has the consonants of the name of iSaaC.

Do the Zaghawa people have any relation with the Zagwe dynasty? This dynasty is considered to have Jewish origin, therefore the Zaghawa would also have the same origin. The Zagwe were from Ethiopia & the Zaghawas live between Chad & Sudan, so not very far away from the area.

When the capital of ancient Israel, Samaria, fell to the Assyrians, II Kings 17:5-6 records that the last Israelite defenders were transplanted to the region of the Medes (now northern Iran). Samaria was in the territory of the Israelite tribe of Ephraim, and one would expect many of the last wave of Israelite captives from the tribe of Ephraim. Numbers 26:35-37 also records that the tribe of Ephraim was subdivided into four clans, three of which were named the Bachrites, the Eranites and the Tahanites. In later centuries, three powerful tribes of the Scythian-Parthian alliance were the Bactrians, the Eranians and the Dahanites. Notice the striking similarity in the names of the Ephraimite clans and the Scythian-Parthian tribes. These tribes were all clans of the same Israelite tribe of Ephraim grown into exceedingly great numbers. The term “Eran” is an archaic one from which is derived the name of the modern nation of “Iran.” Interestingly, the nation of Iran (although it is now Persian, not Israelite) is still known by the name of a clan of the Israelite tribe of Ephraim which used to live in that region. “D” and “T” are related (and often interchangeable) consonants even as “P” and “B” were often interchangeable consonants in the ancient world, making the Dahanites and the Tahanites the same Ephraimite clan. Bactria was derived from the Ephraimite clan name of the “Bachrites.” I doubt you will ever see the Israelite origin of all these names in any history book. It would be the same with the lake TaNa in northern Ethiopia & the name of DaN.

The toponym Yaha, in Ethiopia, recalls the Jewish God Jehova or Yaveh. Another toponym that recalls the Jewish & Christian God is "Yev" (Elefantine, island in the Egyptian Nile were there was a large jewish community since ancient times, to the point that they even built a temple there to the Most Hi God) may have Jewish origin. In fact the Jewish influence in Egypt has been so old that, at least, they built  two temples in Egypt: in Elefantine (Upper Nile, southern egypt) & Leontopolis (Lower Egypt, northern Egypt), also known as Heliopolis, & nowadays known as Tell el-Yahuda because of its formerly large Jewish population. The area in which location was placed the temple was called  Land of Onias (in the Delta) after Onias IV, a Kohen.

Are the Kissi the offpring of Kish or Kush? Kish was an Israelite, father of the first king of Israel & Kush a Hamite.

Kush in Hindu Kush & in Ethiopia

Nineteenth century, modern, and Arabic scholars have sought to identify the "land of Cush" with Hindu Kush, and Gihon with Amu Darya (Jihon/Jayhon of the Islamic texts). Amu Darya was known in the medieval Islamic writers as Jayhun or Ceyhun in Turkish.This was a derivative of Jihon, or Zhihon as it is still known by the Persians.Gihon has also been associated with the Araxes (modern Aras) river of Armenia. First-century Jewish historian Josephus associated the Gihon river with the Nile.

The word translated “Ethiopia” in verse 5 of some Bible versions actually comes from the word “Cush” which designates the region of the Hindu Kush Mountains which straddles Afghanistan and Pakistan and is the home of strong anti-American, pro-Taliban sentiment.

Kushaiah kishi kish Kesh Kush Cush Cis Qais

A Levite ( 1 Chronicles 23:21,22 ; 1 Chronicles 24:29)

A Levite (2 Chronicles 29:12)

A Benjamite (1 Chronicles 8:30; 1 Chronicles 9:36)

Father of Saul (1 Samuel 9:1-3; 1 Samuel 10:21; 2 Samuel 21:14)

Father of Saul » Called CIS (A. V.) in (Acts 13:21)

Great grandfather of Mordecai (Esther 2:5)

CUSHAN » Poetic form of Cush (Habakkuk 3:7)

Habacuc 3:7 He visto las tiendas de Cushán en aflicción; Las tiendas de la tierra de Madián temblaron.

ETHIOPIA » Was called the land of Cush, mentioned in (Genesis 10:6; 1 Chronicles 1:9; Isaiah 11:11)

HAVILAH » Son of Cush (Genesis 10:7; 1 Chronicles 1:9)

NIMROD » Son of Cush

RAAMAH » Son of Cush (Genesis 10:7; 1 Chronicles 1:9)

SABTA » Son of Cush (Genesis 10:7; 1 Chronicles 1:9)

SABTECHA » Son of Cush (Genesis 10:7; 1 Chronicles 1:9)

SEBA » Son of Cush (Genesis 10:7; 1 Chronicles 1:9)

Cusi (personaje israelita)

Jeremías 36:14 Entonces enviaron todos los príncipes a Jehudí hijo de Netanías, hijo de Selemías, hijo de Cusi, para que dijese a Baruc: Toma el rollo en el que leíste a oídos del pueblo, y ven. Y Baruc hijo de Nerías tomó el rollo en su mano y vino a ellos.

Sofonías 1:1 PALABRA de Jehová que fué á Sofonías hijo de Cushi, hijo de Gedalías, hijo de Amarías, hijo de Ezechîas, en días de Josías hijo de Amón, rey de Judá.

"Cushi" o "Cusi", resulta ser en otras versiones "el etíope"

2 Samuel 18:32 El rey entonces dijo a Cusi: ¿El mozo Absalom tiene paz? Y Cusi respondió: Como aquel mozo sean los enemigos de mi señor el rey, y todos los que se levantan contra ti para mal.

2 Samuel 18:31

31 Y luego vino Cusi, y dijo: Reciba nueva mi señor el rey, que hoy Jehová ha defendido tu causa de la mano de todos los que se habían levantado contra ti.

2 Samuel 18:23

23 Mas él respondió: Sea lo que fuere, yo correré. Entonces le dijo: Corre. Corrió pues Ahimaas por el camino de la llanura, y pasó delante de Cusi.

2 Samuel 18:21

Y Joab dijo á Cusi: Ve tú, y di al rey lo que has visto. Y Cusi hizo reverencia á Joab, y corrió.

2 Samuel 18:22 Entonces Ahimaas hijo de Sadoc tornó á decir á Joab: Sea lo que fuere, yo correré ahora tras Cusi. Y Joab dijo: Hijo mío, ¿para qué has tú de correr, pues que no hallarás premio por las nuevas?

On Beta Israel, Sephardim & the Bible

Beta Israel: "Professor Yochanan (Jean) Bwejeri is a member of the Bene-Zagwei clan of the Tutsi people of Burundi. He claims that he is a Jew by birth. His ancestors and the ancestors of all Tutsi were all Jews by birth and not by conversion. Except where I write in the first person, I relate these claims and the facts and opinions upon which they are based as they were told to me by Professor Bwejeri — and as often as possible in his words." Notice the article quotes that Professor Yochanan (Jean) Bwejeri is a member of the Bene-Zagwei (Sons of Zagwei) clan of the Tutsi? Are not these Zagwei as in Zagwe not the Bete Israel of the Zagwe dynasty who built the beautiful Churches in Lalibela, Ethiopia? Here are some interesting movies on the Tutsi Hebrews. 

Why Ethiopians call themselves Habasa or Habesha? When you break the word Habasa down into the ancient Hebrew, you get Ha = the, ba = sons, and sa(m) = Shem. Shem (Hebrew: םש, Modern Shem Tiberian Šēm ; Greek: Σημ Sēm; Arabic: ماس Sām;Ge'ez: ሴም, Sēm; "renown; prosperity; name")" Notice that the ancient Hebrew word sa(m) = Shem from above is exactly the same pronunciation and word as the Arabic word for Shem = Sam and the Ge'ez word for Shem = Sem? What I teach you Bete Israel makes very much sense because Habasameans "The sons of Shem", and when you break down the modern version of it which isHabesha in modern Hebrew, you get Ha = the, be(ne) = sons, and sha = Shem, or  basically said, "The sons of Shem". What I teach makes even more sense because the Basa Lemba as in Habasa Lemba as in Habesha Lemba of South Africa say that when the Assyrians came against the land of Canaan (Israel) in 721 BC, which in that time I am proud to say was a part of the 25th dynasty of Kemet aka the ancient Kushite Empire, thatthey first fled to Yemen (Saba), which may explain why Ge'ez inscriptions were foundthere; from Yemen (Saba) they fled into mother Ethiopia we where many stayed whileonly a small portion of them went into Zimbabwe and built the country there.

The BasaLemba as in Habasa Lemba as in Habesha Lemba that settled in mother Ethiopiawe became known as the Bete Israel aka Falasha. We also know that the nation of Zimbabwe in which they built is known as "The Land of King Solomon's Mines". When you remove the "ha" in "Habasa" you get Basa, as in Basa or Basaa Lemba. Basa aka Basaa is a Bantu word. Also from this web link, "African Tribal Names", you will see that Basaa are a tribe found in Cameroon, Liberia, and Nigeria.==> http://www.ezakwantu.com/Gallery%20Tribal%20Names%20-%20African%20Tribe%20Names.htm 

With that being said, if you Bete Israel were paying attention, the "we" pronunciation is found in Ethiopiawe, Zimbabwe, and Zagwei (Zagwe). Hebrew Israelites are extremely intelligent people, and us founding the first civilization is an example of this intelligence. 

I heard that word Tutsi is a Oromo word. As dna testing is advancing, and it already is past the usual Y and mt tracing, checking the individual 23 chromosomes for segments leading to Jewish connections might turn up facts.  They were being horribly mistreated in Ethiopia.  This is why Israel was created for; the return of Jews, especially those under duress. Also, the end of times has prophesied the return of the Lost Ten Tribes to Israel.  Those that have been accepted and have returned want to practice Judaism and some have been doing so as they understand it. Some show traces of practices of long ago Judaism.

The Igbos come from several tribes of Israel as several of their neighboring tribes: Ijaws, Efiks (Eburus), Anaangs, Ibibios & Igalas

Tivs are Hebrews according to the scholar Collis. Tiv is close to tivvah, hebrew word, meaning "to sketch" & it's also close to tov, meaning "good" in Hebrew. Jukuns & Igalas are Hebrews too.

Important rabbinical institutions have recognized the Igbos as Lost Israelites. Even the Israeli main Israeli Sephardi rabbi has recognized the Hebrew origin of the Ibos. The State of Israel has made official visits to the Ibos living in the southeast of Nigeria filming  the people utensils & even texts found in paleo-Hebrew, but they haven't recognized their Hebrew origin. The reason Is Ibos are counted in the millions & if they are accepted as Israelites under the Law of return the rest of Jews living in Israel would become a Jewish minority within the Jewish society. Something similar happens with the Pashtuns & other ethnic groups. In a Greater Israel (from the Nile to the Euphrates) all or many Lost Israelites would fit though. 1967 was remarkable year for the Jews & other Israelites. It was the year in which several nations of the Arabophony waged war against the tiny State of Israel. Israel didn't start the war but overcame her enemies & recovered her ancient & beloved Jerusalem. That eventful year of 1967 Spain proclaimed the Law of Religious Freedom putting an end to the infamous Edict of Expulsion for which the Jews weren't allowed to practice their religion. This was also the year Biafra (populated by the proven Israelite people named Igbo) declared independence from Nigeria. The State of Israel tried to help her fellow black Israelites to no avail. They had a war at home after all. The Igbos were massacred suffering another holocaust against another Israelite people, this time by the Nigerian government with the collaboration of different tribal groups & powerful non-African nations.

One shouldn’t expect to encounter the majority of Igbos practicing rabbinical Judaism. Most belong to a variety of Christian churches and know relatively little or nothing about the difference between Judaism and Christianity. Nevertheless, there is a deep resentment against the Christian missions to the Igbos, and the Igbo hunger for information on Judaism and Israel is what every Jewish community in the Diaspora dreams of.

From Abuja we left for three Igbo states (Enugu, Anambra and Abia) in the Southeast of the country. We went to Awka, Nnewi, and Okigwi and visited the priests of NRI as a first stop. Being the only white for a week was a special experience at first, but I never had an unfriendly encounter and I almost forgot about it in time. I felt especially welcome as a Jew and Israeli. I particularly remember a driver of the famous okada bikes in the city of Enugu asking me which tribe I was from. Replying that I came from Israel, he responded that he was Jewish too and that we are all one.

A highlight of my visit was my meeting with NRI elders, said to parallel the priestly clan of the Levites, near the town of Awka. The NRI are often described as the most important keepers of Igbo traditions, responsible for performing rituals of purification in other Igbo clans. The meeting was accompanied by the traditional breaking of the cola nut, the palm wine offering, and prayers to Chukwu.

A popular saying in Nigeria is that a place is not fit for human habitation if no Igbo man can be found there. In most of Nigeria’s cities a considerable proportion of the population is Igbo. Thus many Igbo people up north may have witnessed the recent introduction of Islamic Sharia law and fear the repetition of ethnic persecution under the pretext of religion. The memories of Biafra are still an open wound, and every family has a story to tell.

Speaking also to non-Igbo resembles talk about the Jews in Europe. Their economic power is feared and they are said to control positions of power. Does this sound familiar to you? Many Igbo are traders and “overrepresented” in Nigeria’s growing “Nollywood” film industry.

There I had some last interviews with leaders of the congregations I had visited the week before plus another visit to an “ultra-Orthodox” community. My argument then that Western Jewry is probably not too eager to proselytize seemed to be out of place when encountering so many people waiting for more information on Judaism and emphasizing that they are already Jews and wouldn’t need to convert. Considering the economic power of the Christian churches in Nigeria (it is a whole industry where big money can be made) and the reluctance that parts of Western Jewry may show towards accepting the Igbo as brothers and sisters, the struggle of Judaizing Igbo will be a long one. But those people I encountered were very dedicated to a Jewish (re)naissance, and we know of other people who have dedicated their lives to dreams that became reality.

