Lemba peopleFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Part of a series on Jews and Judaism Etymology ·Who is a Jew? 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Limpopo Province), Malawi, Mozambique Languages Formerly Kalanga, today Venda and Shona Religion Christianity (including Messianic Judaism), Islam & Judaism The Lemba or wa-Remba (their preferred name is Mwenye)[1] are a southern African ethnic group found in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and with smaller, little-known branches in Mozambique and Malawi. According to Tudor Parfitt, Professor of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, in 2002 they number an estimated 50,000.[2] Since the late twentieth century, there has been increased media and scholarly attention to the peoples claims of partial common descent to the Jewish people.[3][4][5][dead link] They speak the Bantu languages spoken by their geographic neighbours and resemble them physically, but they have some religious practices and beliefs similar to those in Judaism and Islam, which they say were transmitted orally.[6] Today, many Lemba are Christians (including Messianic Jews) or Muslims, while maintaining several Jewish practices. Genetic Y-DNA analyses in the 2000s have established a partially Middle-Eastern origin for a portion of the male Lemba population.[7][8] Both Arabs and Jews share this DNA, but the Cohen Modal Haplotype, an indicator of Jewish ancestry, has been found among the males of one leadership clan at rates even higher than the general Jewish population.[9] In Zimbabwe and South Africa, the people prefer the name Mwenye.[2] The name Lemba may originate in chilemba, a Swahili word for turbans worn by some Bantu peoples, or lembi, a Bantu word meaning non-African or respected foreigner.[10] Magdel le Roux says that the name VaRemba may be translated as the people who refuse – probably in the context of not eating with others (according to one of her interviewees).[6] Contents [hide] 1 Jewish or Arab links 2 Lemba traditions and culture 2.1 Sacred ngoma 3 DNA testing 4 Construction of Great Zimbabwe 5 Halakhic status as Jews 6 Representation in other media 7 See also 8 Notes 9 Further reading 10 External links Jewish or Arab links[edit]In the period in which Jews were settled in southern Arabia, they were prosyletising, and attracted converts from around the Mediterranean and North Africa.[11] Many pre-modern Lemba beliefs and practices can be linked to Judaism and some are also common to Islam. According to Rudo Mathivha, a Lemba of South Africa,[5][dead link] these include the following: They observe Shabbat. They praise Nwali (God) for looking after the Lemba, and identify as part of the chosen people. They teach their children to honour their mothers and fathers**. They refrain from eating pork and other foods forbidden by the Torah, and forbid certain combinations of permitted foods. They practice ritual animal slaughter for meat for consumption, which is Middle Eastern in origin rather than African.[9] They practise male circumcision**; according to Junods work in 1927,[12] surrounding tribes regarded the Lemba as the masters and originators of that art. Since the late 20th century, they place a Star of David on their tombstones. Lemba are discouraged from marrying non-Lemba,[13] just as Jews are discouraged from marrying non-Jews. According to Magdel le Roux, the Lemba have a ritual of sacrifice which they call the Pesah, which seems similar to the Jewish Pesach or Passover.[14] Some of these traditions are not exclusively Jewish; they are common to Muslims in the Middle East and Africa, as well as to other African tribes. In the late 1930s, W. D. Hammond-Tooke wrote a book identifying practices similar to Muslims: for instance, male circumcision is done by Lemba at an age similar to that of Muslims, between seven and fifteen, rather than to infants soon after birth.[15] Their endogamous marriage practices are also common to Muslims, as are certain dietary restrictions. Together with the similarities between many Lemba clan-names and known Arabic Semitic words; e.g., Sadiki, Hasane, Hamisi, Haji, Bakeri, Sharifo and Saidi, Hammond-Tooke concluded that the Lemba were descended, at least in part, from Muslim Arabs.