GUTU - Yarmulkes bob as voices swell in a sacred song carried
from ancient Judea to the scenic fields of a far-flung southern African village
that is home to a "lost tribe" of Israel.
"We have been singing this song for about 2,600 years. It's an
old, old song," said Perez Hamandishe, wearing a white crocheted skullcup with a
blue Star of David in a small village near Gutu, some 200 kilometres (120 miles)
south of the capital Harare.
DNA evidence has proven that the verses were brought thousands
of years ago from the Middle East to Zimbabwe, where members of the Lemba tribe
still observe Jewish traditions.
The secretive Lembas observe strict rules that have more in
common with norms in Tel Aviv than Harare: a ban on pork, ritual slaughter of
livestock and male circumcision.
They see themselves as southern Africa's tribe of "black Jews"
who have honoured their Semitic roots for centuries, despite converting to
faiths like Christianity or Islam.
Their oral histories have been borne out by their genes: Unlike
other groups with similar claims, the Lemba can point to genetic proof of links
to the eastern Mediterranean.
Causing a splash in the late 1990s, tests showed that around 55
percent of Jews called Cohen shared an ancestor in the time of Moses -- and that
a Lemba clan did as well.
"They also shared this ancestor who lived about 3,000 years ago
in the Middle East," said Lemba expert Tudor Parfitt.
"It's a very interesting genetics story, and it's a very
interesting human story in that the genetics supports the very passionate
belief," he added.
There is no written history of their forefathers' passage to
what is now Zimbabwe, but the Lemba believe that their forefathers arrived with
a replica ark -- known as the ngoma lungundu -- that went missing.
They say they are the descendants of white men who came from a
place believed to be modern Yemen.
But their ties to Judaism are cultural and not religious, they
say.
"If you remove Judaism, you have removed our culture," said
Hamandishe, who is a member of Zimbabwe's parliament. "So we know Judaism as a
culture, not as a religion."
"We tried to tell everyone about us, but people wouldn't
believe. But now that hard science has proved it, we are now happy that what we
have been telling them has now come to be the truth," said Hamandishe, who has
visited Israel.
Numbering around 70,000, Lembas are also found in northern
South Africa and share customs which are kept secret from the outside world
through several cultural associations that interact with one another.
"Lemba is culture," said Shepherd Tseisi, the son of the chief
in Mberengwa, another Lemba stronghold further south, reached via a
bone-rattling drive down dirt roads that wind deep into the countryside.
"Because of our movements and the environment that we live
within, some of our cultural activities tend to change. But that kind of concept
of being a Lemba ... that's the same."
The Lemba, who claim to have built Great Zimbabwe, a medieval
stone city now in ruins that is a UNESCO World Heritage site, have managed to
prevent their customs from being absorbed or wiped out by dominant local and
colonial cultures.
"Because of the passing of time, quite a number of things were
forgotten, but very important things were actually remembered," said local
headmaster Jacob Nyikavaranda, one of the elders who act as custodians of Lemba
history.
"We are using Shona because Shona is now our local language.
We have forgotten our original language (Hebrew)," Hamandishe said.
The Lemba have also relaxed a ban on marrying outside the
tribe.
While similar communities with Judaic identities exist in
Africa, the Lemba have science in their corner.
"I think it's fair to say that in absolutely the whole of
Africa, they are unique because there are plenty of other tribes, many, many,
many other tribes throughout Africa, who claim to have Israelite origins,"
Parfitt said.
"But the (Lemba) are the only one who claim to have Israelite
origins that's actually got any genetic proof that they do. There is this very
strong DNA evidence that they came from the eastern Mediterranean," he said.
"But they're black, they're a fairly well-integrated part of
southern African society, they speak only local languages and they're Christians
for the most part, so their identity is very complicated in racial terms. And
quite what they make with it in the future ... we'll have to see."
Views are mixed on taking advantage of Israel's "right of
return," ranging from enthusiasm for settling in the Jewish homeland to
reluctance to being uprooted to find a new home and learn a new language.
Source: INet Bridge, AFP, Updated: 2012/05/07
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