Parallel histories of the Jews and Igbos/Hebrews of Nigeria

Culturally it also must be noted the parallel histories of the Jews and Igbos/Hebrews of Nigeria how they have been scattered worldwide and whereever they go they are considered strangers and are persecuted by the indigenouspeoples they find themselves around.We have already discussed a great length how the Babylonian and AssyrianCaptivities mirror the slave trade of the Igbos and how this fulfills Deuteronomy 28, but to recap; Israel was taken into slavery by Egypt and the Igbos one of thefirst of the African peoples to be taken into slavery by the white men of the west. An old slave trading advertisement read, “To be sold…. Fine Heeboes.” There weresome Igbo slaves so tenacious and uncontrollable that they were put ontoseparate boats to Haiti and Jamaica to be exiled. Haiti still has a proverb that says,“The Igbo has hung Himself,” meaning one would rather die than to be forced intodoing something. They have the folklore song called “Ibu Lele.” And anything of value is referred to as, “Ibu.” They have a place called Ibo Beach. In Jamaica theyhave a place called Ibu Town. Ebo Landing is located in St. Simons Georgia (1850’s) is known for a slave ship landing on its shores and the Igbo slaves refused to disembark, but rather fell overboard in their chains and drown. They wouldrather die than to be slaves. They believed their souls would fly back to Igbolandto rest. Some accounts say they actually made it to shore and conspired a suicidepact and ran into the water and drown. Why would they do this? Maybe becausethey knew of the slavery of their ancestors in Egypt and refused to allow history torepeat itself? And is this not reminiscent of the Jews who committed suicide atthe wilderness fortress of Masada rather than be conquered by the Romans?Also it is necessary for me to bring to the readers attention how Israelite Judaismafter the Babylonian Captivity became Rabbinic Judaism we know today and how this is very much like how Igbo culture transitioned from the way it was before thewhite man came and what it turned into after the Colonials left.Jews underwent the infamous persecution of the Jews during the many pogromsand holocaust of World War II. Igbo underwent a type of holocaust during theNigerian Biafran War (6th of July 1967–15th of January 1970) where many Igboswere slaughtered by the surrounding peoples of Nigeria.The Igbos history uncannily parallels much of Jewish history in so many ways. Coincidence? I don’t think so.In Nigeria’s North, the Islamic Extremists dwell and are usually made up of theHausa tribe. They habitually use terrorist tactics, mostly aimed at Igbo Christianand Jews and send suicide bombers to anywhere a mass of Igbo can be found.This creates a fury of anger and desire for retaliation from MASSOB (TheMovement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra). This is just mirror image of the tension in Israel between Zionist Jews and Palestinians, this is just one more way Igbos are like Jews.The late, great General Emeka Ojukwu himself compared the Biafrans (Igbos), toIsraelites. “The Israelites are hardworking people. So are we. They suffered frompogroms. So have we. In many ways, we share the same promises and the sameproblems.”At this time I wish to compare Moses the leader of the Israelites in the Wildernessand General Emeka Ojukwu, the Biafran leader. The parallels are most striking.

MosesOjukwu



Egyptian Royal Prince Nigerian Royalty/Prince



Killed and Egyptian - Defended Igbo woman’s honor at King’s College



Royal EducationRoyal Education Oxford



Refused RoyaltyWent into Civil Service



Consulting PharaohAburi Summit



Exodus/NationDeclaration of Biafra



First Leader of the Nation of Israel First and only leader of Biafra



Was a Law GiverWas a Law Giver



Was a General Was a General exiled prior to the ExodusExiled after the War



Died outside of Promised LandDied outside of Igboland (Biafra)



Had 2 WivesHad 3 Wives

Failed Meetings with PharaohOjukwu and Gowon’s failed talksI would also like to compare other events regarding Israel and the Igbo. The first and second coup of the Biafran war is comparable to pogromssuffered by Jews in the Diaspora. As mentioned before the Biafra war is in many ways like WWII and the Naziregime against the Jews. 1 million Igbos were murdered in the Biafra war and 6 million Jews died inthe Holocaust.

The Israelites had the Promised Land of Canaan and Biafra was like theIgbo’s Promised Land.It is a curious and interesting thing to acknowledge that the arms used by Biafrawere supplied by Israel from arms confiscated from Israel’s enemies during the1967 Israeli 6 Day War.Also the following African countries that recognized and supported Biafra has/hada Jewish population as well as African peoples who believed they were Hebrewsfrom the Lost Tribes. These countries were: Tanzania, Ivory Coast, Gabon and Zambia Countries of the world to recognize and support and or gave aide to Biafra arecountries believed to contain Lost Israeli Tribes, some of which were believed tobe of Gad: Scandinavia (Gad, Asher, Dan, Benjamin) West Germany (Gad), Israel(Judah, Levi), France (Reuben, Gad), Switzerland (Gad, Issachar), Haiti (Gad).One must also keep in mind that Igbos have been blamed by their enemies forsocio-political and social-economic problems, as well as things such as plaugesand natural disasters in much the same way the Jews in Europe and Russia wereduring the black and bubonic plague, the pogroms and blood libals. They arevillanized by the people of the surrounding nations and tribes and their religionand culture.I am sure we can compare other finer points of History; that is likely another bookin and of itself, but these big main events solidifies a shared parallel history of Israel and the Igbo.

Igbos have the Cohen gene as well.

IGBOS OF NIGERIA AND ANCIENT KEMITIANS OF (KEMIT) EGYPT

It has been pointed out that during the Exodus, which marked the beginning of the mass movement of the tribes of Israel, the tribe of Eri was amongst the tribe that left Egypt following the injunction from Jehova to his devotees, the Israelites (Deuteronomy 28:58–68).

The main Eri group continued until the confluence of Rivers Niger and Anambara known as “Ezu-na-Omambala” and where it settled and founded the Agulu-Eri community.

Indeed, due to the calibre of its earliest founders and the sciences they set up, the network of nationalities that make up the country Nigeria, is a veritable invisible Muurish Empire about to manifest on the face of the earth.

Due to the influence of Eri and his civilization, many distinct aspects of Kemitian culture and science are found among the Igbos of Nigeria. For example, the Igbos were famous giant mound builders, constructing many structures similar to the Kemitian and Kushitic pyramides, like those that used to be at Nsude.

The religious pantheon of the Igbos and the ancient Kemitians share many similar ancestors and ancestresses many of them bearing identical names.

They shared the sun-god worship of Ra, Chukwu Ra; Kemitians were similarly fetishistic about circumcision, and menstrual periods like the Igbos. Similar hair styles, similar martial arts and self defense schools, similar social structures.

But for now, we will focus on some observed ligusitic similarities that exist between ancient Kemitian language and present day Igbo language, for many Kemitic Egyptian words yet survive in the Igbo la+nguage today. This is a current topical area of research in linguistics and history. If they sojourned Egypt they should have Egyptian words.

A small list of Ancient Egyptian words which survive in the Igbo language are as follows:

EGYPTIAN | IGBO (Onitsha and Uburu dialects used) KAKA(God) | Ka (greater, superior)

Khu (to kill, death) | Nwu/Gbu (die/to kill)

Em (smell) | Imi/Emi (nose, associated with smell)

Bi (to become) | Bu (to become)

un (living being) | Ndu (life)

Feh (to go away) | Feh (to fly away)

Budo (dwelling place) | Obodo/ubudo (country, dwelling place)

Dudu (black image of Osiris) | Mmadu (person)

Un (living person) | Ulo/Uno (living area, house)

Beka (pray/confess) | Biko/Beko (to plead, please)

Aru (mouth) | Onu (mouth) & kooh/Kwue (to speak)

Dor (settlement) | Dor-Nor (sit down, settle)

Ra -Shu (light after darkness) | La -Shu (sleep)

Aru (rise) | Anu/Kulie (up, rise)

Wu (rise) | KWu-ni/Kunie (rise)

In- n (negation) nh-n (negation)

Ma (to know) | Ma, Ma-li (to know)

Se (to create) | Ke (to create) & Se (to draw)

Hoo (rejoice) | Goo, ta-Goo (dance, rejoice)

Omijener (deep water) | Ime-me (deep inside)

Nen (the primeval water mother) | Nem (mother)

Ro (talk) | Kwo (to talk)

Penka (divide) Panje (break it)

Ala (Land of) | Ala (Land of, ground, boundary)

Amu (children) | Umu (children)

Ani (ground land below) | Ani (ground land below)

Ka (higher) | Ka (greater, higher, stronger, above)

Pa (open) | Meghee (open)

Isi (leader) | Isi (leader, head (body part), female name as in igbo: “Isioma”)

Oni (AE City) | Oni-tsha (Igbo City)

Ikhenaten (name of a Pharaoh) | Ikh-em (Igbo name for a male representing high power)

Au-nu (Crocodile) | Anu/Anu-Ma-nu (animal, beast)

Miri (water) | Miri (water)

Nahasu (other Blacks) | Ahasi/Ani-hasi (Evening, night)

Ak (man) | Ok-a (man)

Ehn/Hen (yes, nod head) | Eh (yes, nod head)

Paa/Faa (fly) | Feeh/Faa (fly)

Utcha (dawn) | Uchi-chi/Utchi-chi(night)

MM (among) | Imme (inside, among)

W (they) | Uwe (they, them)

Anambra State

Anambra State is a state in south-eastern Nigeria. Its name is an anglicized version of the original 'Oma Mbala', the native name of the Anambra River. The Capital and the Seat of Government is Awka. Onitsha and Nnewi are the biggest commercial and industrial cities, respectively. The state's theme is "Light Of The Nation". Boundaries are formed by Delta State to the west, Imo State and Rivers State to the south, Enugu State to the east and Kogi State to the north. The origin of the name is derived from the Anambra River (Omambala) which is a tributary of the famous River Niger.

The indigenous ethnic group in Anambra state are the Igbo (98% of population) and a small population of Igala (2% of the population) who live mainly in the north-western part of the state.

Anambra is the eighth most populated state in the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the second most densely populated state in Nigeria after Lagos State. The stretch of more than 45 km between Oba and Amorka contains a cluster of numerous thickly populated villages and small towns giving the area an estimated average density of 1,500–2,000 persons per square kilometre.

Anambra is rich in natural gas, crude oil, bauxite, ceramic and has an almost 100 percent arable soil.

In the year 2006, foundation laying ceremony for the first Nigerian private refinery Orient Petroleum Refinery (OPR) was made at Aguleri area. The Orient Petroleum Resource Ltd, (OPRL) owners of OPR, was licensed in June 2002, by the Federal Government to construct a private refinery with a 55,000 b/d capacity.

Furthermore, Anambra state is a state that has many other resources in terms of agro-based activities like fishery and farming, as well as land cultivated for pasturing and animal husbandry.

Currently, Anambra State has the lowest poverty rate in Nigeria (typical among this industrious people: Igbos).

With an annual population growth rate of 2.21 percent per annum, Anambra State has over 60% of its people living in urban areas making it one of the most urbanized places in Nigeria.

The major urban centres of Anambra state are Onitsha including Okpoko, Nnewi, and Awka. Awka and Onitsha developed as pre-colonial urban centres with Awka as the craft industrial centre of the Nri hegemony; and Onitsha the city state on the Niger and a river port and commercial centre.

Onitsha is a fast-growing commercial city, and has developed to become a huge conurbation extending to Idemili, Oyi and Anambra East LGAs with one of the largest markets in West Africa. Nnewi (the Taiwan of Nigeria) is a rapidly developing industrial and commercial centre; and Awka, by becoming the state capital is, as it were, regaining its precolonial administrative eminence.

Other main towns of Anambra state are: Aguleri, Awka-Etiti, Awgbu, Lilu, Azigbo, Igbariam, Enugwu Aguleri, Omor, Aguluzigbo, Umumbo, Nkwelle-Ezunaka, Abatete, Achina, Agulu, Amorka, Aguluezechukwu, Ogidi, Obosi, Ihiala, Amichi, Uga, Uli, Ubuluisiuzor, Abagana, Alor, Nsugbe, Atani, Nkpor, Eziowelle, Ezinifite, Oba, Ichi, Ojoto, Oraifite, Ozubulu, Umuawulu, Umunze, Umuoji, Umunachi, Umudioka, Unubi, Umunya, Umuleri, Awkuzu, Utuh, Ogbunike, Nteje, Ekwulobia, Igbo-Ukwu, Ichida, Ora-Eri, Ihembosi, Akwaukwu, Uke, Ukpo, Ifitedunu, Okija, Mbosi, Ajalli, Oko, Oraukwu, Osumenyi, Nnobi, Nnokwa, Ideani, Adazi-Nnukwu, Adazi-Enu, Umuanaga, Adazi Ani, Nanka, Nimo, Nneni, Mmiata Anam, Awkuzu, Ebenebe, Enugwu Ukwu, Enugwu-Agidi, Umueze Anam, Nawfia, Amawbia,Ikenga,<Ikenga> Agukwu, Nando, Nanka, Nnokwa, Amansea, Amanuke, Achalla, Mgbakwu, Ugbenu, Umunya, Ugbenne, Umuchu, Umuomaku, Isuaniocha, Azia, Utuh, Akwaeze, Omogho, Akpu, Amesi, Ebenator, Nibo, Mbaukwu, Nise, Achala, Ukpor, Akpo, Okpeze, Amaetiti, Iseke, Anaku, Isuofia, Oba-Ofemili, Okpeze, Nawfija, Isulo, Ufuma, Aguluzoigbo, Ogbunka, Orsumoghu, Ezinihite, Ezira, Obeledu, Ndiukwuenu, Nawgu, Awa, Nkpologwu, Amaokpala, Owellezukala, Ndi-okpaleke, Ndikelionwu, Abba, Ekwulumili, Anaku, Igbakwu, Umuerum, Umumbo, Ifite-Ogwari, Omasi, Umueje

Professor Chinua Achebe - a native of Ogidi (Anambra) and best known for the classic, Things Fall Apart was the first African writer whose books are standard curricula in schools and universities across the world.

Emeka Anyaoku - the first black Secretary-General of the Commonwealth and recipient of South Africa's Order of the Companions of Oliver Reginald Tambo for his role in initiating talks between the apartheid state and the African National Congress (ANC). He had things in common with both: he was black like the ANC people & he was an Israelite like the Boers.

What does the word 'Biafra' mean?

