Among the Igbo people of Nigeria exists a small
group of practicing Jews
Jewish Igbos believe they are descendants of 'lost
tribes' of Israel who settled in Nigeria
Some draw many parallels between Jewish and
Igbo customs
Others claim Igbo civilization is older than that of
the Israelites
A Shabbat service is underway at the Ghihon
Hebrew Research synagogue in the Jikwoyi suburb
of Nigeria's federal capital territory.
Fourteen year-old Kadmiel Izungu Abor heads
there with his family. They walk alongside stray
goats on a road covered in red dust and potholes,
lined with open sewage. They are nearly 20
kilometers away from the modern multi-story
office buildings and sprawling mansions in
Nigeria's capital city of Abuja.
About 50 people gather in the synagogue. They
pray from the Siddur, they read from the Torah
and as they chant, Abor's mellow alto begins to
rise.
In a country of 162 million people tensions often
lead to violent uprisings between Christians and
Muslims and being part of the religious minority
can be an issue. But Abor wears his kippah and his
identity with pride.
"I am a Jewish Igbo," he says.
The Igbo are one of Nigeria's largest ethnic
groups with population estimates ranging from 20
to 50 million. Abor is convinced that the Igbo's
ancestors were Jews.
"The son of Yaakov, Jacob, [was] Gad and I
learned that he was among those people who went
out of Israel to exile," Abor says. "So from there
he had a son called Eri and a son gave birth to a
son called Aguleri and that's how the Igbo race
began."
From generation to generation, some Igbo have
passed down various versions of a migration story
framed around Jacob, a patriarch of Judaism. A
popular version of the narrative holds that Gad,
the seventh son of Jacob, had three sons who
settled in present-day southeastern Nigeria,
which is predominantly inhabited by the Igbo.
Those sons, Eri, Arodi and Areli (as mentioned in
the book of Genesis), are said to have fathered
clans, established kingdoms and founded towns still
in existence in southeastern Nigeria today,
including Owerri, Umuleri, Arochukwu and Aguleri.
Eze A.E. Chukwuemeka Eri, the king of a
community in Aguleri, claims he presides over the
throne of Gad's son, Eri.
Wearing a white shirt with the Star of David
stitched on the front, King Eri points to a
calendar on the wall of his palace that lists the
names of his 33 predecessors. He has no doubts
that Eri is his ancestor. He has even acquired land
to establish an educational center for the study
of Jewish culture.
"Israelites and Igbos are brothers," he says with a
broad smile.
King Eri, like many, claims that the Igbo are the
Jews of West Africa. They believe they are
descendants of at least one of Israel's lost tribes.
In the eighth century B.C. the Assyrians invaded
Israel's northern kingdom forcing 10 tribes into
exile. Historians say it is not unlikely that these
tribes migrated westward to Africa.
Throughout history, large populations of dispersed
Jews also became "lost" through forced
conversions and cultural assimilation.
"There is evidence that is scientific that the Igbos
descended from the people that evolved in Israel,"
says Remy Ilona. He began investigating the
stories from his youth more than a decade ago.
"When I grew up I heard, like virtually every Igbo
here, that the Igbo people came from Israel," the
Abuja-based lawyer says. His field work in Nigeria,
Chad, Niger and Mali led him to conclude that
Igbo and Jewish culture are not just similar, but
"identical."
In his latest book, Ilona draws parallels between
Igbo rituals and customs and those practiced by
Jews. Shared traditional practices include
circumcising male children eight days after birth,
refraining from eating "unclean" or tabooed
foods, mourning the dead for seven days,
celebrating the New Moon and conducting wedding
ceremonies under a canopy. Some historians have
noted that the Igbo were practicing these customs
before their exposure to the Bible and
missionaries.
Daniel Lis, from the Institute for Jewish Studies,
University of Basel, Switzerland, is one of the
foremost researchers on Jewish identification
among the Igbo. He says there has been a clear
continuity of Jewish identity among the Igbo. "It's
not just something that happened yesterday," he
says.
