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Of Africa

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Hebrews of Africa Part 1 - Israylite Heritage
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Hebrewisms: Of or relating to the ancient Hebrew culture.


The cultural differences of the many nations of Africa has been mainly hidden from the world today.  Since the African continent has been lumped into one with the false creation of race.  It has lead the world to believe that all people with black skin are of the same culture, customs, behavior.  As a consequence of this, the Hebrew culture that has existed in Africa for thousands of years has gone unnoticed.  We are told the customs are ‘TRADITIONAL” AFRICAN BELIEFS.  THEY HAD NO WRITINGS, NO REAL LANGUAGES SO THIS MEANS THE ANICNET EGYPTIANS AND HEBREWS COULD NOT BE AFRICAN.  This is the farthest from the truth.  

 

During the transatlantic slave trade, over 99% of the captives were taken from the West Coast of Africa.
THE CONGO, NIGER, NIGERIA, GUINEA, SENEGAL, CAMEROON are just a few of the Numerous West African nations that supplied an unlimited number of captive Hebrews.  The people of those nations such as the KAFFIR, BO, GREBO, IGBO, MARIBUCK, MAVUMBA, AKRA, FANTI, AKIN, YORUBA, KONGO, AND ASHANTI, have practice various elements of the ancient biblical Hebrews culture for thousands of years.

 

Such culture traits includes

  • CIRCUMCISION,

  • THE DIVISION OF THEIR TRIBES INTO TWELVE,

  • BLOOD SPRINKLING UPON THEIR ALTARS AND DOOR POSTS,

  • MARRYING OF THEIR BROTHER'S WIFE AFTER DEATH,

  • SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION AFTER CHILD BIRTH,

  • UNCLEANNESS DURING CHILD BIRTH,

  • UNCLEANNESS DURING MENSTRUATION

  • NEW MOON CELEBRATIONS.

Plus many more.

 

For example among the ASHANTI tribe of Ghana, the priesthood is hereditary to a specific family, such a family has little or no possessions, is exempt from all taxes, supplied with food and advises the king. Compare this with the Levities of ancient Israyl and you will see that both are exactly the same.

The name ASHANTI has Hebrew origins, the "TI" at the end means “race of or people of”.  Ashan was the name of a city located in southern Israyl. The word Ashan in Hebrew means “smoke city / burning city”. ASHANTI means “the people of Ashan or the people of the smoke city”. This was the reference to the city of Ashan after the Israylites took it over during the conquest of Canaan.

1st Chronicles 4:32 And their villages were, Etam, and Ain, Rimmon, and Tochen, and Ashan, five cities: 

1st Chronicles 6:59 And Ashan with her suburbs, and Bethshemesh with her suburbs.

There is a book that was written in the 1920’s by a man name Joseph J Williams, his book is entitled Hebrewisms of West Africa (sorta where this sections gets it’s title from).


Mr. Williams compiles many years of research into this book to give extensive details into the tribal customs of the people of West Africa.  Let’s take a few excerpts from the book, that shows the Israylite connection to our people in West Africa.

 

NOTE: I must say here that this book was written in the 1930's and the author who is white quotes some "racist" authors, from as far back as the 1700's. He also makes some misguided comments himself, as he tries to find out how so much Hebrew culture and lifestyle, got to West Africa. He would have known the answer to that had he known the prophecies. But nonetheless there is still A LOT OF useful information contained in HIS book.

 

PAGE 22 In the first place, many Hebrewisms were discovered in the ASHANTI tribal customs. Then, several ASHANTI words were found to have a striking resemblance to those of equivalent Hebrew meaning.  Finally the supreme being of the ASHANTI gave a strong indication of being the "Yahweh" (YAH) of the "old testament”


PAGE 23, It was indeed surprising how many HEBREWISM, either real or at least apparent, were to be found among the unislamised tribes.


PAGE 52 In both ASHANTI and Hebrew the traditional vowel sound is equally important for the true signification of words.


PAGE 56, Thus in conjugation of the verb the ASHANTI prefix the personal pronouns to the verb stem, the same as it is found in the imperfect of Hebrew.

