Igbo Jews

Igbo Jews

Igbo Jewish Community presented with a plaque.
Total population
Over 40,000 by religion (est.)
Regions with significant populations
Nigeria
Languages
Traditionally, Igbo and Hebrew as a liturgical and common language
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Igbo, African Jews

The Igbo Jews are members of the Igbo people of Nigeria who claim descent from Mediterranean Israelite migrants into Nigeria.

Argument for the Historical Migration of the Igbo Jews

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.^{[citation needed]} According to UCLA Jewish Historian Chinedu Nwabunwanne of Aguleri, "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 Sambation Jews.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} 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)."

Historical Scrutiny

Stories affirming relationships between peoples now widely separated in spatial, historical, and cultural terms persist today, not only in Igboland but throughout Nigeria, in other parts of Africa, and in Europe, the United States, and beyond. Their roots in the example under consideration here lie in the assumption of a Judeo-Christian (and Islamic) Biblical framework as applicable to all of human history. In reference to West Africa this has taken the form of the "Hamitic hypothesis" (originally so-called for the putative descent of Africans from Noah's son Ham), a model which firmly centered the beginning of West African history in the Near East rather than in West Africa itself.

Remarkably, for the Igbo, a very early (and widely influential) statement of this point of view came from an Igbo man, Olaudah Equiano, a Christian-educated freed slave who remarked in his autobiography of 1789 on "the strong analogy which... 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 -- an analogy, which alone would induce me to think that the one people had sprung from the other." For authoritative support, he gives reference to "Dr. Gill, who, in his commentary on Genesis, very ably deduces the pedigree of the Africans from Afer and Afra, the descendants of Abraham....^[1]

This essay was in fact an early version of the Hamitic hypothesis, just one of many related perspectives (such as diffusion of culture into sub-Saharan Africa from Egypt and elsewhere) that were proposed in the historical literature on West Africa during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. These materials have been carefully analyzed by critical historians, who have clarified the diverse functions (quite aside from questions of validity) these histories have served for the writers who have proposed them at various times in the colonial and post-colonial past. For examples, see these sources: :^[2][3] .

Today, knowledge from sources broader and more self-critical than the Biblical -- from contemporary historians, archaeologists, historical linguists, and other scientifically based disciplines -- has displaced the Hamitic hypothesis (which has been largely discarded). While there is no doubt (for example) that Jews were present in Saharan trade centers during the first Millenium A.D.^[4], the claim that Jews were directly involved with Igbo-speaking people in prehistoric times is not a strongly established proposition. In any case, every version of these proposed stories of distant relationships, of migrations of people and so on, should be evaluated through critical scrutiny of the sources purporting to tell them, and the examples you see presented on this page should be no exception to that rule.

Contemporary Outreach

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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.^[5] Western rabbis and educators such as Rabbi Gorin have visited the community at times^[6] and Jewish communities in the West support those in Nigeria by sending books, computers, and religious articles.^[7] However, the State of Israel has, to date, not officially recognized the Igbo as one of the Lost Tribes.

Religious practices

Religious practices of the Igbo Jews include circumcision eight days after the birth of a male child, observance of kosher dietary laws, separation of men and women during menstruation, wearing of the tallit and kippah, and the celebration of holidays such as Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. In recent times, the communities have also adopted holidays such as Hanukkah and Purim, which were instituted only after many of the tribes of Israel had already dispersed.

See also

• Jews and Judaism in Africa
• Lost Tribes of Israel
• Jews of the Bilad el-Sudan (West Africa)
• House of Israel (Ghana) - Jews of Ghana
• Howshua Amariel

References

1. ^ Equiano, Olaudah (2005). "1". The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, the African Written By Himself. EBook #15399. 
2. ^ Sanders, Edith (1963). "The Hamitic Hypothesis: Its Origin and Functions in Time Perspective". Journal of African History 10 (4): 521–532. JSTOR 179896. 
3. ^ Zachernuk, Philip (1994). "Of Origins and Colonial Order: Southern Nigerians and the 'Hamitic Hypothesis' c. 1870-1970". Journal of African History 35 (3): 427–55. JSTOR 182643. 
4. ^ Hunwick, John (1985). "Al-Mahili and the Jews of Tuwat: The Demise of a Community". Studia Islamica 61: 155–183. JSTOR 1595412. 
5. ^ Adeze Ajukwu "Interview with Sir Nat Okafor-Ogbaji" Kwenu June 8, 2004.
6. ^ "Rabbi Returns to Nigeria for 3-Week Mission.." Tikvat Israel February 13, 2006
7. ^ "Tikvat Israel ships scripture to Nigeria" Tikvat Israel January 11, 2006.

External links

• Hebrew Karaite Community Igbo Bene Israel
• Re-Emerging: The Jews of Nigeria
• Jews of Nigeria and Uganda
• Kulanu
• Packing for Nigeria