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Books by
Adeyinka Makinde
Dick Tiger: The Life and
Times of a Boxing Immortal
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Igbos: A Lost Tribe of Israel?
By
Adeyinka Makinde
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Transcript of a seminar
delivered by Adeyinka Makinde as a special
Black History event for the Jewish Museum on
Monday, October 22nd 2007 at
Cecil Sharp House, Camden Town in North
London |
Good
evening everybody. What I hope to do first is to give us
a general introduction into the Igbo people who are from
the south eastern part of Nigeria. The Igbos came to
world attention in the middle part of the 20th
Century; in the 1960s to be precise, when they attempted
to secede from the federation of Nigeria, and in doing
that, prompted a large scale interest in them.
Contemporarily, at the time, you already had these
expressions of the Igbo being 'The Jews of Africa' and
in a sense, those analogies tended to be superficial.
They were based on their (commercial) acumen, the way in
which they had risen during the era of colonialism.
And I
say superficial in the sense that by same token, you
might as well have compared the Igbos to the Armenians.
You might have compared them to the Chinese Diaspora.
But (after) we go through that, we'll come onto to the
archaeological and historical evidence that says there
is an actual link. And we'll look at them in terms of
history, culture and linguistics.
So in
other words, our enquiry relates to the Igbos being more
than merely LIKE the Jews and that they may in fact be
OF the Jews. I will do it in two halves. The first
thing to do in the introduction is we'll look at the
history of the Igbo in the 20th Century and
at various junctures compare their experiences with the
experiences of Jewry. At the time they [Igbos] fought the Biafran Civil War, they'd just concluded the Six Day War
in the Middle East, and there was a connection even then
between Biafra and the state of Israel. Then after that,
we'll look at the history of how there is that link
which goes beyond observations.
How did
I get to do this presentation? I should tell you that
I'm Nigerian but I'm not Igbo. And I'm not Jewish. But,
I grew up in Nigeria—we're going to look at an excerpt
of the tragic events of Nigeria due to the inter-ethnic
rivalry—but even as a child, you'd have these arguments.
I come from the Yoruba side of Nigeria and often times
as young men or adolescents, we'd have these arguments
and I would probably say something like "You know that
the Yoruba people came from Egypt; from the Nile
Valley", and there's all that evidence (such as) the
hieroglyphic-like designs, the bronzes of ancient Ife
and the political systems of the Yorubas.
Then
the Igbo person would say, "Do you know that we are of
Jewish lineage?" We wouldn't necessarily be listening
to each other. And then somebody would interject—because
the face of Jewry as many would admit is of a white
Caucasian—and so people would say, "Why are you trying
to link yourselves to what essentially are 'foreign'
people?" And then the other drift would be: "Hang on,
that part of the world was once black or at least
brown." I don't want to go into deep seated arguments of
that nature because there's a lot to go through, but
that is the starting point.
I
posted (notice of this event) on the Internet and one
particular gentleman, his name is Rocky Alkazoff, he's
Armenian-American, he pleaded with me—he was a young man
in the 1960s, and he was very moved by the plight of the
Igbos. He feels a kinship with them. He actually feels
that they have more in common with the Armenians than
the Jews. In other words, that they were a Christianised
people who were put to the sword by Islamic political
entities and the world stood by and did nothing. And he
profoundly feels that way. I sent him a copy of my book
on the late world (boxing) champion, Dick Tiger, and he
(told me): "Look, I read that book three times." It
really meant something to him. Although he followed the
news in the 1960s, he was astounded by what he
considered to be the parallels between the way in which
the Igbos were persecuted in Nigeria in the 1960s and
what happened to the Armenian nation in the early part
of the 20th Century.
This
aspect of African Judaic claims: the Igbos are not the
only ones in Africa to make such claims. There are a
number of ethnic groups in Africa, such as the Sefwi of
Ghana. Some of you might be familiar with the Abuyudaya
who are part of the Buganda (people of Uganda). Now the
Abuyudaya don't profess to have any sort of blood links
with the ancient Israelites. They became Jews simply
because one of their elders converted and there was a
mass conversion. And I think that we are all familiar
with the Falasha people of Ethiopia, and they were
recognised by the rabbinical authorities as being Jewish
in 1975, and they came to prominence again in 1984 with
'Operation Moses' to airlift them to Israel.
And
there's also the case of the Lemba of Malawi. There was
a trade route from the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle
East with the eastern part of Africa. So they've done
these genetic and chromosomal tests which demonstrate
that they have a genetic link to the Semitic peoples of
the Middle East. So there is more or less some
acceptance that there might be a connection there. And
it is that sort of connection with the Igbos that I'd
like to explore this evening.
Well,
who are the Igbos? I thought that it would be good to
introduce you to who the Igbos are. This is a map of
Nigeria. Nigeria's a very large country in West Africa.
It was colonised by the British and like most modern
African nations, it was created by imperial draughtsmen
who divided up the spoils and regardless of ethnic
tongue or shared history, they just divided up the
African continent. The Igbos are one of the three major
tribes of Nigeria. You have the Hausa-Fulani in the
northern part; largely Islamic and feudalistic.
Then in
the west, you have the Yorubas and in the east, the
Igbos. Now, these are the three major ethnic groups, but
they are by no means the only ethnic groups because you
have at least 250 different ethnic groups in Nigeria
which as you know is a recipe for 'tough governance.'
Who are the Igbos? They are black African people. And
when we talk about Africa, as being synonymous with
black; certainly in regard to 'sub-Saharan' Africa. But
Africa is composed of diverse elements.
