Bantu Tribes Like the Lemba Are Part of the Children of Israel

Bantu Tribes Like the Lemba Are Part of the Children of Israel: This is according to many “Jewish-Rabbis”, including Itzhak Shapira. He had an extensive and crucial message for Bantu-Africans and African Americans.

The Lemba, wa-Remba, or Mwenye are a Bantu ethnic group that is native to Zimbabwe and South Africa, with smaller, little-known branches in Mozambique and Malawi.

According to Tudor Parfitt, then Professor of Modern Jewish Studies at the University of London, in the 1980s when he did his first fieldwork among the Lemba, in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Malawi they numbered an estimated 50,000.

Similar Language Bantu and Hebrew as well as Culture

They speak the Bantu languages spoken by their geographic neighbors and resemble them physically, but they have some religious practices and beliefs similar to those in Judaism and Islam.

According to Parfitt the Lemba claimed once to have had a book that contained their traditions but it was lost. The name “Lemba” as Parfitt speculates may originate in chilemba, a Swahili word for the turbans which are worn by some Bantu peoples, or it may originate from lembi, a Bantu term for a “non-African” a or “respected foreigner.”

Magdel le Roux says that the name VaRemba may be translated as “the people who refuse.” This probably in the context of “not eating with others” (according to one of her interviewees). In Zimbabwe and South Africa, the people prefer the name Mwenye.

Dietary Restrictions as in Leviticus 11

The restrictions on intermarriage with non-Lemba are nearly prohibited. It makes it nearly impossible for a male non-Lemba to become a member of the Lemba. Lemba men who marry non-Lemba women are expelled from the community. This is unless the females agree to live according to Lemba traditions.

A woman who marries a Lemba man must learn and practice the Lemba religion. She must follow Lemba dietary rules and practice other Lemba customs. The woman may not bring any cooking equipment from her previous home into the Lemba man’s home.

Initially, the woman may have to shave her head. Their children must be brought up as Lemba. If the Lemba had Jewish ancestors, the requirement to shave the head may date back to rituals. These rituals were associated with converting the first Lemba women to Judaism.

Genetic MtDNA of Lemba

This would have been the way in which Jewish males acquired women for the purpose of making families. The genetic MtDNA data of the Lemba (see below) has shown no descent from female Jewish ancestors.

From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The disciples asked, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

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