[16] The British scholar Tudor Parfitt became involved in researching the Lembas claims and helping find their ancestral city on the Arabian peninsula, in present-day Yemen. In an interview featured on NOVA in 2000, he said he was struck by the Lembas maintenance of rituals that seemed Jewish or Semitic: The other thing was the extraordinary importance they placed upon ritual slaughter of animals, which is not an African thing at all. Of course, its Islamic as well as Judaic, but its certainly from the Middle East, its not African. And the fact that every lad was given a knife with which he did his ritual throughout his life and took to his grave. That seemed to me to be remarkably, tangibly Semitic Middle Eastern.[9] Lemba traditions and culture[edit]There are numerous versions of their myths of origin, but they generally tell of migrating from the North (which is common to many African ethnicities.)[17] According to Lemba tradition, their male ancestors were Near Eastern Jews who left Judea about 2,500 years ago and settled in a place called Senna in the Arabian peninsula (present-day Yemen). Much later, they migrated into North East Africa.[18] According to the British scholar, Tudor Parfitt, who published a book on his findings in 1993, the location of Senna was more than likely in Yemen, specifically, in the village of Sanāw within the easternmost portion of the Wadi Hadhramaut.[3][19] The city has had a Jewish population since ancient times, but since 1948 and the founding of the State of Israel, as well as later wars, it has dwindled to a few hundred. In Lemba tradition, Sena has the semi-mythical status of a sacred city of origin and hopes for eventual return.[20] According to Lemba oral tradition, their male ancestry originally comprised several male white people from over the sea” who came to southeast Africa from a country which boasted large cities in order to obtain gold.[16][21][22] After becoming established in Africa, at some point, the tribe split into two groups, one staying in Ethiopia and the other travelling farther south, along the east coast. The Lemba claim this second group settled in Tanzania and Kenya, building what was referred to as another Sena, or Sena II. Others supposedly settled in Malawi, where their descendants reside today. Some settled in Mozambique, eventually migrating to Zimbabwe and South Africa. They claim to have constructed Great Zimbabwe, now a monument. Ken Mufuka, a black Zimbabwean archaeologist thinks the Lemba may have contributed but would not have been solely responsible. Tudor Parfitt and Magdel le Roux think they at least helped construct the massive city.[23] [24] (see below). But, most academics[citation needed] agree that the construction of the enclosure at Great Zimbabwe is largely attributable to the ancestors of the Shona, indigenous to the region. Such works were typical of their ancestral civilisations.[25] The Lemba have endogamous marriage patterns, discouraging marriage to non-Lemba. Normative Orthodox Judaism today recognises only matrilineal descent as determining birth Judaism. Patrilineal descent was once the norm among the Israelites.[citation needed] The restrictions on intermarriage with non-Lemba make it nearly impossible for a male non-Lemba to become a member. Lemba men who marry non-Lemba women are expelled from the community unless the females agree to live according to Lemba traditions. A woman who marries a Lemba man must learn and practice the Lemba religion, dietary rules and other customs. The woman may not bring any cooking equipment from her previous home. Initially, the woman may have to shave her head. Their children must be brought up as Lemba.[5][dead link] If the Lemba had Jewish ancestors, the requirement to shave the head may date back to rituals associated with converting the first Lemba women to Judaism, the means for the Jewish males to acquire women. Genetic MtDNA data (see below) has shown no connection among the women with Jewish ancestors. According to Tooke, in the 19th and early 20th centuries the Lemba were highly esteemed by surrounding tribes in the Zoutpansberg region of South Africa for their mining and metalwork skills. He wrote in his 1937 book that the other tribes regarded the Lemba as outsiders.[16][21] According to articles from the early 1930s, in the 1920s the Lembas medical knowledge earned them respect among tribes in South Africa.[26][27] Parfitt noted in his article on the Lemba in his 2002 book that colonial Europeans had their own reasons for distinguishing some tribes as other than indigenous African, as if it gave them more right to be in the continent. By contrast, the lead anthropologist in Zimbabwe firmly places them among African peoples.