Tag: Igbo

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Why Biafra Matters to a Decolonized Africa

Across the African continent, foreign powers came from both the East and West, drawing artificial boundaries and using their control to plunder and ravage traditional communities. Nowhere else in the Eastern Hemisphere did humanity witness such a concerted effort to destroy once thriving communities.  From slavery (backed by both the Europeans and Arabs) to economic and political control, Africans were colonized in mind and body.

The current conflict in Biafra is a microcosm of a new sort of colonial struggle.  The slow creeping takeover of Southern Nigeria by Islam is no longer slow. Nigeria and other countries like it, where an admixture of various peoples were smashed together by the colonial powers have become even more susceptible to an Islam supercharged in a mission to gain control of Nigeria’s Southern region, which is where much of its industry and oil are.

Victims of Fulani Raids
Victims of Fulani Raids

An example of this are the raids by Northern Fulani herdsman have grown more punitive and destructive. This past week on February 28th Fulani herdsman killed at least 300 people in Agatu. One survivor said, “As we speak, Odigbeho-Agatu has been razed. The massacre there today (Monday) had no equal because Odigbeho is one of the most important and well-populated villages in Agatu. Our people were caught napping because we relaxed when we heard what we considered the cheering news that the federal government has intervened. Unfortunately, the Fulanis knew we had relaxed and took advantage of us to unleash a terrible massacre on us. As we speak, corpses litter everywhere in the village. I have been trying to reach many of my family members without success. We feel terribly let down by the government that announced a joint security team. We have not seen the security men- be they policemen or military, as I speak.”

Essentially the central government offers the Biafra region protection, but never enough against the raiders.  Both the central government and the Fulani are Muslim.  Along with the growing violence the Free Biafra movement has been hit hard recently.  Their leader Nnamdi Kanu is on trial for treason.  Biafrans have been outraged as they fear and feel a return to the turmoil that marked the Biafran Civil War, where 3 million were killed or starved to death between the years of 1967-1970.

The military and police have taken to killing unarmed protesters as the situation becomes increasingly bloody.

What makes Biafra all the more crucial for the future of Sub-Sahara Africa is that it is made up of an overwhelming number of Igbo.  The Igbo believe they are descended from Israel and self identify as Israelites.  With this in mind It is not surprising that in the Biafran Civil War, Israel actually gave supplies and support to the region.  The Nigerian dilemma essentially pits Islam, Christians, and the Igbo who have long struggled to reclaim their heritage from colonization against one another.

Biafra has become a battleground to learn whether Africa can prevent a continuance of colonial influence under the guise of a religious conflict or if it can rise and understand that much of the ideologies confronting one another were imported from those nations who forced both slavery and colonization on Africa.  That goes for both Christian Europe and Islamic Middle East.  The irony is that the Igbo, as they begin to decolonize their religion and culture, have exemplified far more indigenous behavior than their fellow Nigerians.  This is what makes Biafra important.  It is a region experiencing a return to its ancient Hebrew roots and should be supported in its desire and drive to do so.

There have always been those leaders who have argued for a Pan Africanism, as if Africa was ever pan or of one mold. It never has been.  Such assumptions are reactions to the trauma of being subjugated by foreign powers. What is important to understand though, is that Africanism is more about a return to accepting the fact that the artificial constructs of a post colonial Africa has essentially committed Africans to constant struggle within their current boundaries.

A free Biafra would be a recognition that the boundaries are meaningless and should be exchanged for a return to what was before.  This would go a long way to reconstructing Igboland to what it was before Europeans and Arabs uprooted it along with wreaking havoc across the rest of Africa.  Biafra should serve as a test case for other areas of Africa.

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[Podcast] Global Israel is Rising

Rabbi Harry Rozenberg joins me for a deep discussion on the growing global awakening among crypto Israelite communities around the world. His groundbreaking work on iTribe brings together these Israelite communities onto one social platform.

The following subjects are covered:

  • iTribe.us
  • Law of Return?
  • Global Israel
  • Igbo, Bassa, Pashtun, Bnei Menashe
  • Biafra
  • Israel needs to wake up and accept these Crypto Israelites

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[podcast] Interview with Remy Ilona, an Igbo Jewish Leader

Have a listen to my interview with our very own Remy Ilona, leader and activist of what can only be called an awakening movement among the Igbo population in Nigeria.

