The Lemba. A lost tribe of Israel in Southern Africa?

By Dr Magdel le Roux
Department of Old Testament and ANES
University of South Africa

ABSTRACT

I had a farm in Africa , at the foot of the Ngong Hills. The Equator runs across these highlands, a hundred miles to the north, and the farm lay at an altitude of over six thousand feet... (Blixen [1937]1954:1).

These words signal the well-known opening sentence of the famous novel, Out of Africa , by Karen Blixen. Merely opening words, since one can never exhaust Africa by dissertating on it - her stories and rituals are mysterious, earthy, passionate and engenders respect.

My personal story also hails from Africa and could have had a similar opening sentence, since it began when my father bought a farm - high up in the Soutpansberg. There, for the first time, did I hear the Lemba story ... and since then, this African story became my own.

I was born and bred in South Africa , and I actually know the peoples living in South Africa , or so I thought. But I only learned about the Lemba in 1984 when a farmer, Piet Wessels, in the Soutpansberg area told me about this group of people with their Semitic features and practices, who distinguished themselves from the surrounding Venda by their way of living. Moreover, most of these Lemba people regard themselves as Israelites who have migrated southwards into Yemen (led by their priestly family, the Buba) and later into Africa .

My general interest in history and post-graduate specialisation in the Old Testament, prompted me to collect as much information about this interesting group as possible. The mere possibility of such a group in our midst, absolutely, intrigued me. I thought I might just have discovered a 'lost tribe of Israel ' right on our doorstep, who might be able to enlighten one's concept of pre-monarchic Israel .

But, it was only after my father died, and after the completion of my Masters dissertation on the pre-monarchic clans of Israel , that I first had an encounter with (the now late) Prof Mathivha, President of the LCA. This took place in August 1994, at his home in Shayandima ( Venda ). After this interview I attended a special LCA Conference in April 1995 and thereafter the Annual Conferences in October, at Sweet Waters, in the Northern Province, ever since.

During the special Lemba conference in 1995 I was invited by Chief Mpaketsane to pursue my research in their communities. It was also during this special conference where I first met the late Dr Margaret Nabarro (musicologist) who actually encouraged Prof Trefor Jenkins (and Spurdle) from the SA Institute for Medical Research at the University of the Witwatersrand to conduct genetic tests on the Lemba people. Note 1

The Lemba are scattered all over South Africa and they are directly related to the Varemba in Zimbabwe and the Mwenye in Mozambique and elsewhere. I decided to conduct my field research from a qualitative research point of view, mainly in three geographical areas, namely Sekhukhuneland , Venda and the southern parts of Zimbabwe .

The Lemba's enthusiasm for sacred hills, animal sacrifice, ritual slaughtering of animals, food taboes, their circumcision rites and endogamy - all seemed to suggest a Semitic influence or resemblances, imbedded in an African culture. I further learned that most of them belong to a Christian church and I was interested in their way of interpreting the Blble from their 'Semitic' background. The purpose of my field study (from 1995 to 1997) was, as far as possible to gather all existing oral traditions with an Old Testament resonance, from amongst the above-mentioned communities and to focus on their customs, festivals and ceremonies and their concept of God and of Christianity.

The oldest, recorded oral tradition of origin of the Lemba, also known as, musavi (buyer/trader), nyakuwana (the man who finds the things which are bought), or mulungu (white man or the man from the north) holds that their Israelite ancestors came by boat to Africa as traders, from a remote place, a city called Sena, on the other side of the Phusela. They do not know where or what 'Phusela' was, but in Africa , they erected trading posts at different places, and each time some of their people were left behind to take charge. They were in search of gold and after each trading expedition they went back to their country by sea. They kept themselves separate from the local peoples, but after a war broke out in their country they, (the savi [merchants]) could not return. They did not bring their wives along and now had to take wives from the local peoples ( w/vhazendji , 'heathens') - Rozwi, Karanga, Zezuru and Govera tribes. In Africa they rebuilt Sena in more than one place.

Parfitt investigated and indeed found a ancient city named Sena, at the end of the wadi Hadramaut, just before the valley turns away towards the sea. It was situated on the trade route, from the sea to Terim. The valley that leads from Sena in the eastern Hadramaut to an old port on the Yemini coast called Sayhut, is the Wadi al-Masilah. Parfitt believes that Masilah may be the 'Phusela' of Lemba oral tradition.

Further investigation showed that some of the clan and sub-clan names of the Lemba such as Hadzhi, Hamisi, Bakali, Sadiki and Seremane correlate with commonplace names in the eastern Hadramaut. Not one of them had the means to ascertain in advance, whether their clan names correlated with the commonplace names in the Hadramaut. One conclusion is that their oral traditions are very old.

One informant in Soweto remembered that his grandfather told him that they originally had come from a place, called Sena 'somewhere south of Jericho '. A place called 'Sena', 'south of Jericho ' can not be found on ancient maps of Israel or Moab , but surprisingly, a city called 'Lemba' is indicated. It was also found that the historian Josephus referred to this city of 'Lemba' on more than one occassion. Note 2

The Lemba could not remember the name of their country but they know they were masters of iron and copper smelting and working. In their country they made pots, grew and wove cotton and were masters of timber work, because they had to build their own ships for their maritime undertakings and they have the tradition that they were very much involved in the building of Great Zimbabwe.

