Notes on the Future of the South African Lemba through the Lens of Problems Past
and Present.
As
xenophobic rioting tears through Limpopo, little attention has been paid to the
plight of the Lemba people there. The Limpopo region is home to many ethnic
groups, among them the Lemba, wa-Remba or Senna depending on who names them.
The name Lemba itself may denote a status as foreigners, as it is close to a
Bantu word for foreigner. These "foreigners" came to Africa according
to their own ancient legends confirmed by modern DNA research thousands of
years ago from Israel. As the Jewish community is divided over who is really
Jewish, the status of the Lemba is an open question. Many Reconstructionists
and Reform Jews as well Kairites recognize patrilineal descent, and could
therefore claim the Lembas who maintain their traditions are brother Jews. The
Orthodox community, who only accept matrilineal Jewish descent, mostly see the
Lemba as an interesting curiosity save those who have undergone formal
conversion. Some Lemba who view themselves as Jews feel the reception by the
larger Jewish community has in the past been "Jewish apartheid." “Jewish
apartheid” were in fact the precise words the Lemba Cultural Association used to describe the situation as some years ago according to Gideon Shimona in his book, Community and
Conscience: The Jews in Apartheid South Africa (2003).
The role of apartheid in shaping
the modern South African Lemba consciousness is large. One man of Lemba
descent I spoke to recently noted that many Ashkenazi Jews had fought and struggled
against apartheid. "Many of them fought and struggled, some went to
prison... these are the Jews we should be looking up to." Many such Jews are still around.
The above is a picture I took of Justice Albie Sachs and Ruth Carneson last month at the Book Lounge in Cape Town. Both of these people made tremendous sacrifices in the fight against Apartheid. If you look closely you will notice the Justice lacks one arm. It was blown off in a personal attack against him during his fight with the Apartheid regime. Jews the whole world over can be justifiably proud of such leaders and perhaps not so coincidentally members of the tribe.
Unfortunately
for the Lemba and all of us, there were also many Jews who were implicitly supportive of Apartheid. The
daughter I met of one mixed, although "white" family noted that her
mother (a non-Jew) had been scared away from conversion by the pro-Apartheid
politics of her husband's synagogue years ago. One can assume that many
Lemba had the same issues. The history of the Lemba of South Africa cannot
be divorced from that of Apartheid. This month marks the first African to be
made a Saint by Catholicism. The saint, Benedict
Daswa, was in fact a Lemba.
His story and hundreds of others tell a fascinating and sad story of the role
of Apartheid in the loss of Lemba identity. During Apartheid by and large the
only community groups supporting the education of blacks were Christian
missionaries. Lemba who wanted their children educated often had no choice but
to send them to Christian schools. Among the results of Apartheid was a slow
erasure of Lemba tradition.
Today apartheid is over, but racism
is not. During my travels in South Africa I met several Jewish
"colored" people (people of mixed heritage) who had been isolated
from Judaism through the workings of racism. One woman remarked to me that her
family had converted to Christianity after years of keeping her and her younger
sibling isolated from the larger community. This woman was the descendant of an
Ashkenazi mother and a presumably black father she had never met. The woman was
blunt in pointing out that she would not be accepted by the small community her
mother came from or even all of her mother's relatives. Ironically her mother's
family name was Schwartz (Yiddish for black). On the other hand many
"colored" and black Jewish people have slowly integrated into South
Africa's mainstream Jewish community. The numbers of "colored" Jews
in South Africa are small but their dedication is fierce. In Cape Town one
Shabbat morning I walked into a shiur in a progressive synagogue. I couldn't help
noticing that all, by which I mean exactly 100%, of the attendants were
"colored." The rabbi, Rabbi Newman who is in the midst of some
academic research on the Lemba made a comment that perhaps we had found
"the lost tribes of Israel right here!" Indeed, asking around about
familial roots to such "colored" Jewish families one finds in some
cases Lemba ancestry.
Nonetheless, the majority of South
African Lemba have taken on different identities from that of Jews. Their
plight is important for the larger Jewish community to understand. Many Jews
want their children to be Jewish, and grandchildren to be Jewish and so on. In
understanding which traditions were transmitted among the Lemba and which were
lost and why over the last thousands of years, we can gain insight into the
future plight of all Jews. We can also gain insight into where the Lemba people
are going. In all likelihood only through understanding the unfortunate aspects
of past of the Lemba can any progress and healing be made. Like all Jews the
Lemba are a people of very varied opinions. Some view their past as little more
than a historical curiosity. Other Lemba view their past as an extremely
important aspect of their identity which they view as undeniably Jewish. Some
even seek to proselytize Judaism to other Lemba in an attempt to undo what they
view as an unjust Christianizing of their people. One such Lemba is Oded Dumah,
from the Lemba Hebrew Youth. He envisions a future in which young Lemba
in South Africa are taught Hebrew and Torah. Other Lemba have different visions
of the tribe's future. To my knowledge although there is ongoing research into the Lemba, no one has undertaken a statistical ethnographic survey of such people as to their aspirations for the future. As apartheid fades into the past while democracy and global communication increase the possibilities for future Lemba exchange with broader global communities continues to increase.
Unfortunately at this interesting
moment in Lemba history a new problem has arisen. Xenophobic rioting has begun
in several areas that are around the traditional homeland of the Lemba in South
Africa. One local newspaper called the current situation as of two days ago an all-out
tribal
war. After speaking to both Lemba and non-Lemba Venda from the region, I
can say the perception by most seems to be that the Lemba are not truly foreign
and will not be the specific target of violence. The Lemba will however have to live
with the aftermath of the current violence even in the best case scenario.
Many, many schools in their traditional region have been burned by rioters.
Although many Lemba do not live in these areas the school burnings will effect
some of their children, as a common pattern is for children to stay with their
grandparents while young adults leave for cities to work. Other Lemba who have
migrated from Zimbabwe are at risk of being attacked not due to their specific
tribal identity, but because of nationality. As the situation develops, the
broader Jewish community must ask itself "What is our responsibility to
these people?" Ultimately, perhaps after this tragedy, the rebuilding of
schools and education can be done by all kinds of people. We must not forget
the unfortunate symbiotic roles of mainstream South African Jewish
indifference, Christian religious missionary education and Apartheid in erasing
Lemba culture. Educations both devoid of religious character and in every
religious tradition can be made available after schools are rebuilt. We can all support a modern world, in which we can all be able to choose our identity and
that of our children.
No comments:
Post a Comment