Afrocentric Inquiry and the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem

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“SEIZING THE POWER TO DEFINE!” AFROCENTRIC INQUIRY AND THE AFRICAN HEBREW ISRAELITES OF JERUSALEM

A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

by Miciah Z. Yehudah African American Studies August 2014

Examining Committee Members:

Iyelli Ichile, Advisory Chair, Department of African American Studies Molefi Kete Asante, Department of African American Studies Maxwell Stanford Jr., Department of African American Studies Portia Hunt, External Member, Psychological, Organizational, & Leadership Studies

Miciah Z. Yehudah

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ABSTRACT

“Seizing the Power to Define!” Afrocentric Inquiry and the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem Miciah Z. Yehudah Doctoral Dissertation Doctoral Committee Chair: Iyelli Ichile; Ph.D. Temple University, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, United States of America

This dissertation critically examines the African Hebrew Israelites of

Jerusalem, a group of African American Hebrews from Chicago that migrated to

Liberia in 1967 and Israel in 1969. The greater part of the scholarship engaging the group since 1967 has consistently labeled them along four lines: as a people seeking constant external acceptance; as a cultic or ”new religious movement”; as an oppressed and downtrodden people seeking success in any way in which it could be achieved; or as a people with a strange affinity towards Jewish people so extreme that they intend not only to emulate and eradicate them but to serve as their replacements. In the literature reviewed it was rare that the actual philosophy of the

African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem was interrogated. In the rare cases in which their philosophies were examined they were situated only in regards to their relationship with an already assumed universal White normativity. In studying the group, methodological concerns arise, as do questions with regards to who the

African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem truly are. To investigate the methodological parameters of studying the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem the Afrocentric

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Paradigm is employed. Afrocentric inquiry’s focus on agency and the privileging of the voice of the African subjects within its own narrative differs drastically from the methodology underlying those scholars that have studied the group previously. In order to explore who the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem identify with

(orientation), how they navigate the issue of epistemology as both a people of

African and Israelite heritage (grounding), and how they define freedom and its parameters in conversation with the larger African world they claim to be amongst

(location) this dissertation analyzes major publications of the African Hebrew

Israelites of Jerusalem since the 1980s. This work challenges the argument that the

Afrocentric Paradigm is ill suited to appropriately study the African Hebrew

Israelites of Jerusalem.

This work is dedicated to The Great Eternal Everlasting Spirit!

May this work be in alignment with your way in such a case that its light may never be

hidden from your people.

“Everything for a wise man, nothing for a fool.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost I give all honor, praise, and glory to the Everlasting

Creator. With you all is possible and without you no thing is. I also give thanks for the great ancestors; those who have possessed the character we seek to emulate; family ancestors Granny, Graffy, Baba Weston, Mama Louise, and Nana Lenny. I live because of your sacrifices. Asante Sana! To the clan whether in Mount Vernon, New

Rochelle, the Maroon Swamps of Jacksonville, South Carolina and its accompanying

Sea Islands, Jamaica, Senegal/Gambia, Ghana…you are as the sand of the sea. Asante

Sana! Much appreciation for my trees Emah Yedidah (the most resilient and loving woman I know), Ab Mishareth Shemuel (the greatest definition for me of what a man should be) and Emah Karen (we have a lot of catching up to do but so far so good); to my fellow branches Yans, Natty, and Samaykah, Adrienne, Joe and

Jermaine who have supported me throughout. To my own branch Kushiyah Sifrah

Eliyamen. It is my prayer that as you grow into a polished woman of renowned character, you will shine and glisten in your endeavors; remembering the source of your power. Stay focused. Maintain alignment with The Creator and balance with

Creation. To Amani who has served patiently and diligently as my partner through the ups, downs, twists, and turns of the dissertation process…even taking time away from her own work to offer valuable feedback. Through your power I too have been empowered. You are most certainly appreciated beyond all measure. Ninakupenda!

Gratitude must also be given to my family at Beth Dawid. Firstly to Emah

Kokmah – Bilkis Makeda whose vision and majesty alone woke up so many. I understand what you were trying to do. I get it! To Melek Dawid, Nasi Zebulun

Maccabee, Sar Judah, Zakwin Amram. Much appreciation to the elders and leaders of the Cultural Institute that was so appropriately named “Bereshith” and the family in

Ghana, including Kohain Nathanyah Halevi, Rabbi and Mabel Halevi; Sar Reuben

Yitzchaak and Nasikah Sarah Yitzchaak; Bro. Israel; Nana Ben Okofu (rest in power); and Imahkus Nzinga. Also I extend love and thanks to the family stationed in the

U.S…those on the hill…Zakwin Baba Abishai (Roots Man) & Emah Edah. Emah

Malika. Nasikah Serapher & family; Nasi Yachain & Miriam Hanasi & family. Sar

Elkanah & family, Sar Ben Reuben & family, Zakwin Avigdal & family; the Jackson family; Ak Calvin, and Zakwin Rashi. Special thanks to my bredren; Mateeth, Razi,

Meek, Malik, Asayero, LFO, M Dot & Family. I appreciate you!

The staff and faculty at the State University of New York at Albany who provided the preparation I needed to get to this point, including Sharon Parkinson,

Patricia Pinho, Kwadwo Sarfoh, Oscar Williams, D. Ekow King, and Marcia

Sutherland. When I came to Dr. Sutherland’s office for assistance in her graduate course, she in her unapologetically African way, told me in no certain terms that I needed to be better. She refused to accept mediocrity or excuses; rather, she required my best and expected nothing short of excellence. At that point doctoral studies was the furthest thought from my mind. I was just trying to get through her course! However, her intervention made a difference. Dr. Sutherland, challenged me and through her efforts I was actually encouraged and inspired to do more. I thank

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her for giving me just a little bit of her time. Medase Pii! My colleagues at UAlbany have cheered me on throughout this process. Nefertiti, I am so grateful for your helping me to fine-tune this work. Medase Pii!

How can I forget Temple University’s Department of African American

Studies? It is second to none when it comes to providing a space in academia for intellectual discourse around ideas pertaining to people of African descent. I had great experiences. Dr. Peterson-Lewis sharpened my research skills in levels unimagined. Though the preparation was rigorous, it was necessary. The research methods course was extremely valuable in helping me to navigate throughout this process. I had the blessing of sitting in Dr. Ama Mazama’s class and gained clarity about the Afrocentric Paradigm that I am so fortunate to have received.. I wish that every student in a Black Studies program could experience the same. Other faculty that have sharpened my skills and enhanced my Temple experience include Dr.

Abarry in African aesthetics and literature, Dr. Norment in the parameters of the discipline, and Dr. Monteiro in the life and works of W.E.B. Du Bois.

Much love to my colleagues in the Organization of African American Studies

Graduate Students who truly represent what Black Studies is all about. We understand our unique discipline and the politics, ideologies, and challenges that accompany it. Most importantly we are willing to fight for it. The faculty together with my colleagues and students at “The Temple” have challenged me and strengthened me in ways unimagined to bring this work to fruition.

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I am also thankful for the staff of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American

Collection for their support: Dr. Charles L. Blockson, Dr. Diane Turner, Ms. Aslaku

Berhanu, Ms. Ida Weley, and Ms. Leslie Willis-Lowry. I give thanks.

I also offer much thanks to my advisors during this process; including Dr.

Iyelli Ichile my Dissertation Chair who saw the value and potential in this work and who took it on without any questions or concerns. After my first time sitting in her class I knew that she had to be on my committee. I asked her to offer the necessary balance to my work and she has done that and more. She kept it/me honest. Dr.

Ichile, I appreciate you in so many ways! I give thanks also to my mentor Dr.

Muhammad Ahmed who provided great stability; always encouraging me to take the high road and reminding me of the goal and mission at hand. Shukran! Much thanks also to Dr. Molefi K. Asante, who stepped in at a time in which he was most needed. I was carrying out research testing out the Afrocentric Paradigm and realized how shortchanged the research would be if the creator of the framework was not involved in the project. Despite me asking at the very last minute amidst the rapid changes in our department, he had enough humility to hear what I had to say and enough belief in the project to offer immediate support and backing. It is never easy to have a concept and framework you created placed under the microscope and to always be at the center of any critique. Asante Sana! Dr. Portia Hunt trusted my work and despite having an already busy schedule took on this project willingly. You are so wise yet so open! Your patience and understanding is so needed in our world.

You are great and phenomenal!

It would be stating the obvious but without the work of the African Hebrew

Israelite community of Dimona, Israel under the leadership of Ben Ammi, Nasi

Shaleak, Prince Eliezer, and Nasi Asiel this project would not appear as it does on these pages. I offer this work as a testament to their great efforts toward freedom.

What they have accomplished is nothing short of remarkable. As a Hebrew, their community pushed me to be better in how I conceptualize and practice my belief. If

I appear to be overly critical of the community I pray that it is received as a suggestion towards greatness rather than an attack on what has been accomplished.

