The Abayudaya, Samson and Saul
Growing up in a community with a sizeable Jewish population allowed me to be exposed to the traditions of Judaism from an early age. Since some of my closest friends were Jewish, I always felt somehow connected to the community. They even dubbed my high school graduation party an Indian bar mitzvah. So when one of the Global Health Fellows living with me mentioned that there is a community of Ugandan Jews, I was intrigued. He told me that his father had attended rabbinical school in Israel with the rabbi who currently heads one of the Ugandan synagogues in the villages near the town of Mbale. Jacob and I incidentally took a trip near Mbale to Sipi Falls, a five hour bus ride from Kampala. We spent the day hiking around the 3-tiered falls and a couple manmade caves for the morning and early afternoon.
Behind Sipi Falls in a cave
We were about to leave, and then of course it poured. Then it hailed. We sought shelter in our guide’s hut, whose tin roof amplified the sound of rain to a degree where we had to yell to hear each other. An hour later, it stopped, and we headed from Sipi to Mbale. When we told the taxi driver that we were interested in visiting the Jewish community, he guided us to a boda-boda driver (a local form of motorcycle transport) who would take us to the synagogue. Sure enough, the driver took us outside the town for about fifteen minutes along dirt roads into the village until we arrived at the settlement. These people are known locally as the Abayudaya – the people of Judah. There are about 1800 in total in Uganda. We met the rabbi, who gave us a tour of the synagogue and schools while providing us a history of the community.
Moses Synagogue
Their founder was a man named Semei Kakungulu, who was converted to Christianity by British missionaries. However, he felt most closely connected with the Old Testament and to Judaic practices. As a result, he declared himself a Jew in 1919 and gained followers thereafter (the community is already preparing for its 1ooth anniversary). It is claimed that a Jewish man named Joseph, supposedly from Ethiopia, came down soon after to teach the various traditions of the religion. Like most Ugandans during the Idi Amin era in the 70s, the Abayudaya were persecuted. Many converted to Islam, but a portion continued their devotion in secrecy until Amin’s overthrow. Until the last few decades, the Abayudaya were isolated from the international Jewish community. However, contact was made with Israel, and individuals went there for rabbinical training. Ten years ago, rabbis from abroad came to Uganda to perform official conversions for the Abayudaya.
Rabbi running for office
While we were there, we met nearly a dozen American Jews, doing volunteer work, training under the Ugandan rabbi, or like us, visiting out of interest. We found out that the rabbi even ran to be a local MP (Member of Parliament) representing his district, but the locals said that there was some rigging and he lost. Since it was Friday, everyone was preparing for the Shabbat services at 6:30. They were strict in their adherence to Judaism, kept kosher, and all of the men wore yarmulkes. Hebrew prayers had been translated into the local language, Luganda. The members of the community who we spoke with had traditional last names of their tribe, the Buganda, but their first names were distinctly Jewish – Tzipora, Saul, Yael, Samson. They were completely embraced by their neighbors, both Christian and Muslim, so that was a peaceful sight to see.
Our bus ride back was somehow better than our ride there. However, each stop was a vegetarian’s nightmare as we would get swarmed by street vendors waving giant kabobs of meat at us through the bus window. For a trip that was legitimately only 24 hours long, though, it certainly was eventful.