Just
like when we speak about Asia; the Chinese, the Indians,
the Turkic peoples all inhabit Asia. So the same way in
Africa, you have black people as well as Caucasian
people; particularly in the northern part, and in regard
to Caucasian people, I am not necessarily referring to
Arabs, but to the Berbers for instance. But essentially
a black African people; this is what the Igbos are.
They
had an oral tradition which meant that there wasn't a
developed system of writing although among the secret
societies they had, and this is also true of the Yoruba
aristocracy, the Igbos had what was called the
N'sibidi Script, which was something only those
involved with the priesthood could understand.
Linguistically, they are part of what is called the 'Kwa'
language group. This is important, because later on, I
am going to go through a list of words in the Igbo
language, and compare it with what you find in Hebrew
and assess the similarities.
So
we'll look at that and see whether it is just by
happenstance, by chance or whether there is something
more substantive to it, but essentially it is of the Kwa
language, that means that it is of the same language
group as other West African nations such as the Ashanti
of Ghana, as well as the Yoruba and the Bini. They also
consist of a disparate group of communities united by
language and customs. The thing to mention here is that
when we later start talking about how the Igbos may be
composed of some elements of Jewish migration, a lot of
the time when you talk about people migrating in
history, they often come, whether it is males or
females, and then intermarry with a so-called indigenous
group. Nothing is ever 'pure.'
So even
among the Igbo people, the word 'Igbo' to some people
from the Northern part of Igboland, they consider it a
derogatory term. I'm referring to people from a place
known as Onitsha and Asaba. These people are said to
have migrated and are said to have had connections
with the nearby kingdom of Benin. And so they met the
indigenous Igbo people and although they speak the same
tongue and same language, there's a little bit of a
distinction between them culturally.
The
same thing with the Yoruba people. Whether they say they
came from the east, they also met an indigenous people
who they also called 'Igbo.' The other thing about the Igbos is that they tended to have ruled themselves
autonomously in their village enclaves, so they didn't
have traditions of kingship. It was more of a
meritocratic set up. Although, as I said, the northern
Igbo are slightly different. They had chiefs and they
also did have kings.
So very
multifarious in their origins. One final thing to
mention is that when the British conquered Nigeria, they
tended to disregard the Igbos when it came to matching
the different ethnic groups, because they were impressed
by materialistic things. In the Benin Empire, they had
roads, underground water systems. And these are things
that were documented by the Portuguese when they met the
Binis. Before the era of colonialism and imperialism,
they actually exchanged ambassadors and dealt with each
other as equals.
And
they were also impressed by the Yorubas and their
complex system of governments and religious rites. With
the Igbos, they couldn't make much out of them. But that
changed in the 1930s when they discovered a site which
they called Igbo Ukwu. And Igbo Ukwu, which I'll make
another reference to when I start exploring the link
between Jewry and the Igbos, what they found were these
cemeteries in which they found these ornately designed
bronze ornaments, which appeared to be associated with
the burial of a ruling priesthood. So they were probably
operating a sort of theocracy.
They
are an African people and they had traditional
religions. They believed in a supreme god whose name is
Chukwu, but there were also subsidiary gods: god
of the forest, god of yam—yam is the staple diet, and
interestingly, they also believed in the concept of
destiny; that each one has a personal god they called a
chi, which basically determines your good fortune
or lack of fortune in your life. So we'll bear all of
these in mind when we come on to the links with the
Hebrews.
When we
talk about Jews, we are not necessarily talking about
one people—even though that is the tendency, because we
all know that there are Sephardic Jews, there are
Ashkenazi Jews. Are we talking about Zionists or
non-Zionists. In another instance, we could be talking
about secular Jews and talking about Orthodox or
Ultra-Orthodox Jews. So even within Jewry itself, there
is that disparateness in a sense. But there is that
unity of cultural norms and a shared sense of history.
It's an
important point to mention—harking back to these
adolescent arguments I had that some people are
uncomfortable among Igbos or black people who feel,
"Well, so what?" Whether or not there is that link. I
got something off the Internet. There was this argument
by this Igbo person, and his words were, "Why indulge in
such brazen expressions of inferiority complex and self
devaluation?" It's as if to say: "Do you want to force
yourself on to them?" So it brings up these issues of
identity and who determines who is who. And what happens
if someone feels they are been ostracized or have not
been accepted?
I
mentioned the Falashas as an example of Jews and in more
recent times the Menashe of India have been accepted.
And that took a long time. Some people feel that it is
only a matter of time before the Igbos are accepted in
this way, but when I come to our conclusion, we'll see
that they are probably some misgivings about that, for
instance given the political context in which Nigeria
is. But this whole idea of lost tribes and lineages, I'm
sure we're all familiar with through our history.
You've
probably heard of the Israelite societies here in
Britain who believe that the Anglo-Saxon 'race' was
descended from these lost tribes of Jews. Just to remind
people—I don't need to remind most of you, but some of
us; you had 12 tribes of Israel plus two others. The
twelve tribes were the sons of Jacob, and two of
Joseph's sons were also given the status. And what
happened was that when the Assyrian Empire conquered the
northern state of Israel, they had this dispersal and
they were never together again.
So ten
tribes roamed the earth and to this day, nobody probably
knows where they are. But there are always people in the
four corners of the earth staking their claim. One of
them was the Anglo-Saxon race. It's not just a question
of the lost tribes of Israel but also people who've
'lost' that lineage. In other words, they were Jews but,
what happened was that through forced conversions, and
other situations, they've 'lost' that connection to
Judaism. I think in recent years, there was this issue
in Latin America of those—they must have been Sephardic
Jews—who went over to the New World and due to the
Inquisition didn't retain their Jewish faith.