I discuss with Remi the following:

  • His own awakening
  • Comparisons between some of the parallel customs among the Igbo and Jews
  • How the Israelites got to Igboland
  • Igbo persecution
  • How many Igbo are there and do they want to return to their Israelite roots
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I am an Igbo, I am a Jew

I am studying the Igbo culture, which has been noted to have unique similarities and parallels with the culture and history of ancient Israel. So, I can also say that I am studying ancient Israel. I think that we can never have a surfeit of studies about ancient Israel. My own opinion, formed by my experience is that though much is known about the ancient Israelites, still much is yet to be known.

Many believe that much of my findings which I have documented in 6 books is helping to fill the void. I have been told many times that my presentations of Igbo culture illuminate the Tanakh, that they make clear many of what otherwise would seem of no consequence or importance. On the other hand, Jewish cultural studies have served as an Igbo Studies primer to me.  As could be seen Jewish Studies is providing us with help in understanding the history of some of the customs. As well as enabling us to fill gaps in our general history. So it’s a win-win situation for both the Igbos and the Jews.

The Igbo, in older times more commonly referred to as the Ibo, have been referred to as the Jews of Africa for a long time. We have been native to 16000 sq miles in the deep south of Nigeria for estimatedly 1000 years.

The Omenana

The Igbo way of life is called Omenana, which if you translate to English you will get ‘things, laws, customs, traditions that you have to do or observe in or on the land’. This I believe will give you a clear message because the Torah of Israel which is the basic code of the culture of Israel contains essentially what/the laws, customs, etc, that the Israelites are to do/observe on the land..’

300 years or so ago, my family with Udoji my great grandfather, who was an obi, and an nze, at its head brought in, and accommodated Nri from Ohaeri, another Igbo clan, who from all indications; which include evidence that Igbo migrated from the ‘north’, are Levites, and if they are not, we would then be forced to consider the strange possibility that there were two Israelite entities that were not connected in any way in ancient times.

My father who was born in 1920 told me that the family of non Ozubulu ancestry that are our ‘brothers’, because they live on our land, attend family meetings with us, and are our kinsmen presently came the following way to join us: Udoji was sitting on the corridor of his obi one day, around 300 years ago, enjoying the cool breeze, when he espied a family walking towards him. Getting closer, they saluted him, and responding he asked who they were, and they responded that they were Umu Nri; that they were looking for a place to settle and live. Udoji invited them in, gave them hospitality, allocated land to them, and they settled and became members of his family. They still live with us today. The special occupation of this family gives us a hint of who they are. Among the Igbo, like among the Jews, a suicide was not given a regular burial. The Torah said that a hanged person is an abomination. Here the English language I think missed the point of the Torah. Torah must have meant a person that hanged himself. A suicide! Hanging was a very regular means of committing suicide in ancient times. The Igbo believe that one who committed suicide by hanging -committed abomination-soiled the land (society), offended G-d, and that purifications must be performed before his body could be cut down to be thrown away. And he or she must not be mourned. My studies of Jewish traditions show that no Jewish group accords the suicide a normal, and regular mourning and burial.

Back to our Levites. This family that Udoji accommodated came from one of the families/clans that had authority to perform the required purification (cleansing). They had right, and freedom to move around, and to be allocated land by their brother Igbos to settle and practice their profession, exactly as the Lord required the biblical Israelites to do in the case of the Levites, who were also to move around in Israel, practicing their craft. Among the Igbo, the major purifications and cleansings have to be done by the priests of Nri.

Here we have another clincher: the primary family/clan of the Nri; Agukwu, where I conducted much research, and met great Igbo sages has the nickname: ‘Nri enwela ani’: the meaning of this would shock you. It means that the Nri don’t have lands.

Jacob, the Hebrew Patriarch prophesied that Levi would have no land in Israel, but would be scattered in Israel. Moses, the Law-Giver, through whom G-d instructed Israel directly relayed what G-d said about the Levites: they were to be scattered in Israel, as the priests of the Israelites. The Nri are scattered among the Igbo, as the primary priests. Nri have had this nickname ‘Nri do not have lands’ since immemorial times, and most probably most Nri indigenes have forgotten why they acquired the nickname. Tellingly, the family of Nri that settled with the Ilona, named one of their sons Asomba, which means that they can settle anywhere among their brother Igbos.