[28] Sacred ngoma[edit]Tudor Parfitt, professor at the University of Londons School of Oriental and African Studies, wrote a book,[29] which became the subject of a television documentary that aired on the History Channel, tracing the Lembas claim that the ngoma lungunda was the legendary Ark of the Covenant Lemba tradition tells of a sacred object, the ngoma lungundu or drum that thunders, that was brought with them from a place called Sena. Their oral history claims that the ngoma was the Biblical Ark of the Covenant made by Moses. [30] [31] Parfitt, following a lead of eighth-century accounts of the Ark in Arabia, found a ghost town by that name in Yemen, an area with people genetically linked to the Lemba. [32] Parfitt has theorized that the ngoma was indeed the Ark of the Covenant, lost from Jerusalem after the citys destruction by the Babylonian king,Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BC. [33] Parfitt suggests that the ngoma is a descendent of the Biblical Ark, theorizing that the Ark was repaired by adding more material to it as the artifact began to wear out. He says that the ark/ngoma came to Africa with its priestly guardians. Lemba oral history claimed the Ark self-exploded 700 years ago and that they rebuilt the Ark on its remains. Parfitt discovered the ngoma in a Harare, Zimbabwe museum in 2007. It had last been exhibited in 1949 by colonial officials in Bulawayo. They took it to Harare for protection during the drive to independence, and it became misplaced at the museum. [34] Lemba tribal history says the ngoma self exploded [35] and that the ngoma/ark was rebuilt from the remains of the original ark almost 700 years ago[36] [37] Radiocarbon dating of a portion of the artifact showed it to be 700 years old. [38] [39] He said he believed it was the oldest wooden artifact in Zimbabwe. In February 2010, the Lemba ngoma lungundu was put on display in the museum with a celebration of its history and of the Lemba. [40] Professor Parfitt says the ngoma/ark was carried into battles, and would explode and be rebuilt. The ngoma now on display, he says, was possibly built from the remains of the original. So its the closest descendant of the Ark that we know of, Parfitt says. “Many people say that the story is far-fetched, but the oral traditions of the Lemba have been backed up by science” Parfitt explained.[41] The ngoma was intensely sacred to the Lemba and was considered to be too holy to be touched. It was carried by poles inserted into rings attached to each side of the ngoma. The only members of the tribe permitted to approach it were the hereditary priesthood who guarded it. Others feared that if they were to touch it that they would be “struck down by the fire of God” which would erupt from the object. The Lemba continue to regard the ngoma as the sacred Ark to this day.[42] DNA testing[edit]Genetic testing supports some Lemba oral traditions related to origin in the Middle East.[43] A genetic study in 1996 of 49 Lemba males suggested that more than 50% of the Lemba Y-chromosomes are Semitic in origin, shared by Arabs and Jews.[7] To define the peoples origin more specifically, Parfitt and others developed a larger study to compare additional Lemba subjects (for whom clans were recorded) with males from South Arabia, Bantu in Africa, as well as Ashkenazy and Sephardic Jews.[44] They found significant similarities between the markers of the Lemba and men of the Hadraumaut in Yemen. They also learned the population in Yemen was relatively recent, so would not have shared common ancestors with those of the Lemba.[44] A subsequent study in 2000 found that a substantial number of Lemba men carry a particular haplotype of the Y-chromosome known as the Cohen modal haplotype (CMH), as well as, a haplogroup of Y-DNA Haplogroup J found amongst some Jews, but also in other populations across the Middle East and Arabia.[45][46] The genetic studies have suggested that there is no Semitic female contribution to the Lemba gene pool.[47] This indicates that Jewish men migrated to Africa in ancient times and took wives from among the local people after settling in new communities. Among Jews the CMH marker is most prevalent among Jewish Kohanim, or hereditary priests. As recounted in Lemba oral tradition, the ancestor of the Buba clan had a leadership role in bringing the Lemba out of Israel and eventually into Southern Africa.