This investigation takes Lemba traditions seriously, however, does not endeavour to verify of falsify Lemba claims. Their possible early departure from Israel could imply that their religion could contain remnants of a very ancient type of religion, which makes this group valuable to the historian of religion or comparative religion and especially interesting to study points of convergence which may possibly exist between early Israel (Iron Age Israel , 1250-1000 BC) and the Lemba. Note 3

Only some of the most salient concurrences will briefly be mentioned here:

One of the most important dietary laws of the Lemba is that they have to separate themselves, the'chosen people' from the vhasendzhi or 'heathen, because the latter are uncircumcised and are the 'eaters of dead meat'.

They are not allowed to eat pork or the food of the gentiles.

Do do not mix meat and milk.

Burial practices correspond remarkable with that of early Israel .

Repeating names of ancestors - reminds one of the creed of the Israelite clans which was repeated at important events.

On their journey to the South, the ngoma lungundu (drum that thunders) played a more or less similar role to that played by the Ark of the Covenant for the ancient Israelite clans.

One of the Semitic rites which the Lemba practice with great conviction is circumcision. Nabarro maintains that the method associated with male circumcision used by the Lemba differs markedly from that of Islamic religion, it is possibly similar to the mode of circumcision practised in biblical times, before the introduction of more extensive circumcision during the Talmudic period. Several observers particularly note the Semitic physical features of the Lemba and the fact that they conduct the 'non-Bantu practice of male circumcision of infants'.

Most of the Lemba in Zimbabwe connect the circumcision to the Covenant with God.

The Lemba's obesrvation of the new moon and other related issues, offers interesting possibilities of interpretation to the idea of the sabbath in the Old Testament.

It appears that some of the Lemba's legal and ethical codes closely resemble those in Ex., Dt. and especially those in Lv. with many traces of influence from the life-world of the Old Testament. Above all, post-exilic feasts and ceremonies have never been observed in Southern Africa either by the Lemba or by their Christian neighbours.

The much publicised (since 1998-2000) genetic results of the Lemba, the so-called 'black Jews of Southern Africa' has its origin in the research done by Jenkins and Nabarro. The Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH) is a distinctive pattern found among the members of Jewish priesthood (the cohamiem). It is a pattern of paternal inheritance.

From DNA samples, taken specifically from their priestly clan, the Buba, a very close relation has emerged between them (the Buba) and those of the cohaniem (priesthood) in Israel and all over the world.

Conclusion:

A great deal of my book constituted a comparison which was induced by the theory of Smart. Obviously it is no simple matter to compare the religion of the Lemba with that of Israel , and it could be deemed an impossible exercise. Nevertheless, studying the Lemba as a group of unique character might shed light on what we know about the oral culture and socio-cultural structures of the Israelite clans. In order to obtain a better understanding of the Old Testament, scholars could learn from Africa as a living source about practices and customs such as polygamy, endogamy, circumcision, sacrifices, worshipping God as part of everyday life, a sense of community, the importance of genealogy, the importance of the meaning of names, the functioning of oral traditions etc.

My comparison shows that there is at least a very strong indication of an earlier correlation between the culture of the Lemba and that of early Israel . There are abundant echoes of ancient Judaism preserved among Lemba communities. These elements indicate close similarities with early Israel , not with contemporary Judaism. Most of their rituals and practices are embedded in an African traditional religion and today draws heavily on Christian Lemba sources and in a limited way on modern Judaism. The numerous concurrences are of value in more than one way, but one should also emphasise the significant differences as well.

The oral traditions of the Lemba and the historical, archaeological and genetic data constitute the possibility that the immigration of Lemba traders to Africa could have taken place even before the Christian era, but more probably before the 6th century AD. Later immigrations could have occurred but it is equally difficult to determine. But there seems to have been a historical link between the Lemba and the Semitic world.

Thomas when publishing the genetic results in 2000 concluded that:

'...An origin in a 'Semitic' population outside Africa, male mediated gene flow from other Semitic traders ... and an admixture with Bantu neighbours is in more than one way compatible with the Lemba oral traditions and history' (Thomas et al 2000:669). )

The question remains:

Are the Lemba then a lost tribe of Israel ? My answer is simple: Read the book.

Notes

1 At that stage results have shown interesting connections between the Lemba people and those from whom they claim to have originated. This is in contradiction for example, to similar tests taken from the Falasha and other African peoples surrounding them.

2 According to him, Judaism was imposed on the sities of ancient Moab by Alexander Janneus in c. 103-76 BC of which Lemba was one (Ant XIII). Whether this city has anything to do with the Lemba people here in Southen Africa, one would never know. And elsewhere Josephus refers to a group of priests and Levites who fled from Palestine into Egypt at the persecutions of Anthiochus IV Epiphanus almost a hundred years earlier, in 175-163 BC and who most probably established a kind of Judaistic influence in the north of Africa . Nothing could have stopped some of these priestly groups from migrating further southwards into Africa .

3 I compare the Lemba with early Israel (1250-1000 BC), since: (I) their communities function according to a segmented clan system without a common leader; (ii) this period is interesting for the study of oral cultures; and (iii) they regard themselves as 'children of Abraham' who at one stage or another stage came to Africa and because they are available to me,