Some of
them did it in secret (retained their faith) over long
periods of time, it must be said and that is why some
can trace it hundreds of years later. A number of them
are re-discovering their lost lineage but they've been
layered with Catholicism. Is that the same thing with
the Igbos? A Jewish people now identified as being
Christian.
So
those are the issues raised. Before I show you a clip, I
just want to say how we going to look at the Igbos. I
put it in six different headings. First thing I'll look
at is a belief in being a special people and having a
special mission. Secondly, the Igbos had this drive in
academic, professional and commercial endeavours. What
was the perception, thirdly, of the host communities or
their neighbours. Fourthly, the suffering of pogroms,
fifthly, genocide, and finally the issue of nationalism
and war. And through that, I'll be linking them with
Israel in modern times as well as with the Jews in
history. So I just want to first of all show you an
eight-minute clip of a BBC documentary Timewatch called
'Biafra: Fighting a War without Guns." What this does is
it gives you an idea of Nigeria and how it was created
and we'll stop it when we get to the creation of the
state of Biafra.
Audience watches an 8-minute video clip.
The
first point that I mentioned before we showed that clip
was this belief in being a special people and having a
special mission; I think that when that is the case, it
is almost like a double-edged sword in the sense that
you are praised for being a hardworking people. You are
very adept at creating things etcetera, but then there's
the other side of people being envious, or people
feeling that you are being too prideful—and the Igbos
suffered that. I'll give you a number of quotes.
Dr.
Nnamdi Azikiwe was Nigeria's first president—an Igbo—but
he was mostly associated with Nigerian nationalism and I
remember quoting this to a man who is now fairly
elderly. He was the in-law of 'Zik', and he was
surprised that he had ever made a statement like this.
What Zik said in 1949 was that "it would appear that the
God of Africa has specifically created the Igbo nation
to lead the children of Africa from the bondage of the
ages."
And
then Chinua Achebe, I don't know if you've heard of him.
Any one heard of Chinua Achebe? The writer of
Things Fall Apart, probably the most famous African novel.
He said the following: "Unlike the Hausa-Fulani, the
Igboman was unhindered by a weary—that is
a Moslem—religion. And unlike the Yoruba, he was
unhampered by traditional hierarchies. This kind of
creature, fearing neither god nor man was custom made to
grasp the opportunities of the white man's
dispensation."
So that
was Achebe's explanation for why the Igbos rose. As I
said, remember the attitude of the British. And their
attitude wasn't that good whether it was to their Celtic
neighbours or to the French or Continental Europeans or
the black or brown peoples who they conquered; in the
hierarchy of things, the Igbo were right at the bottom
there. But this was Achebe's explanation of why
they rose up in the era of colonialism.
By no
means an intellectual but a very decent man—I wrote a
book about him,
Dick
Tiger, the world boxing champion in
the 1960s. During the height of the Nigerian Civil War,
he used his prestige in the United States to support the
Igbo in the secessionist cause of Biafra. And he told an
American journalist, "Our opponents call the Igbos the
Jews of Africa. It is meant as an insult. I interpret it
as a high compliment."
So they
had that belief in them. And I'll just run through a few
facts and figures to show that. In the early 1920s,
Nigeria—just a new nation, newly colonised. It had 15
barristers and 12 physicians. Now 20 of these were from
the Yoruba ethnic group, and the rest were so-called
Native Foreigners. Absolutely not a single Igbo doctor
or lawyer. By the middle (1950s), Nigeria had 300
doctors and lawyers. 76 were ethnic Yorubas but the
Igbos now numbered 49. So they were gaining pretty
rapidly.
In
education, the Igbos, prior to the Second World War,
only had one studying in the United States:
Nnamdi
Azikiwe, who I mentioned earlier on was the first
president of Nigeria. After the Second World War, half
the students in the United States were of Igbo origin.
One thing that I mentioned in my book was that the Igbos
had what was referred to as the 'Onitsha Chapbook
Culture.' In other words, the thing that was responsible
for their drive; you could see it in this literature
that developed. It developed from the market city of
Onitsha in the north of Igboland but spread all over to
the urban proletariat.
And
what that culture was, was a mixture of traditional
values, Christian and entrepreneurial precepts. If you
struggled hard, remained sober: You could reach for the
stars. And so many of them were imbued with this zeal
which probably lasted until the shattering events of the
Nigerian Civil War. You had these chapbooks (with
titles) like 'Determination is the Key to Success', or
'How to become Rich'. People fed of this sort of thing.
You'd find it in market places, in bus stations. They
were very into self development and the development of
the community.
The
third point that I mentioned was the perception of the
host communities and the neighbours. Well, I don't want
to go into the epithets that have been used against
Jews, but with the Igbos, there's a name in Nigeria that
originated in the North: 'Nyamiri.' And that
referred to something akin to being a money lover.' They
would do anything for money; sell your mother for money.
That was the way in which the Igbos were viewed: as a
people with an unbridled lust and love for money.
So
there was all this suspicion, envy, antagonism. The
other thing we could compare with the situation of Jews,
was a certain ghettoization. As the clip mentioned, the
Igbos spread across Nigeria. They were in the Civil
Service—the higher echelons; the lower echelons. The
northern part of Nigeria, I should remind you:
Islamically orientated, so they didn't adapt to western
education and the professions in the way that southern
people like the Yorubas and the Igbos did. When people
lived in the North, they lived in what were termed
'Strangers Quarters'; Sabon Garis. Everybody did. But
again, when the pogroms started, they knew where to head
to.