 

PAGE 61, One cannot help being impressed by the number of customs and practices there described that find their counter part among the ancient Hebrews. Thus, for example the Mosaic law of intra-tribal-marriages, which was devised expressly to preserve the inheritance of the daughters in the tribe and family of their father (NUMBERS 36:12) finds a close verification among the ASHANTI of today. And the cross-cousin marriages, so characteristic of the latter, are strictly similar to that of the daughter of salphadd who wedded the sons of their uncle by their father (NUMBERS 36:2). Again the preserving of certain names in a family is as much sought after by the ASHANTI as it was of old among the Hebrews, as shown in the case of naming of John the Baptist when the objection was made, "there is none of your Kindred that is called by this name" (Luke 1:61).
 

PAGE 62, So also the remarkable simplicity of the ASHANTI marriage and the distinctive part that wine plays in the ceremonial reminds one of the ancient Hebrews.


PAGE 63, Not only in the marriage ceremony itself but also in after marriage customs there is a strange similarity between the ASHANTI and the Hebrews. Thus, for example, for 8 days after the birth of a child the ASHANTI "mother is considered as unclean". It is only on the 8th day, at the Ntetea that the child receives its personal name, and on the 40th day a still further ceremony has to be observe. In all this we are certainly reminded of Hebrew customs. Further, the ASHANTI women at the menstrual period, even to the retirement to the bara hut, read like a page borrowed from the book of Leviticus, (15:19-20). And the system of ASHANTI ablution to prevent legal uncleanness constantly brings to mind similar practices which were common among Hebrews.

 

PAGE 66, Thus far, however, we have shown certain cultural elements common to the ASHANTI and the ancient Hebrews, such as the ob cult, religious dances, use of "Amen", vowel value, patriarchal system, parallel symbolism of Authority in "stool" and "chair", endogamy, cross-cousin marriages, familiar names, exogamy, simplicity of marriage rite and the part wine plays in the ceremony, uncleanness after child birth, purification ceremony, menstrual seclusion and ceremonial ablutions; besides ASHANTI loan words of apparent Hebrew origin.

 

PAGE 70, For they ascribe to god the attributes of omnipresence, omniscience, and Invisibility, besides which they believe that he governs all things by providence. By reason god is invisible, they say it would be absurd to make any corporeal representation of him. Wherefore they have such multitude of Images of their Idol gods which they take to be subordinate deities to the supreme god.

 

PAGE 72, In the very fact that the Hebrews, despite their service of the true god frequently relapsed into idolatry. Captain Rattray, finds a parallelism with the ASHANTI, where, as Bosman noted, one finds a belief in a supreme being side by side with multitudes of their idol Gods.

 

PAGE 78, And there is a common saying among the ASHANTI: no priest may look upon the face of his God and live which sounds remarkably like an echo of "Yahweh's" (YHWH) warning to Moses at Mount Sinai "Thou canst see my face for man shall not see me and live".

 

PAGE 80, The supreme being of the ASHANTI is identical with the god of the Christians, the Yahweh of the old testament: and further that their tribal worship is strangely parallel to that of the divided worship that existed in Jerusalem immediately prior to the Babylonian exile, as we will see later in more detail.

 

PAGE 82, The breastplate on the central figure, the Herald (Osene), who is called by Stanley the Town-Crier, is strikingly similar to the breast plate of the High Priest among the Ancient Hebrews, even to its division into twelve parts. The head dress of the Herald, too with its gold disc in front satisfies the description of the miznefet as given in the Jewish Encyclopedia. "A tiara, or perhaps a peculiarly wound turban, with a peak, the front of which bore a gold plate with inscription "Holy unto YHWH". However, the division of the breast plate into twelve parts is certainly distinctive. So also is the head dress with gold disc in front.

Ashanti Men
Blowing the Shofar

Ashanti
"Levite" Priest

(click the images to
enlarge)

Ashanti Royality
(click the small picture to zoom in)

During the period of slavery in the United States, many of the captives learn to read and write in the English language.  This would allow many of them to become authors and tell their own stories.  These stories are known today as “SLAVE NARRATIVES”.  In the slave Narrative by a slave name Olaudah Equiano, who belonged to the IGBO tribe of Nigeria.  Who was kidnapped at age 11 and sold into American slavery. He gives a brief description of his native Igbo culture in Nigeria and how it parallel the biblical Israylites.

He says:

"Like the Israylites in their primitive state, our government was conducted by our chiefs or Judges, our wisemen, and elders; and the head of a family, with, enjoyed a similar authority over his household with that which is ascribed to Abraham and the other patriarchs. The law of retaliation prevailed almost universally with us as with them; and even their religion appeared to have shed upon us a ray of its glory, though broken and spent in its passage. or eclipse by the cloud with which time , tradition, and ignorance might have enveloped it.