Bia (come) fra (Efraim) - meaning "coming from the tribe of Efraim". "Biafra" is a shortened form of "Bani Ephraim" which I believe is saying "Biani Ifraim" expression calling together descendants of Ephraim (son of Jacob), one of the lost tribes of Israel.

Archeologists and facts prove that ancient Egyptians were Negros ("black people". Egypt = Land of Ham = Kem. Kemet (word for Egypt) means black land.

BIAFRA: BI = Bisection. AFRA = Africa. So. Biafra means equaliterally dividing Africa. Which implied the middle of Africa Or the heart of Africa. Though I am not quite sure, I am incline to believe this word was coined by the western navigators or explorers because this word equally means the EQUATOR. Which is the natural equilateral bisector of Africa. So this word must have been used by sailors to indicate the Equatorial latitude or regions of Africa.

Are The Igbos Of Nigeria Jewish?

The Igbo are one of the larger ethnic groups in modern Nigeria, a nation of 170 million people and over 250 such ethnic configurations. For much of the region’s history, they have been referred to as “the Jews of Nigeria,” a band of overachievers who are the source of much of the brainpower of the country and a subject of much persecution. When they attempted to form a separate nation, Biafra, in the late 1960s, the resulting civil war had dire consequences for the Igbo but, for a moment, they were on the world’s mind, if only as the victims of an attempted genocide.

There have long been rumors of a more direct connection between the Igbo and Judaism, and in a country currently torn apart by Christian-Muslim sectarian violence the idea that a third religious element could emerge is certainly intriguing. And there are many Igbo who believe that those historical rumors are rooted in fact. “I’ve always known the Igbo are Jews,” says Shmuel Tikvah.

And he has been acting on that belief for many years now, exploring Judaism through the Internet, teaching himself Hebrew and moving slowly from the Catholicism with which he was raised to Sabbatarianism, a hybrid apparently unique to Nigeria, and finally to Judaism itself. He is one of about 3,000 Igbos (out of a population of 25 million) who are practicing Jews.

These Nigerian Jews are a warm and welcoming group, eager for knowledge of and contact with the rest of the Jewish world, vocal supporters of Israel and spirited worshippers, a small but charming community. 

Shmuel is a wonderfully earnest young man, determined to get a bona fide Jewish education (he aspires to study for the rabbinate at Jewish Theological Seminary) and to become his nation’s first rabbi. His relationship with the elders of the tiny community is pleasing to watch, and the elders are nothing less than the Nigerian equivalent of the tough but tender Sisterhood ladies and Men’s Club old-timers that you admire in your own congregation.

The Tribe of Zebulon, the Igbo & the Dutchmen

The following is a brief Scriptural synopsis of Zebulon, his birth, what was prophesied about him and his end as a patriarch and as a tribe in the future.

And Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me, because I have born him six sons: and she called his name Zebulun. – Gen. 30:20

The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun. – Gen. 35:23

Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon. – Gen. 49:13

Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob… Zebulun Exd. 1:1, 3

 And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you. (Exd. 13:19/Jasher 80:62) The children of Israel also brought up, each man his father's coffin with him, and each man the coffins of his tribe. Jasher 80:63

The Tomb of Zebulun is located in Sidon, Lebanon. In the past, towards the end of Iyyar, Jews from the most distant parts of Palestine would make a pilgrimage to this tomb.

And these shall stand upon mount Ebal to curse; Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. – Deut. 27:13

And of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out; and, Issachar, in thy tents. They shall call the people unto the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness: for they shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of treasures hid in the sand. – Deut. 33:18-19

Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek; after thee, Benjamin, among thy people; out of Machir came down governors, and out of Zebulun they that handle the pen of the writer. – Jud. 5:14

Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field. – Jud. 5:18

Of Zebulun, such as went forth to battle, expert in war, with all instruments of war, fifty thousand, which could keep rank: [they were] not of double heart. – I Chron. 12:33

And the sons of Zebulun; Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel. – Gen. 46:14

Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. – Rev. 7:8a

Zebulun was the 10th son of Jacob and the 6th son of Jacob and Leah, brother of Reuben, Simon, Levi, Judah, Issachar , Dan, Naftali, Gad, Asher, Joseph, Benjamin and Dinah; and father of Sered, Elon, and Jahleel (Genesis 35:23-26; Genesis 25:26-34).

The number 6 represents man, or just shy of perfection and we were made in G-d’s image, yet a little lower than the angels as the Bible tells us. 6 is also the letter Vav in Hebrew which is symbolic of a stake or tent peg, symbolizing groundedness and security. 10 is the number of law and order. Ten is represented by the letter Yod, which is symbolized by the hand. Could this mean Zebulun was a hard worker with his hands with farming, shipbuilding, warfare and business? Could this numerology collectively also hint of his military naval prowess by ordering men at sea or in battle?  The tribal symbol and banner for Zebulon after all is a fleet of ships.

The name Zebulon means, or carries the meaning of, Dwelling, Habitation, and Exaltation.

Zebulon is spelled: Zayin-Beit-Vav-Lamed-Vav-final Nun. Each Hebrew letter has a symbolic meaning and a pictorial meaning.

·      Zayin (Z) Sickle, Weapon = Food, Cut, Nourish, #7: The blood of Messiah overcomes the powers of Hell (cancels sin).

·      Bet (B) Tent, Floorplan = Home, Family, #2: The Messiah is the habitation of his people.

·      Vav (V/W) Tent Peg, Nail = To Hang, To Secure, To Fasten, To Add, #6: The Messiah grips and tears the evil of the flesh.

·      Lamed (L) Shepherd staff = Teach, Yoke, Bind, #30: The Messiah is the Great Teacher of discipline through twelve Tribes and Apostles.

·      Nun (N) Seed, Son, Heir, #50: The Messiah is the steadfastness of His people. The Heavenly Yehoshua (Joshua) the son of Nun.

So we can say that Zebulon is the Protector and Provider of the House/Family and Secures such with Teaching and Secures the future with Seed and or Sons.  Zebulon were navel warriors, tradesmen and fishermen. The Book of Judges speaks of them handling the pen which could mean they were as seamen they were traders and made treaties which kept them prosperous and safe for generations to come. Handling the pen also could indicate they could have been great teachers and scholars or that they were very good at passing down knowledge to their children or others.  This fits well with the prophecies given them my Jacob (Israel) and Moses.

The general meaning of their name means that they exalt, lift up, praise or improve the places where they dwell and inhabit, which again hints of their being skilled explorer, tradesmen and possibly agriculturists. Because they dwelt by water they knew how to harness it through irrigation and or the use of it to generate power.  This does fit the people I will talk about in this study.

Rabbinic legends tell that Zebulon were successful seamen that brought in income to Issachar in order for them to stay home and study Torah and be great teachers, lawyers and diplomats (Genesis Rabbah 72:5).

There is a pseudopigraphal book called, “The Testament of Zebulun” which is supposedly what Zebulun said to his children and grandchildren before he died. The main theme was being compassionate and charitable towards others, that what goes around comes around. In this book also tells how he was became a sailor and was a fisherman by summer and a shepherd by winter. So far fits with what we know of Zebulon from other documents, legends and accounts.

Zebulon’s tribal stone in the Levitical Breastplate is the Amethyst – Hebrew – ahlama.  The Amethyst symbolizes power, protection and healing.  The Greek meaning means “Not Drunk.” The Hebrew means, “Dream stone.”  The Hebraic meaning of the letters of this word means, “Strong fence and yoke upon the watery home.”  Could all this hint of Zebulon’s hard sailor attitude and hence the Testament of Zebulun’s focus on the need for compassion? However, Exodus Rabbah 38:5 says the stone representing Zebulon was a diamond. Diamonds are the hardest precious gem known to man. Sailors are known for being hardened men, Zebulon were hardened sailors and warriors, again reason for the Testament of Zebulun’s focus on the need for compassion?

Mystically speaking, Zebulun in Jewish mysticism is represented by the Hebrew Month of Sivan and is symbolic of Movement. Zebulon, a quiet tribe is all about action, movement through hard work. The Hebraic month of Sivan falls within the Counting of the Omer, representing agricultural abundance and growth.  Shavuot, the harvest festival and the festival celebrating the given of the Torah at Sinai are both celebrated in this month. This would tie in with how Zebulon participates in the spreading of Torah by quietly assisting the scholars in working to fund their studies.

And the sons of Zebulun; Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel. – Gen. 46:14

We already know what the Name Zebulun means, but what of that of His sons?

·      Sered – To tremble. Obviously a name of ferocity to strike fear into the heart of his enemies.

·      Elon/Ilon – Some argument to the exact meaning, but my sources say, God most High, Or Oak Grove, either way it is a name of strength and security of immovableness.

·      Jahleel/Yahleel – Expectant of God. A name that gives hope to its bearer to expect God to do mighty things for him.

As a sailor, merchant, warrior or farmer, you need all these traits to stand immovable in the face of the enemy and expect God to fight with and for you, or to not take no for an answer in business, or to expect God for a good harvest, even in the most adverse conditions.

Other than what we just uncovered, not a lot is known about Zebulon. He is a mysterious patriarch.  He seems to be a quiet fellow in Scripture, maybe because he was a way at war or on the sea or busy in his fields most of the time.

The Scattering of the 10 Tribes

There is an imbalanced view fueled by racial prejudice and supremacy that says the Lost Tribes either have to be black or white. They have to be found either in Africa or the Northern Hemisphere of Europe and the Americas. You have the two opposing camps of Black Hebrewism and British Israelitism. Both have their extremists and bias embellished propaganda, and both equally have their grains of researchable and verifiable truth. I have no problem accepting that a portion of both camps are true. Why? Because the 10 tribes which made up the Northern Kingdom of Israel that went off into Assyrian captivity has never returned and these peoples were transported, sold, traded, migrated, scattered and settled everywhere; having mingled through marriage and assimilation into virtually every people group on the planet and thus Hebrews have become a part of virtually every nationality, and ethnicity.

Though portions of Judah and Levi has been scattered with the other 10 tribes, who we recognize as Jews today come from Judah and Levi who went off into Babylonian captivity and eventually returned and this is who we recognize as Jews today.

I think it is undeniably clear that the first Hebrews were of brown to black in complexion and many of Shem’s line married into the dark complexion of the Hammitic line, genetically producing dark skinned Hebrews. But through the two captivities and scattering in the diaspora, Hebrews (Israelites) and Jews, as I said earlier, have mingled with many peoples of the world and have migrated to unfamiliar climates and through the centuries some Jews and Hebrews/Israelites have lost much of the darker skin tone and so we have descendants of Jacob (Israel) of every color, shape and size. I believe HaShem has allowed this to happen to break down racial barriers and the dividing wall between Jew/Hebrew/Israelite and Gentile and as a way of reversing the effects of the Tower of Babel. Instead we have perverted this purpose to fortify disgusting racist diatribes. Therefore, it would be prejudice and foolhardy of us to dismiss either side of the debate because of issues of bias or race. Let us glean the truth that inherently resides in both sides of the issue.

Where in the World is Zebulon?

We know according to Revelation that in the End of Days Zebulun will be found and accounted for.

Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. – Rev. 7:8a

So where will they be found?

Some speculate that he is in Nigeria among the Igbos and Ijaws. Others say he ended up in Holland, also known as the Netherlands as well as South Africa. Are any of these claims true? Granted, hard evidence is difficult to come by, but the circumstantial evidence is incredibly striking and compelling, so much so that it makes claiming sheer coincidence sound as if one is grasping desperately at straws to deny the plain and clear truth and succor their own religiously prejudice views.

Zebulon in West Africa; Nigeria:

It is said that Ijaw (Ujo) was a traveling companion of Eri, Areli and Adodi as they fled Egypt. Oral tradition states that Ijaw is a son or some descendant of Zebulon. Others say he came from Egypt, which is where Eri and his traveling companions set out from! However, Ijaw is not listed in any Canonical Biblical genealogies that I could find. But this should come as no surprise as one person could go by different names and it may be that Ijaw was known by another name in Biblical Writ. Or it could be Ijaw was a son of one of Zebulun's sons, and there for not recorded in any Biblical genealogy. He was said to be the water scout and river navigator of the group, and even today the Ijaw (Ijo, Izon) tribe and land can be found near water and many are fishermen.

Ijaw (Ijo, Ojo, Ejo, Ujo, Izon) means, “Real, Good or Palm tree;” could this relate to Zebulon’s son Elon, meaning, “Oak Grove”? Could this Ijaw be Elon or Ilon or at least a descendant of his? In 2 Chronicles 16:4 says that king Asa of Israel conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim and all the store cities of Naphtali. Of the places from which the Israelites were taken by the Assyrians is mentioned Ijon (In the Land of Israel). Is it related to the Ijo (or Ijaw) in Nigeria?

We know from history that the Ijaw and Igbo are fierce warriors as well as the people in general have a positive or “expectant” attitude toward the work of the divine in their life, no matter how bad things get around them.

Could it be that Elon/Ilon, Sered and Jahleel or at least their descendants traveled with Gad’s sons Eri, Areli and Arodi to Nigeria?

Some Ubulu in Igboland Nigeria claim that they know they came from Zebulon.  Ubulu in Igbo is the name of and means a “huge tree,” could this relate to Zebuon’s son Elon, meaning, “Oak Grove”? I ask, could Ubulu be named after Elon or Ilon of Zebulun or at least a descendant of his?  The word in Igbo zebulu means to protect, hide or save oneself.  This sort of relates to the Hebraic meaning of Zebulon, dwelling and habitation, because both carry the connotation of a hidden and protective place.

