The Renewal of Jewish Identity in Timbuktu
Karen Primack
This a fascinating group! Very few members of the community speak French; most speak the local language of Sonrai. Before sending anything, you might want to check with Rick Gold (formerly with USAID in Mali, now in the Philippines ) or Ousmane Haidara in Mali
When my husband and I lived in the West African country of Niger in 1990-92, we traveled often in neighboring Mali. We got to some pretty remote places there — Segou, Djenne, Mopti, villages around Bandiagara — but never to the legendary Timbuktu. We were told it was a dangerous and arduous journey, and “nothing” was there.
But now there’s something of interest to visit in Timbuktu — a community of 1000 “Jews” who have recently revealed their identity.
Egyptian Jews may have settled in the northern part of Mali as early as biblical times, and it is known that in the late seventh century, when the Arabs invaded North Africa, one of the chiefs of the Berber warriors resisting that invasion was a heroic princess of Jewish origin known as Kahina (Doumya). In the eighth century, the Rhadamites (those multi-lingual Jewish traders who traversed the known world by land and sea, including crossing the Sahara) settled in Timbuktu and its environs.
And, as we know, in the 14th century many Moors and Jews, fleeing persecution in Spain, migrated south to the Timbuktu area, at that time part of the Songhai empire. Among them was the Kehath (Ka’ti) family, descended from Ismael Jan Kot Al-yahudi of Scheida, Morocco. Sons of this prominent family founded three villages that still exist near Timbuktu — Kirshamba, Haybomo, and Kongougara.
In 1492, Askia Muhammed came to power in the previously tolerant region of Timbuktu and decreed that Jews must convert to Islam or leave; Judaism became illegal in Mali, as it did in Catholic Spain that same year. As the historian Leo Africanus wrote in 1526: “The king (Askia) is a declared enemy of the Jews. He will not allow any to live in the city. If he hears it said that a Berber merchant frequents them or does business with them, he confiscates his goods.” The Kehath family converted with the rest of the non-Muslim population.
The Cohens, descended from the Moroccan Islamicized Jewish trader El-Hadj Abd-al-Salam al Kuhin, arrived in the Timbuktu area in the 18th century, and the Abana family came in the first half of the 19th century. According to Prof. Michel Abitbol, at the Center for the Research of Moroccan Jewry in Israel, in the late 19th century Rabbi Mordoche Aby Serour traveled to Timbuktu several times as a not-too-successful trader in ostrich feathers and ivory.
Back to the present: Ismael Diadie Haidara, a historian from Timbuktu, has found old Hebrew texts among the city’s historical records. He has also researched his own past and discovered that he is descended from the Moroccan Jewish traders of the Abana family. As he interviewed elders in the villages of his relatives, he has discovered that knowledge of the family’s Jewish identity has been preserved, in secret, out of fear of persecution.
Current crypto-Jewish clues to the identity of these Timbuktu Jews are that the families have continually given newborns Jewish names; some members sign their names with a Star of David; some Hebrew songs are still sung; and they only marry among themselves, a custom forbidden by Islamic law.
Ethnic consciousness was revived by an incident in 1963. Near the village of Tinderma, a group of fishermen wanted to build a village on the grounds of the former Al Yahudi cemetery. The Jews rose up in strong opposition — and with a new awareness of their identity.
In 1993 Haidara, aware of continuing religious intolerance in the area, established Zakhor (the Timbuktu Association for Friendship with the Jewish World) as an informal, unpublicized association. They were careful to advocate only the re-establishment of Jewish identity, not conversion to Judaism. At a meeting in July 1995 the group came out of the closet, admitting their heritage. The organization was formally registered in 1996.
Zakhor issued a Manifesto in May of 1996, addressed to the presidents of Mali and Israel, diplomatic missions in Mali, and Jewish communities throughout the world, all of whom it called upon for “understanding and support.” Carried in its entirety in Le Republicain, a newspaper published in Bamako, the capital city of Mali, the Manifesto proclaims, “It is incumbent upon us…to remember and affirm our Israelite origins, which our fathers and forefathers kept secretly.”
The Manifesto, in simple logic, avers, “We are Jews because our ancestors were Jews, whose genes are found in all our families. Our Judaism is based on ethnicity.” It lists as their three obligations teaching their children about their heritage, learning and using the Hebrew language as a second language (“rejecting Arabic… would impoverish us culturally”), and safeguarding their sociocultural patrimony by collecting and publishing oral and written sources of their history.
The international press considered the existence of Jews in Mali “news”. The Agence France Presse, in March 1996, reported on a community of Jewish origin living in the Timbuktu area who had in the past “converted to Islam because of the hostility of local rulers to their own faith.” At the same time Le Republicain, in a lengthy article, noted, “Since being recognized as Jewish in Timbuktu today does not lead to harassment, intolerance or persecution, these ‘forgotten Jews’ are much more aware of their ancestry.”
The article, by I. Maiga, also stated that the community’s “intention is not to return to Israel, but to assert their identity” and quoted a member of the community as saying, “It is God who made Timbuktu our land of refuge, and we are Muslims.”
