History
*EYE WITNESSES AND ACCOUNTS OF WEST AFRICAN JEWS AND THEIR MIGRATIONS INTO WEST AFRICA
West African Jews are not a homogeneous group of people. From antiquity, it has been reported that some Jews made their route into Africa by the influence of Shelomoh ha-Melekh’s (King Solomon) son Menelekh. Legend has it, that he traveled with an entourage of Kohanim (priests), Lewi’im (Levites) and many tribes men of Israel to Ethiopia in the 9th century BCE. Eventually, giving birth to the geological location of the Beta Israel community, and arguably a few sects of the Yemenite Jewish community as well. Their presence in North East Africa gave rise to the trades, travels and migrations into West Africa, which led to the existence of Jewish communities in Cameroon, Kongo, Ghana, Nigeria and other regions of West Africa. Other Jewish groups traveled into West Africa via Egypt, Persia and Morocco as well.
Mahmud Kati, a Muslim who reported according to legends, oral traditions and documents recorded that there were several Jewish communities that existed in Ghana, Songhai, and later Mali empires. He also reported that in the third century C.E., the Kingdom of Ghana was first ruled by a dynasty of Jewish Kings known as the Za (Dja or Dia). Za was a title given to him by the natives of West Africa. Za al Yemen or Zawa Al Yaman, means, “he is of the Yemenites". This kingdom was not only considered the first Sudanese Dynasty, but the first Jewish Dynasty of West Africa. This location was near the Niger river, a major river extending about 2,600 miles which is a little greater than the distance between New York City and Los Angeles, CA., USA. See,Tarikh al-Fattash, 1600.
Abderrahman ben Abdallah es-Sadi a Muslim reporter in his manuscripts the Tarikh Al Sudan 1700, (an Arab’s record of West African History) describes that there were many communities. Some traveled from Egypt to Mali, others who had an army of men and according to these documents, some did not refer themselves as ‘Jews’, but as Bani (B’ne) Israel.
There is one such group known as the Bani Israel i.e. Bani Israel Clan Senegal Jews who converted into Islam. They no longer practice Judaism, but maintain their oral traditions as Jews.
www.jta.org/2013/05/23/life-religion/in-senegalese-bush-bani-israel-tribe-claims-jewish-heritageNahum Slouschz, a well known Ashqenazi Jewish scholar, writer, translator and archaeologist lived in the late 19th century C.E. He was an expert in the studies of Jews within the Diaspora and wrote about large Jewish communities that existed from West Sudan to the Sub-saharan part of West Africa. Travels in North Africa, Philadelphia 1927, p.227.
Eldad HaDani, lived in the 9th century C.E., and traveled from West Africa to East Africa, whose writings acknowledged the Jews of West Africa, as well those of Ethiopia is accepted as true within the Jewish Geonim, made mention of West African Jewish communities. Eldad HaDani’s works have been cited by Jewish authorities such as Rashi, RABaD, Avraham Ibn Maimon (RaMBaM’s son) and is reported to be one of the main reasons that Ovadya Yosef (the former chief Sephardic rabbi of blessed memory) politically 'validated' the Ethiopian diaspora as Jews.
Al-Sharif Al Idrisi Al Qurtubi, a Muslim geographer from in Ceuta, Spain in the 12th century, wrote extensively about Black Jews in the Western Sudan.
Ibn Khaldun, a Muslim, who lived in the 13th century C.E., a respected authority on Berber history testified about the Black Jews of Western Sudan with whom he personally interacted. The famous
Leo Africanus, a Muslim writer who lived in the 15th century C.E., wrote a book entitledDescrittione dell’ Africa (Description of Africa). In that book he reported an account of some native Africans who held ill feelings against the Hebrews/Jews that lived in regions of West Africa.
Robert Sutherland Rattray, aka Captain R. S. Rattray a European born in India, in 1881 was an author and expert on West African studies of specialized in the studies of the Ashanti people, just before the region was flooded by European colonist and missionaries. Later he was appointed head of the Anthropological Department of Asante in 1921, which was the same year that Rabbi WA Matthew founded Beth HaTefillah (Commandment Keepers) in NYC. Robert made his case, proving and wrote extensively that the Ashanti people were and are indeed Hebrews/Jews.
Joseph J. Williams was another European scholar who wrote about the West African ‘Hebrewisms’, and authored a 440 page book, entitled ‘The Hebrewisms of West Africa’, in 1930.
