Black Jews in Africa and the Americas tells the fascinating story of how the Ashanti; Tutsi; Igbo; Zulu; Beta Israel; Maasai; and many other African peoples came to think of themselves as descendants of the ancient tribes of Israel. Pursuing medieval and modern European race narratives over a millennium in which not only were Jews cast as black but black Africans were cast as Jews; Tudor Parfitt reveals a complex history of the interaction between religious and racial labels and their political uses.For centuries; colonialists; travelers; and missionaries; in an attempt to explain and understand the strange people they encountered on the colonial frontier; labeled an astonishing array of African tribes; languages; and cultures as Hebrew; Jewish; or Israelite. Africans themselves came to adopt these identities as their own; invoking their shared histories of oppression; imagined blood-lines; and common traditional practices as proof of a racial relationship to Jews.Beginning in the post-slavery era; contacts between black Jews in America and their counterparts in Africa created powerful and ever-growing networks of black Jews who struggled against racism and colonialism. A community whose claims are denied by many; black Jews have developed a strong sense of who they are as a unique people. In Parfitt’s telling; forces of prejudice and the desire for new racial; redemptive identities converge; illuminating Jewish and black history alike in novel and unexplored ways.
#434952 in Books 2012-03-05 2012-02-06Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.45 x 1.22 x 6.56l; 1.50 #File Name: 0674057821384 pages
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