AMONG KENYA’S EXPLODING JEWISH POPULATION:

Gathundia’s Jews are carving out their own Jewish identity, inspired by a reverence for an ancient tradition but inflected with local customs. Educating themselves and one another, many of them have become adept at Hebrew and live devoutly Jewish lives while continuing to work as subsistence farmers. They are also one of a number of small but growing Jewish communities in sub-Saharan Africa that look to Mbale, Uganda, home to the Abayudaya, as both a model and a site of pilgrimage, religious guidance, education, and even youth conventions.

One of my Nigerian relatives claims (with some pride) that the Ibo were originally Jews. I found the evidence rather thin, but given the spread of antisemitism worldwide, it’s interesting to see people not sharing that prejudice.