For we had our circumcision ( a rite I believe, peculiar to that people) we had also our sacrifices and burnt-offerings, our washing and purification, on the same occasions as they had".

"I came at length to a country, the inhabitants of which differed from us in all these particulars. I was very much struck with this difference, especially when I came among a people who did not circumcise, AND WHO ATE WITHOUT WASHING THEIR HANDS".


Olaudah Equiano - The Life of Olaudah Equiano - The Classic Slave Narratives 

 

Olaudah was speaking about another country and people in Africa in which he passed as he was being taken to the coast to be sold.  This other people didn’t have the same customs as the Igbo have.   One thing that stood out was they didn’t wash their hands before eating.  Not washing your hand before a meal had become a custom in ancient Israyl during the time of Yahoshua the messiyah.  It was a law that was created by our elders, as it states in the New Testament book of Matthew 15: verses 1-2

 

”Then came to Yahoshua scribes and Pharisees which were of Jerusalem, saying.
Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the Elders? FOR THEY WASH NOT THEIR HANDS WHEN THEY EAT BREAD. 


Matthew 15:1-2,

 

There is a mountain of evidence that supports the fact that Israylites inhabit Africa.  

In an article By George E. Lichtblau entitled  "Jewish Roots in Africa".  Gives us more insight into the West African Hebrews.

http://www.kulanu.org/africa/africa2.php

 

 

"Claims of a historic presence of Jewish communities in certain regions of Africa, notably West and Southern Africa, seem esoteric when first mentioned. This presence goes back not just centuries, but even to biblical times.  Of course in two areas such a communal presence on the African continent remains a firmly acknowledged part of Jewish history and experience (North Africa and Egypt/Ethiopia). A Jewish presence in Egypt and the former Kingdom of Kush are described in the Book of Exodus. Yet even after their exodus from Egypt and their settlement in the land of Israyl, the Jewish tribes retained certain nomadic characteristics which are reflected throughout their history.

 

For example, in the 10th and 9th centuries B.C.E. Kings David and Solomon sought to expand Jewish influence and trade throughout the Mediterranean, including North Africa, Egypt, the Arab Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, as well as Persia. Often such trade promotion and colonizing drives were arranged in cooperation with the Canaanite and the neighboring Kingdom of Tyre. These kingdoms often lent their military backing to these colonizing efforts, which led to the establishment of numerous settlements by Jewish artisans and traders throughout these regions.

 

The Jewish presence in Africa began to expand significantly in the second and third centuries of the Christian era, extending not only into the Sahara desert, but also reaching down along the West African coast, and possibly also to some Bantu tribes of Southern Africa (where some 40,000 members of the Lemba tribe still claim Jewish roots). The names of old Jewish communities south of the Atlas mountains, many of which existed well into Renaissance times, can be found in documents in synagogue archives in Cairo.

 

Some evidence can also be derived from surviving tribal traditions of some African ethnic groups, including links to biblical ancestors, names of localities, and ceremonies with affinities to Jewish ritual practices. Moreover, the writings of several modern West African historians and two personal anecdotes indicate that the memories of an influential Jewish historical past in West Africa continue to survive.

 

I still remember from my assignments in the 1960's as a Foreign Service Officer an encounter with Mr. Bubu Hama, then president of the National Assembly in Niger and a prolific writer on African history. He told me that the Tuaregs had a Jewish queen in early medieval times, and that some Jewish Tuareg clans had preserved their adherence to that faith, in defiance of both Islamic and Christian missionary pressure, until the 18th century. In several of his books Hama even cites some genealogies of Jewish rulers of the Tuareg and Hausa kingdoms.

 

A related story about surviving memories of Jewish roots in West Africa was told to me around 1976 by former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres. He had just returned from a meeting of the Socialist International, during which he had met with then president Leopold Senhor of Senegal. In the course of their discussion about the possibility of normalizing Senegalese-Israeli relations, Senhor had told him that he too had Jewish ancestors. At that time we both smiled somewhat incredulously. Yet, indeed, there are a number of historical records of small Jewish kingdoms and tribal groups known as Beni Israyl that were part of the Wolof and Mandinge communities.

 

These existed in Senegal from the early Middle Ages up to the 18th century, when they were forced to convert to Islam. Some of these claimed to be descendants of the tribe of Dan, the traditional tribe of Jewish gold and metal artisans, who are also said to have built the "Golden Calf".    

 

Now lets take a look at other Israylites scattered throughout Africa.

​

 

 

 

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