[48] The genetic study found that 50% of the males in the Buba clan had the Cohanim marker, a proportion higher than in the general Jewish population.[49] While not defining the Lemba as Jews, the genetic results confirm the oral accounts of ancestral males originating from outside Africa, and specifically from southern Arabia.[50] More recently, Mendez et al. (2011) observed that a moderately high frequency of the studied Lemba samples carried Y-DNA Haplogroup T, which is also considered to be of Near Eastern origin. The Lemba T carriers belonged exclusively to T1b*, which is rare and was not sampled in indigenous Jews of the Near East or North Africa. T1b* has been observed at low frequencies in the Bulgarian and Ashkenazi Jews as well as in a few Levantine populations.[51] Construction of Great Zimbabwe[edit]As evidence of a prehistoric link between the Lemba and Zimbabwe, Gayre notes the following:[52] 1.Models of circumcised male organs were found at Great Zimbabwe; (the Lemba appear to have introduced that practice into southern Africa)[12]; 2.The Lemba bury their dead in an extended rather than a crouched position – i.e., in the same style as in certain Zimbabwean graves, where gold jewellery confirmed an association with the ancient civilisation; 3.The old Lemba language was a dialect of Karanga – which is spoken today in the Masvingo area of Zimbabwe; (thus, the Lemba female ancestry was probably derived from the MaKaranga). Gayre asserts that the ancestors of the Lemba were responsible for the construction of Great Zimbabwe. Most scholars,[citation needed] however, generally agree that Great Zimbabwe was built by the Shona people as part of the 13th-century kingdom of Zimbabwe. It was successor to the earlier Kingdom of Mapungubwe, also known for its complex stone ruins.[53] Halakhic status as Jews[edit]Halakhic Jewish status in Orthodox Judaism is determined by documenting an unbroken matrilineal line of descent or by conversion to Judaism. Jews who adhere to Orthodox or Conservative Rabbinism believe that Jewish status by birth is passed only by a Jewish female to her children (if she herself is a Jew by birth or by conversion to Judaism) regardless of the Jewish status of the father. Because of the absence of matrilineal Jewish descent for the Lemba, which is a tradition that pre-dates Orthodox (Rabbinic) Judaism, it is unlikely that Orthodox or Conservative Judaism will recognise them as Halakhically Jewish; they would require the Lemba to undergo the formal conversion process.[54] The Reform and Reconstructionist branches of Rabbinic Judaism[54] (currently the majority of Jews) and the Karaites, on the other hand, all recognise patrilineage. As more is learned of widespread peoples histories, the Reform branch has acknowledged unusual descent outside the European and indigenous Middle Eastern spheres. Especially since publication of the genetic results, American Jewish communities have reached out to the Lemba, offering assistance, sending books and study materials, and initiating ties to teach the Lemba about Rabbinic Judaism. So far few Lemba have converted to Rabbinic Judaism. South African Jews of European descent have long been aware of the Lemba, but have never thought of them as more than an intriguing curiosity.[10] Generally the Lemba have not been halakhically accepted as Jews because of their lack of matrilineal descent. Several rabbis and Jewish associations support their recognition as one of the Lost Tribes of Israel.[10] In the 2000s, the Lemba Cultural Association approached the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, asking for the Lemba to be recognised as Jews by the Jewish community. The Lemba Association complained that we like many non-European Jews are simply the victims of racism at the hands of the European Jewish establishment worldwide. They threatened to start a campaign to protest and ultimately destroy Jewish apartheid.[10] According to Gideon Shimona in his book, Community and Conscience: The Jews in Apartheid South Africa (2003): In terms of halakha the Lemba are not at all comparable with the Falasha. As a group they have no conceivable status in Judaism.[10] Rabbi Bernhard of South Africa has stated the only way for a member of the Lemba tribe to be recognised as a Jew is to undergo the formal Halakhic conversion process, after which they would be welcomed with open arms.[10]
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 01:27:42 +0000
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