Ubulu oral tradition states categorically that the grand-parents of Ezemu (a famous Hunter, Marksman and Herbalist) migrated from Israel and settled at Ife hence Ezemu was often referred to as the king with long hairs – “Ezi Isi Iyomiyo”. From Ife Ezemu and his relations migrated to Afor a village in present day Ndokwa Local Government Area of Delta State. (http://www.nairaland.com/63003/origin-ubulu-uku)

“Legend that one of the descendants of Eri (from Gad) who first settled in Onitsha, at the bank of River Niger, near the domain of his relatives from the descendants of Zebulun (Ozubulu in Anambra State) had to travel across the River Niger to the ancient city of Benin or kingdom to prepare war medicine, talisman or charm for a prospective contender to the stool of Oba of Benin.” -  Prof. O. Alaezi, Ibo Exodus, pg.  25 – italics mine

“The Igbo Jews are said to have migrated from Syrian, Portuguese and Libyan Israelites into West Africa. Historical records shows that this migration started around 740 C.E. According to UCLA trained amateur Jewish Historian and Rio Hondo Police Academy trained Forensic investigator Chinedu Nwabunwanne of Aguleri, who resides in Los Angeles and has researched this subject for more than 15 years at the UCLA libraries in Los Angeles, "the migration started when the forces of Caliph Mohammed -the last leader of the Umayyads- and his Qaysi-Arab supportes defeated the Yamani-Arab Umayyads of Syria in 744 C.E; sacked the Yamanis and their Jewish supporters from Syria. The Syrian-Jewish migrant tribes Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher resettled in Nigeria where they became known as Sambatyon Jews. In 1484 and 1667 Judeans and Zebulonians from Portugal and Libya respectively joined Sambatyon Jews of Nigeria. Thus, Nigerian Jews originated from the following six Israelite tribes: Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher and Zebulon. It is interesting to note that these six tribes are the same tribes Moses repeated their names twice when he blessed the Children of Israel. These six tribes mentioned above are The House of Judah and the children of Israel his companions (Ezekiel 37:16. Those remaining six tribes not mentioned above are The House of Ephraim and the children of Israel his companion (Ezekiel 37:16)."”

The tribe of Zevulun ben-Ya`aqov (Zebulun), who was the sixth son of Ya`aqov (Jacob). These groups comprise the Ubulu Okiti and 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, who was descended from the Tribe of Judah, and from this union was born Ozubulu ben-Zebulunu. Ozubulu then went on to have four sons of his own who settled in other regions. These sons were: Amakwa, from whom a clan in Neni, Anambra State is descended, and Egbema, from whom the Egbema Ugwuta clan in Imo State and the Ohaji Egbema clan in Rivers State are descended.

It has also been suggested that the Jewish Ibo people originated from a migration of Israelites who fled to West Africa. They claim to be descended from three tribes; Zebulon, Gad and Manasseh (Hebrew Qaraim Community).

The Igbo Jews traditionally claim descent from three particular Israelite tribes: Gad, Zevulun, and Menashe. The Jews of Manipur and Mizoram, the Bnei Menashe, also claim descent from the tribe of Menashe. It is thought that these Jews fled to Africa after the destruction of the biblical Temples in Jerusalem and established communities all across the African continent.

It should be noted that the majority of Ndi Igbo can be traced back to Gad through his sons Eri, Areli and Arodi, or Levi who became the Nri priests.  A small percentage stake claim to Judah, Zebulon, and some even believe they are from Manasseh, Asher, Dan and even Naphtali. But we see in ancient Israel that at times Benjamin and Simeon were a small remnant living among Judah and were thus absorbed into Judah. In similar fashion these other tribes which make up the Igbo have been absorbed into the majority of Gad.  Prof. O. Alaezi in his book “Ibo Exodus” also recognizes this custom. “Other exiled Hebrews descendants (e.g. Judah and Zebulun) are not as many and have been swallowed up by the Eris.”

  Zebulun in Holland and South Africa and their connection to the Igbo’s and Ijaws:

There are those who prescribe to the British Israelite theory that the 10 Lost Tribes scattered north and spread throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Steven M. Collins and Yair Davidiy are the two main proponents of British Israelitism, though not agreeing 100% with their views, as well as not agreeing with 100% of Black Hebrewism views, I have stuck to the uncanny connections that ties Zebulon to both camps and allow the reader to decide for themselves where Zebulon is.

To get a clue why some feel Zebulon made it to Holland (Netherlands); we must first look at the prophecies given about them by Jacob and Moses.  These prophecies will give us clues to their whereabouts in the last days.

Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon. – Gen. 49:13

And of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out; and, Issachar, in thy tents. They shall call the people unto the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness: for they shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of treasures hid in the sand. – Deut. 33:18-19

Because the prophecies connect Zebulon to the coast and the sea and one should look to famous and heavily trafficked sea ports one of which is the port of Rotterdam in Holland. It handles the largest freight in the world and is considered the gateway of Europe.  It should also be noted that Ijaws and Igbos who claim Zebulonic descendancy also live close to and on the coast. In fact Ijaws pagan expression of worship is tied to water and water spirits. Ijaws are known as fishermen and tradesmen in Nigeria. Many live in the Delta and River states that are close to the sea.

The phrase in Gen. 49:13, “haven of the sea” can mean shelter and or refuge and Holland, via its system of dikes is quite literally “sheltered” from the sea. This same phrase also lends to the fact as mentioned before of Holland’s great and world renowned sea ports.

Moses’ prophecy (Deut. 33:18-19) speaks of the “sucking of the abundance of the sea” and “treasures hidden in sand.” It is of interest to note that the Dutch of Holland literally “sucked out” the sea with their system of dikes and windmills which made the land “abundantly” fertile. The treasure in the sand is believed to be the black gold, the oil that the Royal Dutch Shell company has “sucked” from its “hiding” place in the sand.  It also should be noted that Nigeria is also an oil rich country, especially in the places where the Zebulonite Igbo’s and Ijaws live! And Ducth oil companies have set up shop in oil rich Nigerai too.

Some even feel that the description of Zebulun’s “borders” being “Zidon” is also a clue, because the word for border also means thigh which includes the pubic region. Many feel this hints of the Holland being the “red light district” of the world with its abundance of pornography, prostitution and tolerance of sexual promiscuity. Zebulon’s territory in the Promised Land was previously occupied by the ancient S(Z)idonian fertility cults of Baal and Ashtaroth.  The Wicked Queen Jezebel, known as a sexual temptress was a S(Z)idonian.

It should also be brought to the reader’s attention that the tribal symbol for Zebulon is the Ship which fits well with the Dutch, the Ijaw and a portion of the Igbo who claim Zebulon is their forefather.

The Dutch Coat of arms of the original seven provinces of the Netherlands (1579) is a ship with a Bible on its prow.

Their Levitical breastplate stone some say was the diamond and many Dutch relocated and colonized South Africa and are in the diamond mine and trade business; so would say is an  amazing coincidence.  I am one who does not believe in mere coincidence.  And though diamonds are not known to be found in Nigeria, Amethysts are and are mined! Recall that this is the other gem supposedly in the Levitical breastplate that represents Zebulun.

Linguistically speaking it is said that Middle East and Turkish people who may have possibly been related to the Sidonians of Phoenicia settled around Holland and Belgium and are believed by some to be the ancestors of the Dutch which would include Hebraic ancestors from Zebulon because of the mingling of the Zebulonites and Sidonians in the Promised Land. And it is obvious that the Zebulonites were influenced they the pagan ways of the Sidonians and hence why the L-RD took them away into captivity.

The Sabalingoi of ancient Frisia which is north of Holland is said to mean Zebulon’s People or the Nation of Zebulon; Sabalin = Zebulon and Goi = from the Hebrew, meaning people or nation.

Davidiy explains through linguistics that he believes that the Chali which were the people north of the Sabalingoi were descendants of Jahleel and that the Suardeni were the descendants of Sered and the Alans the children of Elon.

The Amish culture and religion, though “Christian” is very Jewish in its dress, traditions and customs and way of life. Many Dutch Amish have Jewish last names and or married Jewish women; this would never happen if the Jewish communities of the Holland did not see the Amish as “brethren” i.e. blood relation.

With what has been presented, I do believe it is very likely that Zebulon and his sons ended up both in Africa and in Northern Europe. The linguistics, region and character traits of the peoples mention do fit the Jacobic and Mosaic prophecies concerning them.  I personally would like to see more hard, archeological evidence or become more familiar with the oral traditions of said lpeoples so as to better tie these people to Zebulon or totally rule them out.

All I know and believe is that there are people roaming the earth to day who are Hebrews and don’t even know it, after all the 10 tribes had to go somewhere, they just didn’t die off of disappear!  That would mean G-D is unable to keep His promises and it would mean the Scriptures are a lie and we know G-D and His Word is TRUTH manifest!  So why not the Ijaw, the Igbo and the Dutch? Anyone have any better candidates?

Nri-Igbo

Nri is an ancient Igbo city-state in Anambra State Nigeria. The Kingdom of Nri was a center of learning, religion, and commerce in pre-colonial West Africa. Historians have compared the significance of Nri (The Israelite peoples are the salt of the earth, therefore they are not average peoples, but remarkable), at its peak, to the religious cities of Rome or Mecca: it was the seat of a powerful and imperial state that influenced much of the territories inhabited by the Igbo of Awka and Onitsha to the east; the Efik, the Ibibio, and the Ijaw to the South; Nsukka and southern Igala to the north; and Asaba, and the Anioma to the west. The rulers of Nri did not use military conquest, but used religious authority and control of commercial routes as tactics in the spread of their city-state. Politically, Nri is known to be the most ancient origins of the Eze kingship in Igbo societies. But Nri and its rulers were also known for their reverred traditional religious institutions that instilled both awe and fear in those who made pilgrimages to the shrines. The religious practices believed in the existence of one God, 'Chukwu Okike'; but the Eze Nri was seen as a potent who had powers to undo evil and cleanse the land from abominations and taboos.

Commercially, Nri was against slave holding (Contrary to non-Israelite surrounding peoples). "Osu" was the name of outcasts of other communities who migrated and were accepted in Nri. Some Osu became eunuchs. During the colonial period, Nri and the regions under its political, religious, or commercial control became international markets for palm oil. In the heart of Nri influence was the Igbo Ukwu bronze castings.

The origin of Nri people is still a subject of much speculation. The Nri clan existed from as far back as the 9th century. Nri (the founder of Nri clan) was the son of Eri (founder of Aguleri) and had migrated to the present day Nri from the Anambra (Ama-Mbala) river valley in Northern Igboland. Nri was said to have inherited spiritual powers from his father. The Nri people belong to the Umueri clans who trace their origins to Eri. Northern and Central Igboland is the homeland of Igbo people.

Speculation starts when one starts to trace the origin of Eri. In the Nri mythology, Eri descended from the sky, sent by God to make peace (settle disputes and cleanse abominations) and provide Igbo people food (yam and cocoyam). Some historians speculate that Eri may have migrated to the Anambra area out of the Igala dynasty of central Nigeria. But there is convincing evidence that Onoja Oboli, the founder of the Igala dynasty was actually another son of Eri.

A large section of the Igbo population that live in the western part of the Nigerian Igbo state of Anambra believe that they are descendants of Eri, one of the sons of Gad

A large section of the Igbo population that live in the western part of the Nigerian Igbo state of Anambra believe that they are descendants of Eri, one of the sons of Gad, who was a son of the Biblical Jacob. Interestingly the names of some of the families/clans of the claimants have the prefix eri.

Prominent examples are Umuleri, and Aguleri (Umu-eri, and Agu- Eri).

There is talk that the later were their names, and that the l’s were added by the colonizing British who could not pronounce the Igbo names.

And the Nri clan which traditionally provides a certain class of priests for the Igbos very interestingly bears an attribute that was allotted to Levi; the priestly tribe of Israel. Every knowledgeable Igbo agrees that the Nri priests take precedence in certain ritual matters among the Igbos.

The Igbos have been addressed as “Jews” by their Nigerian neighbours, and by many foreigners before, and especially during the anti-Igbo Pogroms in Nigeria, and the Nigerian Civil War which occurred in 1966, and 1967-1970 respectively, and in which millions of Igbos died from bullets, strafing and starvation.

Also worthy of mention is what I call “Igbo Christianity”: the Sabbatharian Movement, because unlike the other brands of Christianity that predominate among the Igbos, it is Igbo inspired, and in it could be found some evidence of the Igbos’ Israelitishness.

It has some distinctive features that are remarkably Jewish. Igbo Sabbatharians observe all the feasts that are in the Old Testament. And they rest, shun work, and pray on the seventh day of the week.

This is in sharp contrast with its equivalents which were founded by the neighboring Yorubas, Binis, Ishans, and other Nigerians.

My discovery is that the Christianized Igbos who founded this movement threw off “Christianity”, sought to return to what they thought was the Igbo religion, and stopped midway.

They came up with a distinct and new religion which has elements of Judaism and Christianity. At least one million Igbos belong to this religion.

Mami Wata (Mammy Water) is venerated in West, Central, Southern Africa, and in the African diaspora in the Caribbean and parts of North and South America. Mami Wata spirits are usually female, but are sometimes male. Although this veneration is pagan it's interesting that is related to serpent worshipping cult. Moses, commanded by God, made a brazen serpent so that the Israelites could be healed at looking at it. Some centuries later king Hezekiah of Judah broke the snake because became an object of idolatry. This cult was taken with the idolatrous Israelites & might the origin of the Mammy Water & other Snake based cults.

“Majority of Igbos accept the Israel hypothesis"

A popular version of the narrative holds that Gad, the seventh son of Jacob, had three sons who settled in present-day southeastern Nigeria, which is predominantly inhabited by the Igbo. Those sons, Eri, Arodi and Areli (as mentioned in the book of Genesis), are said to have fathered clans, established kingdoms and founded towns still in existence in southeastern Nigeria today, including Owerri, Umuleri, Arochukwu and Aguleri. In fact one of the Ibo clans is called Aro probably coming from Arodi. Eze A.E. Chukwuemeka Eri, the king of a community in Aguleri, claims he presides over the throne of Gad's son, Eri.Throughout history, large populations of dispersed Jews also became "lost" through forced conversions and cultural assimilation."When I grew up I heard, like virtually every Igbo here, that the Igbo people came from Israel," the Abuja-based lawyer says. His field work in Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Mali led him to conclude that Igbo and Jewish culture are not just similar, but "identical."Some historians have noted that the Igbo were practicing these customs before their exposure to the Bible and missionaries. Daniel Lis, from the Institute for Jewish Studies, University of Basel, Switzerland, is one of the foremost researchers on Jewish identification among the Igbo. He says there has been a clear continuity of Jewish identity among the Igbo. "It's not just something that happened yesterday," he says.

