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The Automobile

The Telephone

The Silk Route

Iron Working

Juan Robles

Glassmaking I

Glassmaking II

Glassmaking III

Glassmaking IV

Glassmaking V

Photography

Music

Navigation

Egypt and the

Semites I

Egypt and the

Semites II

Jews in Africa

Part II - Ancient BlackAfrican Relations

Fact Paper 19-II

Samuel Kurinsky, all rights reserved

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Egypt and the

Semites III

Medicine

Artisanship and

Literacy

Craftsmanship I

Craftsmanship II

Craftsmanship III

Nomadic Jews? Never!

Silkmaking

Origin of GreekScience

Gold and Silver I

Gold and Silver II

Jews and Carpets

Jews in Africa I

Jews in Africa II

Jews in Africa III

Jews in Africa IV

Beads
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Dyemaking

Jews as Slave

Liberators

The Khazars

Casale Montferrato

The Glassmakers of

Altare

Jews, Arabs and Eretz

Israel

Emile Berliner I

Emile Berliner II

The Jews of Aquileia

Venetian Glass; Part I

Venetian Glass; Part

II

Gomez House

Iraq

Siegfried Marcus I

Siegfried Marcus II

Odyssey of a Jewish

Glassmaker
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The Jews of Brescia

Leonardo da Vinci

Jewish Women

The Jews of St.

Eustatius

Florence and Cremona

I

Florence and Cremona

II

Birth of the Israelite

Nation I

Birth of the Israelite

Nation II

Islam, the Koran, and

the Jews

The da Costas

Jewish Traders I

The Arabs and the

Jews I

Nobel Prize Winners I

Nobel Prize Winners II

Nobel Prize Winners
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IIIA

Nobel Prize Winners

IIIB

Abe Silverstein

Four members of the Ganda tribe of Uganda, a typic al c entral Afric an musical
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company. Some African i nstruments evidence the peac eful penetration deep into

Afric a by Juda ic tradesmen and artisans long before the European invasion. The fi rst

musician plays a kihembe ngoma, a p ercussion i nstrument common to all cul tures. The

third musici an is playing a kissar, a pluc ked l yre (Hebrew kinnor- King David's

instrument). The lyre was introduced into Africa from the Near East [FP 8: Jews and

Music]. The bowed lyres, tube fiddles, played by the second and fourth musicians are

also of Near Eastern origin. Trumpets made of animal horns are likewise African

instruments reminiscent of the Judaic shofar, used in Judaic religious rites.

Photo from the International Library of African Music

Judaic Presence in Darkest AfricaMr. George E Lichtblau, while on duty as labor attache and political officer at the

American Embassy in Tel Aviv, came across intriguing references to the Judaic

presence in ancient Black Africa. Piqued by titillating allusions to an undocumented

aspect of Judaic history, Lichtblau gathered information about this hidden history while

carrying out assignments as a Foreign Service Officer for the U. S. Department of

State to francophone West Africa. During his travels and meetings with African

dignitaries privy to surviving evidence and credible folk-lore of the region, he gathered

much information, lectured on the subject, and submitted the information he had

gathered to the HHF.

Albeit the tribal memories Lichtblau culled from a variety of sources are not definitive,

they are consistent enough to manifest that a significant Judaic involvement took

place in Black Africa at a time when Europeans were ignorant of the vast continent

beyond the Mediterranean shore. Documentat ion of Judaic pioneering in the "Dark

Continent" is sparse but supportive of the existence of substantial intercourse.

Mr. Lichtblau refers first to the two northern African areas where a Judaic communal

presence on the continent is acknowledged as part of Judaic history and experience.He refers to the relatively well-known history in the Maghreb extending from

Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria to Libya past Cyrenaica, Namibia, Egypt, the

Kingdom of Kush as well as in the Horn of Africa and Ethiopia (Discussed in Fact Paper

19-1).

There are biblical references to Judaic sojourns in Egypt and in the Kingdom of Kush in

the Book of Exodus. Also, as far back as the 10th century BCE, in alliance with the

sea-faring Canaanites of Tyre and Sidon, kings David and Solomon sought to expand
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Judaic trade throughout the Mediterranean including North Africa, Egypt, the Arab

Peninsula and the Horn of Africa as well as Persia.

The Judaic association with the Toureg tribes who dominated the trade routes across

the Sahara, led to contacts with black tribes to the south and down the West African

coast. Documentation of this penetration is found in Judaic, Arab, and Christian

accounts. They describe Jewish rulers of certain tribal groups and clans who identi-fy

themselves as Jews scattered throughout Mauritania, Senegal, the Western Soudan,

Nigeria and Ghana.

Evidence of Judaic presence extends as far as an association with the Bantu tribes of

southern Africa. Mr. Lichtblau found that some 40,000 members of the Lemba tribe still

claim Judaic roots! The association of Jews with such tribes is evident from the names

of old Judaic communities south of the Atlas mountains in documents recovered from

the Geniza of the Ben Ezra Synagogue of Fustat (Cairo). The names of many of these

ancient Judaic communities survived through the Renaissance.

There are other Judaic, Arab and Christian accounts citing the existence of Judaicrulers of certain tribal groups identifying themselves as Jews scattered throughout

Mauritania, Senegal and Western Soudan.

For example, among the notable Arab chroniclers citing the existence of these Judaic

communities is the 12th c entury geographer al-Idrisi. Born in Ceuta, Spain, he wrote

about Jewish Negroes in the western Sudan.

There was also the 13th century Ibn Khaldun, a respected historian of the Berber

tribes. He refers to the Judaic association with the Touregs for trade beyond the

Sahara, a commerce facilitated by the Touregs.