Mungo Park (11 September 1771 – 1806) was a Scottish explorer of the African continent. He was the first Westerner known to have traveled to the central portion of the Niger River. This is what he wrote while he was in West Africa, "I discovered that the Negroes are in possession (among others) an Arabic version of the Pentateuch of Moses, which they call the Taureta La'Musa (Torah L'Moshe). This is so highly esteemed, that it is often sold for the value of one prime slave. They have likewise a version of the Psalms of David (Zabora Dawidi). And lastly, the book of Isaiah, which they call Lingili la Isa, and it is in high esteem." Travels in the Interior District of Africa, pg. 468.
Many West African Jews Converted to Islam
As with many other Jewish communities that existed in North Africa, the sway of Islam has gained its foot hold on the political, trading and spiritual areas of West Africa. Historical records give accounts of Muslims engaged in forcing West African Jews to convert to Islam, by way of political trade arrangements, death threats and or exile. In many cases, converting into Islam in West Africa was one of the ways to protect themselves from being sold into slavery or ostracized from society. One example of this, is when Judaism became illegal in Mali in 1492, when Askia Muhammad I, declared that Jews must convert to Islam or go into exile, see Leo Africanus, Descrittione dell’ Africa. Muhammad al-Maghili, is yet another well known personality who campaigned against the West African Jews of Hausa, Fulani, and Tuareg in the 15th century C.E. In fact there are a number of historical documents that reports Berber and African tribal collaboration, which included West African Jewish communal groups, to resist Islamic attempts to proselytize and dominate their respective regions.
The Term 'Jew' in West Africa
Until the 18th century C.E., like the Beta Israel of Ethiopia and the Temani (Yemenite Jews) of Yemen, no Jew in West Africa used the term 'Jew' because such a term was unknown and did not exist prior to the 18th century C.E., more specifically in the year of 1775 C.E. Many if not all West African 'Jews', would identify themselves from Africanized Hebrew, Arabic or West African tribal terms, like Bani Israel, Igbo (Aguleri, Owerri, Umuleri, Arochukwu, just to name a few), Sefwi (of Ashanti/Akan), Ba-Saa (of Cameroon), etc.
Between being forced to convert or faced with economic convenience of adopting Islam and Christianity, most Jews that were victim of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, would not and could not identify themselves as 'Jews'. There is a case of an Igbo Jew, who was a practicing Christian, who noticed the great cultural and spiritual similarities of the Jews he encountered, with those of his own Igbo culture. This person was named Olaudah Equiano, who lived in the 18th century C.E. who stated, “I cannot forbear suggesting what has long struck me very forcibly, namely, the strong analogy which even by this sketch, imperfect as it is, appears to prevail in the manners and customs of my countrymen and those of the Jews, before they reached the Land of Promise, and particularly the patriarchs while they were yet in that pastoral state which is described in Genesis..” Some of these similarities are found in their religious practices, ...“one Creator of all things” He mentions the practice of circumcision, offerings and feasts according to the laws of Moses; and recalls: “Some of our offerings are eaten with bitter herbs.” The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa; Ninth Edition, 1794, pg.12, 18, & 20.
ACCORDING TO THE TARIKH AL-FATTASH AND TARIKH AL SUDAN (two different Muslim accounts of West African history, written in the 15th & 16th century CE), IN 1402 CE, 90 YEARS BEFORE THE EXPULSION OF THE MOORISH JEWS FROM SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, THERE EXIST IN WEST AFRICA A KINGDOM OF JEWS, WHO CALLED THEMSELVES THE BANI (Bene) ISRAEL, HAVING SEVEN PRINCES (Jabroot bin-Hashim, Thoelyaman bin-Abdel Hakim, Zeor bin-Salam, Abdel-latif bin-Solayman, Malik bin-Ayoob, Fadil bin-Mzar and Shaleb bin-Yousef). IT WAS FURTHER STATED THAT THE KINGDOM WAS SO LARGE THEY POSSESSED 333 WELLS. ADDITIONALLY, THERE WERE 14 ZUWA RULERS LONG BEFORE THE RISE OF ISLAM IN THE REGIONS OF WEST AFRICA, WHICH SPANS FROM THE 6TH TO THE 15TH CENTURY CE...
The decline of the Jewish communities of the Africa-Maghreb (West Africa) most likely began with the influx of Muslim invaders into North Africa starting in 640 CE and later into West Africa in the1300's and 1400's CE. Various accounts record that Jews were instrumental in fighting with and oftentimes leading the coalitions of peoples who unified to fight off the Islamic invasions. The most notable of which was the Jewish Berber Queen Kahina Dahiyah Bint Thabitah ibn Tifan, known as El Kahina. Believed to have been a descendent of the Israeli priestly class, El Kahina was able to lead North-African Jews, Berbers, Christians, and Greeks alike against the Arab invasions until her defeat at the hands of the Arab commander Hassan Ibn Numan.