Finally, but certainly not in any indication of unimportance, I acknowledge the great work of Dr. Yosef Ben Jochannen who decades ago as an Ethiopian Jew argued that people of African descent should never be divided along lines of religion. Dr. Ben, you are appreciated beyond what you can imagine! Your insightful works provide much of the foundational questions I have sought to explore in this dissertation. I hope this work brings a smile to your face.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ABSTRACT...... iii

DEDICATION...... v

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...... vi

PREFACE (Brief History of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem) ...... xiv

Chicago ...... xvi

A-Beta Israel Hebrew Center...... xvii

Liberia...... xviii

Israel...... xx

CHAPTER

1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1

Importance of the Study...... 6

2. LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 9

Newspaper Coverage ...... 11

Newspaper Coverage: 1960-1969...... 11

Newspaper Coverage: 1970-1979...... 13

Newspaper Coverage: 1980-1989...... 16

Newspaper Coverage: 1990-1999...... 24

Newspaper Coverage: 2000-Present...... 25

Academic Coverage...... 32

3. METHODOLOGY ...... 47

About Methodology...... 47

Essential Elements of Methodology Utilized and Tested in this

Dissertation ...... 51

Afrocentric Inquiry ...... 55

Location ...... 55

Orientation ...... 64

Grounding ...... 66

Identity, Identity Theory, and Critique ...... 69

Reference Group Theory, Reference Group Orientation and Critique...... 74

4. METHOD ...... 80

On Analyzing Content ...... 80

Advantages/Disadvantages of Content Analysis ...... 85

Coding and Organizing the Data...... 88

Research Design...... 89

Step 1: Methodological Synthesis...... 89

Step 2: Determining a Unit of Analysis/Sample...... 90

Step 3: First Reading of Text: Exploration...... 91

Step 4: Conceptual Measurement & In-Depth Critical Analysis...... 92

Step 5: Communication of Findings ...... 93

5. FINDINGS...... 93

God, The Black Man, and Truth ...... 94

God and the Law of Relativity: A Blueprint for Survival Into the 21st

Century...... 107

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The Impregnable People: An Exodus of Africa Americans Back to Africa...... 113

An Imitation of Life: Redefining What Constitutes True Life and Living in

the New World...... 128

The Resurrection from Judgment to Post Judgment...... 133

The Ramle Seven: Seven Men and the Destiny of a Nation...... 139

Physical Immortality Conquering Death ...... 144

Discussion and Summary of Findings ...... 148

Ben Ammi as the Messiah ...... 149

Grounding ...... 155

Orientation ...... 159

Location ...... 172

6. CONCLUSION...... 179

Are they Afrocentric? ...... 179

Expansion of future research on Hebrew and other Black Communities...... 181

Africanities, Pan-Africanism, and Location ...... 182

The Relationship with the State of Israel...... 183

Academia ...... 184

Black Studies ...... 187

BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 191

APPENDICES

A. Cover Page – God, The Black Man, and Truth...... 202

B. Map: Migration of the African Hebrews ...... 203

C. Definitions...... 204

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PREFACE:

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE AFRICAN HEBREW ISRAELITES OF JERUSALEM

Our struggle is not a struggle to use integrated toilets, or to eat next to white men, or to live in white neighborhoods – or to be what they are. Our struggle is the struggle for true freedom: freedom to live in unity according to the will and plan of another God – the true God, our God – not the one that white men created for us.1

The history of people of African descent in the Americas practicing biblical tradition is extensive, but less known is the history of those amongst them claiming an actual Israelite heritage. Further, though the general phenomena have been studied, research pertaining to the specific communities practicing and living out such beliefs has not been as forthcoming. For example, it is little known that the

Commandment Keepers in Harlem, New York have since the 1900s, served as the primary organizing institution for people of African descent in the United States practicing the Hebrew way of life. Under the leadership of Rabbi Wentworth

Matthew, who himself was ordained by Beta Israel authorities in Ethiopia and Rabbi

Josiah Ford, a Choir Director of Marcus Garvey’s United Negro Improvement

Association (UNIA) organization, Black men were for the first time ever, ordained for Rabbinical duties outside of Ethiopia.

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania remnants of two 19th century Black Hebrew congregations, the Church of God and Saints of Christ led by William Crowdy, and

1 HaGadol, Gavriel, Israel, Odehyah B. The Impregnable People: An Exodus of African Americans back to Africa. Washington DC: Communicators Press 1992; 121

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the Church of God headed by Prophet Cherry still maintain their respective memberships and organizations. The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem are the focal group of this work; however they were neither the first Hebrew community from the United States to “return” to Africa2 nor the last3. They are among the many hundreds of Black communities keeping Israelite tradition across the United States, the Caribbean, and the African continent.

A significant portion of these communities shares common historical and genealogical links with the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem. The focus on spiritual traditions grounded in Torah (Old Testament scripture) is a common similarity amongst these groups although their outward expressions may differ4.

Interpretations of Torah and subsequent practices associated with interpretation vary according to each group. With respect to the similarities and dissimilarities between the respective Israelite communities in Africa, and to better situate the

2 Rabbi Josiah Ford and wife Mignon Ford on behalf of his Beth B’nai Abraham congregation and other members of the expatriate community to come to Ethiopia, acquired land for settlement in Addis Ababa and Shashamenee...(an area later settled by Africans of the Diaspora and well known for its Rastafarian settlers). See Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance from A-J; Taylor and Francis; Jan 1 2004; 400 3 Ha’Aur B’Mizriam a Congregation of Ethiopian Hebrews originally based out of Mount Vernon, New York of which I am a member has established since the 1980s a large Diasporan community in Ghana’s Cape Coast and Elmina in an area well known for its “One Africa” moniker as named by Imahkus and late husband Nana Okofo, and Mabel’s Table restaurant and guesthouse named for Mabel Halevi, Ghanaian of Ewe extraction, and wife of Rabbi Nathanyah Halevi, Kohain (Priest) of the Ha’Aur B’Mizraim Congregation. Rabbi Kohain has served as the Chief Executive of Ghana’s bi-annual Panafest Festival since the 1990s. See texts by Imahkus Njinga; Returning Home Ain’t Easy but it sure is a blessing!. Ghana: One Africa Tours & Specialty Services, Ltd.1999 and Ababio; He/She who has returned: A 21st Century Anthology of African Diasporan Returnees to Ghana; Ghana: One Africa Tours & Specialty Services, Ltd. 2009 4 Landing, James E. Black Judaism. Story of an American Movement. Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2002

grounding, orientation, and location of the particular group of focus here, a brief elucidation of the major historical landscape of African Hebrews is presented.

CHICAGO

Due to increased persecution across the southern part of the United States after the Reconstruction experiment, many people of African descent feared for their safety and sought escape, leading to mass relocation North for greater chances at survival. Chicago came to be one of the major destinations. Families sought new opportunities for advancement and saw religion as a possible gateway to realization of the possibilities5. While the church tradition continued for the masses, many others sought salvation in alternative religious forms, because they perceived as whitewashed versions of systems originated in Africa by Africans in the first place.

In Chicago, “Prophet” Lucius Casey, a stockyard worker, began attending services at a local place of worship known as the True Ethiopian Foundation (later known as the Congregation of Ethiopian Hebrews), under the leadership of UNIA affiliated duo of Tennessee born Rabbi Abihu Reuben and Rabbi Joseph Lazarus Sr.

After three years of attendance and service at the Congregation of Ethiopian

Hebrews, Casey left to form an organization on the South Side of Chicago which preached separation from racist Whites and allegiant Blacks, and an unrelenting focus on self sufficiency and self sustainment. “The Negro Israelite Bible Class”, as it was called, would form an agricultural community in Southern Illinois, and by 1951

5 Drake ,St. Clair. The Black Metropolis. A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City. New York. Harper & Rowe. 1962

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acquired nearly one thousand acres of land. The new spiritual community inspired notable interest, including a young man from the South Side of Chicago, Ben Carter.

While working at the Howard Foundry Ben Carter, then in his early twenties learned of the activities of Casey and his organization through one of Casey’s followers, Landar Buie. After some interactions and study sessions at the Buie household and visits to the Congregation of Ethiopian Hebrews, Carter received from Rabbi Abihu Reuben the name we would all come to know him as today “Ben

Ammi” meaning “son of my people”. Others joined him to study, including his best friend Archie Butler, later called Gavriel HaGadol6.

A-BETA ISRAEL HEBREW CENTER

Founded in 1963 by Daniel Knight, A-Beta Israel Hebrew Center leadership consisted of some of the heads of the Ethiopian Congregation including Rabbi

Reuben. This also became the location where Ben Carter came into his own as a leader. The members of the group held an affinity for the Ancient Israelites but also held a unique perspective regarding heritage like many others of Biblical faith, in that they saw no connection between the Ancient Israelites and the modern white

Israelis; who they believed to be the imposters and imitators of the tradition.

Much of the debate within the group in 1966 was focused around what people of African descent would do in America. Understanding that they did not have true citizenship in the United States of America and were essentially treated as a landless, language-less, and cultureless people, Ammi and others began to think of

6 HaGadol, Gavriel, Israel, Odehyah B. The Impregnable People: An Exodus of African Americans back to Africa. Washington DC: Communicators Press 1992

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alternatives. Many of the alternatives often centered around discussions of an exit strategy. Countless hours of interpretation of Biblical scripture were accumulated as the group discussed whether or not an exodus from the United States of America was justified and precisely how it would be carried out.7 Growing increasingly impatient with the constant dialogue and inaction, one day in a meeting at the

Center, Ben Ammi, seeking a tangible response asked when the exodus from

America would transpire. The elders of the group attempted to persuade the others that it was not time yet, but Ben Ammi and his contingent were ready for action.

Immediately after the meeting Ammi, HaGadol and others began to splinter off while the elder, conservative group remained behind. The group splintering off would name themselves the “Original Black Hebrew Nation” and immediately make plans to leave “Babylon”.

LIBERIA

In May of 1967, the same year Israel began its 6-year war, the first delegation of scouts , which included Ben Ammi, Ben Yaacov, and Gavriel HaGadol departed for

Liberia. After securing land through the assistance of a Garveyite named James

Flemister who had been living in Liberia since the early 1950s, the three returned to

North America proclaiming that the path was clear8. By July and December of 1967

7 Baer, Hans A. and Singer, Merrill; African American Religion: Varieties of Protest and Accommodation; Second Edition. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press: 2002; 119 8 Baer & Singer; African American Religion; 120

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at least 175 people claiming to be members of the group arrived in Liberia as new settlers9.