In June 1996 Radio France Internationale reported, “Historians and researchers have been surprised by the existence of a Jewish community of about 1000 people in the Timbuktu region of Mali. These families decided to come out into the open and set up the Timbuktu association of friendship with the Jewish world.” The report quoted Haidara responding to the question of whether these individuals are indeed Jews:
“If by Jewish you mean a person of Israeli ancestry, whatever their religion or nationality, then, yes, we are Jewish pure and simple. However, where there is de-Judaization there is also a process of loss of identity. Because of the Islamization that took place in 1492 with the accession to power of Mohammed Askia…, who among other things ordered the destruction of the synagogue at Tamanhit, …in the period from 1492 to 1503 the Jews of this region stopped practising their religion and went into a long process of loss of identity.”
A BBC world broadcast in June also reported on the community, and an historic article on Jews in Mali was published in January 1997 in Jeune Afrique.
Some of Zakhor’s accomplishments during its short life include providing for 15 children “in dire circumstances,” paying school fees for 100 children, and equipping a health center, including training and funding two nurses.
Immediate plans include ethnographic and historic research on the Jews of Timbuktu. Other plans, for which Western assistance is needed, include the training of Hebrew language teachers, rehabilitating Jewish cemeteries in Tindirma, Kirshamba, Goundam and Timbuktu, and initiating development projects (health, education and agricultural production).
Richard Gold, who works for the US Agency for International Development in Bamako, has been following the progress of Zakhor and bringing the Malian Jewish community to the attention of Americans, in part through the Internet. The list-serve of Kulanu has carried Gold’s messages and stimulated considerable interest.
Gold feels Zakhor has been good for the community, providing much needed mutual support:
“Since the release of the Manifesto, the organization wrote a letter to the Governor of the Timbuktu region protesting anti-Semitic statements made by a radio station operating from the Governor’s office building. I believe the Jews are becoming increasingly conscious of their uniqueness.”
As to whether the community is interested in conversion, Gold surmises, “I haven’t heard any real desire to convert. Given their absence of even the most basic knowledge of Judaism, I couldn’t see anyone being ready to convert for many years.”
On the other hand, it is clear that their public announcement of their pride in their Judaic heritage is a significant change from the past, and one that may in the long term result in conversion for some.
Gold notes that in Morocco there are tens of thousands of Muslims with Jewish roots, but they are not organized. “What is special about the Jews of Timbuktu is that they are taking pride in their Jewish heritage,” he says.
Are they Jewish? Recognizing the complexity of this question, Gold replies, “I only know that the interest of anyone in rediscovering their Jewish roots should be encouraged.”
Upon reading about Zakhor in the Malian press, Samantha Klein, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali, did some investigating and found Haidara’s family and two leading members of Zakhor, an economist and a teacher. She recalls being “disappointed to learn there were no practicing Jews, only the Islamicized descendants of Jews, who had nonetheless maintained their identity over the centuries.”
Samantha and her brother Josh, a photographer visiting from New York, were determined to visit two of the villages where Jews lived. They took a rented motorized canoe along the Niger River, from which they saw “villages and sand dunes tumbling into the river, and the temporary encampments of nomads built under the shadow of palm trees and tower-like termite mounds.”
At Tangasane they were welcomed into the house of an elder, “where much fuss was made of preparing beds and slaughtering a lamb. We made an attempt at eating, and caused much upset by our lack of appetite for the never-ending platters of organs and meat, followed by bowls of raw milk and butter.” After the meal, about 30 people crowded into the small room, “bearded, long robed patriarchs.”
All orthodox Muslims, the elders wanted to know about Jews in other places (their only information about Jews comes from the Koran) and want those far-off Jews to know about them. They also want their children to learn about their history. They also expressed a desire to better their lot. The Americans toured the village the next morning and were struck by the appearance of the malnourished children, as well as by the impressive rice fields with hand-dug canals.
The leaky canoe then took the travelers to the village of Kirshamba and another warm welcome at the house of Ismael Haidara’s grandparents, where “we upset their sensibilities by imploring them not to slaughter a lamb for us.” Another meeting of elders ensued, where priorities of health, education (so they can learn their history and the Hebrew language) and materials for rice cultivation were listed.
One of the elders expressed a wish for more American Jewish visitors: “It has been a long time that we have been here without knowing that we had brothers elsewhere, and to meet (Samantha and Josh) is quite an occasion.”
After their return, the adventure of Samantha and Josh was reported in Le Republicain. “The purpose of the visit was to make contact with Malians of Jewish heritage,” the article stated.
One of the Internet readers about Zakhor is a young Malian living in Europe. In a recent e-mail message to Richard Gold, he said he had just learned about the Jews of Mali and “I rejoice greatly because I have always esteemed the Israeli people.” He believes that if the Jews want to remain in Mali as Malian Jews, and not emigrate to Israel, the Malian people will support them:
“I am sure that the Malian people will understand and accept their appeal, because for every human being nothing is as important as rediscovering one’s identity. Mali is a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country where communities of different ethnicities live side by side. And these communities have always shown that nothing will disturb the social order in which they live and in which respect, tolerance and recognition of the rights of others are always applied. It is this that has always been the greatness of Mali.”
Let’s hope so.
(Ismael Haidara, who divides his time between Timbuktu and Granada, Spain, can be contacted at B. P. 66, Tombouctou, Mali, West Africa.)
(The author wishes to thank Richard Gold, George Lichtblau, and Judy Neri for their assistance in translating documents and articles.)