King Eri, like many, claims that the Igbo are the Jews of West Africa. They believe they are descendants of at least one of Israel's lost tribes. In the eighth century B.C. the Assyrians invaded Israel's northern kingdom forcing 10 tribes into exile. Historians say it is not unlikely that these tribes migrated westward to Africa.The Swiss-Israeli anthropologist says that Igbo-Jewish identity can be traced back to the 18th century. Cross-cultural comparisons have been documented by people ranging from George Thomas Basden, the influential Anglican missionary and ethnographer who proposed that the word "Igbo" evolved as a corruption of the word "Hebrew," to Olaudah Equiano, a freed Igbo slave living in 18th century British society. Peter Agbai, says he is a "proud Igbo man," strongly disagrees. He started practicing Judaism in 1991 after leaving the Methodist church. He says that the more he followed the commandments in the Torah, the more he realized that he was doing what his parents had always done as followers of traditional Igbo culture and spirituality.

These ethnic groups are neighbors of the Igbos & are related with them: Ibibio, Efik, Annang & Ogoni. It's that they are Israelites as well.

In Nigeria, the Ibos are often identified with Jews because of their business acumen, their attachment to family and education, and the discrimination to which they have been subjected, most tragically during the Biafran civil war of the late 1960s. During that war, they received Israeli military aid, fueling speculation of secret ties between the Ibos and the Hebrews.

Ọdinani, also Ọdinala, Omenala,Omenana, Odinana or Ọmenani is the Ibo religion

With the revival of the Igbo religion, Igbos know why they were/are circumcised on the Covenant Day. That Igbo religion, whose name is Omenana, has gone by the names Hebrewisms, Mosaism, Israelism and now Judaism because it has a direct correlation with some Deuteronomical provisions.

Igbo people

The Igbo people have had fragmented and politically independent communities. Before knowledge of Europeans and full exposure to other neighbouring ethnic groups, the Igbo did not have a strong identity as one people. As in the case of most ethnic groups, the British and fellow Europeans identified the Igbo as a tribe. Chinua Achebe, among other scholars, challenged this because of its negative connotations and possible wrong definition. He suggested defining the Igbo people as a nation similar to the Cherokee Native Americans or Japanese, although the Igbo do not have an officially recognized physical state of their own.

Due to the effects of migration and the Atlantic slave trade, there are descendant historical Igbo populations in countries such as Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, as well as outside Africa; many African Americans and Afro Caribbeans are believed to be partially of Igbo descent.

The most common name for the Igbo in English was formerly "Ibo". They have also been known as the "Iboe", "'Ebo", "Eboe", "Eboans", or "Heebo". Their territory and main settlement has often been known by their name as well.

The Nri people of Igbo land have a creation myth which is one of the many creation myths that exist in various parts of Igbo land. The Nri and Aguleri people are in the territory of the Umueri clan who trace their lineages back to the patriarchal king-figure Eri. Eri's origins are unclear, though he has been described as a "sky being" sent by Chukwu (God). He has been characterized as having first given societal order to the people of Anambra. The historian Elizabeth Allo Isichei says "Nri and Aguleri and part of the Umueri clan, [are] a cluster of Igbo village groups which traces its origins to a sky being called Eri."

Archaeological evidence suggests that Nri hegemony in Igboland may go back as far as the 9th century, and royal burials have been unearthed dating to at least the 10th century. Eri, the god-like founder of Nri, is believed to have settled the region around 948 with other related Igbo cultures following after in the 13th century. The first Eze Nri (King of Nri) Ìfikuánim followed directly after him. According to Igbo oral tradition, his reign started in 1043. At least one historian puts Ìfikuánim's reign much later, around 1225 AD.

Traditional Igbo political organization was based on a quasi-democratic republican system of government. In tight knit communities, this system guaranteed its citizens equality, as opposed to a feudalist system with a king ruling over subjects. This government system was witnessed by the Portuguese who first arrived and met with the Igbo people in the 15th century. With the exception of a few notable Igbo towns such as Onitsha, which had kings called Obi, and places like the Nri Kingdom and Arochukwu, which had priest kings; Igbo communities and area governments were overwhelmingly ruled solely by a republican consultative assembly of the common people. Communities were usually governed and administered by a council of elders.

Most Igbo slaves were not victims of slave-raiding wars or expeditions, but were sometimes debtors and people who committed what their communities considered to be abominations or crimes. Igbo slaves were known to the British colonists as being rebellious and having a high rate of suicide to escape slavery. For still unknown reasons, there is evidence that traders sought Igbo women.

Contrary to common belief, European slave traders were fairly informed about various African ethnicities, leading to slavers' targeting certain ethnic groups which plantation owners preferred. Particular desired ethnic groups consequently became fairly concentrated in certain parts of the Americas. The Igbo were dispersed to colonies such as Jamaica, Cuba, Saint-Domingue, Barbados, the United States, Belize and Trinidad and Tobago, among others.

Elements of Igbo culture can still be found in these places. For example, in Jamaican Patois, the Igbo word unu, meaning "you" plural, is still used. "Red Ibo" (or "red eboe") describes a black person with fair or "yellowish" skin. This term had originated from the reported prevalence of these skin tones among the Igbo but eastern Nigerian influences may not be strictly Igbo. The word Bim, a colloquial term for Barbados, was commonly used among enslaved Barbadians (Bajans). This word is said to have derived from bi mu in the Igbo language (or bem, Ndi bem, Nwanyi ibem or Nwoke ibem, which means "My people"), but may have other origins (see: Barbados etymology). A section of Belize City was named Eboe Town after its Igbo inhabitants. In the United States, the Igbo were imported most commonly to the Chesapeake Bay colonies and states of Maryland and Virginia, where they constituted the largest group of Africans. Since the late 20th century, a wave of Nigerian immigrants, mostly English and Igbo-speaking, have settled in Maryland, attracted to its strong professional job market.

A series of ethnic clashes between Northern Muslims and the Igbo, Ibibio, Efik and other ethnic groups of Eastern Nigeria Region living in Northern Nigeria took place between 1966 and 1967. Elements in the army had assassinated the Nigerian military head of state General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi (29 July 1966) and peace negotiations failed between the military government that deposed Ironsi and the regional government of Eastern Nigeria at the Aburi Talks in Ghana in 1967. These events led to a regional council of the peoples of Eastern Nigeria deciding that the region should secede and proclaim the Republic of Biafra on May 30, 1967. General Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu made this declaration and became the Head of state of the new republic. The resultant war, which became known as the Nigerian Civil War or the Nigerian-Biafran War, lasted from July 6, 1967 until January 15, 1970, after which the federal government re-absorbed Biafra into Nigeria. Several million Eastern Nigerians, especially Igbo, are believed to have died from the pogroms against them and the civil war. In their brief struggle for self-determination, the people of Biafra earned the respect of figures such as Jean-Paul Sartre and John Lennon, who returned his British honor, MBE, partly in protest against British collusion in the Nigeria-Biafra war.

After the Nigerian–Biafran War, Igboland was devastated. Many hospitals, schools, and homes were completely destroyed in the war. In addition to the loss of their savings, many Igbo people were discriminated against by other ethnic groups and the new non-Igbo federal government. Some Igbo subgroups, such as the Ikwerre, started disassociating themselves from the larger Igbo population after the war. In the post-war era, people of eastern Nigeria changed the names of both people and places to non-Igbo-sounding words. For instance, the town of Igbuzo was anglicized to Ibusa. Due to discrimination, many Igbo had trouble finding employment, and during the early 1970s, the Igbo became one of the poorest ethnic groups in Nigeria.

Igboland was gradually rebuilt over a period of twenty years and the economy was again prospering due to the rise of the petroleum industry in the adjacent Niger Delta region. This led to new factories being set up in southern Nigeria. Many Igbo people eventually took government positions, although many were engaged in private business. They still constitute the bulk of Nigerian informal economy. Since the early 21st century, there has been a wave of Nigerian Igbo immigration to other African countries, Europe, and the Americas.

Igbo is a tonal language and there are hundreds of different Igbo dialects and Igboid languages, such as the Ikwerre and Ekpeye languages. In 1939, Dr. Ida C. Ward led a research expedition on Igbo dialects which could possibly be used as a basis of a standard Igbo dialect, also known as Central Igbo. This dialect included that of the Owerri and Umuahia groups, including the Ohuhu dialect. This proposed dialect was gradually accepted by missionaries, writers, publishers, and Cambridge University.

The Igbo people have a musical style into which they incorporate various percussion instruments: the udu, which is essentially designed from a clay jug; an ekwe, which is formed from a hollowed log; and the ogene, a hand bell designed from forged iron. Other instruments include opi, a wind instrument similar to the flute, igba, and ichaka. Another popular musical form among the Igbo is Highlife. A widely popular musical genre in West Africa, Highlife is a fusion of jazz and traditional music. The modern Igbo Highlife is seen in the works of Dr Sir Warrior, Oliver De Coque, Bright Chimezie, and Chief Osita Osadebe, who were among the most popular Igbo Highlife musicians of the 20th century.

There are many Igbo dance styles, but perhaps, Igbo dance is best known for its Atilogwu dance troops. These performances include acrobatic stunts such as high kicks and cartwheels, with each rhythm from the traditional instruments indicating a movement to the dancer.

One of the unique structures of Igbo culture was the Nsude Pyramids, at the town of Nsude, in Abaja[disambiguation needed], northern Igboland. Ten pyramidal structures were built of clay/mud. The first base section was 60 ft. in circumference and 3 ft. in height. The next stack was 45 ft. in circumference. Circular stacks continued, till it reached the top. The structures were temples for the god Ala/Uto, who was believed to reside at the top. A stick was placed at the top to represent the god's residence. The structures were laid in groups of five parallel to each other. Because it was built of clay/mud like the Deffufa of Nubia, time has taken its toll requiring periodic reconstruction.

Chukwu is the supreme deity in Odinani as he is the creator, and the Igbo people believe that all things come from him and that everything on earth, heaven and the rest of the spiritual world is under his control. Linguistic studies of the Igbo language suggests the name Chukwu is a portmanteau of the Igbo words: Chi (spiritual being) and Ukwu (great in size). Alusi, alternatively known as Arusi or Arushi (depending on dialect), are minor deities that are worshiped and served in Odinani. There are many different Alusi, each with its own purpose. When an individual deity is no longer needed, or becomes too violent, it is discarded.

The Igbo believe in reincarnation. People are believed to reincarnate into families that they were part of while alive. Before a relative dies, it is said that the soon to be deceased relative sometimes give clues of who they will reincarnate as in the family. Once a child is born, he or she is believed to give signs of who they have reincarnated from. This can be through behavior, physical traits and statements by the child. A diviner can help in detecting who the child has reincarnated from. It is considered an insult if a male is said to have reincarnated as a female.

Children are not allowed to call elders by their names without using an honorific (as this is considered disrespectful). As a sign of respect, children are required to greet elders when seeing them for the first time in the day. Children usually add the Igbo honorifics Mazi or Dede before an elder's name when addressing them.

The process of marrying usually involves asking the young woman's consent, introducing the woman to the man's family and the same for the man to the woman's family, testing the bride's character, checking the woman's family background, and paying the brides' wealth. Sometimes marriages had been arranged from birth through negotiation of the two families.

In the past, many Igbo men practiced polygamy. The polygamous family is made up of a man and his wives and all their children. Men sometimes married multiple wives for economic reasons so as to have more people in the family, including children, to help on farms. Christian and civil marriages have changed the Igbo family since colonization. Igbo people now tend to enter monogamous courtships and create nuclear families, mainly because of Western influence. Some Western marriage customs, such as weddings in a church, take place after the lgbo cultural traditional marriage.

The yam is very important to the Igbo as the staple crop. There are celebrations such as the New yam festival (Igbo: Iwaji) which are held for the harvesting of the yam. During the festival, yam is eaten throughout the communities as celebration. Yam tubers are shown off by individuals as a sign of success and wealth. Rice has replaced yam for ceremonial occasions. Other foods include cassava, garri, maize and plantains. Soups or stews are included in a typical meal, prepared with a vegetable (such as okra, of which the word derives from the Igbo language, Okwuru) to which pieces of fish, chicken, beef, or goat meat are added. Jollof rice is popular throughout West Africa. Palm wine is a popular alcoholic beverage among the Igbo.

The Igbo in Nigeria are found in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo, Delta and Rivers State. The Igbo language is predominant throughout these areas, although Nigerian English (the national language) is spoken as well. Prominent towns and cities in Igboland include Aba, Umuahia, Enugu (considered the 'Igbo capital'), Nsukka, Onitsha, Nnewi, Awka, Abakaliki, Afikpo, Owerri, Orlu, Okigwe, Agbor, Asaba and Port Harcourt among others. A significant number of Igbo people have migrated to other parts of Nigeria, such as the city of Lagos.

Southeastern Nigeria, which is inhabited primarily by the Igbo, is the most densely populated area in Nigeria, and possibly in all of Africa. Most ethnicities that inhabit southeastern Nigeria, such as the closely related Efik and Ibibio people, are sometimes regarded as Igbo by other Nigerians and ethnographers who are not well informed about the southeast.

Some white people say there can not be any black Israelites

Some white people say there can not be any black Israelites. Some black people say there can not be any white Israelites. After researching without prejudice I have discovered there are white & black Israelites both being of the same blood. If a black guy marries a white woman & has white kids (as I've seen before) they are not any less the black guy's kids because they're white. The same is the other way around.

Israel has, to date, not recognized the Igbo as one of the Lost Tribes of Israel. It took many years before the Chief Rabbinate recognized the Bnei Menashe as Jews, and it is thought that in due time the Igbo will also be recognized as descendants of Israel. One of the theories as to why Israel is reluctant to recognize the Igbo is because it has enjoyed good relations with Nigeria, and as the Igbo are a seccessionist tribe, recognizing them as part of Israel may injure political and economic ties between the two countries.

White Jews from the State of Israel are of the same genetic of origin as black Jews abroad & the DNA proves it.