During these times many of the Jews in Northern and Western Africa were forced to covert to Islam, exiled, sold into slavery, or massacred. Incursions of Christian missionaries may have also played a role in the decline of the distinct Jewish written element in the region.
As with other Jewish communities in Moslem controlled lands, the Jews of West Africa also suffered at the hands of various nobles in the Islamic ruling parties, which took power in the 1300 to1400's. Such is the case of Al-Maghili whom tolled the death knell of Sahara and savanna Jewry when, in1492 after destroying the Jewish enclaves in the Tuat, Mali, he convinced potentates throughout the Western Sudan and the founder of Songhai to banish Jews from the empire's cities. No doubt that some sought refuge south and south east toward the forest. The records of such are some three hundred years later than the destruction of the independent Jewish enclaves of Qamnurya or Naghira, in the area of modern day Senegal, in the 11th and 12th century.
Due to these and other pressures the Ibo Benei-Yisrael along with other West African Jewish communities lost whatever written documents such as Torah, and other written traditions that may have existed. Yet, these communities, including the Ibo Benei-Yisrael, to this day were able to maintain at the least a knowledge of their Israeli origin and in some cases continue to practice their traditions in secret. Records of these communities however do exist within the Timbuktu, Mali Islamic library, which has documents of the presence of several Jewish families in West Africa dating from before the Muslim arrival in the 1300's CE.
'Black Jewish' (West African Jews') History Month continued...
POST MIGRATION RECORDS OF WEST AFRICAN JEWS...
The names of old Jewish communities south of the Atlas mountains (around the regions of modern Niger, Nigeria), many of which existed well into Renaissance times, can be found in documents in synagogue archives in Cairo. See “George E. Lichtblau”
Jewish and Islamic chronicles cite the existence of Jewish rulers of certain Jewish tribal groups and clans (self identifying as Jewish) scattered throughout Mauritania, Senegal, the Western Sudan, Nigeria, and Ghana. See Ismael Diadie Haidara, “Les Juifs a` Timbouctou”, Recueil de sources relatives au commerce juif a Timbouctou au XIXe siecle, Editions Donniya, Bamako, 1999.
According to the Tarikh es Soudan recorded by Abderrahman ben Abdallah es-Sadi (translated by O. Houdas) a Jewish community was formed by a group of Egyptian Jews, who had traveled to the West Africa through Chad. See also: al-Kati M., “Tarikh al-Fattash, 1600″.
Another such community was located near the Niger River by the name of Koukiya led by a ruler known as Dia or Dji, a shortened form of “Dia min al Yaman” or Diallaiman (meaning he who comes from Yemen). According to local traditions, Diallaiman was a member of one of the Ethiopian-Jewish colonies transplanted from Yemen to Ethiopian-Abbysinia in the 6th century C.E. Dialliaman is said to have moved to West Africa along with his brother. They set up the Jewish community in Northern Nigeria which later merged with the famous 7 Hausa States. See Meek C.K., “Northern Nigeria Tribes” Volume 1, Oxford, p.66.
A 9th century Jewish traveller Eldad ben-Mahli (also known as Eldad the Danite) related accounts about the location of some of the lost tribes of the House of Israel. According to this account, the tribe of Dan had migrated from Palestine so as not to take part in the internecine civil wars at the time of Yeroboam’s succession. It was reported that this section was residing in the land of Havila beyond the waters of Ethiopia where there was much gold i.e. West Africa.
It was further reported that three other tribes had joined the tribe of Dan namely Naphtali, Gad, Asher. Those joined up with Dan in the land of Havila in the times of Sennacherib. They had an entire body of scriptures barring Esther and Lamentations. They neither used the Talmud nor the Mishna, but they had a Talmud of their own in which all the laws were cited in the name of Joshua the son of Nun. See Nahum Slouschz, “Travels in North Africa” Philadelphia 1927, p.227.
Ibn Khaldun, who lived in the 13th century, a respected authority on Berber history testified about the Black Jews of Western Sudan with whom he personally interacted. The famous muslim geographer al-Idrisi, born in Ceuta, Spain in the 12th century, wrote extensively about Jewish Negroes in the Western Sudan.