According to HaGadol, the experience of settling at that point of time in

Liberia was anything but pleasant. They associated their time in Liberia with being in the “wilderness,” in reference to the point in the biblical narrative when after leaving from the captivity of “Mzraim” the Israelites roamed and struggled for forty years before they were allowed into their “promised land.”10 More specifically, much as the Israelites in the Biblical narrative faced several challenges in the

“wilderness,” the community encountered several obstacles in Liberia including famine, continuous United States intervention in their affairs (e.g., spreading misinformation to the Liberian government and press), and encountering many disagreements with local Liberians, though they were clarified as mere misunderstandings and eventually worked out. Within the community, they had their own challenges, including shifts in membership due to defections to the US, and a failed attempt at economic self-reliance in a chicken farm experiment11.

Eventually the group was able to find their way. They opened a restaurant in the city where they served their brand of ice-cream, and they also supplied members for the well known “Soul Messengers” band that played at several venues across the country, including a show at President Tubman’s residence12.

By April of 1968 the group had begun corresponding with the Israeli

Consulate in Monrovia regarding permanent settlement in the State of Israel.

9 “U.S. Negroes Content as Israelites in Liberia,” New York Times. November 6, 1968 10 HaGadol and Israel; The Impregnable People; 123-211 11 HaGadol and Israel; The Impregnable People; 202 12 HaGadol and Israel; The Impregnable People; 198

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Numerous letters to the Israeli government in Jerusalem went unanswered13. In

May, Ben Ammi and an additional member left for Israel in order to make direct contact with the government regarding their settlement and determined that their way to enter the country would be through its Law of Return, which to this day allows for all people claiming Jewish heritage to not only enter the country but gain the rights of citizenship. As HaGadol argued, the Law determined that “any person declaring innocently that he/she is a Jew must be registered as a Jew and no other proof should be demanded of him/her.” However, as members of the group arrived in Israel, the law became a matter of subjective interpretation, typically along the lines of skin color.

ISRAEL

In December of 1969, 39 members of the African Hebrew Israelites of

Jerusalem, who at the time still held the name of Original Black Hebrew Nation, migrated into Israel from Liberia but immediately ran into issues with Israel’s Law of Return. By early 1971 the Israeli and United States press began to label the group as criminals, deviants, and provokers of the tensions with the State of Israel. By the middle of 1971, Ben Ammi held a press conference intended to expose issues the community had with receiving employment and housing even going so far as to label the situation as a reminder of the “Jim Crow policies similar to what we left behind” in the United States14. A month later the group staged a protest at a local

13 HaGadol and Israel; The Impregnable People; 182 14 Eder, Richard; Black ‘Israelites’ Challenging Israel’s Policies;; Richard Eder Special to the New York Times; New York Times; August 31 1971 page 3

supermarket and within days the State of Israel retaliated fiercely by barring twenty-one Hebrews from entering the country15 and issuing deportation orders to several already settled members of the community16. The 1970s and 1980s featured heightened tensions between the community and the State of Israel. The tensions stemmed from: mass arrests; deportations and the continuous threats of deportation; biased media coverage; the continuous blockage of community members and their visitors as well as random people with Black skin from entering

Israel. The tensions were so prevalent between the two entities that a delegation of

African Americans led by Bayard Rustin (Director of the “Black Americans to

Support Israel Committee”), including Alexander Allen (National Urban League),

Lewis Carter (NAACP), and Mrs. Arthur Logan (NCNW) were sent on behalf of the

American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish League, and the Anti Defamation

League of B’nai B’rith to create a report on the matter. Members of the delegation did not have much to say of the tension aside from being personally offended at their treatment while entering the country. Despite Bayard Rustin stating, off the record, his concern about the leadership style of Ben Ammi17, the attempt by the collaboration of European Jews in America and Israel to rouse the support of African

Americans for the State of Israel’s actions against the African Hebrew Israelites of

Jerusalem, was not as successful as intended. The unwillingness of members of the

15 Elyahkeem, Shamiyah E. The Ramle Seven: Seven Men and the Destiny of a Nation; Washington DC: Communicators Press; 2007; 23-24 16 “Black Hebrews told to leave homeland.” Chicago Daily Defender. December 21, 1971; p. 5 17 Kurtis, Bill. “Strangers in the Holy Land”; New York Times; March 22, 1981: SM16 and Shipler, David. “Israelis are urged to act over Black Hebrew Cult: Made up of Black Americans No Evidence of Racism Detected” Special to The New York Times. New York Times. January 30, 1981

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delegation to point fingers at the community, at least publicly, spoke to the connection the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem still had with African

Americans.

Not until 1990 did a concession come from the Israeli government in the form of legal residency status. A year later, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that “temporary” residency status was issued and extended until August

200318. Nonetheless, good news kept coming as members of the group were invited to be among the dignitaries to meet long time Chicago ally Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam while on a tour of Ghana in 1994.19 Additionally in 1996

United States congressmen Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and Earl Hilliard of

Alabama led a delegation to Israel that during diplomatic proceedings urged new

Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu to convince the government to bequest citizenship to the community in Dimona20.

In 2002 the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry of Israel, as a precursor to possibly granting citizenship to the group, decided that members of the community could volunteer for national service21. A year later, “permanent” residency status was granted on the condition that they serve in the Israeli army. They accepted the

18 “The Hebrew Israelite Community” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. September 29, 2006. Last accessed May 20, 2014 http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/facts%20about%20israel/people/the%20black%20he brews . 19 French, Howard W. “Some surprises met nation of Islam visitors on Ghana tour” New York Times. October 9, 1994. 20 “Delegation presses Israeli leader on behalf of African-Americans in Israel” Atlanta Daily World; October 17, 1996; Page 1 21 Arbeli, Aliza. “Black Hebrews now eligible for service” Haaretz.com; June 5, 2002. Last accessed May 20, 2014. www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/black-hebrews- now-eligible-for-service-1.43265

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conditions22, and by February 2009 Eliyahkeem Ben Yehudah, at the age of 62 became the first member of the community to be granted full Israeli citizenship23.

Others in the community have been awarded citizenship on a case-by-case basis. In reference to a quote from sociologist Henry Merton, stating the importance of a single successful experiment even when aligned with over 100 failures, Ben Ammi agreed and further asserted that the group’s goal to establish themselves in Israel over the past 30 years has been a success by “any” measure. Ammi stated:

Our people, having a history of subjugation in the Americas, took on the challenge of establishing a new society, refusing to base the institutions or the infrastructure upon the society which we left. We had to bring about a new reality based on our understanding of the scriptures.24

Such is the brief history of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem.

Thoughtful resistance and creative self-determination have characterized their journey. Questions still loom however, as to the direction of their efforts at liberation. It is from the awareness of this question that this analysis seeks to understand and situate a notable group of the African and African Diasporic community in order to arrive at a clarity that might extend Afrocentric discourse about communities such as these throughout the African world.

22 Kaufman, David. “Quest for homeland gains a world stage” The New York Times. April 16, 2006 and “Israel grants ‘black hebrews’ permanent residency” – haaretz.com. July 29, 2003. http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel-grants-black- hebrews-permanent-residency-1.95625 . Last accessed May 20, 2014 23 Esenstein, Andrew. “Once reviled, Black Hebrews now feted” forward.com; March 18, 2009 . http://forward.com/articles/104067/once-reviled-black-hebrws-now- feted/ last accessed May 20, 2014 and “Three decades after exodus from America, first Black Hebrew becomes Israeli citizen” Haaretz.com; March 23, 2009; last accessed May 20, 2014. http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/2.209/three- decades-after-exodus-from-america-first-black-hebrew-becomes-israeli-citizen- 1.272701 24 Hare, A. Paul. (editor) The Hebrew Israelite Community. New York, University Press of America; 1998

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Everybody in the world should understand the reasoning behind a people desiring to return to their land of origin, but when Black ex-slaves sought to go that route, there was nothing but hard-core opposition and rebuke by the white establishment.25

Academic studies26 and newspaper accounts27 have consistently verified as a

“problem” not only the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem themselves but the challenges faced in studying the community. Since the group undertook in 1969 its

“repatriation” to Israel, the self-declared African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem have been viewed and treated, strikingly similar to the fashion in which scholars of the “traditional” methodologies of academia have treated most Black self- determined narratives. Oddly enough, not only in the news media and mainstream academia has their narrative posed a challenge, but also within their own Black community, a certain apprehension is present when the topic of the “Black

Hebrews” is mentioned. Even within the “safer” haven of Black Studies, the same concerns surface as to whom these “Black” Jews really are and where they stand in regard to the overall Black struggle. Yet, given their rich history of resistance to anti-

Black racism both in the U.S. and abroad, it is equally interesting and concerning that the topic of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, and the larger narrative of the Black Hebrews have gone virtually untreated in Black Studies.

25 HaGadol, Gavriel and Israel, Odehyah B.. The Impregnable People: An Exodus of African Americans back to Africa. Washington DC: Communicators Press 1992; 112 26 Refer to the literature review 27 Refer to the literature review

As a Hebrew, and life-long member of the Ha’Aur B’Mizraim Ethiopian

Hebrew Israelite Congregation of Mount Vernon, New York and Ghana, West Africa,

I saw it necessary to take on the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem for my dissertation focus. Not only did I see this work as an opportunity to address constructs pertaining to African identification from a (Black) Hebrew perspective, but also to begin to chart and document the parameters for what it currently means to be Black in societies predicated upon assumptions of a White supremacy. This is a necessary undertaking, since in the types of societies modeled from assumptions of

White supremacy, which are many, all of its citizens, irrespective of whether they are or are not desirable, are educated (or rather miseducated28) to see Black people only as pathological beings. How people of African descent, within these societies create spaces that chart new directions while staving off further ideological imposition, to the forging of a Black self-concept, is the focus of this work.