From a quick search amongst the tipical black African hats the Ibo hats are the one one that resemble the most like the kippah.

The obsession that the Jews have with planting trees is also found among the Ibos. Should we consider the Israelites as the first treehuggers (ecologists)?

The Ebo, consist of the tribes of Gad, Zebulun, Ephraim and Issachar.

Ijaw (also known by the subgroups "Ijo" or "Izon") are a collection of peoples indigenous mostly to the forest regions of the Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers States within the Niger Delta in Nigeria. Some are resident in Akwa-Ibom, Edo, and Ondo states also in Nigeria. Many are found as migrant fishermen in camps as far west as Sierra Leone and as far east as Gabon along the Western Africa coastline.

The Ijo people number about an estimated 3.4 million. They have long lived in locations near many sea trade routes, and they were well connected to other areas by trade as early as the 15th century.

                                                            Ijaw/Ijo/Izon tribes

It is believed by some that the descendants of Arodi are the peoples and tribes of: Ibibios, Efik, Anang, Ogoni, Afikpo, Abakariki, Umon, Yako, Nembe, and Arochukwu.

What Israel says about the Igbo?

We know since at least 1789 CE that Jews have been interested in the possible Igbo-Israel connection when a former Igbo slave named Olauda Equiano, living in London first proposed the Igbo-Israel relationship in his autobiography. Some Igbos, including a Dr. Ikedife recalls Israelis visiting Igboland and investigating such claims during the Biafran War.

Prophecy states:

Jer. 16:14-16 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. 

It basically says that a hunt would be on one day for the lost tribes scattered abroad. This prophecy has been and is still being fulfilled.

Under direction of Israeli Prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, in October of 1995 and in May 1997 under Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli government sent delegates, looking for a long lost brother Eri. They went to Nigeria, state to state, town to town, tribe to tribe, quietly observed to see if any recognizable Hebraic traits or customs will pop out. When they made it to Obu-Gad their search ended as they seen the Igbo there display Hebraic-ness in their culture. They even seen the ancient stone throne of Gad and immediately recognized the script at the foot of the throne as Paleo-Hebrew. They also visited many sites that have been connected to Eri and the Igbo people. This was documented on film and later shown on Israeli Television. I have been given a DVD copy of this documentary by Eze A.E. Chukuwuemeka-Eri.

On March 28th 1996 Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria visited Nri and cried acknowledging that the Igbo’s were among the Lost Tribes of Israel. Before he left he gave Eze Nri a gift of olives and oil stating that such gifts were only given to Kings of Israel.

In October 23rd 1997 Yitzhaq David an American Jew and Program Director of King Solomon Sephardic Federation was televised visiting the King in Nwewi (Also a King I have personally visited myself, pictured below), Igwe Kenneth Orizu III. It was said during that visit by Zagi David, another delegate which came with the K.S.S.F. “After much research work on the origin of the Igbos, the archaeological findings indicate that Israel is the true home and they should make a quick come back for historical reunion.” 

Today in Israel there is an Igbo synagogue in Tel Aviv. The problem is not necessarily are Igbo’s Hebrews, the issue is how the Israeli government recognize will recognize those Igbo who make Aliyah to Israel. For now they return as converts, but the Igbos want to return being officially recognized as Hebrews. Converts would imply they were never really of Gad, they want to officially be recognized as a Lost Tribe who has been found and is coming home.

What Others Have to Say about the Igbo Being of Israel

“Ibo Tribe of Nigeria”

The wild landscapes of Africa, its exotic rhythms and mask dances provide the picturesque background for this tribe, who believes itself to be the descendants of the Israelite tribe of Gad.

They have numerous legends which explain their origins, many of which don’t exactly fit in with the others.  But this doesn’t seem to bother the Ibo, whose powerful faith allows them the flexibility of accepting what is considered by Western man as a logical contradiction. They interpret their name “Ibo” as a mispronounced “Hebrew” and till today, the members pray to “Chuku Abiama” - Abraham’s God. The Ibos, well known for their struggle for independence in the Biafra war, are now considered the “Jews of Nigeria” and have contributed greatly to the intellectual and economic development in that country.”

Outreach to Nigerian Jews by the wider Jewish world community gained official status in 1995 – 1997, when Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin sent a team to Nigeria in search of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Western rabbis and educators such as Rabbi Gorin have visited the community at times and Jewish communities in the West support those in Nigeria by sending books, computers, and religious articles. However, the State of Israel has, to date, not officially recognized the Igbo as one of the Lost Tribes.

In 2004-2008, Rabbi Yaacov Behrman made numerous trips to Nigeria to help the Israeli community with Jewish community development. During those visits Rabbi Behrman met with Igbo leaders and visited their community centers. Rabbi Behrman concluded that they lack evidence and refused to recognize them as Jews.”

Israel Today originally reported in 2006 how Chief Rabbinate recognized the Ebos as sons of Israel descended from Gad. And indeed, there is an Ebo-Gad community in Tel Aviv Israel who have their own synagogue. There has been great debates in the Israeli courts, secular and religious regarding the identity of the Igbo’s; many immigration and deportation legal battles. The argument is not necessarily are they truly of Gad, but should they be considered returnees or new converts and it was eventually decided to allow them to make Aliyah as a returning tribe.

Har Ararets magazine in Oct, 12, 2005 article declared the Igbos to be sons of Israel through Gad. Dr. G.T. Basden, an Anglican missionary and anthropologist, along with Prof. Elisabeth Isichei an Australian historian and Melville Merrskovits, an American writer all strongly believe there is enough evidences to link the Igbo’s of Nigeria to the Israeli tribe of Gad. Among Igbo authorities, Prof. O. Alezi and ex-slave Olaudah (Ikwuano) Equiano also believed without a doubt that the Igbos were descendants of Gad.

In several editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica in 1929 connects the Igbo people to Gad. A Torah commentary on Sh’mot in 1922 makes the Igbo-Gad connection also.

The Efik people also often referred to as Efik Eburutu, Eburutu, or Eburu

The Efik people were often referred to as Efik Eburutu. Eburutu (or Eburu) being a corruption of the word “Hebrew,” and Ututu which is one of the early settlements of the Efik people in the coastal southeastern part of Nigeria.

The Efik are an ethnic group located primarily in southeastern Nigeria. 'Efik' is also the name of their language which is a variation of the Ibibio language. The Efik migrated down the Cross River from Cameroon in the 16th century and founded numerous settlements in the Calabar area in present-day Cross River State. This area along with present-day Akwa Ibom State are usually referred to as Calabar, and Calabar people accordingly, after the European name Calabar Kingdom given to their state of Akwa Akpa. Calabar is not to be confused with the Kalabari Kingdom in Rivers State which is an Ijaw state to its west. Cross River State and Akwa Ibom State were formerly one of the original twelve states of Nigeria known as the Southeastern State.

                                                                      Eburutus or Efiks

The Efik people as well as their Annang and Ibibio brothers and sisters also occupy Southwestern Cameroon including Bakassi. While in the then Eastern Region of Nigeria prior to the civil war, the region allowed Southwestern Cameroon to be partitioned out of Nigeria into Cameroon through the 1961 plebiscite which divided them (Efik, Ibibio and Annang) into Nigeria and Cameroon.

The Efik people speak the Efik Language. Various dialects of their language include Oron, Biase, Annang and Ibibio, Eket (Ekid) a subgroup of Ibibio was also one recognised dialect of the people. The Efik/Eburu are 568,000 people.

The Annang or Anaang

The Annang (also spelled Anaang) is a cultural and ethnic group that lives in the Coastal Southeast Nigeria (also known as Southeastern Nigeria or former Southeastern State of Nigeria). At present, the Annangs have eight local government areas of the present thirty-one local government areas in Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria (Akwa Ibom State Local Government Areas), namely Abak, Essien Udim, Etim Ekpo, Ika, Ikot Ekpene, Obot Akara, Oruk Anam and Ukanafun in the Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria. They were formerly located in the former Abak and Ikot Ekpene Divisions of the Annang Province, in the former Eastern Region of Nigeria.

The Annang people are located in the Coastal Southeastern Nigeria and Southwestern Cameroon which was a part of the present Akwa Ibom State and Cross River State. However, during the then Nigerian Regional era, the then Eastern Region of Nigeria allowed Southwestern Cameroon to be partitioned out of Nigeria into Cameroon through the 1961 plebiscite. In this action the Annang, Efik and Ibibio people were divided into Nigeria and Cameroon.

Annang society is patriarchal. Individuals locate their place in the social world from the Idip, literally translated as, womb. Thus a brother/sister from the same Idip means that they can trace their origin to the same mother or father. Since polygamy is practised in the society, those who can so trace their ancestry to the same parents form Ufok (literally a house or compound). Several ufoks make up Ekpuks or extended family and several Ekpuks (extended families) make up "Idung" (meaning village) and several villages make up the "abie" or clan. The Anaang are 2,367,000 people.

Leadership at the family, lineage, village, or clan level remains the prerogative of the men, and lineage ties extends to women even after marriage. There are many societies and associations (URIM) for men and women which are very important in traditional village life. Individuals are measured by both the number and types of memberships in Urim and by the achievements of one or more Urims. Governance is done by elderly males who act as the legislative arm called Afe Isong, directed by the Obong or Abong Ichong (Village Chief and Clan Chief) who is the head and the chief executive 

                                                                         Annang elders

The Annangs have a rich oral tradition. It is believed that the group have their origins in Egypt and settled in Ghana before arriving in the present area. The name Annang in Twi in Ghana means fourth son. It is believed that Annangs started their migration from Egypt around 7500 BC. The Abiakpo came to the northern range of Annang from Eka Abiakpo. They were quickly followed by the Ukana clan, the Utu, Ekpu, Ebom and Nyama (The British would lumped these together and gave the name Otoro), and other Annang clans.

Oral tradition has it that the Annang and the entire people of akwa Ibom and Cross River States of Nigeria (AKwaCross people) have occupied their land in the coastal Southeastern Nigeria thousands of years before the birth of Christ.

The same oral tradition has it that their ancestors were Israelites (Jews) of the Northern Kingdom who left Israel to Egypt before the Babylonian captivity and that the ancestors of the Annangs and other people of Akwa Ibom and Cross River States (the Efik, the Ibibio, etc.) of Nigeria were the products of marriages of the people of Israel and Egyptians who migrated from Egypt to their coastal southeastern land in Nigeria via Ethiopia and Sudan.

The Ibibio people

The Ibibio are a people of southeastern Nigeria. They are related to the Anaang and the Efik peoples. During colonial period in Nigeria, the Ibibio Union asked for recognition by the British as a sovereign nation. The Annang, Efik, Ekid, Oron and Ibeno share personal names, culture, and traditions with the Ibibio, and speak closely related varieties of Ibibio-Efik.

The Ibibio have lived in the Cross River area of modern day Nigeria for several hundred years, and while written information about them only exists in colonial records from the late 19th century on, oral traditions have them in the region much earlier than this.

"Ibio-ibio" means short or brief and doesn't have anything to do with "ulok" and while it is called "ufok" by some other Ibibio groups. The name "Ikot" often replaces "the house of... or the people of ", referring to their origin or ancesstors. Another meaning for Ikot in Ibibio land is bush.

Ibibio religion was of two dimensions, which centered on the pouring of libation, worship, consultation, communication and invocation of the God of Heaven (Abasi Enyong; Elohim?) and God of the Earth (Abasi Isong; Satan?). The Ibibio are over 5 million people.

Igala people

The Igalas have Israelite origin as their Ibo neighbors. They have a town called Idah which relates to Judah. It doesn't seem to be by chance that that the name Igala is so close to the Hebrew name Igal (Yigal, Yig'al). In modern Hebrew, the name "יגאָל" sounds just like the verb "יגאַל" (the future tense masculine singular form of the verb לגאול [lig'ol]), which means: (he) will liberate. Igal is the name of one of the spies Moses sent to search Canaan. This is also the name of one of King David's heros.

Numbers 13, 1-7 "And the Lord spake unto Moses saying: Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan which I give unto the children of Israel, of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them... Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph." 

                                                          Igala territory in Nigeria

Igala are an ethnic group of Nigeria. Igala practice a number of different religions, including animism, Christianity, and Islam.

The home of the Igala people is situated east of the river Niger and Benue confluence and astride the Niger in Lokoja, Kogi state of Nigeria. The area is approximately between latitude 6°30 and 8°40 north and longitude 6°30 and 7°40 east and covers an area of about 13,665 square kilometers (Oguagha P.A 1981) The Igala population is estimated at two million, they can also be found in Delta, Anambra and Edo States of Nigeria. The Igala language is closely related to the Yoruba and Itsekiri languages.

The Igalas are ruled by a figure called the "Attah". The word Attah means 'Father' and the full title of the ruler is 'Attah Igala', meaning, the Father of Igalas (the Igala word for King is Onu). Although "Attah" means "father"', female rulership is recognized and Igala has had female rulers in the past (Boston 1968). Among the most revered Attahs of the Igala kingdom are Attah Ayegba Oma Idoko and Atta Ameh Oboni. According to oral tradition, Attah Ayegba Oma Idoko offered his most beloved daughter, Inikpi to ensure that the Igalas win a war of liberation from the Jukuns' dominance. Attah Ameh Oboni is known to be very brave and resolute. He is revered for his stiff resistance of the British and his struggles to uphold some ancient traditions of the Igalas. When he got wind of a plan to depose and exile him by the British, he committed suicide by hanging himself to forestall the plan, he is regarded by most Igalas as the last real Attah Igala. There is an Igala association in the United States, called Igala Association USA. The new Attah of Igala is HRM Idakwo Michael Ameh Oboni II.

The traditional Igala society is largely agrarian, although fishing is also a mainstay of the people especially the Igalas of the riverine Idah area.

Boston (1968) believes that the central geographical location of the Igala people has exposed them to a wide variety of linguistic as well as cultural influences from other ethnic groups in the country. Notable among these are the Igbira, the Bini, the Igbo, the Hausa, the Idoma and the Yoruba ethnic groups. However, the most significant relationship, by far, is that between the Igala and the Yoruba peoples.