And on
that issue of pogroms, in Nigeria, you could say that
there were three pogroms against the Igbo. One in 1945
in the northern city of Jos; or what you'd call the
'middle belt' in Nigeria. In 1954, in the northern city
of Kano and in 1966 there was a prolonged series of
pogroms. What happened as that clip hinted at was that
(in) Nigeria, the six year-old civilian regime was
stalemating into absolute corruption and (it was) a
mess. There was a coup d'état. That coup was led by
middle ranking officers, most of whom were Igbos.
The
actual coup did not succeed, but the person who took
over, was the army commander who was Igbo. And a lot of
the other ethnic groups, particularly the Hausa—because
a number of their leaders were killed during that
coup—felt that this was the Igbos trying to establish a
form of hegemony over the rest of Nigeria. It's part of
a lengthy story—can't go into details but that is it.
Later on there was a counter coup and the slaughter of
many of the Igbo (within the) officer corps. There were
pogroms against Igbo civilians.
Now I'm
not Igbo. I'm not a propagandist trying to stir up
hatred (against) Moslem northern Nigerians or Islam in
general, but you saw a few of the propaganda clips (in
the T.V. excerpt). We don't have pictures of how Jews
were dealt with at the time of the pogroms in Tsarist
Russia, but you can imagine how they were punished.
These are pictures released by the Biafran secessionists
on what was happening. People had their eyes gouged,
people were turned into refugees in their own country,
this picture which is folded, contains the image of a
beheaded corpse, so if you don't want to look at it,
don't open it. But that was the whole effect of
Nigeria's problems.
So you
had a political revolution, and once they started the
communal violence, the Igbos fled to their own Eastern
Region. And in doing that, many of the people who
witnessed this made an analogy with the situation of the
Jews, because the Eastern Region now began to look
rather overpopulated with over a million people coming
from all over Nigeria (who) had to be absorbed in one
region. This is a statement from Colin Legum of The
Observer, October 16th 1966. He wrote for
his readers that "after a fortnight, the scene in the
Eastern Region continues to be reminiscent of the
ingathering of the exiles into Israel after the end of
the Second World War. The parallel is not fanciful."
And it
wasn't fanciful because what was going to happen was
secession and from their perspective, a war of
independence, which of course the Jewish people had
before the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. From
the pogroms, the issue of genocide raised its head. For
Jews, the image of genocide is the camps of Belsen,
Auschwitz: emaciated figures liberated after the Second
World War. For the Igbos: starving children in Biafra. I
have two quotes for you that (are) linked to this issue
(of genocide). While I read this out, I have pictures of
Jews rescued from one of the concentration camps and the
rest are (of) Igbos.
Once
Nigeria blockaded them during the civil war, that was
their means of warfare. They didn't want to do much
hand-to-hand fighting; they just blockaded Biafra by
land, by sea, by air and basically wanted to starve them
into submission. Well, I'd mentioned the boxer Dick
Tiger earlier on who did a large amount of propaganda
work on behalf of the Biafran cause, and he was
interviewed by a Western journalist during the war. And
here's a quote from him. He said, "If we don't fight
back. If we don't protect our rights, it will be what's
the word? Genocide. Like what they did to the Jews. They
are out to kill us."
And
Frederick Forsyth in his book,
The Biafra Story—Frederick
Forsyth of
The Day of the Jackal fame. Before
that he was a journalist who had covered the
assassination attempt on General DeGaulle and various
other European news stories, then he became a war
correspondent, then resigned that to propagate the
Biafran cause—this is what he wrote in his book
The Biafra Story in 1969. He said, "One can no more
explain the present day attitude of Biafrans to
Nigerians, without reference to the anti-Igbo pogroms
than one can account for contemporary Jewish attitudes
towards the Germans without reference to the Jews
experience in the Nazis hands between 1933 and 1945."
So yet
another analogy being made there. So far we haven't yet
spoken about Judaism and the links with Igbos, but
this is what I said I wanted to do just to show why
there was this analogy been made. And the final thing
that I wanted to look at was this issue of nationalism
and war, because there's a similarity here in the sense
that an horrendous experience was the prompt for Jews to
go back to the Middle East; the land of Canaan; of
Palestine and form the state of Israel in 1948. Of
course, there was the pre-existing school of Zionism as
espoused by Theodore Hertzl, and that had been something
that had been there for much of the century and Jews
were migrating to Palestine. But the impetus that led to
a final resolution to form a Jewish state was the
Holocaust. And so much in the same way that the Jews
formed the state of Israel, the Igbos reacted to what
they felt was the attempt to exterminate them as a
people, to form the independent republic of Biafra.
So some
similarities there, but I will remind you about the
differences, because it looked like a 'David and
Goliath' situation. Looking at what is known as the 'War
of Independence' to Jews and Israelis but (as) 'The
Calamity' to Arabs, you had two more wars; one in 1956
at the time of the Suez Crisis and then the Six Day War
in 1967. Now before the Six Day War, it looked like a
classic case of David and Goliath. You've seen the map
of Nigeria and how small the area inhabited by the Igbos
was compared to the rest of Nigeria.
Much
the same way people would have looked at things in a
superficial sense and seen the state of Israel and look
at these large Arab nations: Syria, Egypt and Jordan
around them. A lot of people in the world did think that
the state of Israel was in peril. Just looking at things
it would have taken a swift set of pincer movements, and
Israel would be swept into the sea, and God knows what
would have happened to the people who were left there.
But the reality was different as people know now. The
Israeli General Staff were very confident of victory.
There are all these stories of the indecisiveness of the
Prime Minister, Levi Eshkol and Yitzhak Rabin, the army
commander was said to be smoking heavily and had a
nervous breakdown.
