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miliar language, religion, and way of life.
As Hillel Halkin observes in Across the Sabbath River, the Bible s
silence on the precise fate of the exiled Israelites does not imply a lack
of interest in their fate. Rather, what happens after the book of Kings
is that the Lost Tribes become the subject of prophecy: for example,
in Jeremiah we are told that when God ultimately reconciles with His
chosen people, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep
him, as a shepherd doth his flock (31:10).
Over time the legend of the Lost Tribes has only mushroomed.
The fi rst-century Jewish historian Josephus was convinced that the
their descendants existed in great number beyond the Euphrates.
Meanwhile, countless charismatic figures have appeared over the last
two thousand years, each claiming descent from one or the other tribe.
Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne (ca. 742 818 c.e.), for example,
the first ruler of a great European empire since the fall of the Roman
Empire centuries earlier, identifi ed himself with King David. Not
long after Charlemagne, a traveling salesman named Eldad HaDani
appeared, claiming to be a descendant of the tribe of Dan. In his wan-
derings through the Middle East and Europe, he brought with him
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los t tri be no more?
extravagant and fanciful accounts of the fate of the Lost Tribes as well
as an ostensible body of rabbinic law (halacha) that was quite at odds
with what was written in the Talmud. Eldad was regarded by many
as a charlatan with messianic delusions; a number of later Talmudic
authorities, including Rashi and Maimonides, however, considered
his accounts authoritative. Whatever his veracity, Eldad and his claims
of ancient Israelite descent made the Christian establishment nervous
enough to construct the legend of Prester John, a mythical Christian
king said to rule over a vast empire stretching from Africa to Asia
whose subjects included the Lost Tribes.
Whole populations, too, have claimed lineage extending back to the
Lost Tribes. Both the British and the Dutch have identified with them,
and even members of the Japanese royal family have conjured some
relationship. Native Americans, Pashtoons of Afghanistan, Tartars in
Russia, and Maori in New Zealand at one time or another, each has
sworn kinship with the Lost Tribes.
Perhaps because it touches something deep within the human psyche
here I m thinking of the powerful literary themes of home, the
return of the prodigal child, grace, forgiveness, and redemption
the myth of the Lost Tribes has persisted. So seductive is the narrative
that even some otherwise objective and deeply skeptical anthropolo-
gists confess a weakness for it. Tudor Parfi tt, for example, admits
that, when it comes to the Lost Tribes, he still regards himself as a
potential sucker.
All of which is to reiterate that, for me, genetic history is not
about identifying a Lost Tribe but rather about the broader recurring
themes of Jewish history contained within the myth of the Lost Tribes:
exile, loss, wanderings, Diaspora, and reclamation of one s heritage.
As much as any other piece of Jewish lore, the Lost Tribes story is
about the continuing saga of strangers in strange lands.
Which brings us to the Lemba, a relatively small group of Bantu-
speaking Africans living in South Africa and Zimbabwe who claim to
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los t tri be no more?
have fled Judea three thousand years ago. Who are these people and
how did they come to view themselves as descended from ancient
Jews? To set the stage for the Lemba and their claims of Jewishness,
let us first have a quick look at Bantu history.
Africa is to the study of human genetic diversity what the rain forest
is to ecology. It is by far the most diverse and varied place on earth
and also among the least well studied. Its many stories of human in-
novation and migration, of settlement and urbanization, remain all
but untold. One dramatic episode in African prehistory that has been
recovered to Westerners, thanks largely to the work of nineteenth-
century linguists, is the stunning march of Bantu culture, language,
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