Black Jews were fully integrated and achieved pre-eminence in many West African kingdoms. For instance Jews were believed to have settled in great West African empires such as Songhai, Mali, Ghana and Kanem-Bornu empires. According to numerous accounts of contemporary visitors to the region several rulers, and administrators of the Songhai empire were of Jewish origins until Askia Muhammad came to power in 1492 and decreed that all Jews either convert to Islam or leave the region. See Ismael Diadie Haidara, “Les Juifs a` Timbouctou”, Recueil de sources relatives au commerce juif a Timbouctou au XIXe siecle, Editions Donniya, Bamako, 1999.
The 16th century historian and traveler Leon Africanus, was a Hebrew-speakingJewish convert to Islam, raised in a Jewish household by Jewish parents of Moroccan descent. Leon Africanus travelled extensively in Africa south of the Sahara where he encountered innumerable Black African Jewish communities. Leon later converted to Catholicism but remained interested in Jewish communities he encountered throughout his travels in West Africa. See Leo Africanus (al-Hassan b. al -Wazzan al-Zayyati), Della discrittione dell’Africa per Giovanni Leoni Africano, Settima Parte, in G.B. Ramusio, Delle navigationi e viaggi. Venice 1550, I, ff.78-81r.
Additional evidence is provided by surviving oral traditions of numerous African ethnic groups, including links to biblical ancestors, names of localities, and ceremonies with affinities to Jewish ritual practices. Moreover, the writings of several modern West African historians indicate that the memories of Jewish roots historical in West Africa continue to survive.
For instance, there are a number of historical records of small Jewish kingdoms and tribal groups known as Beni Israel that were part of the Wolof and Mandinge communities. These existed in Senegal from the early Middle Ages up to the 18th century, when they were forced to convert to Islam. Some of these claimed to be descendants of the tribe of Dan, the traditional tribe of Jewish gold and metal artisans, who are also said to have built the “Golden Calf”.
Black Jews are said to have formed the roots of a powerful craft tradition among the still-renowned Senegalese goldsmiths, jewelers and other metal artisans. The name of an old Senegalese province called “Juddala” is said to attest to the notable impact Jews made in this part of the world. In addition to the Jewish tribal groups in Senegal who claim to be descendants of the tribe of Dan, the Ethiopian Jews also trace their ancestry to the tribe of Dan.
Additionally, Mr. Bubu Hama, a former president of the National Assembly in Niger and a prolific writer on African history has argued in many treatise as well as lecture tours that the Tuaregs had a Jewish queen in early medieval times, and that some Jewish Tuareg clans had preserved their adherence to that faith, in defiance of both Islamic and Christian missionary pressure, until the 18th century. In several of his books Hama cites the genealogies of Jewish rulers of the Tuareg and Hausa kingdoms. See “Lichtblau”.
Some accounts place some West African Jewish community in the Ondo forest of Nigeria, south of Timbouctou. This community maintained a Torah Scroll as late as 1930s, written in Aramaic that had been burnt into parchment with a hot iron instead of ink so it could not be changed. See Gonen Rivaka, “The Quest for the Ten Lost tribes of israel: To the Ends of the Earth”, Jason Aronson Inc., Northville, NJ., 2002 at pages 180-181.
The Igbos of Nigeria, one of the bigger nations that comprise Nigeria lay a strong claim to Jewish ancestry as borne out by their mores, laws, rituals and idioms which have a heavily accented old testament Hebrew flavor.See Ilona R, “The Ibos: Jews of Nigeria,” volume 1, Research Findings Historical Links, Commentaries, Narratives,” 2004, Mega Press Limited, Abuja, Nigeria
Some of the established Jewish communities existed in such still renowned places as Gao, Timbuktu Bamako, Agadez, and Kano. In Timbucktu, the UNESCO still maintains notable archives containing records of the old Jewish community of Mali and the Hausa states of Nigeria.
This is an excerpt from the following link:http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/the-black-jews-of-africa-part-2-jews-of-nigeria-senegal-and-congo-jide-uwechia/ Enjoy the read...
SEFWI JEWS OF GHANA
"For over a hundred and fifty years, a pocket of Ghana’s population located in the Western Region were following customs that differed from the majority: circumcising boys eight days after birth, holding the sabbath on Saturdays rather than Sundays, separating women and men during times of menstruation. Whether by sheer fluke or through some unrecorded cultural exchange, it happens to be that these customs are also held by Jewish people. Further reading suggests that these customs arrived in Ghana with the migration of “crypto-Jews” from Ivory Coast (Ghana’s neighbour to the west) over 200 years ago. The crypto-Jews of Ivory Coast were said to be migrants from Mali fleeing persecution around 400 years ago."
ghanarising.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-jewish-community-of-sefwi-wiawso.html
