On the trail of the lost tribes of Israel in Africa
16
JULY
2012
Since the beginning of the XXth century, in addition to the famous Beta Israel of Ethiopia (Falasha), some African groups scattered across the continent have been claiming Jewish identity. At Timbuktu (Mali), in Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Ruanda-Burundi, South Africa and Zimbabwe, tribes and clans declare themselves African descendants of Jewish communities in Africa since ancient times. Members of these recent communities are more or less ignorant of the Jewish religion. They adopted often remote from normative Judaism practices that, taken together, constitute a kind of African Judaism. I propose to examine here how occurred the meeting of Africans with Judaism and study the mechanisms which are at the origin of the constitution of these movements. This route of historical, religious and ethnic affiliation will endeavour to trace briefly the way these groups, in the margins of Jewish history and normative Judaism and 'racial' boundaries of the Jewish people, came to be proclaimed Jews.
| Speaker | Location |
|---|---|
|
Edith BRUDER |
Seine B |