Although I am not a member of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, I am familiar with them both from my personal experiences and via the community I belong to. Elders in my community have made the occasional mention that prior to setting out for Liberia and Israel Ben Ammi and other members of the African

Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem sought and received the blessing from our leadership to make their journey. In the1980s my mother and other members of my congregation housed and provided shelter for members of the African Hebrew

Israelites of Jerusalem as they were deported from the State of Israel. In 1986, members of my community were detained and rejected from entry into the state of

28 Woodson, Carter Goodwin. Miseducation of the Negro. 1933 (1990). Trenton, NJ. Third World Press.

Israel upon the suspicion that they were closely affiliated with the African Hebrew

Israelites of Jerusalem in Dimona. In Ghana I have personally had interactions with the staff and visitors to the “Assase Pa” Restaurant29 and while in Philadelphia I interacted with Beth Hephzibah one of the branches of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem.

Admittedly, in the case of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem numerous peculiarities emerge. For one, how could one be African (or Pan-African) and simultaneously claim an Israelite heritage? Notions of authenticity are questioned anytime a self-proclaimed African espouses a spiritual or cultural tradition currently existing outside of modern geographic constructions of Africa. In some instances, however, central questions of identity and cultural appropriation arise. Have we been misled, for instance, to equate the Ancient Israelites with White folk? And if so, is anyone claiming Israelite heritage uniformly claiming orientation towards a White heritage?

Dr. Yosef Ben Jochannen asked himself this question, not necessarily based on the heritage that his elders and relatives of the Beta Israelite community in

Gondar, Ethiopia imparted unto him, but rather, because of the perception others held of his birthright. Since many of the world (even members of the global Black community) viewed his ancient Israelite heritage as nothing more than an attempt by him and his people, to mock the “true” White Jew, he himself to them must have

29 Assase Pa meaning “Good Earth” is a restaurant owned by the African Hebrew Israelites in Cape Coast (Central Region) of Ghana. Located on the gulf of guinea overlooking the Atlantic Ocean It serves vegan cuisine and houses an on-site spa.

been a “wanna-be”, rather than an authentic Jew, and by extension, consciously running away from a true African heritage and Pan-African political orientation. 30

Dr. Ben Jochannen’s narrative shares similarities with the narrative of the

African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem as the underlying assumption has been that to be Israelite or a descendent of the ancient people is automatically to be White, and therefore the mainstream marginalization and sweeping under the rug of what the group voices has been justified. What seems to be implied is that Black people have no voice worth considering unless it utters commonly accepted ideas of Africa, or what it means to be African. Why is it that being African almost seems to imply that one cannot be religiously an Israelite or descendants of Israelites? Whether one defining herself as an Israelite can or cannot be African or Afrocentric is a core topic engaged in this study.

Since in the United States of America, the racial binary of an evil Blackness and godly Whiteness has had the ability to influence the historical narrative towards such categorizations, its impact in shaping and molding reality has had major influences on the options people have had to select from towards shaping their own self-concept. As a result, for those marginalized, the coming to terms with one’s own racial identification and awareness of it within that racialized environment is imperative for healthy functioning31. If it is to be assumed that one’s political orientations should be linked to one’s heritage and that the identity one cleaves to

30 Ben Jochannen, Yosef. We The Black Jews: Witness to the “White Jewish Race” Myth. Volumes I and II. Baltimore: Black Classic Press. 1983 (1993) 31 Healthy functioning is in alignment with a goal towards African liberation and self-determination best articulated and operationalized by the work of Wade Nobles, Naim Akbar, Robert Sellers, Molefi Kete Asante, and Marcia Sutherland.

should mirror that relationship, then one can surmise the danger posed by having limited or at worse self-detrimental options for choosing one’s identification. I argue that the decision one makes regarding who to identify with (orientation) is correlated with the type of information one has access to (grounding).

Currently, people of African descent irrespective of whether they are or are not claiming Israelite heritage, are under attack in the State of Israel; labeled as deviants, invaders, strangers, and infidels. I posit that incorrect methodological approaches to the Black-Jewish question leads to eventual mislabeling and misidentification of this group as a problem. A proper study of the African Hebrew

Israelites of Jerusalem, one of many subgroups within the larger group claiming

Israelite heritage is necessary to turn the tides of dogmatism and misconceptions regarding such factions of the African world.

Centering the discourse on three Afrocentric paradigmatic elements, grounding, orientation, and location that collectively determine self-definition, the research questions of this study can be summarized as follows: (1) How do the

African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem define themselves? (2) What stated relationship(s), if any, does the group have with groups of African descent? (3)

Finally, what historical bases, if any, does the group base their self-definition and relationship(s)? To frame these questions in a more methodologically relevant light,

I ask, (1) To what degree is the group grounded in a specific historical narrative, (2)

To what entity do the members orient themselves to, and (3) How should the group’s location be described or defined according to the answers derived from the previous two questions? In terms of method, a content analysis of publications

directly from the group in question will be performed with the hope of determining the best conclusions while treating the group as active agents of their own lives.

IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY

The study proposed is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, the narrative of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem displays the challenges of a

Black group existing in a world that attacks Blackness. With any attempt at self- definition, Black people must continuously address external and self-imposed notions of “Blackness” during the process of interrogating the possibilities or limitations of such designations. Data displaying how they address these restraints will fare well for scholars attempting to understand the uphill battle a people face both internally and externally in societies that on all levels seek to minimize their existence.

Secondly, geographically, historically, and existentially, this work offers an additional dialogue on the much larger discussion of the Black Diaspora by examining a Black group that not only sees and believes Jerusalem to be Northeast

Africa, but has had the confidence, and even to some, the audacity, to live out this belief, even going so far as to term their movement a continuation of Back to Africa movements. As a result, any semblance of a Back To Africa movement or moment produces fascinating information on how a group undertaking such a journey perceives the larger Black quest for liberation. The existential component is of principal importance because this group continues to exist and create new modes of outreach as the rest of the world is only beginning to learn of them and their ideas.

In general Black existential experiences outside the purview of the mainstream several questions proliferate. For one, how is a group in a state professing a democratic ethos treated when their self-definition clashes with the identity and role the state expects? This dissertation hopes to begin the conversation around the question of what it means to be Black in places that blatantly or subliminally define themselves as “Non-Black”.

This topic is currently relevant, as just within the past year the local and international press have highlighted several cases of racial discrimination against people of African descent in the state of Israel32. It has been alleged that a possible

Eugenics program had been organized and carried out by the State of Israel on

Ethiopian Israelite citizens it asserts to be assisting in their return “home”.33 Since its inception the state of Israel has had major challenges with charges of racism. This has also been documented in Israeli as well as international media34. Having access to scholarly literature in regards to this topic means that content is now available for people to rely on to (1) address the issue, (2) clarify who the African Hebrew

Israelites of Jerusalem and African migrants are, and to (3) alleviate the confusion or denial over who they are. Since I argue that the bulk of scholarship that has taken

32 “Israel denies African migrants’ rights”. BBC NEWS. June 1. 2012. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-18210133 Last visited May 25 2014 ;Ben Yehuda, Ahmadiel. “The Dangers of Eurocentrism” haaretz.com ; September 14, 2012 (www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opiion/the-dangers-of-eurocentrism.premium-1.464877). Hartman, Ben; “bill to limit money migrants can send abroad advances” Jerusalem Post; October 15, 2012. 33 Goldenberg, Tia.“Israeli Ethiopian birth control ignites debate”; Associated Press; Feb 18 2013; Chiles, Nich. “Israel admits ‘shameful’ birth control drug injected in unaware Ethiopian jews’“ January 29 2013. Atlanta Black Star http://atlantablackstar.com/2013/01/29/israel-acknowledges-shameful- contraceptive-shots-given-to-ethiopian-jews/

this group as its subject does not address the role of the group properly, this study has taken as one of its aims to situate the group within a historical framework. It is my hope that the data generated will allow for scholars to cease bias laden research, but to rely on evidence in order to launch new possibilities and approaches.

Finally, this work will also feature the testing and the development of an appropriate methodology for properly engaging this group. The problem of how to look at a group that so many see as dysfunctional, must first be addressed at the methodological level. The methodological approach one takes to engage the experience of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem can either be fruitful or fateful. The critical question that has not been properly answered or addressed is in regards to what the African Hebrew Israelites define as “African”. The answer to this question is key to understanding the logic behind the group’s self-definition.

Anti-Black racism is still in existence and puts people of African descent everywhere in positions to have to respond. The research, since it is concerned with what the community’s narrative is, ultimately seeks an African answer to African issues. But before any data may be engaged certain assumptions must be clarified.

The implications of this study will ultimately provide valuable information about how people of African descent are likely to respond to those racializing them and how people of African descent respond to one another in regards to the same experience as subjects of the racialization.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

A true and worthy ideal frees and uplifts a people; a false ideal imprisons and lowers. Say to men, earnestly and repeatedly: ‘Honesty is best, knowledge is power; do unto others as you would be done by.’ Say this and act it and the nation must move toward it, if not to it. But say to a people: ‘The one virtue is to be white,’ and the people rush to the inevitable conclusion, ‘Kill the ‘nigger’!”35

Individuals that have undertaken the task of studying the African Hebrew

Israelites of Jerusalem have for the most part (with few exceptions) geared their works towards explaining away the community’s narrative. In a majority of cases the community was viewed as either (1) a people on a quest for acceptance; (2) a cultic or New Religious Movement group; (3) an oppressed and downtrodden people desiring to cash in on the success of the Jewish state; or (4) a Black people with strange affinity towards the Jewish people so extreme - that they attempt, in their quest to be of the descendants of the ancient Israelites- to erase is only truly intended for erase the Jewish people and replace them with themselves. These themes emerge in not only the newspaper and media coverage of the group, but are also assumptions prevalent in the “scholarly” articles published about the group.