The Swiss-Israeli anthropologist says that Igbo-
Jewish identity can be traced back to the 18th
century. Cross-cultural comparisons have been
documented by people ranging from George
Thomas Basden, the influential Anglican missionary
and ethnographer who proposed that the word
"Igbo" evolved as a corruption of the word
"Hebrew," to Olaudah Equiano, a freed Igbo slave
living in 18th century British society.
The oral stories and historic notations of cultural
resemblances between the Igbo and the Jews have
proven compelling enough to lure a diverse array
of people to southeastern Nigeria.
See also: CNN Belief Blog
Michael Freund, an American Jew based in Israel,
is planning his first trip to Nigeria to get a first-
hand look at the culture of the Igbo.
"I've read about them but of course there is
nothing like actually hearing the stories of the
people themselves," he says.
Discovering "lost" Jewish communities around the
world is what Freund does.
He is the founder and chairman of the
independent non-profit organization Shavei Israel.
According to its media spokesperson Arik Puder,
Shavei Israel is the only organization in Israel that
focuses on finding descendants of the legendary
lost tribes.
He says the Israeli government does not recognize
ethnic communities in various countries claiming to
be descendants of lost tribes.
"They cannot prove that they have a Jewish
grandfather or grandmother," Puder says. "But
they do have an interesting story."
Freund says he has received numerous letters and
emails from Nigerians trying to connect to Israel.
But with a rising number of groups around the
world attempting to link their ancestry to the
ancient Israelites, he is aware that some of those
claims are "wishful thinking." He hopes that the
future will yield strong genetic evidence to help
the search for the lost tribes.
"As DNA technology improves there will be a
growing stock of scientific evidence which can
perhaps buttress the claims of an Israeli
ancestry," he says.
A 2012 documentary called " Re-Emerging: The
Jews of Nigeria " featured the country's Jewish
community.
The film featured Rabbi Howard Gorin. He retired
from the congressional rabbinate in 2012 after 32
years as the spiritual leader of a Jewish
congregation in the U.S. state of Maryland. Gorin
has played a significant role in the rise of Judaism
in Nigeria since his first trip to the country in
2004.
"I embrace them and support them as brothers
and sisters," he says. He ships books on Judaism to
synagogues in Nigeria.
More support comes from groups like Kulanu, a
New York-based non-profit group. Kulanu assists
emerging Jewish communities around the world,
like the one in Nigeria. But most of the Igbo who
practice Judaism were not born to a Jewish mother
and have not converted according to halakhah,
Jewish law, so many Orthodox Jews would not
recognize them.
Even among Igbo people, the claim to be Jews
elicits strong criticism. One critic, Catherine
Acholonu, attributes Jewish identification among
the Igbo as a result of Christianity brought by
missionaries, since most Igbo people are Christians.
"Everybody is excited to say they belong to the
people of the Bible because the Bible is reigning
-- it's in," says Acholonu, a prominent researcher
on Igbo history and culture.
In her award-winning book "They Lived Before
Adam" Acholonu proposes that Igbo civilization is
older than that of the Israelites.
She feels that Igbo people are whitewashing their
history and diminishing the value of their own
culture by attempting to link their heritage to
the Jews.
Peter Agbai, who says he is a "proud Igbo man,"
strongly disagrees.
He started practicing Judaism in 1991 after
leaving the Methodist church. He says that the
more he followed the commandments in the Torah,
the more he realized that he was doing what his
parents had always done as followers of
traditional Igbo culture and spirituality.
"I have seen that the traditions of our people are
similar to those in the Bible," says the 66-year-
old, making references to aspects like ritual
bathing and polygamy.
Agbai is one of the founders of the Ghihon
synagogue. He plays an important role as a
spiritual leader in Abuja's community of Igbo Jews.
He attended Abor's bar mitzvah last year, an
experience that Abor says made him feel like a
man, and feel closer to the Jewish culture.
He wants to go deeper into Orthodox Judaism and
take a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
"I want to live in Israel," Abor says. He hopes that
there, he will get a better understanding of his
forefathers.
Credit Chika Oduah,
CNN Newsource
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