Rusape, Zimbabwe

“We believe most African (Black) descendants are in fact the ancient Hebrews and in fact most Blacks are the descendants of the 12 children of Israel . . . . We believe the true faith of the African descendants is Judaism and not Islam, as Islam is a revelation for descendants of Ishmael.”

– Solomon Guwazah of the Rusape, Zimbabwe, community, in a letter to The African Sun

The community of self-proclaimed Jews centered in Rusape, about two hours from Harare, Zimbabwe, appreciates its unusual history. On one hand they claim to be spiritually, if not genetically, descended from a “Lost Tribe” of Jews who migrated from the North. On the other, they can trace their recent incarnation back to a 1903 meeting between a former American slave named William Saunders Crowdy who was also a former Baptist deacon, and a spiritually hungry man named Albert Christian who eventually brought Crowdy’s teachings to Southern Africa.

Today’s Rusape Jewish community is a vibrant, exciting group that comes together often in song in prayer at their recently rebuilt tabernacle, located about seven kilometers out of town. They follow the same holidays as Western Jews, are learning Hebrew, and are deeply devoted to reviving the Jewish culture of the Old Testament, which they believe is greatly in tune with their own ancient local ways. The community is several thousand strong and growing.

History

The Jewish community centered in Rusape, Zimbabwe, claims both ancient and contemporary origins. According to community lore, the Bantu people, who history has proven were not the original residents of Southern Africa but instead migrated from the north, were actually Jews. The community favorably compares traditional Bantu symbols, burial rites, circumcision patterns, marriage customs and agricultural practices, to those of the ancient Israelites. They are convinced that they are descendants of this “Lost Tribe.”

The Jewish community centered in Rusape, Zimbabwe, claims both ancient and contemporary origins. According to community lore, the Bantu people, who history has proven were not the original residents of Southern Africa but instead migrated from the north, were actually Jews. The community favorably compares traditional Bantu symbols, burial rites, circumcision patterns, marriage customs and agricultural practices, to those of the ancient Israelites. They are convinced that they are descendants of this “Lost Tribe.”

The more contemporary origin of the community is more direct but no less unique. In the 1880s a former American slave and Baptist deacon named William Saunders Crowdy had a “visitation” from God who told him that he should lead black people to Judaism. He understood that his being black and openly Jewish could scare people away from his mission so he started a church and named it the “Church of God and the Saints of Christ.” In about 1903 a man named Albert Christian had a vision that he should go to America to find the prophet of God. Christian met Crowdy in America and was convinced that God had conceived the meeting. Christian brought his interest in Judaism back to South Africa where approximately three decades later, community members from near Rusape met his followers and decided that they too should learn more about Judaism.

The Setting

Rusape is a small city in the northeast of Zimbabwe, about two hours from the capital of Harare. While some members of the Jewish community live in the city, working as everything from school teachers, such as Cantor Martin, to railroad clerks, such as Solomon Guwazah, many live in family compounds that are tucked the rocky hills that pepper the landscape. The community’s tabernacle is a long, rectangular building about seven kilometers from Rusape, in a small trading center that borders a sprawling lake.

Religious Life

Today there are several thousand members of the Rusape-based Jewish community. The chief “overseer” of the Rusape community is Ambrose Mukawaza, a powerful man in his mid-70s. The community’s primary tabernacle is perched on the side of a rolling, green mountain overlooking the sprawling lake that bounds the village. The more than a hundred Jews of Rusape pack the tiny building every Sabbath to practice their own form of spiritual Judaism.

The Rusape community practices “prophetic” Judaism, meaning that the community believes that while Jesus was not the Messiah, he was certainly a prophet, as was the Reverend William S. Crowdy who inspired the community’s current embrace of Judaism. Despite this difference, Western Jews would readily identify with the community’s holidays (Shabbat to Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Succot, etc.), its prayer services (primarily read in English, patterned after the Rabbinical prayer service that Jews use throughout the Western world), and its daily observances, such as kashrut. The community also practices some rituals according to the customs of their neighbors, such as circumcision which, as local Muslims do as well, the Rusape Jews perform at about ten years old.

The Rusape congregation is connected with the prophetic congregation Beth El from Northern Virginia, and has developed its culture of observance based at least in part upon the American branch’s Southern Baptist-inspired roots. This convergence of African, American and Ancient Hebrew culture comes together in the stunning synagogue choir, almost forty congregants strong, which fills each service with joyous, moving prayers in Shona, Hebrew and English set to beautiful African melodies.

“Cohen” Makuwaza’s sermons insist that while the community respects the teachings of Jesus, Jesus was, in fact a Jew, who followed ancient Jewish rituals and was a dedicated member of the Jewish community. The Rusape Jews believe that their local Shona tradition and culture comes from the same ancient Hebrew community, and that their ancestors brought Judaism from the Promised Land southward over a thousand year trek along the eastern coast of Africa. To the Rusape community, there is little difference between ancient African observance and ancient Jewish culture. Today they struggle to live both to the fullest.