Those writing about the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem have taken stances of either avid believers in a White supremacist assumption (Hegemonic

Eurocentrists) or supporters of the idea that being a Jew or Jewish was equated with

35 Du Bois, W.E.B.; Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil; Mineola, NY: Dover Publications; 1999 (1920); 20

being exclusively White or European. With the exception of a few articles by Black owned newspapers and independent writers (Jochannen’s We the Black Jews, a book chapter by Walter Isaac in Lewis Gordon’s text36, an article by the University of

Pennsylvania anthropologist John Jackson37, and a recent dissertation by Temple

University alum Andre Keys38) Black Studies literature on African Hebrews is for the most part non-existent. How a group that has been in the State of Israel since 1969 has been allowed to go missing from the scholarship within the discipline of Black

Studies is concerning and reminiscent of the same “othering” they garner from the

White world. Why is this group’s narrative absent from the Black Studies canon?39

Since 1967 the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem has been covered consistently in news reports. Offered below is a summary of these reports. Despite the inappropriate labeling of the group and its members and what that has meant for molding how the public has perceived the group, the inherent value in the accounts is that the media has successfully documented and verified most of the events and sentiment expressed in narratives by members of the community.

36 Isaac, Walter “Locating Afro-American Judaism: A Critique of White Normativity” in Gordon, Lewis and Gordon, Jane. A Companion to African American Studies. Blackwell Publishing. 2006; 510 37 Jackson, John L Jr. “’All Yah’s Children’ Emigrationism, Afrocentrism, and the Place of Israel in Africa” Civilizations vol. LVIII, No. 1, 2009 38 Key, Andre. What’s My Name? An Autoethnography of the problem of moral evil and ethnic suffering in Black Judaism. Dissertation. Temple University. May 2011. 39 Since the late 1960s The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem are no strangers to the news media. Although the bulk of the articles written of the group have been antagonistic towards the group…much of the later articles speak glowingly of the group’s popular Soul Vegetarian restaurant, and its village in Dimona as a haven for international celebrities such as Stevie Wonder, Louis Farrakhan, Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston, etc…

NEWSPAPER COVERAGE

NEWSPAPER COVERAGE: 1960-1969

A point worth nothing is that the group already voiced its discontent with the

United States around the issue of citizenship. In a September 19, 1967 article in the

New York Times, the Hebrews first voyage to Liberia was documented. Within the article it was noted that upon landing in Liberia they renounced their United States citizenship. Ben Ammi, who at the time served as one of the spokesperson of the

Abeta Israel Hebrew Center (the initial organization of members prior to forming the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem), when asked as to why they gave up their citizenship, was quoted as saying “if you can call it that – they really don’t have a citizenship to give up”40. Also worth noting is the fact that due to the discontent wit the United States, as a whole, the group made a conscious decision to leave the country.

A little over a year later, on November 6, 1968 the New York Times published an article documenting the arrival of 173 members of the group in Liberia from

Chicago, Illinois, dating the times of their landings between July and December of

196741. A chord must have been struck in the interview, as one of the members is quoted as saying:

Don’t try to name us. We can name ourselves! What do you want my name to be? Jody Johnson? Jimmy Jones? How did we get our names in the United

40 “20 Chicago Negroes Quit U.S. to settle in Liberia”; New York Times; September 19, 1967 41 Emerson, Gloria. “U.S. Negroes Content as Israelites in Liberia”; New York Times; November 6, 1968.

States and what do they mean? Well, this name is one that I have chosen and I am proud of it and it is the only name I have.42

What the article highlights is the contradiction in the move to Liberia. Much to the surprise of the group, they were not welcomed with open in arms in Liberia.

Reflecting back on the experience, HaGadol referenced his disappointment with being overcharged and treated as a foreigner. He wrote that “the Africa that most

Black revolutionaries envisioned simply does not exist” and that there were “few open arms or genuine feelings of welcome from Africans who did not suffer the long journey to the Western Hemisphere and the subsequent hardships43.” Yet, he and others in the community still saw reason enough to stay the course as they remembered how, even after almost four hundred years in the United States of

America, they were still considered foreign there.

On November 12, 1969 the New York Times continued in its coverage44. It mentions November 4, 1969 as the date that Liberian Attorney General Pierre stated in the Liberian Star that the group was “without any apparent intention of working or becoming useful to the country” and as a result “a police escort would bring the campers to Monrovia if they did not come willingly.” The threat may have been rescinded since on November 12th the date of the deadline, the Liberian government announced that members of the group would be allowed to file their intentions to become Liberian citizens. The news article painted the group as antagonists and

42 Emerson, Gloria. “U.S. Negroes Content as Israelites in Liberia”; New York Times; November 6, 1968 43 HaGadol and Israel; The Impregnable People; 149 44 “Liberia in shift, to let 75 negro Israelites stay”; New York Times; November 12 1969; p.3

vagabonds although numerous accounts, which would arise later, offered alternative accounts of the group and the government’s’ response to the challenges they faced in Liberia.45 Irrespective of whether the newspaper misquoted the

Attorney General intentionally or not, one aspect of the scenario was made clear outside of the view of the United States media, serious dialogue was taking place between members of the community and members of the Liberian government that the United States was not privy to.

NEWSPAPER COVERAGE: 1970-1979

In October of 1971 a protest demonstration by members of the community in a Dimona supermarket triggered loud outcry and news coverage. The Hebrews entered the supermarket, filled their carts with goods, and refused to pay. When the police arrived they returned the items and quietly left. In Robert Weisbord’s 1971 article “Israel and the Black Hebrews”46 a report is featured not only on the supermarket demonstration, which was labeled in the media as theft, but on a press conference held in Israel by the community in regards to the protest. At the press conference Ben Ammi is quoted as stating that “he found fault with the job and housing situations and decried the ‘Jim Crow policies similar to what [they had] left behind.” A press release the following month enumerated their manifold grievances.

Firstly, they had been refused medical care, and access to appropriate housing and schooling. Even birth certificates for some 30 babies born in Israel were not

45 Landing; Black Judaism; 2002; 191-192 46 Weisbord, Robert G. “Israel and the Black Hebrew Israelites” Judaism, Winter 1975 Volume 24 Issue 1; January 1975; 23

provided. Of additional concern was why other settlers in the State of Israel were given land, financial assistance, and furnished apartments on their arrival, but members of the Hebrew Israelite community were denied these liberties. After further inquiry it was suggested to group members by members of the Israeli government that they were denied these rights because they were not granted the benefits of the Law of Return.

Later that month (October 21, 1971) the Chicago Daily Defender reported on the attempts by the Israeli government to deport members of the group47. Israel’s interior minister said they had three days to appeal to the Supreme Court. Eight families were issued orders. The type of coverage by the Black owned newspaper was more objective in their report of the incident, being careful not to mislabel the group but rather focus valuable print space on the actual conditions of which they encountered while in Israel.

In early 1972 the Chicago Daily Defender noted that Ben Ammi, members of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, and neighbors of the community settlement in Dimona cited “complete racist oppression” by the State of Israel48.

With graffiti vandalism found on the walls of their living quarters saying “Blacks Go

Home!” and the mayor of the city Israel Navon quoted as saying, “Better they go on the bus than we” the newspaper reported the growing tensions in the country concerning the presence of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem.

47 “Black Hebrews told to leave ‘homeland” Chicago Daily Defender; December 21, 1971 48 “Blacks Cite Racism in Israel” Chicago Daily Defender; February 8, 1972

Adding to the mounting confusion that accompanied the conflict, later in

September of 1972 the Chicago Defender featured three interviews with members returning to Chicago from Dimona49. The three were dismayed with the recent events back in Dimona and stated that the issue was not Israel but the new leadership within the community. The State of Israel, the disgruntled ex-members say, had welcomed them with open arms.

In December of 1972 the Chicago Daily Defender announced a “Summit meeting for profound men of the United States and Africa” hosted by a spokesman for the Black Israelites50. Much of the trend of the group was to rely on its network back in the United States of America anytime challenges of racial natures were faced. This was one of those moments. The newspaper, although it attempted to appear neutral, served a major role in reporting the events and highlighting the group’s voice especially when juxtaposed by the early coverage of the New York

Times.

In 1973 an article in the New York Times reporting from Tel Aviv stated that

Israel decided to deport another group of Black Hebrews (apparently fifteen members had already been deported)51. The labeling of the group as a sect, almost in an attempt to “other” the group was indicative of the language generally used by the newspaper to describe the community. Aside from a visit to Dimona by Minister

Louis Farrakhan, not much was reported on from Dimona. It was not until 1981 that coverage began to resurge when members of the African Hebrew Israelites of

49 “Angry Black Jews Return Here”; Chicago Daily Defender; September 27 1972 50 “Article 1 – no title”; Chicago daily Defender; December 12 1972 51 “Israel to deport members of black American sect.” New York Times. September 5, 1973; 2

Jerusalem began to face deportation orders from the Israeli government and criminal charges from the FBI.

NEWSPAPER COVERAGE: 1980-1989

Bayard Rustin led a group to Israel to investigate the growing conflict between the State of Israel and the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem. The delegation included Alexander L Allen of the National Urban League, Lewis J Carter of the NAACP, and Mrs. Arthur C. Logan of the National Council of Negro Women.

The American Jewish Committee, The American Jewish Congress, and the Anti-

Defamation League of B’nai B’rith collectively funded all arrangements for their trip.

The two articles mentioning these events do not speak to what came out of their stay aside from mentioning the claim that the airport process needs to be reviewed because it could be viewed as racist52. What the articles highlighted was the extra effort Jewish organizations in America exerted in order to guard the public image of the state of Israel, even utilizing well known Black activists.