Ebonyi State

Ebonyi State is a state of Nigeria, in the south of the Eastern region. It is inhabited and populated primarily by Igbo. Its capital and largest city is Abakaliki. It is one of the six states created in 1996 by the Abacha government. Ebonyi was created from parts of both Enugu State and Abia State. It is the location of the Federal College of Agriculture, Ishiagu.

There are nine primary languages spoken in Ebonyi State: Afikpo, Mgbo, Izzi, Ezaa (Eza means raise in Hebrew), Ikwo, Kukele, Legbo, Mbembe, and Oring. These languages are all subgroups of the Igbo language and are commonly spoken throughout south eastern Nigeria.

Ebonyi is primarily an agricultural region. It is a leading producer of rice, yam, potatoes, maize, beans, and cassava in Nigeria. Rice and yams are predominantly cultivated in Edda, a region within the state. Ebonyi has several solid mineral resources, including lead, crude oil, and natural gas, but few large-scale commercial mines. The state government has, however, given several incentives to investors in the agro-allied sector to encourage production. Ebonyi is called "the salt of the nation" (as Israelites, the Igbos are the salt of the earth) for its huge salt deposit at the Okposi and Uburu Salt Lakes (Israelites are often close salt lakes). 

The Tribe of Asher and the Igbo

Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties. - Gen. 49:20

And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be. – Deut. 33:24-25

Asher is also said to be among the Igbos and this is a strong possibility because Gad and Asher were brothers, they had the same mother, the handmaid Zilpah.

The Jewish virtual library says that Eldad the Danite claims Asher to be one of the Tribes who made it to Africa along with Gad, Dan and Naphtali. The JVL also tells of a theory that Zebulun and Asher traveled from North Africa to West Africa either by Jewish trading caravans or by way of Carthage who some believe were descendants of Zebulun and Asher (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Nigeria.html)

Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties. - Gen. 49:20

Asher is spoken of as catering to the luxury of Kings in food and accessories. They are the miner or mining tribe. This could indicate the Igbos and other African and white South Africans who mine diamonds and precious metals and stones fit for royal diadems.

Other British Israelite theorists place a part of Asher in the British Isles.

The Scattering of the 10 Tribes

There is an imbalanced view fueled by racial prejudice and supremacy that says the Lost Tribes either have to be black or white. They have to be found either in Africa or the Northern Hemisphere of Europe and the Americas. You have the two opposing camps of Black Hebrewism and British Israelitism. Both have their extremists and bias embellished propaganda, and both equally have their grains of researchable and verifiable truth. I have no problem accepting that a portion of both camps are true. Why? Because the 10 tribes which made up the Northern Kingdom of Israel that went off into Assyrian captivity has never returned and these peoples were transported, sold, traded, migrated, scattered and settled everywhere; having mingled through marriage and assimilation into virtually every people group on the planet and thus Hebrews have become a part of virtually every nationality, and ethnicity. 

Though portions of Judah and Levi has been scattered with the other 10 tribes, who we recognize as Jews today come from Judah and Levi who went off into Babylonian captivity and eventually returned and this is who we recognize as Jews today.

Many of Shem’s line married into the dark complexion of the Hammitic line, genetically producing dark skinned Hebrews. But through the two captivities and scattering in the diaspora, Hebrews (Israelites) and Jews, as I said earlier, have mingled with many peoples of the world and have migrated to unfamiliar climates and through the centuries some Jews and Hebrews/Israelites have lost much of the darker skin tone and so we have descendants of Jacob (Israel) of every color, shape and size. I believe HaShem has allowed this to happen to break down racial barriers and the dividing wall between Jew/Hebrew/Israelite and Gentile and as a way of reversing the effects of the Tower of Babel. Instead we have perverted this purpose to fortify disgusting racist diatribes. Therefore, it would be prejudice and foolhardy of us to dismiss either side of the debate because of issues of bias or race. Let us glean the truth that inherently resides in both sides of the issue. 

Where in the World is Zebulon?

We know according to Revelation that in the End of Days Zebulun will be found and accounted for.

Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. – Rev. 7:8a

So where will they be found?

Some speculate that he is in Nigeria among the Igbos and Ijaws. Others say he ended up in Holland, also known as the Netherlands as well as South Africa. Are any of these claims true? Granted, hard evidence is difficult to come by, but the circumstantial evidence is incredibly striking and compelling, so much so that it makes claiming sheer coincidence sound as if one is grasping desperately at straws to deny the plain and clear truth and succor their own religiously prejudice views.

Zebulon in West Africa; Nigeria:

It is said that Ijaw (Ujo) was a traveling companion of Eri, Areli and Adodi as they fled Egypt. Oral tradition states that Ijaw is a son or some descendant of Zebulon. Others say he came from Egypt, which is where Eri and his traveling companions set out from! However, Ijaw is not listed in any Canonical Biblical genealogies that I could find. But this should come as no surprise as one person could go by different names and it may be that Ijaw was known by another name in Biblical Writ. Or it could be Ijaw was a son of one of Zebulun's sons, and there for not recorded in any Biblical genealogy. He was said to be the water scout and river navigator of the group, and even today the Ijaw (Ijo, Izon) tribe and land can be found near water and many are fishermen.

Ijaw (Ijo, Ojo, Ejo, Ujo, Izon) means, “Real, Good or Palm tree;” could this relate to Zebuon’s son Elon, meaning, “Oak Grove”? Could this Ijaw be Elon or Ilon or at least a descendant of his? 

We know from history that the Ijaw and Igbo are fierce warriors as well as the people in general have a positive or “expectant” attitude toward the work of the divine in their life, no matter how bad things get around them.

Could it be that Elon/Ilon, Sered and Jahleel or at least their descendants traveled with Gad’s sons Eri, Areli and Arodi to Nigeria?

Some Ubulu in Igboland Nigeria claim that they know they came from Zebulon.  Ubulu in Igbo is the name of and means a “huge tree,” could this relate to Zebuon’s son Elon, meaning, “Oak Grove”? I ask, could Ubulu be named after Elon or Ilon of Zebulun or at least a descendant of his?  The word in Igbo zebulu means to protect, hide or save oneself.  This sort of relates to the Hebraic meaning of Zebulon, dwelling and habitation, because both carry the connotation of a hidden and protective place. 

Ubulu oral tradition states categorically that the grand-parents of Ezemu (a famous Hunter, Marksman and Herbalist) migrated from Israel and settled at Ife hence Ezemu was often referred to as the king with long hairs – “Ezi Isi Iyomiyo”. From Ife Ezemu and his relations migrated to Afor a village in present day Ndokwa Local Government Area of Delta State. (http://www.nairaland.com/63003/origin-ubulu-uku) 

“Legend that one of the descendants of Eri (from Gad) who first settled in Onitsha, at the bank of River Niger, near the domain of his relatives from the descendants of Zebulun (Ozubulu in Anambra State) had to travel across the River Niger to the ancient city of Benin or kingdom to prepare war medicine, talisman or charm for a prospective contender to the stool of Oba of Benin.” -  Prof. O. Alaezi, Ibo Exodus, pg.  25 – italics mine 

“The Igbo Jews are said to have migrated from Syrian, Portuguese and Libyan Israelites into West Africa. Historical records shows that this migration started around 740 C.E. According to UCLA trained amateur Jewish Historian and Rio Hondo Police Academy trained Forensic investigator Chinedu Nwabunwanne of Aguleri, who resides in Los Angeles and has researched this subject for more than 15 years at the UCLA libraries in Los Angeles, "the migration started when the forces of Caliph Mohammed -the last leader of the Umayyads- and his Qaysi-Arab supportes defeated the Yamani-Arab Umayyads of Syria in 744 C.E; sacked the Yamanis and their Jewish supporters from Syria. The Syrian-Jewish migrant tribes Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher resettled in Nigeria where they became known as Sambatyon Jews. In 1484 and 1667 Judeans and Zebulonians from Portugal and Libya respectively joined Sambatyon Jews of Nigeria. Thus, Nigerian Jews originated from the following six Israelite tribes: Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher and Zebulon. It is interesting to note that these six tribes are the same tribes Moses repeated their names twice when he blessed the Children of Israel. These six tribes mentioned above are The House of Judah and the children of Israel his companions (Ezekiel 37:16. Those remaining six tribes not mentioned above are The House of Ephraim and the children of Israel his companion (Ezekiel 37:16)."”

The tribe of Zevulun ben-Ya`aqov (Zebulun), who was the sixth son of Ya`aqov (Jacob). These groups comprise the Ubulu Okiti and 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, who was descended from the Tribe of Judah, and from this union was born Ozubulu ben-Zebulunu. Ozubulu then went on to have four sons of his own who settled in other regions. These sons were: Amakwa, from whom a clan in Neni, Anambra State is descended, and Egbema, from whom the Egbema Ugwuta clan in Imo State and the Ohaji Egbema clan in Rivers State are descended. - http://www.transparencyng.com/index.php/about-nigeria/49-ethnic-groups/1290-the-igbo- 

It has also been suggested that the Jewish Ibo people originated from a migration of Israelites who fled to West Africa. They claim to be descended from three tribes; Zebulon, Gad and Manasseh (Hebrew Qaraim Community). - http://www.helium.com/items/1432748-nigerian-history-history-of-the-ibo-people 

The Igbo Jews traditionally claim descent from three particular Israelite tribes: Gad, Zevulun, and Menashe. The Jews of Manipur and Mizoram, the Bnei Menashe, also claim descent from the tribe of Menashe. It is thought that these Jews fled to Africa after the destruction of the biblical Temples in Jerusalem and established communities all across the African continent. - http://www.mywesternwall.net/2012/06/01/igbo-jews-fascinating.html 

It should be noted that the majority of Ndi Igbo can be traced back to Gad through his sons Eri, Areli and Arodi, or Levi who became the Nri priests.  A small percentage stake claim to Judah, Zebulon, and some even believe they are from Manasseh, Asher, Dan and even Naphtali. But we see in ancient Israel that at times Benjamin and Simeon were a small remnant living among Judah and were thus absorbed into Judah. In similar fashion these other tribes which make up the Igbo have been absorbed into the majority of Gad.  Prof. O. Alaezi in his book “Ibo Exodus” also recognizes this custom. “Other exiled Hebrews descendants (e.g. Judah and Zebulun) are not as many and have been swallowed up by the Eris.” 

  Zebulun in Holland and South Africa and their connection to the Igbo’s and Ijaws:

There are those who prescribe to the British Israelite theory that the 10 Lost Tribes scattered north and spread throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas. 

Steven M. Collins and Yair Davidiy are the two main proponents of British Israelitism, though not agreeing 100% with their views, as well as not agreeing with 100% of Black Hebrewism views, I have stuck to the uncanny connections that ties Zebulon to both camps and allow the reader to decide for themselves where Zebulon is.

To get a clue why some feel Zebulon made it to Holland (Netherlands); we must first look at the prophecies given about them by Jacob and Moses.  These prophecies will give us clues to their whereabouts in the last days.

Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon. – Gen. 49:13

And of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out; and, Issachar, in thy tents. They shall call the people unto the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness: for they shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of treasures hid in the sand. – Deut. 33:18-19

Because the prophecies connect Zebulon to the coast and the sea and one should look to famous and heavily trafficked sea ports one of which is the port of Rotterdam in Holland. It handles the largest freight in the world and is considered the gateway of Europe.  It should also be noted that Ijaws and Igbos who claim Zebulonic descendancy also live close to and on the coast. In fact Ijaws pagan expression of worship is tied to water and water spirits. Ijaws are known as fishermen and tradesmen in Nigeria. Many live in the Delta and River states that are close to the sea.

The phrase in Gen. 49:13, “haven of the sea” can mean shelter and or refuge and Holland, via its system of dikes is quite literally “sheltered” from the sea. This same phrase also lends to the fact as mentioned before of Holland’s great and world renowned sea ports.

Moses’ prophecy (Deut. 33:18-19) speaks of the “sucking of the abundance of the sea” and “treasures hidden in sand.” It is of interest to note that the Dutch of Holland literally “sucked out” the sea with their system of dikes and windmills which made the land “abundantly” fertile. The treasure in the sand is believed to be the black gold, the oil that the Royal Dutch Shell company has “sucked” from its “hiding” place in the sand.  It also should be noted that Nigeria is also an oil rich country, especially in the places where the Zebulonite Igbo’s and Ijaws live! And Ducth oil companies have set up shop in oil rich Nigerai too. 

Some even feel that the description of Zebulun’s “borders” being “Zidon” is also a clue, because the word for border also means thigh which includes the pubic region. Many feel this hints of the Holland being the “red light district” of the world with its abundance of pornography, prostitution and tolerance of sexual promiscuity. Zebulon’s territory in the Promised Land was previously occupied by the ancient S(Z)idonian fertility cults of Baal and Ashtaroth.  The Wicked Queen Jezebel, known as a sexual temptress was a S(Z)idonian.

It should also be brought to the reader’s attention that the tribal symbol for Zebulon is the Ship which fits well with the Dutch, the Ijaw and a portion of the Igbo who claim Zebulon is their forefather.  

The Dutch Coat of arms of the original seven provinces of the Netherlands (1579) is a ship with a Bible on its prow.

Their Levitical breastplate stone some say was the diamond and many Dutch relocated and colonized South Africa and are in the diamond mine and trade business; so would say is an  amazing coincidence.  I am one who does not believe in mere coincidence.  And though diamonds are not known to be found in Nigeria, Amethysts are and are mined! Recall that this is the other gem supposedly in the Levitical breastplate that represents Zebulun.

Linguistically speaking it is said that Middle East people who may have possibly been related to the Sidonians of Phoenicia settled around Holland and Belgium and are believed by some to be the ancestors of the Dutch which would include Hebraic ancestors from Zebulon because of the mingling of the Zebulonites and Sidonians in the Promised Land. And it is obvious that the Zebulonites were influenced by the pagan ways of the Sidonians and hence why the L-RD took them away into captivity. 

The Sabalingoi of ancient Frisia which is north of Holland is said to mean Zebulon’s People or the Nation of Zebulon; Sabalin = Zebulon and Goi = from the Hebrew, meaning people or nation.

