Swaying back and forth, Shlomo Ben Yaakov reads a Torah scroll in a synagogue on the outskirts of Abuja, the Nigerian capital.
Intermittently, his voice soft He rises in Hebrew and is joined by dozens who recite after him.
Most do not fully understand the language, but this small Nigerian community claims their Jewish ancestry dates back to hundreds of years , and are frustrated by Israel’s lack of recognition.
“I consider myself a Jew,” says Yaakov.
Outside the Hebrew Synagogue of Gihon, in the suburb of Jikwoyi, a table is placed inside a tent made of palm leaves to celebrate Sukkot , a festival that commemorates the years the Jews passed through the desert on their way to the Promised Land.
“Just as we are doing this now, they are doing the same in Israel “, says Yaakov, as people share bread t Raditional cholla (baked in the synagogue) and the wine from small glasses that are distributed.
He is Igbo, one of the three dominant ethnic groups of Nigeria whose origin is in the southeast of the country. Their Igbo name is Nnaemezuo Maduako.
Many Igbos believe that they have Jewish heritage and that they are one of the so-called 10 lost tribes of Israel, although most are not practicing Jews like Yaakov. They constitute less than 0.1% of the 35 million igbos estimated to be there.
These tribes are said to have disappeared after being taken into captivity when the northern Israelite kingdom was conquered in the 8th century BC. C. The Ethiopian Jewish community, for example, is recognized as one of them.
Igbo customs such as the Male circumcision , mourning the dead for seven days, the celebration of the new moon and the performance of wedding ceremonies under a canopy have reinforced this belief about their Jewish heritage.
“No evidence”
But Chidi Ugwu, an Igbo who is an anthropologist at the University of Nigeria in Enugu, says that this identification with Judaism arose only after the civil war in Biafra .
The Igbos had been fighting for the secession of Nigeria, but they lost in what was a brutal conflict between 1967 – 1970.
Some people “were looking for some psychological impulse to cling to,” so they began to establish the Jewish connection, he says.
They saw themselves as persecuted people, just like Jews have been throughout history, especially during the Holocaust.
“It is an insult to call the Igbos anyone’s lost tribe, there is no historical or archaeological evidence to support that” he told the BBC.
He argues that, as evidence suggests that the Igbo were among those who emigrated from Egypt ago several thousand years, it is possible that the Jews learned Igbo customs when they went there.
Makes vari Controversial efforts have been made years to test a genetic lineage, but a DNA test found no Jewish connection.
Rabbi Eliezer Simcha Weisz, chairman of the foreign affairs department of the Council of the Rabbinate of Israel , the body that investigates claims of Jewish ancestry, has no doubts either .
“They claim to be one of the descendants of Gad, one of the sons of our ancestor Jacob, but they cannot prove that his grandparents were Jewish,” he told the BBC.
“And about the customs they talk about, you can find people all over the world who have Jewish practices. ”
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He said that unless Nigerian Jews converted to Judaism, a proc that which involves various rituals and appearing before a Jewish court (which is not available in Nigeria), would not be recognized.
Yaakov considers the idea of having to go through a conversion as an insult .
“As converts, we would be seen as second-class citizens”, says.
Secessionist surge
Gihon parishioners take their beliefs seriously and both they and the community of practicing Jews in Nigeria, estimated at 12. 000 people , have the support of other groups of Orthodox Jews around the world , who make donations to them, make solidarity visits and campaign for their recognition.
A prominent supporter is Dani Limor, a former Mossad agent who once led an operation to secretly bring Ethiopian Jews to Israel via Sudan.
Limor has been visiting Jewish communities in Nigeria since the decade of 1980 and argues that Jewish practice in the West African nation it is predating the civil war .
Believe in a school of thought that says that came from Morocco ago 500 years , they first settled in Timbuktu before traveling further south, and hopes they will eventually get the recognition they deserve .
“Judaism goes beyond the color of and the skin, it’s in the heart, ”he told the BBC.
Gihon Synagogue, said to be the oldest in Nigeria, was founded in the decade of 1980 by Ovadai Avichai and two other people who had been raised Christians.
The friends decided to turn to Judaism when they realized that the Old Testament of the Bible was the foundation of the Jewish religion.
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He said it was as if the Jew in him had been revived and, given the similarities between Jewish customs and Igbo traditions, he was convinced that Judaism was the true way.
The Gihon Synagogue of Abuja now has a mixture of different ethnic groups among the more than 40 families who attend.
In recent years , the number of people who have Jewish practices in southern Nigeria has increased markedly, says Chiagozie Nwonwu, a BBC journalist who specializes in that region.
This is largely due to the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), a group that rebooted in 2014 the Igbo campaign for secession.
It is led by Nnamdi Kanu, who has reminded his followers of their supposed Jewish heritage and encouraged them to embrace the faith.
“I cried in the synagogue”
On one occasion, the charismatic leader was allegedly photographed praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
But his followers are not considered authentic Jews by the more established communities from Nigeria, as some combine elements of Judaism and Christianity in their worship, more associated with Messianic Judaism.
Kanu is in custody and faces a trial for treason and Ipob, which has recently taken up arms, has been banned because the authorities consider it a terrorist group.
“The first time Ipob appeared, I cried in the synagogue . I said, ‘This young man has come to cause us problems because what he is doing is unnecessary,’ “says Avichai, a veteran of the Biafra war.
He fears that Ipob’s activities threaten the peaceful cult of the approximately 70 Jewish communities declaring themselves apolitical.
This happened earlier this year when a leader of the Jewish community in the southeast was jailed for a month after her congregation received three visitors from Israel.
They had come to film the donation of a Torah scroll, often too expensive for local groups to buy, but they were suspected of having Ipob connections and were deported.
A Gihon devotee told me that Kanu had influenced his decision to join the synagogue, but the recent evolution of the campaign from Ipob to an armed struggle went against the principles of Judaism .
Yaakov is not interested in politics around what it is to be Jewish; For him, the important thing is the spiritual aspect.
The official recognition by Israel as Jews of Igbos like him, would help the religious community to organize itself more in Nigeria.
For example At this time there is no head rabbi and finding kosher products can be a challenge. They are usually only sold in some stores owned by Jewish expatriates; the community generally eats what is produced locally in order to follow kosher rules.
Yaakov would love to train to become the first Nigerian rabbi , something that can only be done by studying in a rabbinical school or with a rabbi experienced.
“For those of us who know our roots, we have confidence in our identity,” he says.
“If Christians and Muslims can accept their own and support them, I think Jews should also encourage us a bit.”
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