Hello! I am Anthony Ponter, Co-Founder and curator of Spirits In Stone. As Passover and Easter approach, I want to share with you a fascinating religious and cultural story emerging from Africa that has ties to this holy time of year—and one that is intriguingly centered squarely in rural Zimbabwe! As a Jewish boy growing up in Zimbabwe just after World War 2, I would often hear from my father tell of a rural African tribe, the Lemba, who claimed to be Jews. No-one gave their claims much credence back then, and the Rabbis, with eyebrows raised in scorn would scoffingly dismiss the stories out of hand; "African Jews? Ridiculous! No such thing!" But it is fact that since Biblical times Jews have had close ties with Africa, beginning with Abraham's early travels through Egypt, and of course the later Israelite enslavement under the Pharaohs.

AFRICAN JEWS Some Jewish communities in Africa are among the oldest in the world, dating back more than 2700 years. African Jews have ethnic and religious diversity and richness—even though the truth of their Judaic origins is only now being scientifically proven—as it recently was for the Lemba people of Zimbabwe. Throughout Africa, scattered groups had no contact with the wider Jewish community, but still claimed descent from ancient Israel. They included groups who to this day observe and practice Jewish rituals. Tribes such as the Lemba, have preserved some rituals and customs that certainly appear to be Jewish in origin. Unlike others, the Lemba have also been found to have genetic traits that other Jewish population groups possess, thereby bolstering their claims to Jewish ancestry. SCIENTIFIC PROOF  Lemba oral history says that their ancestors were Jews who fled the Holy Land about 2,500 years ago. It may sound like yet another "lost tribe of Israel" myth, but British scientists have recently carried out DNA tests which have confirmed that their origin is undeniably Semitic! These tests back up the group's belief that a small group of semitic men married African women and settled in what is now known as Zimbabwe. Their descendants, the Lemba, live in central Zimbabwe, as well as other nearby southern African countries. RELIGION VS CULTURE The Lemba people of Zimbabwe and South Africa may look like their fellow Africans, but follow a very different set of customs and traditions that tally with Jewish tradition. They wear skull caps, practice circumcision, which is not a tradition for most Zimbabweans, avoid eating pork and food with animal blood, and have 12 tribes. They slaughter animals in the same way as Jewish people, and they put the Jewish Star of David on their tombstones. Members of the priestly clan of the Lemba, known as the Buba, were even discovered to have a genetic element also found among the Jewish priestly line. "This was amazing," said Prof Tudor Parfitt, from the University of London. "It looks as if the Jewish priesthood continued in the West by people called Cohen, and in the same way it was continued in Africa by the priestly clan of the Lemba." Parfitt adds, "These Africans have a common ancestor who geneticists say lived about 3,000 years ago somewhere in north Arabia, which is the time of Moses and Aaron when the Jewish priesthood started." IMPORTANT DISCOVERY Parfitt a world-renowned expert, has spent 20 years researching the Lemba, living with them for six months to observe the efficacy of their religious practices and beliefs. One of his most important discoveries is that they have a sacred prayer language which is a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic, pointing to their roots in Israel and Yemen. Despite their ties to Judaism, some of the modern-day Lemba in Zimbabwe are Christians, while some are Muslims. As one Lemba explains, "Christianity is my religion, but Judaism is my culture, there is no conflict to us in that." TRADITIONS In a fascinating twist, they have a prized religious artifact that they say connects them to their Jewish ancestry - a replica of the Biblical Ark of the Covenant known as the ?ngoma lungundu,' meaning "the drum that thunders". The oral history of the Lemba say that this Ark is the one made by Moses, and that centuries ago a small group of men began a long journey carrying it from Yemen to Southern Africa. It went missing during the 70s and was eventually found in Harare in 2007 by Prof Parfitt. "Many people say that the story is far-fetched, but the oral traditions of the Lemba have been backed up by science," he says. Indeed recently performed Carbon dating shows the Ark to be nearly 700 years old - quite old, if not as ancient as Bible stories would suggest. Professor Parfitt explains that this is because oral history tells us that the Ark was used in battles, and would explode and be rebuilt. The ngoma now on display is a replica, he says, perhaps built from the remains of the original. "So it's the closest descendant of the Ark that we know of," Prof Parfitt says. CONCLUSION Judaic tradition is alive and well in Africa in rural Zimbabwe, and the Lemba people are but one manifestation of the extent of Jewish influence in Africa. Research into reports of other tribespeople who also claim a Jewish origin is underway in other parts of Africa, notably Kenya, Equatorial Guinea and Ivory Coast. Only time will reveal the actual scope of this previously undiscovered part of Africa's great and varied cultural and religious history.