But the
only thing that was perplexing the Israeli state was
what would be the nature of their victories. They
couldn't take any of the Arab capitals, and it was a
question of how much territory they could take and then
see if the world could accommodate that. With the
Biafrans, same David and Goliath scenario, but the Igbos
did not have much in the manner of weapons to fight the
Nigerians. So what I was going to show you on the
projector: here's a picture of some little Jewish girls
in Golders Green holding up a placard saying HELP
ISRAEL—but essentially, the Generals, there's General
Dayan, Rabin and the Air Force commander; they knew they
were going to win that victory.
More or
less; it needed an effort and they did just that. These
are battle scenes and famous thing at the Wailing Wall
where Israeli soldiers were pictured by a photographer
from (Life magazine). This is a picture of Colonel
Ojukwu, who led the Biafran secession. Now there was a
connection at this time as I hinted in my introduction
between the state of Israel and Biafra in the sense that
the Six Day War had been concluded in June of 1967.
It
would have been impolitic for Israel to recognise Biafra
at that stage but what happened was after the
spectacular successes against the Arab armies—I have
some pictures there of abandoned Egyptian armour from
the Mitla Pass—a number of those tanks and armour, well
I don't know about tanks, but light weaponry, were
airlifted to Biafra. So the state of Israel did send
some aid to them. That connection existed. It ended in
defeat (for Biafra) so a vastly different situation from
what we have with the situation of Israel.
Well, I
come on to the aspect of the link between the Igbos and
the Jews. So far we've looked at those analogies which
were made. People would make these phrases: "The Jews of
Africa." Aid workers or people who were flying
aeroplanes when Biafra was blockaded in order to bring
in food because the Nigerian government wouldn't allow
food to pass through unless it was inspected, and the
Biafrans felt well they're going to poison it. So the
way Biafra was kept alive was through these
constellation flights between Sao Tome and Portugal.
So
people were making these analogies. But they were just
saying that these people were like Jews;
analogous to Jews. But we want to look at what this
connection is that appears to have transpired. Just to
remind that the history of the Jewish people has been
one of dispersal. I referred earlier on to how biblical
Israel had been destroyed by larger empires: Assyrian
and Babylon. And we know that there were these
migrations to different parts of the world: Egypt,
southern parts of Europe, the Iberian Peninsula. But
what of sub-Saharan Africa? We know of Jews existing in
China. And this was as a result of the trade route
through the Silk (Road). And the traditions have been
suppressed but today they are trying to reinvestigate
that past.
I
mentioned Latin America before, and why not sub-Saharan
Africa? What are these possible routes? There are 3
areas in which we could say that there was a form of
Jewish migration. We'll also look at (whether such)
migration was just of the Jewish faith or of people with
the DNA of the people of the Middle East. One would
have been through the North East of Africa; through the
Nile Valley. Historically, remember there was an Arab
conquest of North Africa and southern Europe. There were
trade routes, and it is quite possible that some of
these conquests and the traders came down via that north
eastern element. A second route would have been right up
here in North Africa.
Everybody knows where Tunisia is? There was a Jewish
community there destroyed in the first-second A.D., but
there are still elements of them there (in) Djerba.
Remember the Sahara desert wouldn't have always been as
vast as it is because it's constantly expanding. It
would have been onerous to cross it but there were these
trade routes. Also, in West Africa, there were three
great kingdoms. Not right down on the coast and not
right up at the northern tip. These empires were known
as Ghana; and then from Ghana, you had a larger empire
called Mali.
In
history, there's a famous King of Mali known as Mansa
Musa. He made a pilgrimage to Mecca—they were
Islamic—and on his way—gold was plentiful in those
days—he would make gifts of gold bars as he went along
the route. That succeeded in devaluing the value of
gold, and I think he was broke by the time he finished
his pilgrimage. But he made it back to Mali. And then
after the Mali Empire, you had the Songhai Empire. We
know about Mali through oral traditions. We also know
of it through written testaments.
One of
them was through a famous Arab traveller called Ibn
Batuta. You have to remember that these were Islamic
states—perhaps not in the 'fundamentalist' mould as we
would understand it, but rather if you think about the
Islamic caliphate; the Islamic presence in Spain before
they were pushed out of Spain where it was one of
tolerance etcetera. You had Jewish traders and soldiers
there at that time. So that would have been another
means by which Hebrews; Jewish people might have made
their way into sub-Saharan Africa.
Lady
in Audience: These are speculations really...
Adeyinka Makinde: We're going a bit deeper. We're
going a bit deeper. When you say speculation, it starts
off as speculation but it ends up as historical enquiry,
because as I said, the (Lemba) people were tested for
DNA, and their rites were pretty much congruent to
ancient Hebrew rites, so hold your horses madam. We're
coming on.
Lady
in Audience: Yes, I could walk out or hold my
horses. I know that.
Adeyinka Makinde: Much of history is (as) you
mentioned speculation. Yes. But the reality of the fact
that there were Jewish people, who came along with
conquering Arab armies, is not speculation. In fact in
Mali which I just mentioned, there is an ancient Jewish
community there. And rather as we mentioned Spain at the
time of the Inquisition, people were either put to the
sword or were forced to convert (to Islam.) And rather
as I mentioned Latin America, the Far East in China
even, people are now re-investigating the past. So
absolutely, that aspect isn't speculation.
Lady
in Audience: What is your point? I know you are a
lawyer, (but) what do anthropologists say about this.
Adeyinka Makinde: If you don't mind madam, I can
take some questions at the end.
Steward
of the Jewish Museum admonishes the lady to leave
questions for the end of the seminar.