Then there was the early 16th century historian and traveler Leon Africanus, a Moslem

from Spain, who was raised by a Jewish woman working in his father's household. She

taught him Hebrew, and migrated with the family to Marakesh, Morocco, in 1492.

Africanus thereafter converted to Catholicism, but remained interested in and reported

on the Judaic communities he encountered throughout his travels in West Africa.

Mr. Lichtblau met Bubu Hama while performing his job as an American Foreign Service
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Officer. Mr. Hama, then president of the national assembly in Niger, was also a prolific

writer on African history. Hama affirmed that the Touregs had a Jewish queen in early

medieval times; he was undoubtedly referring to Kahena, queen and military

commander of the Berbers, tribes that converted to Judaism in the seventh century.

Hama stated that some Judaic Toureg groups preserved their adherence to their faith

in defiance of both Islamic and Christian pressures until the 18th century. A

fascinating facet of his account is that the Touregs claim to have originated in

Yemen, and that the Judaic communities among them likewise originated from theArabian peninsula. The genealogies of Jewish Toureg rulers, as well as those of the

Hausa kingdom, are cited in several of Mr. Hama's books.

In 1976 or 1977, Shimon Peres, leader of the Israeli Labor party and a former Prime

Minister, told Mr. Lichtblau about surviving memories of Jewish roots in Black Africa.

Peres had just returned from a meeting of the Socialist International during which he

met with President Leopold Senghor of Senegal about the normalization of relations

between the two countries, Senghor told him that he too had Jewish ancestors!

Indeed, Mr. Lichtblau found records of small Senegalese Judaic kingdoms and tribal

groups known as the Beni Israel. They were part of the Wolof and Mandige

communities of Senegal until forced to convert to Islam in the 18th century. Members

of these groups claim to have been descendants of the tribe of Dan, i.e., the tribe of

artisans in gold and other metals. They were still carrying on that ancient, traditionally

Judaic occupation. Curiously, the sophisticated jewelry produced by Beni Israel

artisans strikingly resemble the exquisite Yemenite products.

Ethiopian Jews likewise trace their ancestry to the tribe of Dan. Some of these

transmigrants established communities in such renowned places as Gao, Timbuktu,

where UNESCO maintains notable archives. They contain records of the city's ancient

Judaic community as well as of the Jews in Banako, Agades, and Ibadan, "a few"

commented Lichtblau|, of numerous villages and towns throughout the area which

retain some record of Judaic presence. Notable also among the tribes converting to

Judaism were not only the Toureg, but tribes from the Peuhl and Ibadya groups. It can

be assumed that the metalworking arts were transmitted south and west by the

Jewish artisan/traders from Ethiopia as well as by those who had traversed North


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Africa from Arabia and Judah.

Gold also figures in historical accounts that report that Jewish travelers from Persia

had organized exchanges of silk fabrics for gold in the kingdom of Ghana. The tradition

of the production of "Kenti" cloth by the Ashantis of Ghana appears to trace back to

this intercourse. "To this day," comments Lichtblau, "it is said that the Ashanti words

for numbers relate to those in Farsi, a language employed by the Judaic/Persian

traders."

"Kenti" cloth designs have much in common with the Persian/Chinese designs on silk.

The information garnered by Lichtblau dovetails with the observation made by HHF

member Lois Rose Rose of Los Angeles. She reported on the curious use of the "Seal

of Solomon" as a standard pattern in ancient fabrics woven in West Africa.

The impact of Judaic influence led to the conversion to Judaism by a number of ruling

families in Ghana, notably among the Peuhl, Foulani, Mossi, Fanti and Soughay tribes.

Similar conversions had taken place among several Nigerian Yoruba and Hausa groups.

No studies of these con versions are extant, yet it is a matter of record that thekingdom of Ghana was ruled by Judaic kings for nearly two hundred years!

Senegalese goldsmiths, jewelers and smiths likewise carry on in a powerful tradition

introduced by Judaic artisans. The name of an old Senegalese province is still

"Juddala." The Judaic seminal influence on Black Africa is confirmed by surviving

accounts of Portuguese and other European visitors who first came to the area in the

14th and 15th centuries; they found that Judaic merchants and artisans had long

preceded them. These accounts confirm what was reported centuries earlier by North

African and Arab historical records.

"Most of these communities disappeared," notes Lichtblau. "Having existed largely in

isolation there was a good deal of intermarriage which for a while reinforced their

influence.... As a result they were increasingly viewed as a threat by Muslim rulers...

[they] were either forced to convert to Islam or were massacred, with those

remaining fleeing to North Africa, Egypt or the Sudan and a few also to Cameroon and

even Southern Africa."

A significant factor in the spread of Judaism is the influence of Karaite Jews. A


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Gardi refers to the research of Leo Frobenius, a German ethnologist, who visited the

Bida glassmakers in 1911, an earlier period in which the community's traditions were

less distorted by the Islamic and Christian prejudices of more recent times. Frobenius

found the glassmakers originally of the Jewish religion. The author also refers to an

article by Manfred Korfman, who observed that the workers of a Hebron glass factory

(no longer in existence), "produce their bracelets in the same fashion as the people of

Bida."

The glassmakers were formed into an autonomous commune. About twelve "huts"[families] were still in operation.. When Gardi was there, the chief was named

Daniyalu, "a man who commanded enormous respect." Note that the name appears to

be a combination of Daniel and Yahu, transcribed into Yalu. It is a peculiarly Judaic

name and construction!

The titillating references to a dimly apparent, symbiotic relationship of Jews with black

African tribes indicate that a rich mine of both Judaic and African history remains to

be researched.

Notes

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