Shalom, everyone! The following is part one of a lecture given in 2009 by Ehav Ever about Jewish migrations into West Africa. This lecture provides an overview of the sources of Jewish migration into West Africa since the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans. These Bnei Yisrael form a part of the larger West African Jewish community who were historically referred to as the Jews of Bilad-Al-Sudan. The communities highlighted in this lecture include the ancient Jewish communities of the Mali, the Songhai and the Ghanian Empires. These empires were eventually defeated by Muslim invaders, and the people were forced to convert to Islam.
Ehav Ever is an Israeli of Sephardic Jewish-Spanish, African American, Senegalese, and French ancestry.
The Chronicles of Ehav Ever: Episode 19
This video is based on a presentation I once did at Shearith Israel: The Spanish Portugues Synagogue in NYC in 2007. It is on various documents that talk about the Jewish migrations into West Africa that came from three sources.
1) Southern Arabia
2) North Africa
3) Spain and PortugalSources for the information presented can be found at the end of the presentation. Part 2 to this video is now up at the following link.
Jewish Migrations into West Africa – Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKyVn4…This is a summerized version of this topic. I wrote an article on the topic on Wikipedia that can found below.
Episode 19: Jewish Migrations into West Africa – Part 1 – The Chronicles of Ehav Ever (2009)
Video from אהב עבר /YouTube