There
are aspects where people might say it is speculation,
but I've just mentioned some actual historically
documented facts. There was a Jewish presence just as
there was an Arab presence through trade. Let's come on
then to the traditions of the Igbo people. And I want to
look at it in terms of those aspects which are somewhat
congruent with the Hebrew faith. There are the lores,
that is, the oral traditions of three clans of the Igbos
which do say that they are descended from three tribes.
One is the B'nei Manashe. (Another) one is B'nei Gath
and the other one is B'nei Zebulon. Those are the three
specific tribes which in Igbo folklore, there is a
connection with Jews.
This is
pre-dating any contact with Christianity or the bible. I
will read out a collection of words which tend to
(demonstrate similarities between Igbo and Hebrew.)
First is 'Adah', a female name. The daughter of Elon.
That name exists in the Igbo language; the name of a
first daughter. The second word 'Udu'; to certify or
attest in Hebrew. In the Igbo language, they refer to it
in 3 areas: Where it has to do with fame or popularity;
where it is as a reference to a clay pot, or a pot like
musical instrument. A third (word): 'Ani'. In Hebrew,
'everlasting' or 'unending'. In the Igbo language, that
means 'land' or 'ground or the earth.'
In
Hebrew, 'Ush' is the name of a town or the name of a
male. In the Igbo language, it is the name of townships
within the cities of Owerri and Ideato. In the Hebrew
faith it is also the name of a male. That same name is
the name of a male among the Igbos. A fifth one: 'Addar'.
A town. Where? A town in Judah. That's from (the book
of) Joshua. There's a town called Adda in a place known
as Arochukwu. Sixth: 'Asa'. A Hebrew king, The son of
Abijah and father of Jehoshaphat. In the Igbo language,
it is the name of a beautiful female, and it also
appears as the name of a town. 'Ezer'. What does Ezer
mean in Hebrew?
Was
there a chieftain among the Israelites who fought the
Gadites sent to support King David at the battle of
Zitlag against Saul which is the last record of the
activities of the three Gadite brothers: Eri, Arodi and
Areli? That was from (the book of) Chronicles. So that
was a Chieftain. In Igbo 'Eze' is the (title) of a king
or chief. 'Ewe'? That's a goat in Hebrew. (Member of the
audience offers that it is spelled E-Z). In Igbo it is
either 'Ewu' or 'Eghu'. 'Am'. What is Am in Hebrew? (Two
members of the audience respond that it refers to a
"nation" or "place") A nation. A place. There are a
number of prefixes in the Igbo language which also mean
'place'. 'Ama'.
The
fellow I wrote that book on, Dick Tiger, he comes from a
place called Ama-Igbo. Amaigbo. Now that means compound
of the Igbos. Compound. Place. (Member of the audience
states it could refer to 'mother country.') That's what
the Igbos recognise it as; as a certain territory. My
understanding of Amaigbo is that it means compound of
the Igbos. So a bit of a similarity there. 'Ol'. In
Hebrew is said to be servitude or slavery. (A member of
the audience refers to it as a Yoke around the neck).
Igbos have 'Olu', and that means labour or work. And
then 'Maaz'. In Hebrew what is that? Is that the name of
a male? M-A-A-Z. The name of a male in Israel. Maazi in
Igboland is a male name or a title.
And the
final one I have here is 'Ikkar'. I-K-K-A-R. (Member
of the audience mentions 'a farmer.') Tiller of the
ground. In Igbo, 'Iku-ugbo', so the first 'Eee-khh'
sound; it means to till the ground or to farm. So as I
said, (Igbo is part of the Kwa language group) but there
are these terms. How did they get there? Were they from
migrations or from Jewish elements who converted them?
Unlike the Lemba on whom they have done genetic
testing, I'm not sure that there's been any large scale
testing on the Igbos. That's something (on which)
they'll work on in the future.
A
mention also of the religious practices. The Igbos have
a traditional religion. I had mentioned that they
believe in a god, one god—Chukwu, and certain subsidiary
gods. And also the concept of the god of destiny. And
some of those, apart from the personal god, are
congruent with other traditional African religions.
Where does traditional, that is pre-Christian Igbo
religion merge with Judaism. Before Christians arrived
or the bible in various guises and versions was brought
to that part of Africa, the Igbos had a tradition and
still have a tradition of circumcising of the male born
eight days after birth.
The
Igbos also have a tradition of separating men from women
during female menstruation. There are other issues. They
refrain from eating meat that would be referred to as
being 'Un-kosher'. So in other words, if a ritual
prayer has not been said over a dead animal, you can't
eat it. And also, it depends on how the animal was
killed. If it was destroyed by another animal, you
cannot touch it. The Igbos also have that as a
tradition. The sounding of the ram's horn. I didn't have
any video clips to show you but according to Rabbi
Howard Gorin, who went there and established this B'nei
Igbo, the Igbos also have a tradition of blowing the
rams horn. Apparently it sound like, if not identical to
the manner in which the Shofar is blown.
And
also the tradition of mourning, Shiva, there is a
similar Igbo ritual whereby, for instance, a husband
dies and the wife stays and weeps for 7 or 8 days in the
house. There are also some similarities with some
Jewish festivals. For instance, (although) I didn't find
reference to this one, I thought it was implicit. Yom
Kippur is the Day of Atonement. In the traditional
Igbo society, when they begin their New Year, there is
a month of sacrifice, which they call the Onwa-Eja,
where you fast and try to do good deeds. Similarity?
Rosh Hashanah, the New Year. The Igbos place a
particular emphasis on the New Year. They call it the
Ikeji-Aro.
