Image taken from jewishvirtuallibrary.org
Legend has it that nearly 2500 years ago a group of Jewish people, lead by Jewish priests, left Judea in an effort to facilitate trade. They settled in Yemen and built a city called Senna. They were then known as the BaSenna (people from Senna). They eventually moved from Senna to settle in Africa.
They settled for a time in Tanzania, building another city called Senna. They thrived here but moved again, further south, into Mozambique, establishing a third Senna. From here they moved inland and established their modern day roots in South Eastern Zimbabwe and South Africa.
South Eastern Zimbabwe is full of myths and legends. The lost city of King Soloman is supposedly on the sides of a mountain in the present day Gona Re Zhou National Park. Coins from the times of the crusaders and Richard The Lion Heart have been said to be found in the ruins of Great Zimbabwe. Arab Dows are believed to have traveled up the Save River to trade with the peoples of Great Zimbabwe. A group of people known as the Lemba people claim to be direct descendants of a select group of Jewish priests who left Judea over 2,500 years ago. None of these fantastical stories have any scientific substance, at least all but one.
Image taken from jewishvirtuallibrary.org
A few years ago a study took place on the DNA of the Lemba people. This study proved, without a single doubt, that their Y-chromosomes are a direct link to Jewish peoples. Men from the Buba clan—which oral tradition states that they were the clan of priests that led them out of Judea 2,500 years ago—carry a Y-chromosome known as the Cohen modal haplotype (CMH). Among Jewish people around the world, the marker is also most prevalent in the Jewish Kohanim, or priests.
Many of the Lemba peoples are now Christian but they have a Shabbat day, call themselves the chosen people, do not eat pork, practice animal slaughter in a way so as to make it fit for human consumption, place a star of David on their tombstones, and discourage their people from marrying outside of the Lemba tribe.
The Lemba people claim that they built the great enclosure at Great Zimbabwe, this has never been proven either way. They also claim to have carried a sacred object known as the ‘Ngoma Lungundu” or drum that thunders or the voice of God from Jedea. It is theorized by some that this was at one time the Ark of the Covenant, rebuilt by the Lemba over the years after the original exploded in battle. The modern Ngoma Lungundu is thought to be sitting in a dusty storeroom in a museum in Harare.