The Baltimore Afro-American, in December of 1981 published an article in which the members of the community responded to erroneously being linked to a group led by Yahweh Ben Yahweh of Miami and the recent murders that members of his group were alleged to have taken part in. The group detached themselves from

52 Shipler, David. “Israelis are urged to act over Black Hebrew Cult: Made up of Black Americans No Evidence of Racism Detected” Special to The New York Times. New York Times. January 30, 1981 . D 13; Kurtis, Bill. “Strangers in the Holy Land”; New York Times; March 22, 1981: SM16

the Miami group claiming that they had no associations whatsoever.53 Instances in which criminal activity were attributed without evidence of association to the

African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem was commonplace. Often, members would have to respond to libel or mischaracterization in the media. For example, a

Washington Post Magazine article mockingly entitled, “Trouble among the children of the prophets” (February 7, 2014) subtitled “once the black Hebrews were seen mainly as a colorful religious group seeking residence in Israel; then some prominent members were indicted or convicted of felonies ranging from bank theft to passport fraud” portrayed the group of Black criminals posing as a righteous organization.54

On November 14th, 1983, Washington Post journalist Ronald Kessler continued the trend when he questioned the naming of Black Hebrews55. In the article he argued that authorities saw the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem as having fake names (refusing to accept the notion that they have the authority to name themselves). The International Spokesperson Prince Asiel suggested that the labeling of the entire group as criminals based solely on the acts of a few individuals was a consequence of pre-determined profiling rather than any history of criminal actions. Further, Prince Asiel compared the illegal activities that a few members resorted to as (1) minimal and (2) mainly acts of civil disobedience that sought to draw attention to general mistreatment. He asserts that for a people returning to

53 “African Hebrew Israelite Nation sets record straight”; Afro-American; Dec 19 1981; – written by Eliyahu Ben Israel (International Representative) 54 Fish, H. Bradford “Trouble among the children of the prophets” Washington Post Magazine; February 8 1982. 55 Kessler, Ronald. “Some Black Hebrews’ Identities Pose Problem to Authorities”; Washington Post; Nov 14 1983; D1

their homeland their desperation to return should be viewed more as an indictment of the country they are seeking to leave from than anything else.

A May 18, 1984 article recapped a press conference by The World Federation of African People in conjunction with the Coalition to Investigate Violations of

Human Rights of Black Americans living in Israel”56. In an article, released about a month later, it was mentioned how the deputy Prime Minister of Israel Dov

Shilansky, in the Jerusalem Post, suggested that the Black Hebrews were “worse than the PLO” (Palestine Liberation Organization). He added that “in a very short time, the Black Hebrews will not be here anymore.” Emanuel Zippori, Israel’s consul general in Chicago, was quoted in the article as saying of the Israeli government that it, “has no intention of carrying out a mass deportation of members of the Black

Hebrews, although legally we would have the right to do so” claiming that the group was “a very unsavory group of characters, many of them with criminal records” living in “an illegal limbo” in Israel. It is one thing to be labeled criminals and leaches by newspapers coverage, but when a major figure in the government makes these statements and places an entire government behind such statements one can understand the extent of the negative public imaging of the group. It was not only the media making such claims, but an entire state and government.

The newspaper coverage in June of 1984 included a supportive piece by

Conrad Worril championing the African Hebrew Israelite of Jerusalem as a group

56 Buursma, Bruce; “Black Sect Leader fears attack from Israelis”; Chicago Tribune; May 19, 1984

that had been very much discredited along racially biased lines of reasoning. 57

Amidst the controversy with Jesse Jackson’s comments during his election campaign, Worril notes that despite the publicity to the contrary, the state of Israel had always been guilty of racism, and as such their treatment of the African Hebrew

Israelite community was no different. He mentioned a group known as “The World

Federation of African People in conjunction with the Coalition to Investigate

Violations of Human Rights of Black Americans living in Israel” and how they held a press conference in May 17, 1984 to deal with the issue of racist treatment of Blacks living in Israel. The coalition consisted of up to 32 groups, organizations and individuals including: Minister Farrakhan; Yvonne King, Bro. Imari Obedele, Atty.

Lewis Myers, Imam Warith Deen Muhammad, Dr. Abdul Salaam, Conrad Worrill, and

Prince Asiel. Throughout the struggles with the State of Israel and being labeled as deviants in the press, African American support for the African Hebrew Israelites never waned.

On July 16, 1985 it was reported in the New York Times that the FBI arrested thirty-five Hebrews although it was vague on just who they were or where they were from58. One must question why such a report came out while the group members were going through hostilities in the State of Israel. It is almost as if it was an opportunity to re-enforce what they wanted the image of the group to be. The group was again associated with the arrests, although no concrete links were ever established.

57 Worrill, Conrad;“Black Hebrews Take Stand” New Pittsburgh Courier; June 16, 1984; 4. “Chicago News Conference”; June 1984; D3 58 FBI begins arresting 35 in black Hebrew sect” – New York Times – 7-16-85

Shortly thereafter, the hostilities of the previous years combined to erupt into a standoff between the group and members of the Israeli Military. Soldiers were sent to prevent members of the group in Jerusalem from demanding the release of fifty of its community members arrested and put up for deportation upon orders of the then Interior Minister, Shimon Peres. Group member Yafah Gavriel in an article recalled the experience of the Israeli Military pointing a gun at the head of his daughter.59 This day, April 22, 1986, is known in the group’s history as “The Day of the Show of Strength.”

On May 3rd 1986 it was reported in the Baltimore Afro-American that the

Israeli government prevented the group members from conducting their march to

Jerusalem to protest the detention of 46 of their members the previous week60. Ben

Ammi is quoted in the article as saying that they have not been given rights typically given to any other people in Israel such as work permits, etc… The community stated that at the root of the hostilities and its escalation was the unfounded assumption by the Israeli officials that the Ancient Israelites were not Black.

In what seemed to be direct confirmation of Ami’s statement a Washington

Post article over a month later (June 21, 1986) quoted United States Judge Aubrey E.

Robinson, Jr. In commenting on the case Robinson not only scoffed at the way the group named itself but seemed to buy into the notion that the group housed criminals elements by suggesting, “there are all kinds of groups – black Hebrews,

59 Sheen, David; “Recalling their show of strength” Haaretz.com 4-22-2011; http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/anglo-file/recalling-their-show-of-strength- 1.357513 Last accessed May 25 2014 60 Payton, Randolph R. Payton “Black Hebrews Demonstration blocked by Israel” Baltimore Afro-American; May 3, 1986

green hornets, call them what you will – political, religious, with schemes and shortcuts to the good life.” In the end the judge argued that the justice system has to,

“make decisions about what to do with them.61” A month later the Washington Post reported that nine Black Hebrews were convicted by a Federal Jury for taking part in a multimillion-dollar nationwide operation involving charges of bank embezzlement, stolen airline tickets and credit cards. Prince Asiel Ben Israel was among the nine convicted62.

Less than a month later in July, the New York Times reported a ruling coming out of the Israeli Supreme Court that forty-five members of the group had the legal grounds to be expelled by the Israeli Government. Jacques Amir, the Mayor of

Dimona says of the African Hebrew Israelites community, “they’re creating a state within a state.”63

At this point in their history, almost 16 years since living in Israel, the community was at a crossroads. Prince Asiel Ben Israel, the group’s international spokesman, was detained in the United States and faced a long sentence while members back in Israel were rounded up for deportation. A pamphlet entitled

“Answering the Challenge” was created by the community and disbursed to anyone interested in learning the larger facts of the case. In it, the community argued that they were made to be political prisoners and part of a larger plot by the United

61 Lewis, Nancy; “U.S. Judge warns defendant about sects” Washington Post; June 21 1986 62 “U.S. Convicts Sect Members” New York Times; July 30, 1986; Lewis, Nancy; “9 Black Hebrews go on trial in DC: Leader, members accused of running ‘shopping spree’ crime ring” Washington Post; March 12, 1986 63 “Court Rules Israel can expel 45 U.S. Born Black Jews”; New York Times; July 31,1986

States government in collaboration with the State of Israel to label the group as a dangerous sect comprised of international criminals. In the pamphlet it was suggested that because the group took efforts to determine their own realities their community was targeted for attack by both governments.64 Addressed to the

President of the United States of America, the Senate, House of Representatives, U.S.

Judicial Committee, local law enforcement agencies, and people of European descent the purpose of the pamphlet was to assert that the rights to a fair trial were denied long before law enforcement raided and arrested members of the community65.

Ammi stated:

We nor the conscious public shall be led to believe that we have been brought to trial for alleged criminal activity. These charges are the culmination of a grand scheme to discredit and smother our positive and righteous movement. The aims of this campaign of misinformation and propaganda have been to misrepresent and malign our true aims and intentions. It is our political philosophy which has been brought to trial. For we, like many before us, have dared to question the objectives of our freedom and in doing so have concluded that we would do better in governing ourselves.66

Referencing the propaganda spewed in the media and the documented

COINTELPRO program, the pamphlet explained how the attack on the community was a part of a larger attack on people of African descent in the United States67.

Despite the pamphlet, the media continued its onslaught. In early 1987 the

Chicago Tribune reported on a then recently released Anti Defamation League report depicting the community as racist and anti-Semitic stating that “the Black

Hebrew groups are ‘unrelated to the thousands of black Jews of Ethiopian origin,

64 Ben Ammi; “Answering the Challenge”; 1986; 2 65 Ben Ammi; “Answering the Challenge”; 5 66 Ben Ammi; “Answering the Challenge”; 6 67 Ben Ammi; “Answering the Challenge”; 8

who are genuine members of the Jewish faith, and who have been welcomed to

Israel in recent years.”68 It was a report that used as evidence White popular opinion, rather than any legitimate pieces of evidence. Secondly, the report sought to separate the group from Chicago, and other groups like them, from claiming any

Israelite heritage, while simultaneously claiming that Israelites of Ethiopia (which the report labels as people of non-Israelite Ethiopian origin) were welcomed to the

State of Israel. News reports from 2013 and 2014 offered opposing views to the said

“acceptance” of Ethiopian Jews into Israel.

In July of 1987 the Washington Post continued its reporting on the United

States court case. It reported that the United States Appeals Court ruled that the judge erred in dismissing one of the juror’s who stated, “he couldn’t go along with the way the federal racketeering statute was written” and “the way the evidence has been presented.” The article argued that the judge erred in dismissing the juror.