So a
few things to chew on there in terms of the migratory
aspects, and the linguistic similarities and the
traditional. I have some pictures of Rabbi Gorin who has
gone to Nigeria (distributing photographs of Rabbi Gorin
and Igbos practicing Judaism.) Those are pictures of
newly established Jewish faith groups in Igboland. There
are 40,000 practicing persons. Nigeria is a nation of
120 million and the Igbos anything from 20 to 35
million. What this means is that a lot of Igbos may
acknowledge that there is some connection, but on mass,
they are a Christianised people and most of them are
Roman Catholic.
Most of
them are not interested in converting to Judaism, but
they do tend to find the analogies as well as any
archaeological, historical (or) cultural link to Hebrews
pretty appealing. There are different attitudes in this
regard. To conclude, what are the implications of this?
Is it a question of if you could establish, rather like
the Falashas of Ethiopia or the Menashes in India, that
they were a branch of the lost tribes of Israel, what
would be the consequence of that? Would it entail that
they would want to be recognised by the state of Israel?
There
would be a big problem in Nigeria. As I mentioned
before, the state of Israel did help the Igbos during
the civil war by sending equipment which had been taken
during the Six Day War. However, to recognise the Igbos
(as a branch of Jewry) when the whole idea of their
secession is still fresh in history might be considered
a provocation. For that reason, even if there was
compelling evidence and it was accepted, it would be a
big problem whether it was political recognition or
rabbinical recognition. Yitzhak Rabin, when he was prime
minister, did send a fact finding (team) to Igboland
between 1995 and 1997. So there are a number of people
in the Jewish Diaspora who are aware of this.
I
mentioned Rabbi Howard Gorin. There's also a producer by
the name of Jeff L. Leiberman. He's Canadian-born and
based in Los Angeles. He's also just made a film called
'Re-Emerging: The Jews of Nigeria'. It's just been
produced, so it may be available as we speak. So there
are some problems (recognising the Igbos as Jews)
politically, religiously. Also there's that wonder, some
people feel in Black Africa that the experience of the
Ethiopian Jews in Israel has not necessarily been plain
sailing. There've been allegations of racism. I think
there was one particular instance of (Falashas) been
refused as blood donors. And people felt, is this what
you want? Also, there's this uncertainty as to how long
recognition would take.
As I
mentioned at the beginning, this issue of identity and
recognition. Who has the power? It's almost (like the
situation of) Thomas Jefferson who is said to have sired
children with a black slave—mixed race slave, Sally
Hemmings. And down the generations, I think it was in
the last decade or so, the (black) descendants of Sally
Hemmings wanted recognition as being part of the wider
Jefferson family, and there were arguments for and
against. Some people felt "That's a good thing! They
acknowledge." But others would say, "Why are you trying
to force yourself on them. If they don't want you, why
force the issue?"
In some
instances, that's the attitude on both sides. There are
other attitudes, the less conservative attitudes among
the Jewish faith, the Rabbi Gorin's of this world, who
feel, "Look a lot of the Jews feel that population wise,
we're diminishing through inter-marriage and issues like
that. If you can have people with a connection to
Judaism whether they're in the Far East or the Near
East, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America: We should
embrace them." There are others who presumably don't
feel that way.
As I
said, I think that it is something to think about
because even the Jewish—80% of those who are termed
Jewish are Ashkenazi Jews, and in terms of when we refer
to casting doubts—which are valid—in regard to certain
peoples being connected to Jews, remember there was the
Khazar Theory which reared its head in the 1970s which
was that you can't account for the large amount of Jews
in eastern Europe who would have been descendants of
migrants from the Middle East and that this was as a
result of the mass conversion of this medieval Turkic
people.
The
person who first (postulated) that was actually
pro-state of Israel, but others have seen that as an
attempt to de-legitimise most Jews by saying, you do not
have a connection to Israel, therefore you are imposters
and you're colonists. As I told you, I'm not Igbo, I'm
not Jewish—I'm just a student of history. These are the
arguments in terms of fashioning something for the
future. Some people are confident that eventually there
will be enough evidence for the Igbos to be given
acceptance as a lost people of Judaism and that they
will be accepted much in the way of the Falashas and the Manashe.
But as
I said it's not a vast majority of Igbos—who are willing
to acknowledge that connection but it's a relatively
smaller, but growing number of people who are interested
in exploring more of the Judaic faith. So that's were I
end things. I hope that was thought provoking and
slightly stimulating.
Audience claps.
Question and
Answer
Does
anyone want to ask any questions?
Member
of Audience:
Just two points. Firstly, I don't know if you are aware,
there was a case before the Israeli Supreme Court in
about 1993—because there are a large number of foreign
workers from Nigeria working in Israel—so a Nigerian who
was Igbo tried to petition the Supreme Court to be
granted permission to live in Israel permanently on the
grounds that he was Jewish. And secondly, I remember
reading a couple of years ago in the Jewish Chronicle,
there was a rabbi from Nigeria, living in the UK who had
been asked to go on a fact finding mission to Nigeria to
(inaudible).
Adeyinka Makinde:
Right. Do you know what the result of that Supreme Court
petition was?
Member
of Audience:
It was rejected. It was decided that he had no rights
under the Law of Return which grants every Jew the right
to (live in Israel.)
Adeyinka Makinde:
I must say that apart from the Igbos who consider
themselves to be Jews who've rediscovered their
faith—Judaism is not a proselytising religion as we
know—there is a messianic aspect to (the spread of)
Hebrewism which is not linked to the Igbos in Nigeria.
They practice Judaism because they believe it is the
purer form of what was then (developed into)
Christianity and Islam. And I remember that there was a
soldier fighting in the Israeli army who died, and he
had a Yoruba name. So how he could be accepted into the
Israeli army but not into the constituency of being
recognized—I don't know how that occurred. That's
interesting! I'll look that up.
Member
of Audience:
Have you read about the rabbi?