The Obi

The obi are the persons who traditionally serve as the political leaders of Igbo communities.  My family which I have introduced by narrating how it accommodated a family of Igbo Levites, has provided the obi for my community, the Egbema, Ozubulu sub-clan for centuries. The function of an obi includes provision of the meeting place for the community, and maintenance of same. In this structure which is called community obi, the community also gathers for formal religious activities like prayers, which the oldest male member of the community leads. The obi also serves as the ‘court-house’ of the community. Issues are settled inside it, and sittings are only taken to the ilo (stadium) if the proceedings would attract very many people, and its feared that the obi would not be able to accommodate those that would like to attend.

The obi would very likely be the person that would represent the community if there are risky and costly assignments that the community needs to execute. For example, if the community needed to fight a neighboring community, the obi would lead the community. Also the obi is expected to shoulder the responsibility of the community, like accommodating the ‘Levites’ as I have narrated. The obi reminds me of the Hebrew judges, and kings, who led the people from the front; were at the forefront of the fights, and not at the rear. Saul was there at the war front making the arrangements for tackling Goliath, even volunteering his armor for the boy-soldier David. Also the obi who is wrongly misrepresented as ‘king’ today, or traditional ruler, to use what is in the Nigerian lexicon, reminds an observer of the Israelite ‘king’ whom G-d instructed that he is to still remain more less an equal of his brethren. The Igbo obi, unlike the kings (traditional rulers) among the Yoruba, Benin, Hausa/Fulani, Europeans,etc did not receive any special treatment from the Igbo. Like King Ehav, who wanted to buy Naboth’s land, because unlike real kings, he hadn’t control of the land in Israel, the Igbo obi has only his own portion of the ancestral land, and if he needs more, he has to buy.

The obi is empowered so that he can be strong as he performs his functions. An ofo which will help him to live a clean life is given to him. The Igbo have a belief that living sinfully leads to death. To avoid this fate, the obi who as a prominent person could more easily stray, is given an ofo, which one is scared of sinning when one is in possession of it. If the obi is the oldest man from the oldest family in the community, things are very simple in regards to the ofo, because it is the oldest Igbo from the oldest family that possesses the ofo of a particular community, among the Igbo. But if he is not, an ofo which will be subordinate to the main one will be provided for him.

Nze

In the good old days every Igbo goes to be consecrated, to become an ‘nze’. An nze is distinguished by the following: he is very careful about what he eats, and extra careful about what he does, says and hears. Traditionally the Igbo keep kosher. Substantial evidence of this exists in the wise sayings, lore, music of the Igbo, and in the animals that the Igbo consider as suitable for sacrifice. The nze goes an extra mile in observing the laws of kashrut, and general kosher. He can only eat food prepared in his home, by his wife, and this depends on her state. So sometimes he prepares his food himself. He does not say sinful things. And he must not hear sinful things. In my clan the nze has a bell that tingles tied to his bag. The purpose of the bell is to give sufficient warning that a holy man is passing, whenever he is abroad, so that people will be careful, because if someone says an unholy thing to his hearing, he has right to levy a fine, which must be paid without delay. The nze is distinguished by this red fez which must always be on his head.

The nze is the Igbo nazarite. Samson was a biblical model of the nazarite. How many letters are shared by nze and nazarite?

The OSU or Oruma

The osu, in some sections of Igboland and oru-ma in the Nsukka area of Igboland are auxiliary priests in the Igbo religion who lost status, and employment when the colonial authorities replaced Omenana with Christianity as the religion of the Igbos. Having being replaced, and their role and function forgotten and misunderstood, they presently suffer discrimination from other Igbos.

The osu have direct parallels in biblical Judaism. It is completely established and above ambiguity of any kind among the Igbo that the osu were people whose ancestors served in the sanctuaries that the Igbos set up in Igboland.

  • There were some that were dedicated by other people to serve G-d in Omenana, forever.
  • Some also elected to serve G-d as auxiliary priests in perpetuity.

In ancient Israel, the Gibeonites were dedicated, to serve in the house of G-d, forever. Samuel was dedicated by his mother to serve in the house of the Lord forever.  We have seen two examples that paralleled the Igbo experience. Following is another one: The Gibeonites were not to be harmed. King Saul contravened the solemn vow of Joshua, and killed some of them. Under King David they had their pound of flesh back. Among the Igbo, one must never hurt an osu physically. General Joab who sought to avail himself of this protection and immunity when King Solomon pursued him, went into the House of G-d, caught hold of the horns of the Temple, because ancient Israelite law gave immunity to an Israelite that sought protection from pursuers by taking refuge with G-d Remember, some Igbo became servants/auxiliary priests by running into the sanctuaries for protection.