Legally, states, the article, the judge should have either declared a mistrial or had the juror sent back to deliberations with instructions that the jury continue to attempt to reach an agreement. Due to the judge illegally taking justice into his own hand, the conviction would eventually be overturned, but not before some members were made an example of. 69 It seems that the pamphlet worked after-all.

On December 9, 1987, out of all of the charges alleged, all plead guilty to a single count of wire fraud and a single count of interstate transportation of a forged security. As a result, six men would not serve any additional jail time, and federal

68 Buursma, Bruce. “B’nai B’rith report assails racism of Black Hebrew sects” Chicago Tribune; February 13, 1987; A7 69 Lewis, Nancy; “9 Black Hebrews’ Convictions Overturned” July 8 1987 – Washington Post; C1

prosecutors agreed to drop charges against thirteen other members and recommended reduced sentences for two who had agreed to testify for the governor.70

NEWSPAPER COVERAGE 1990-1999

In the 1990s the relationship between the African Hebrew Israelites of

Jerusalem and the government of the State of Israel began to improve. One has to wonder whether it was due to the different type of coverage the group received in mainstream news or whether it was because the State of Israel’s treatment of the group differed for its own reasons. In a May 1994 Washington Post feature, the group was lauded for its great cuisine and restaurants opened. Not once was the group labeled as criminals or even members of a “sect”71.

An October 8th article followed suit, mentioning how the group participated in a Nation of Islam convention in Ghana. This article displayed the firm connections maintained by the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem with powerful organizations in the United States and highlighted their continuous interactions with African countries on African soil72. A few years later, an October 1996 Atlanta

Daily World article explained how United States congressman Bennie Thompson (D-

MS) and Earl Hilliard (D-AL) met with new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin

Netanyahu to encourage the new administration to grant citizenship to the African

70 Lewis Washington, Nancy; “9 black Hebrews plead guilty in crime ring”;The Washington Post – Dec 9 1987, pg B4 71 Sugarman; Carole; “Fruitful & Multiplying” The Washington; May 18 1994; E1 72 French, Howard M. “Some surprises met nation of islam visitors on Ghana tour” October 9, 1994; New York Times

Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem73. The delegation included Illinois State Senator

Donne Trotter, Illinois Assemblyman Coy Pugh, Rev. Henry Hardy (representing the office of Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.), Dorothy Leavell president of the National

Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), Carole Geary NNPA board member and publisher of the Milwaukee Courier, Prince Asiel and Prince Immanuel Ben Yehuda.

Trotter is quoted as saying, “It just makes sense that people who have been in the country for more than a quarter of a century, raised children there and contributed so much to the state, should be granted citizenship. It is the humanitarian thing to do.” The Atlanta Daily World reported again in November 1996 when Ben Ammi addressed Clark Atlanta University students reminding them of the importance of self- determination and living Biblical lifestyles74.

NEWSPAPER COVERAGE: 2000-PRESENT

Much of the reports in this time period took their lead from 1990s coverage including documentation in The Nation of Islam’s Final Call of a conference held in

August of 2000 featuring Mother Tynetta Muhammad (wife of the Honorable Elijah

Muhammad), Professor and Biblical Scholar Dr. Cain Hope Felder, Prince Asiel, Black

Entertainment Television talk show host Bev Smith, and author/nutritionist Yafah

B. Asiel.75

73 “Delegation Presses Israeli Leader on Behalf of African-Americans in Israel” Atlanta Daily World Oct. 17 1996. Page 1 74 Yeldell, Stacie; African Hebrew Leader Ben Israel Addresses CAU Students here” Atlanta Daily World – Nov 28, 1996; p2 75 “Spiritual Solutions sought at Jerusalem 2000 conference” – The Final Call – July 18, 2000

In January of 2002, the death of 31-year-old Aaron Ben Yisrael in a bombing in Israel was highlighted in a haaretz.com online newspaper76. Four months later it was reported that The Labor and Social Affairs Ministry of Israel decided that members of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem were able to volunteer for national service77. Not only did the Israeli government begin to change its treatment of the group but it also seemed to be preparing a way for the group to pledge its allegiance to the country. In 2003, the same year that Stevie Wonder, Bobby Brown, and Whitney Houston visited Israel, which garnered considerable international press78, it was announced that the government would grant members of the community permanent residency status on the condition that they serve in the

Israeli army79. Three years later (2009), the first member of the Community was inducted into the Israeli Defense Force (IDF)80.

On July 28th 2003, Israeli newspaper haaretz.com published an article in which Interior Minister Avraham Poraz stated that he “has accepted the recommendations of an inter-ministerial committee to grant members of the Black

Hebrew community in Dimona permanent residence in Israel.” The committee established by Interior Minister Haim Ramon was headed by the director of Interior

76 Ushpiz, Ada; “A paperless death” Haaretz.com; January 27, 2002; (http://www.haaretz.com/print---edition/features/a---paperless---death- --1.54594) Last accessed May 25, 2014 77 Arbeli, Aliza; “Black Hebrews now eligible for service” June 5, 2002; last accessed May 25 2014 – www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/black-hebrews-now-eligible- for-service-1.43265 78 “Whitney’s People – Black Hebrews are a Puzzle to Israel” New York Post; June 2, 2003 79 “Quest for homeland gains a world stage” New York Times; February 16, 2006 ; “Israel grants ‘black hebrews’ permanent residency” haaretz.com; July 29, 2003 80 “Second Wave from Hebrew Israelite Community Receives Israeli Citizenship” – July 30,2009

Ministry’s Population Authority, Herzl Gedz. Although permanent residency was awarded, the government was not ready to accept the group as citizens citing the fear of creating a “precedent for thousands of others that may have desired to

“follow in their footsteps’.”81 The Mayor Gabi Lalouch who had “worked to get the

Black Hebrews recognized as Permanent residents” was expected to be repaid for his efforts by their vote to re-elect him82. While this sudden shift in relations may speak to the progress the two groups have made it also begs for inquiry as whether or not the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem were now becoming Israelis and buying into the mission of the State of Israel. Citizenship status was sure to come eventually. A local mayor was expecting their vote in the next election since he helped to broker the deal and in a number of years members of the community would join the Israeli Defense Force.

Not soon after, in November of that year, haaretz.com reported that the group no longer desired to be called “Black Hebrews” but rather the “Hebrew

Israelite Community”. The group always saw itself as a Black group but felt that the label of “Black” before their names was a coded phrase used by mainstream media to state subliminally that Hebrews were automatically white and that a Black

81 Shadmi, Haim; “Poraz to grant Black Hebrews Permanent Residence” July 28, 2003 - http://www.haaretz.com/print---edition/news/poraz---to---grant---black- --hebrews--- permanent---residence---1.95492 . Last accessed May 25, 2014 82 Rotem, Tsahar; “Black Hebrews to get their new id cards in two weeks” haaretz.com; August 14, 2003; www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/black- hebrews-to-get-their-new-id-cards-in-two-weeks-1.97176 Last accessed May 25 2014

Hebrew was both abnormal and a recent innovation83. But was this removal of

“Black” from their name a rejection of the racialization and a symbol of their transcending race or merely a rejection of their own blackness?

In August of 2005 the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem set up a Nahal kibbutz with the intention of establishing a farming community in the southern

Negev. Ten men agreed to join the Nahal brigade while eight women agreed to join in mid-September84. Relations between the groups had shifted drastically for the better. The group began to keep its critique of the government to private quarters while media coverage tended to keep its critique of the community under wraps.

In 2005 the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, in conjunction with the

Southern Christian Leadership conference opened the “Dr. Martin Luther King/SCLC

Ben Ammi Institute for a New Humanity”. It was intended to be a conflict resolution center in Dimona to teach non-violence and reconciliation tactics to families, communities, faith-based organizations, and nations85. A year later, the group seemed to have become darlings of the State as one of its members, Eddie Butler, a

83 Rotem, Tsahar; “Hebrew Israelites want an end to negative labeling” haaretz.com; November 3, 2003(http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/hebrew- israelites-want-an-end-to-negative-labeling-1.104437) Last accessed May 25, 2014 84 “Dimona black Hebrews join IDF to set up a Nahal kibbutz” by Amos Harel – August 9 2005 –haaretz.com – www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/dimona- black-hebrews-join-idf-to-set-up-a-nahal-kibbutz-1.166239 ) last accessed May 25 2014 85 Article: “The Hebrew Israelite Community” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs – 29 Sep 2006 - http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/facts%20about%20israel/people/the%20black%20he brews - last visited May 23, 2012

member of the Hebrew Israelite community, represented the state of Israel in the

Eurovision contest, a European version of American Idol.86

By February 2009 Elyahkeem Ben Yehudah became the first member of the community to be given full Israeli citizenship87. He was 62-years-old. On July 29, the second wave of African Hebrew Israelites received Israeli citizenship, including the first two women Shalaymah Baht Israel and Hetsiliyah Baht Israel, and several of their children. The article suggested that they “saw no need to convert to the Jewish religion to authenticate that which it already was. From the 1970s up to today, the position has never wavered nor changed.” It also argued that “In December 1969, the first group which arrived after the Liberian sojourn was initially received as

Jews, but by the arrival of the second group, 3 months later, the Law of Return had been re-written so that one had to be born of a Jewish mother in order to partake of the privileges of a “Jewish” inheritance.“88 Obviously, once citizenship was acquired, the narrative began to shift from describing an antagonistic relationship to one that was equally beneficial to both sides. But as situations improved for the African

Hebrew Israelites, other people of African descent in the country faced major challenges.