Adeyinka Makinde:
I know (of) a few of them through my research of people
linked to Mr. Gorin
Member
of the Audience:
He's based in Manchester. I'll see if I can dig out the
article.
Adeyinka Makinde:
That'll be good! I'd like to find out about that.
Member
of Audience
(2): There was also at one time I think a lecture on the
Jews practicing—a cult actually—in Uganda. I don't know
much about it, but their practice is very similar to
that of (mainstream Jews).
Adeyinka Makinde:
Not the (Abuyudaya)? Because as we mentioned, they do
not say that they have a genetic or migratory connection
with Israel, it's just that an elder was converted in
the early part of the 20th Century and they
all adopted it.
Member
of Audience
(2): Oh, O.K.
Adeyinka Makinde:
There is that issue of conservative rabbinical thought
that first of all you have to be born of a Jewish mother
and have a rabbinical court confirm that. But if you
look at the migration of Ashkenazi Jews, they found in
the DNA that most of them were males who married
presumably Slavic females. So where does that leave
them? It's full of convolutions and can be highly
political. So it's one of those issues where you have to
treat people, really, the way you want to be treated.
That's the only way one can look at it as a neutral
observer.
Member
of Audience
(3): There are also the Israelites in the (United)
States who are black who (claim to) derive their
(descent) through slavery from Africa to the United
States and Caribbean. Also, there is some theory linking
Rastafarianism to Judaism. So what goes around comes
around. Also from a commonsense point of view, to me, it
must make sense that there was dispersal to sub-Saharan
Africa. Why should it be uniquely to Northern Europe?
It's just that people have got lost and there hasn't
been much research into how the communities dispersed.
Adeyinka Makinde:
Absolutely. As I said, I'm not here as this big expert.
There are other (topics for which I could claim a
greater level of expertise). I am a discoverer as much
as you are. I am not professing an ultimate, supreme
knowledge of it.
Member
of Audience
(3): Jews are originally people of colour. I'm of
Ashkenazi descent but a large number of Ashkenazi Jews
just don't want to accept that. It's just a fact. It's a
fact that they were a people of colour. And as you say
through intermarriage, through rape...
Adeyinka Makinde:
So many ways it could have happened. I think the
interesting thing whether it's in Europe (or) in Africa;
was it through conversion or was it through this genetic
link? And the (Lemba) people of Malawi which is in
southern Africa (have established) this link. Genetic
mutations of Jews and Arabs are, I would presume,
relatively the same. (Reference to Arab trade and
presence in the eastern and south eastern part of
Africa. Jews from the Arabian Peninsula may have come
via this route.) They (genetic historians) do claim that
the (Lemba) bear traces of Semitic genes which would
tend to confirm that they practice of what looks like
Judaism for a long time before Christian missionaries
arrived.
Member
of Audience
(4): Just a comment on Mr. Makinde's lecture. I find it
very helpful Mr. Makinde is neither Jewish nor Igbo and
it gives his position a form of credibility. I am Igbo
myself and I've picked up a lot of things that I didn't
know from what he's said so far. About the connection
between Igbos and Jews. I've heard that from day one.
Long time. I'm not so sure as to the reality or the
scientific connection, so I'm very interested in what he
is saying now. This is the first time that I've been
exposed to any possible scientific or historical
connection—besides rumours, of course.
But the
Igbos, in any case, although we have similarities with
the Jewish people, most of us are not interested or
pushing for any recognition at all. Most of us are quite
settled where we come from in Nigeria. What we are
looking for is our own nation state back there in
Africa. What I think is important in our connection with
the Jewish people in terms of forging connections is we
share similarities in terms of democracy, enterprise and
the rest of that. If we can build on that, I think we'll
probably go a long way.
Adeyinka Makinde:
Yes, I would think that much the attitude. Even Rabbi
Gorin who's the head of Benai Igbo, he basically felt
that this could be a long process. First of all do we
have something in common so that we can say we are
brothers in the sense of human brotherhood. And then
(they could) further delve into connections: scientific,
anthropological, scientific. As I said, 40,000
practicing out of a Nigeria population of 120 million
and Igbo population of around 35 million. Most of them
are happy being Roman Catholics. It's caused problems;
people supposedly rediscovering their Jewish roots. You
can imagine what it's like "Oh, you've just joined a
sect!" People want stability. You've always been this.
And for people, whatever the issues of being a Jew
historically—just the upheaval—if you were say a Latin
American (and) you never knew you were Jewish; just like
you never knew who your real mother was—it's such an
upheaval, so that there isn't this big movement that we
all suddenly want to be Jewish. It's a relatively
minuscule amount. But in the discourse of knowledge and
the imparting and sharing values; that's the whole idea
of why I've picked upon it.
Member
of Audience
(4): Why? What's basically your interest in this
subject?
Adeyinka Makinde:
Well, I heard the Jewish Museum was presenting some
boxing seminars, and I said, "God, I've got to do
something about that. What could I do though? I thought
of Dick Tiger who was Igbo and thought about the
connection (between Igbos and Jews.) I thought why don't
I explore this, which as I said has been a part of my
life since I was a child, you know in terms of how we
would argue among ourselves in terms of our roots. Where
do we come from? And occasionally we would bring up
Egypt. The Israelites. So I would say it is a
continuation of the exploration of things I heard of
while growing up in Nigeria.
Steward
of the Jewish Museum:
Well you've certainly given us a lot to think about.
Thank you. And we look forward to welcoming you back to
the new museum. Thank you very much.
Audience claps
Adeyinka Makinde: Thank you very much.
Source:
MySpace
ADEYINKAMAKINDE@aol.com
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posted 2 November 2007 |