These people are in trouble presently. They have been replaced by Christian priests, their functions forgotten, misunderstood, scorned as pagan service. Accordingly they are as I said earlier, discriminated against.  This has taken its toll on the truth that rests behind the Igbo people’s connection to ancient Israel and the Jewish people. However, it is not over yet. The Igbo are realizing that they are not truly like the rest of the tribes and people that surround them.  We are at our core, a mixture of the lost tribes and those Judeans that were exiled at the time of the Roman conquest of the Land of Israel.  Josephus recorded that millions of Judeans were in fact sold into slavery to Africa. Thank G-d we are returning.

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Lost Tribes And The Garden Of Eden

This is a story of a close group of friends bound by fate, adventure, and purpose as they are led down a road they could only have dreamed of.

When I arrived in Tsfat for a summer to study, the rosh yeshiva told me, “You don’t choose Tsfat; Tsfat chooses you.” I arrived at my dorm room and saw a photo of my roommate on the wall. I got goose bumps when I noticed myself in the background of the photo taken at the Kotel. Months before I knew I would ever end up in Tsfat, there was a picture of me on my dorm-room door.

In Tsfat, I experienced many life-changing moments. Most significantly, I was given as a gift Torah CDs about the redemption by Rabbi Shimon Kessin, and I read the book Eim HaBanim Semeicha by Rabbi Yissachar Shlomo Teichtel.

Rabbi Teichtel’s book discusses the precious mitzvah to settle the land of Israel, and the history and future of the people of Israel and their homeland. In the book, he imparts a strong piece of advice that would change my and my friends’ lives forever. He teaches that there is a tremendous amount of blessing stored in the heavens yearning to descend to the world. However, humans don’t receive the blessing themselves; they receive it only through their handiwork. Rabbi Teichtel advises to gather a group of friends who share unconditional love and a common desire to settle the land of Israel, and to create a vessel that can receive the blessing. Whatever entity is created will be guaranteed success and inevitably foster the settlement of the land of Israel. In my eyes, this was a promise from the Torah, and we accepted the challenge.

A close group of friends gathered and founded a nonprofit organization and a brewing company as vessels to receive the blessing. We flew to Israel and sought out land on which to live—and make beer. We found many hidden gems in distressed kibbutzim and moshavim, but were met with nothing but bureaucracy. While in Israel, however, we did find out that two of the Lost Tribes of Israel that had returned to the land—the Ethiopians, believed to be from shevet Dan, and the Bnei Menashe from India—had delicious ancient beer recipes that they were willing to share with our crew. We gained the blessings of the tribal leaders to scale up the beverages and bring them to market.

Shortly after launching our brewing company in the U.S., Lost Tribes Beverage, our team began receiving e-mails from around the world from groups claiming to be from the Lost Tribes of Israel.

Nearly three thousand years ago, the twelve tribes of Israel were split into two nations—the Northern Kingdom called Israel, and the Southern Kingdom called Judea. Today’s Jews descended from the Judeans, while the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom were sent into exile, towards the Far East, by the Assyrians. Every day in Jewish prayer, the prophetic reunion of the kingdoms is spoken of in terms of the two separate entities, Yehudah and Yisrael.

The Pashtunim Are Our Lost Brothers

Research from organizations such as Amishav reveals that many tribal names in Afghanistan today are identical to the tribes of Israel: the Ashuri, Rubeni, Gadi, and Yosefzai (zai meaning “son of”), among others. Tribal practices include levirate marriage and cities of refuge, both major concepts of Mosaic Law. These tribes were forcibly converted to Islam, yet maintain their own legal code, called Pashtunwali, that supersedes the Koran. They refer to their collective nation as Bani Israel (the children of Israel). This 2,700-year-old nation resides in a location referred to as the graveyard of empires, as no nation was ever able to conquer them—not Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, the Soviets, the British, etc.

My friends and I started to search the tribal names on Facebook, making “friends” and inquiring whether the legend was true. Were they the lost tribes of Israel? Almost every time the answer was “Yes, we were told by our grandparents that we are Israelites, and we await the son of David to come and redeem us.”