Davidiy explains through linguistics that he believes that the Chali which were the people north of the Sabalingoi were descendants of Jahleel and that the Suardeni were the descendants of Sered and the Alans the children of Elon. 

The Amish culture and religion, though “Christian” is very Jewish in its dress, traditions and customs and way of life. Many Dutch Amish have Jewish last names and or married Jewish women; this would never happen if the Jewish communities of the Holland did not see the Amish as “brethren” i.e. blood relation. 

With what has been presented, I do believe it is very likely that Zebulon and his sons ended up both in Africa and in Northern Europe. The linguistics, region and character traits of the peoples mention do fit the Jacobic and Mosaic prophecies concerning them.  I personally would like to see more hard, archeological evidence or become more familiar with the oral traditions of said lpeoples so as to better tie these people to Zebulon or totally rule them out. 

All I know and believe is that there are people roaming the earth to day who are Hebrews and don’t even know it, after all the 10 tribes had to go somewhere, they just didn’t die off or disappear!  That would mean G-D is unable to keep His promises and it would mean the Scriptures are a lie and we know G-D and His Word is TRUTH manifest!  So why not the Ijaw, the Igbo and the Dutch?

Tutsi

The Tutsi (/ˈtʊtsi/; Rwanda-Rundi pronunciation: [tūtsī]), or Abatutsi, are an ethnic group inhabiting the African Great Lakes region. Historically, they were often referred to as the Watutsi, Watusi, or the Wahuma. The Tutsi form a subgroup of the Banyarwanda and the Barundi peoples, who reside primarily in Rwanda and Burundi, but with significant populations also found in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania.

They are the second largest population division among the three largest groups in Rwanda and Burundi, the other two being the Hutu (largest) and the Twa (smallest). Small numbers of Hema, Kiga and Furiiru people also live near the Tutsi in Rwanda. The Northern Tutsi that reside in Rwanda are called Ruguru (Banyaruguru), while southern Tutsi that live in Burundi are known as Hima, and the Tutsi that inhabit the Kivu plateau in the Congo go by Banyamulenge.

The definitions of "Hutu" and "Tutsi" people may have changed through time and location. Social structures were not stable throughout Rwanda, even during colonial times under the Belgian rule. The Tutsi aristocracy or elite was distinguished from Tutsi commoners, and wealthy Hutu were often indistinguishable from upper-class Tutsi.

When the European colonists conducted censuses, they wanted to identify the people throughout Rwanda-Burundi according to a simple classification scheme. They defined "Tutsi" as anyone owning more than ten cows (a sign of wealth) or with the physical feature of a longer nose, or longer neck, commonly associated with the Tutsi.

The Europeans believed that some Tutsis had facial characteristics that were generally atypical of other Bantus. They sought to explain these purported divergent physical traits by postulating admixture with or partial descent from migrants of Caucasoid stock, who usually were said to have arrived in the Great Lakes region from the Horn of Africa and/or North Africa.

By contrast, the Europeans considered the majority Hutu to be characteristic Bantu people of Central African origin.

The Tutsi have lived in the areas where they are for at the very least hundreds of years, leading to considerable intermarriage with the Bantu / Hutu people in the area. Due to the history of intermingling and intermarrying of Hutus and Tutsis, ethnographers and historians have lately come to agree that Hutu and Tutsis cannot be properly called distinct ethnic groups.

Y-DNA (paternal lineages)

Modern-day genetic studies of the Y-chromosome suggest that the Tutsi, like the Hutu, are largely of Bantu extraction (80% E1b1a, 15% B, 4% E3). Paternal genetic influences associated with the Horn of Africa and North Africa are few (1% E1b1b), and are ascribed to much earlier inhabitants who were assimilated. However, the Tutsi have considerably more Nilo-Saharan paternal lineages (14.9% B) than the Hutu (4.3% B).

Prior to the arrival of colonists, Rwanda had been ruled as a Tutsi dominated monarchy. Beginning in about 1880, Roman Catholic missionaries arrived in the Great Lakes region. Later, when German forces occupied the area during World War I, the conflict and efforts for Catholic conversion became more pronounced. As the Tutsi resisted conversion, the missionaries found success only among the Hutu. In an effort to reward conversion, the colonial government confiscated traditionally Tutsi land and reassigned it to Hutu tribes.

The area was ruled as a colony by Germany (before World War I) and Belgium. Because Tutsis had been the traditional governing elite, both colonial powers kept this system and allowed only the Tutsi to be educated and only they could participate in the colonial government. Such discriminatory policies engendered resentment.

When the Belgians took over the colony, they believed the colony could be better governed if they continued to identify the different populations. In the 1920s, they required people to identify with a particular ethnic group and classified them in censuses. European colonists viewed Africans in general as children who needed to be guided, but noted the Tutsi to be the ruling culture in Rwanda-Burundi.

In 1959, Belgium reversed its stance and allowed the majority Hutu to assume control of the government through universal elections after independence. This partly reflected internal Belgian domestic politics, in which the discrimination against the Hutu majority came to be regarded as similar to oppression within Belgium suffered from the Flemish-Walloon conflict, and the democratization and empowerment of the Hutu as a just response to the Tutsi domination. Belgian policies wavered and flip-flopped considerably during this period leading up to independence of Burundi and Rwanda.

The Hutu majority in Rwanda had revolted against the Tutsi but was unable to take power. Tutsis fled and created exile communities outside Rwanda in Uganda and Tanzania. Since Burundi's independence, more extremist Tutsi came to power and oppressed the Hutus, especially those who were educated. Their actions led to the deaths of up to 200,000 Hutus. Overt discrimination from the colonial period was continued by different Rwandan and Burundian governments, including identity cards that distinguished Tutsi and Hutu.

In 1993, Burundi's first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu, was assassinated by Tutsi officers, as was the person entitled to succeed him under the constitution. This sparked a genocide in Burundi between Hutu political structures and the Tutsi military, in which "possibly as many as 25,000 Tutsi" were murdered by the former and "at least as many" were killed by the latter. Since the 2000 Arusha Peace Process, today in Burundi the Tutsi minority shares power in a more or less equitable manner with the Hutu majority. Traditionally, the Tutsi had held more economic power and controlled the military.

A similar pattern of events took place in Rwanda, but there the Hutu came to power in 1962. They in turn often oppressed the Tutsi, who fled the country. After the anti-Tutsi violence around 1959-1961, Tutsis fled in large numbers. In 1965, 130,000 (one third of all Tutsis) lived in exile in Zaire, Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi.

These exile Tutsi communities gave rise to Tutsi rebel movements. Exiled Tutsis attacked Rwanda in 1990 with the intention of liberating Rwanda. The fighting culminated in the Hutu mass killings of Tutsi and Hutu in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, in which the Hutu then in power killed an estimated 500,000–1,000,000 people, largely of Tutsi origin.

At the same time in 1994, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), mostly made up of diasporic Tutsi in Uganda, advanced to Rwanda. It had experience in organized irregular warfare from the Ugandan Bush War, and got much support from the government of Uganda. The initial RPF advance was halted by the lift of French arms to the Rwandan government. Attempts at peace culminated in the Arusha Accords. The agreement broke down after the assassination of the Rwandan and Burundian Presidents. Victorious in the aftermath of the genocide, the RPF came to power in July 1994.

Tutsis speak Rwanda-Rundi as their native tongue, which is a member of the Bantu subgroup of the Niger–Congo language family. Rwanda-Rundi is subdivided into the Kinyarwanda and Kirundi dialects, which have been standardized as official languages of Burundi and Rwanda. It is also spoken as a mother tongue by the Hutu and Twa. Additionally, many Tutsis speak French, the third official language of Rwanda and Burundi, as their lingua franca. The Hima speak the same language, but call their language Hima.

Contrary to some erroneous writings, the Banyamulenge are neither an ethnic group nor a tribe from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The term Banyamulenge, which means people of Mulenge in Kinyarwanda, is rather a collective denomination of descendants of Tutsi migrants from Rwanda most of whom are concentrated on the Itombwe Plateau of South Kivu, close to the Burundi-Congo-Rwanda border. This term owes its origins to Fuliiru village, which, in 1924, received the first group of Tutsi migrants before their dispersion in the highlands of South Kivu, where they were later joined, from 1959 to 1962 by successive waves of Tutsi refugees fleeing persecution. Its use has been controversial, but since the late 1990s, following the Rwanda Genocide, it has been used by Congolese Tutsi, formally known as Banyarwanda (people of Rwanda) to avoid being seen as foreigners.

The Banyamulenge have an ambiguous political and social position in Congo, which has been an issue of contention with other ethnic groups. They played a key role in the run-up to the First Congo War in 1996-7 and Second Congo War of 1998-2003.

The Basaas

Basaa could derive from the toponym Bashan ("smooth"), a region East of the Jordan. Bashan extended from Gilead in the south to Hermon in the north, and from the Jordan river on the west to Salcah on the east. Along with the half of Gilead it was given to the half-tribe of Manasseh (Joshua 13:29–31 ). Golan, one of its cities, became a Levitical city and a city of refuge (Joshua 21:27 ). That might make the Basaa tribe as the offspring of Manassah. In modern Hebrew basa means "too bad!" & it's an expresion taken from Arabic.

The Bassa (also spelled Basa or Basaa and sometimes known as Bassa-Bakongo) are a Bantu ethnic group in Cameroon. They number approximately 230,000 individuals. The Bassa speak the Basaa language as a mother tongue, which belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger–Congo language family.

For centuries, the Bassa lived along the Atlantic coast of what is now Cameroon. They lived of subsistence farming and fishing.

The Bassa were displaced by Duala and early European traders, suffering exploitation and marginalization during the era of German Kamerun. Their fishing and farming efforts shrunk. During this German era, most Bassa were anti-colonialists, fighting against German expansion beyond the coast. However, they suffered a major defeat and were subjected to forced labor in the construction of the Douala-Yaoundé "Mittel Kamerun" railway.

Throughout the era of European colonial presence, the Bassa were able to take advantage of Christian missionaries to attain a Western-style education, particularly from German Protestants and American Presbyterians.

The Bassa played a lead role during decolonization, and the Bassa-Bakongo region was a hotbed of radical anti-colonial nationalism, particularly the Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC). However, the Bassa brand of anti-colonialism ultimately lost out during the creation of the postcolonial nation of Cameroon.

Despite their marginalization in the postcolonial state, there remains a belief in a "Nka kunde" or national liberation that has yet to occur.

The Basaa languages are a clade of Bantu languages coded Zone A.40 in Guthrie's classification. According to Nurse & Philippson (2003), the languages remaining from the formation of the Mbam group form a valid node. They are: Basaa–Kogo (Bakoko), Rombi–Bankon. Hijuk was listed as unclassified A.50 in Guthrie, but according to Ethnologue it is quite similar to Basaa.

Bankon (Abo, Abaw, Bo, Bon) is a Bantu language spoken in the Moungo department of the Littoral Province of southwestern Cameroon. It has a lexical similarity of 86% with Rombi which is spoken in the nearby Meme department of Southwest Province. Lexical similarity: 86% with Balombi (also called Barumbi, Lambi, Lombe, Lombi, Rambi, Rombi).

Bankon (Abaw, Abo, Bo, Bon) is a tribe related to Basaa and Rombi groups, located in the north of Douala city, Abo subdivision, Bonalea commune, in the Littoral region of Cameroon. The word Ban-Kon means "son of prince" in Assyrian, an Aramaic dialect. In her works The Negro-African Languages, the French scholar Lilias Homburger concluded that Bankon language is Kum. The word Kum means "arise" or "get up!" in Hebrew; the Assyrians called the House of Israel by the name of Kumri. Abo is an Arabic and Hebrew male name and a variant form of Abbas.

Are the Chagas Hebrews?

Chagas is a Jewish last name. Chaga comes from an unused Hebrew root meaning to revolve, terror, a reeling (in terror).

Chaga legends center on Ruwa and his power and assistance. Ruwa is the Chaga name for their god, as well as the Chaga word for "sun." Ruwa is not looked upon as the creator of humankind, but rather as a liberator and provider of sustenance. He is known for his mercy and tolerance when sought by his people. Some Chaga myths concerning Ruwa resemble biblical stories of the Old Testament.

The neighboring Moshi is very similar to the Hebrew Moshe.

The Kikuyu tribe was once part of Axumite empire (peripheral like Gonder)

African elders are not in a hurry when it comes to divulging their history. After many years of silence, they are revealing the proto- Gikuyu akin to the present Kikuyu community and who were known as " Kabiru” (Hebrew). They had come from Baci ( Ethiopia ) at a place called Hakum ( Axum ). They had to leave Axum because Tunyaga (the people of the Cross) or Nguo Ndune (the red costume) had conspired to steal Managi and Ikunjo (scrolls). In the escape to hide the treasure, war erupted and was fought through to Thagana ( Tana Island ). From Tana islands the war entered Somalia coast, Kaya Forests down to Kwale. In Digo, a fabricated covenant box was broken into pieces. The original Managi was presumed to have been broken into pieces to down play the interest in the search. The Seers say despite that, the war intensified as it took the direction of the mainland.

The Kabiru hurriedly buried Managi and the scrolls in secret locations in Mount Kenya. They recount how the proto-Gikuyu settled down to become the present communities around Mount Kenya. Others remained behind in the area of Coast Province. This war lasted for two generations, it fulfilled the prophesy of King David when he said "The Ethiopians will raise their hands in prayer to God". As a rule, they oriented their doors to face Mount Kenya and in payers they raised their hands up facing Mount Kenya . This reminds one of the book of Exodus Chapter 19 and 20 in the Old Testament.

Kikuyus thirst for Business and investment is not only restricted to the Kenyan Borders, their business acumen stretches across the world. Including, far flung places such as USA, S.Africa, United Kingdom etc. Kikuyus have no raw desire for power the only reason why they wish to control political happenings is to ensure that the entrepreneur spirit in them is not dampened by careless and un -favorable policies or poor governance.  Source: African elders.

Now it is clear why they are the movers and shakers of Kenyan Economy