Deep in the rugged hills of rural, eastern Uganda lives a small community of Black Africans who have proudly adopted the Jewish faith. They have built synagogues in the shade of banana trees, learned to speak Hebrew and slaughtered goats and chickens according to Kosher dietary laws. They call themselves the ‘Abayudaya’, meaning ‘people of Judah’ in Luganda, the Bantu language spoken widely in Uganda.
The 2,000-strong sect have lived in relative seclusion in their mountainous villages for some 100 years. The community was founded by Semei Kakungulu in 1919. Angrily renouncing his political work for the British Empire, Kakungulu tore his Bible in half so that it contained only the Old Testament. He then circumcised his sons and announced that he was Jewish, and that all his descendants would be Jews as well.