Throughout the Silk Road, there is evidence of the legends and customs of these tribes from Afghanistan to Japan, the oldest monarchy in the world. The Japanese Empire was founded in 660 BCE. The Israelite exile was said to have happened 722 BCE, just 82 years prior to the founding of the Empire.

We learned that the Japanese claim to have been a chosen nation exiled from their homeland and resettled in the Far East. Their alphabet resembles the Hebrew alphabet. Their holy temple on Mount Moriyah—the same name as the Temple Mount that hosted King Solomon’s temple—contains three chambers: an outer section for people to celebrate, an inner chamber where priests practice animal sacrifice, and an inner chamber with a golden ark on four poles adorned with sculptures of birds, and with three symbolic items kept inside. The priests, called Yamabushi, all wear headgear strikingly similar to tefillin (phylacteries) and blow a horn resembling a shofar.

It was also fascinating to discover that there are large tribes in Africa that claim decent from the Judean kingdom from the time of the destruction of the First Temple. One of those groups in South Africa, the Lemba, practice circumcision, eat kosher, and observe the Shabbat. A professor from Duke University traveled there and did DNA testing on the tribe. His findings were astonishing. They all have Semitic genes, with 10 percent of them having the Kohen gene!

Meet the Igbo

In Nigeria, the Igbo tribe, numbering in the vast millions of people, claim to be descendants of Israelite slaves sold into Africa. Many of the slaves brought to America were from the Nigerian ports. Community activists such as Amar’e Stoudemire of the New York Knicks are very vocal about the roots of the many descendants of the slaves in America. Mr. Stoudemire and other groups collaborate to educate and return exiled communities to their ancestral heritage.

The phenomenon of hidden Jews also stretches into Arabic-speaking communities in Israel, who claim to have been the descendants of forced converts to Islam. They sometimes have tefillin and mezuzot hidden under floorboards from hundreds of years ago, as documented by Tsvi Misinai and written about by the first prime ministers of Israel. They are actually antagonized today by other Arabic-speaking communities, which call them “musta arabim,” the Arabic version of a Marrano.

We pray on the Holy Days for an “agudah achat,” a united community. As well, the prophecies speak of a time when the borders of Israel will greatly extend themselves. The Jewish people regularly chant a song whose lyrics speak about the anticipated time of the stretching of Israel’s borders. We know these expansions will not happen through military conquest, but rather when nations raise their hand asking to be included in the people of Israel. Whether these groups are Jewish or not may be irrelevant. Having hundreds of millions of people identifying with Israel is something that deserves the attention of the Jewish people and forces us to figure out how to best elevate this desire towards global peace and sustainability.

Amid all this discovery and networking, our crew found a wonderful plot of land in the lower Galilee, in the location where Reish Lakish states in the Talmud (Tractate Eiruvin) the entrance to the Garden of Eden might be located. Acquiring it was difficult, but, believing strongly in the promise of Rabbi Teichtel, we decided to move ahead.
When it came time to make the down payment, our team was still empty-handed. With just days left, a descendant of Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines heard about the struggle and was inspired to lend the money, interest-free. This was miraculous, but we still needed to secure the final payment. With only days left before the payment was due, the pressure was on.

Meanwhile, a tribal leader was elected by the heads of the Afghan Israelite tribes to reach out to the Jewish people and to declare that the time had come for the two groups to begin working together after centuries apart. This message was brought to the Amishav organization—founded at the request of Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef—with which our team was already in discussions about building a social network called iTribe to identify these groups across the globe.

Humbled by the magnitude of this development, we called Rabbi Shimon Kessin, who called an emergency meeting that night. We mentioned to the rabbi that we were having trouble making the final payment on the farm in Israel.
Rabbi Kessin introduced us to an investor and philanthropist who greeted us with open arms and allowed me to make our “elevator pitch.” Thirty seconds in, we were met with a smile and an assurance the deal would close in time. We were graciously granted an additional no-interest loan.

And there it was! A tribal leader from the house of Joseph reached out to the tribe of Judah, and directly stimulated the needed financing to purchase a beautiful farm in the location of the Garden of Eden.

Ezekiel prophesied: “And you, son of man, take for yourself one stick and write upon it, ‘For Judah and for the children of Israel his companions’; and take one stick and write upon it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions.’ . . . And say to them, ‘So says the L‑rd G‑d: Behold I will take the children of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side, and I will bring them to their land’” (Yechezkel 37:16–21).

Originally posted in 5TJT