86 Kaufman, David “Quest for homeland gains a world stage” April 16, 2006; New York Times. 87 Esensten, Andrew. “Once reviled, Black Hebrews now feted” – forward.com; March 18-2009 http://forward.com/articles/104067/once-reviled-black-hebrews- now-feted/ - last visited May 25, 2014 ; Esensten; Andrew. “three decades after exodus from America, first black hebrew becomes Israeli citizen” haaretz.com – march 23 2009 – last accessed May 25 2014 88 ““Second Wave from Hebrew Israelite Community Receives Israeli Citizenship” – July 30,2009; Kingdom News Network; http://kingdom-news- net.blogspot.com/2009/07/second-wave-of-hebrews-receive-israeli.html Last visited May 25, 2014

On May 23, 2012 it was reported in multiple news outlets that African migrants were referred to as “infiltrators” by Israeli government officials. The

United States released a report on human rights saying that many amongst the group of the Africans seeking asylum in their ancestral homeland are refused refugee status so cannot access health care. Just one of the 4,603 new asylum applications it received since 2011 were approved. 89 On September 24, 2012

Ahmadiel Ben Yehuda, a spokesman for the Hebrew Israelite in Dimona community responded to the issues in the country over anti-African sentiment including comments from Interior Minister Eli Yishai that the country belonged to the white man. Ben Yehuda stated emphatically that Israel was actually “not in Europe” and the ancestors of the Israelite tradition were people of African descent.90 Instead, Ben

Yehuda argued that race and racialization is a distraction from the more pressing issues…the truth. He stated:

That said, I join with sociologist Eva Illouz, in declaring “enough of ethnicity”! This tiresome din about race distracts us from infinitely more pressing issues. I suggest a corrective lens on the form, and more on the function, of what constitutes “Jewishness.” Be you a Hebrew? Cross over to an elevated understanding and be a blessing unto the human family! Be you an Israelite? Shine a light unto the nations that they might find their way out of darkness! Be you Jewish? Wake up and be the “praise” that Judah was to be by confronting the real evils of our time!91

89 “Israel denies African migrants’ rights, says us” June 1 2012 . British Broadcasting Company http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-18210133 ; Galpin, Richard;“Protests throw spotlight on Israel's African migrant pressures” Feb 16, 2014. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-25757714 , “Africans continue to protest in Israel” The New York Times. Jan 16, 2014 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/world/middleeast/africans-continue-to- protest-in-israel.html?_r=0 90 Ben Yehuda, Ahmadiel. “The dangers of Eurocentrism”; September 12, 2012; Last Accessed May 26, 2014; http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/weekend- opinions/the-dangers-of-eurocentrism-1.464877 91 Ben Yehuda; “The dangers of Eurocentrism”; 2012; 2

In another op-ed piece92published in the Jerusalem Post, Ben-Yehuda recounted the hypocrisy of the State of Israel. Noting how any notions of anti-

Semitism garners the maximum response and retaliation by Israelis yet racist anti-

Black sentiments93 are ignored. The current climate in Israel is still hostile to people of African descent as indicated in the comments by the government ministers, the labeling of African immigrants as infiltrators and the subsequent treatment and policies intended to keep Israeli society black-free.

In the first two decades tensions were publicized. However, since the late1990s well into the first decade of the 21st century tensions seemed to have disappeared. Now in the second decade of the 2000s the State of Israel appears to no longer have a problem, at least publicly, with the African Hebrew Israelites of

Jerusalem. The new foe are the thousands of immigrants from surrounding African countries of Uganda, Egypt, Mali, Ethiopia, and Kenya, professing Ancient Israelite heritage, much the same way the community in Dimona entered the country. What way will they be covered in the international media and what will the response be of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem to this new challenge?

92 Ben Yehuda, Ahmadiel. “Time to confront and tame the “R” word”; The Jerusalem Post; March 31 2014; Las Accessed May 26, 2014; http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Time-to-confront-and-tame- the-R-word-347075 93 Such as the 2014 wearing of KKK outfits by Israeli high school students in a Purim celebration. “Jerusalem-area students spark controversy with KKK costumes on Purim. Haaretz.com; March 20, 2014 See Last Accessed May 26 2014; http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/1.581081

ACADEMIC COVERAGE

The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem organized themselves in the late

1960s; however, it was not until the late 1990s and 21st century that scholarly work began to be undertaken more consistently to study the group. Prior to these times much of what was written about the group came from newspapers or magazine special reports. As such, much of the treatment of the Black Israelite topic irrespective of whether the group was from Africa or the Americas, lacked scholarly treatment and was extremely one-sided. In much of these treatments, the general consensus was that the group is “the problem” and as a result, their voiced narratives were either ignored or marginalized. The question of whether the

Ancient Jews were Black until this day has never been engaged critically nor has the question of whether they were originally an exclusively white group.

Howard Brotz’s 1952 work entitled Black Jews of Harlem situates Black practitioners of Judaism as converts and not Jewish by origin. In his work he argues that their practice is linked with a “type of radical Protestantism which became the religious tradition of slaves.” 94 Graenum Berger’s Black Jews In America, published in 1978, posits that the Black Jews of America are not ethnically Jewish (without actually defining what it meant to be “ethnically” Jewish) and that they are not sincere in wanting to be Jews since their actions are based on both an envy and a disgust of Jews and Judaism. Their refusal, says Berger, to adhere to the Jewish

94 Brotz, Howard. The Black Jews of Harlem London: The Free Press of Glencoe. 1964

identity (i.e., the mainstream European Jewish identity), renders them as non-

Jews.95

The assumption by Berger, one held by many other Jews of European descent for the past 60 or so years, is that the norm for Judaism is that which has been created by White rabbinical authorities96. In his closing, Berger offers a brief summary of the group arguing that Eurocentric Judaism’s structure and authority is universal for all adherents of Judaism and the “Jewish” way of life. Berger suggests the sentiment in his conclusion:

So the Black Jew in America has come full circle. Though they are few in number now and there is little likelihood of any spectacular increase in the foreseeable future, some will wish to link their fate with the historical Jewish people. But at the same time, it must be recognized that most have invented and accepted a mythology about their origins, which makes it difficult for them to achieve acceptance and integration within the Jewish community, whether in America, Ethiopia, or Israel. Those that elect to convert should be welcomed with total hospitality into the House of Israel. Those that are repelled by this formal act of identity should not be treated like a mere dissident Jewish sect. There are no partial Jews. There can be only one test – halakha – for white or black.97

One of the first scholarly attempts at looking at the specific group came via

Morris Lounds in a 1976 dissertation. The dissertation was never completed because the group accused Lounds as serving as a spy, but he was able to later

95 Berger, Graenum. Black Jews in America. New York: Commission on Synagogue Relations, Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York. 1978 96 This sentiment is echoed when the various Jews of African ancestry are “re- converted” or “formally converted” into Judaism, as if their system is a fraudulent, unrecognized, non-visible, system, which can only be legitimized by removing their own identities into a white mainstream Jewish identity. From the Falasha of Ethiopia to the Lemba of Zimbabwe and South Africa, many of the groups become agitated when their brand of Israeliteness is placed under the microscope and measured by how close it is to Eurocentric Judaism. FOR MORE INFORMATION SEE: Parfitt, Tudor and Trevisan Semi, Emanueala (eds). The Beta Israel in Ethiopia and Israel studies on the Ethiopian Jews. Routledge. 2013 97 Berger; The Black Jews in America; 206

publish some of his findings. In 1981 it was published, and although it was more scholarly than the other texts treating the group, it automatically defined the group as a cult. This label was problematic since no context was provided as to how he came to that label aside from the assumption that the African Hebrew Israelites were somehow straying away from their Black Christian roots.98 Lounds concluded that the Hebrew Israelite identity had been utilized by the group only as a means for the group escaping the reality of being Black in America. In making such a suggestion Lounds asserts that (1) the Israelite identity is not African and African-

Americans have no true stake or claim whatsoever to an Israelite heritage, and (2) the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem are so obsessed with the pathology of

Blackness that they would do anything (take on an Israelite identity) and use anyone (European Jew) to escape being labeled “Black” or African-American.

Lounds’ concluding points will be revisited in the chapter on Findings.

In 1977 The Rabbi Israel Gerber wrote a text about the African Hebrew

Israelites of Jerusalem, in which he attempted to explain “their search for a meaningful existence, their claim to being Jews or Hebrews, and their motivations for going to Liberia and the State of Israel.” On the surface it appears to ask many of the same questions I seek to investigate in this dissertation, but underlying Gerber’s analysis are fatal errors that doom the research from the beginning. Firstly, he assumes that the group does not already see their existence as meaningful, but has neither the methodological grounds nor the data on which to base that assumption.

Secondly, his standards for a “good” or “bad” Judaism is the very same White

98 Lounds, Morris. Israel’s Black Hebrews. Black Americans in Search of Identity; Washington, DC.: University Press of America. 1981; 43

Judaism which the group believes is being founded upon assumptions of white supremacy. Furthermore, he asserts that the group members are mere Christian fundamentalists imitating Jews rather than Jews being Jews. Throughout the text,

Gerber offers arguments predicated upon these assumptions and he is extremely paternalistic in arguing that for the Blacks to become bona fide Jews they must submit themselves to mainstream (White) Judaism because it has proper leadership when compared to the Black leadership, which, according to Gerber, has already led them astray. In totality he sees Blacks as a/the problem, and sees their commitment to struggle as a sort of masochistic obsession with the violent suppression of the state.

In 1979, Charles Merril Singer99, in a dissertation based off of one year of field work with the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem by he and his wife, asks the questions: ‘Who are the Black Hebrews?”’, ‘What makes people join them?’, and

‘How did the group change after time?’ As is the trend in the press pertaining to the group and others labeled as “Black Jews” or “Black Hebrews”, Singer’s work assumed firstly that to be a Jew is to be White. This assumption justified Singer’s question as to what caused this Black group to organize itself in a White (Jewish) way. Because of these erroneous assumptions Singer argues that the group began as a “cult”, and mainly because of external forces, that he himself observed. Some interesting reasons Singer provides for studying this group include his being motivated by the then recent Jim Jones cult situation. As a result, he claims that the

99 Singers, Charles Merrill. Saints of the Kingdom ; Group emergence, individual affiliation, and social change among the black Hebrews of Israel. Dissertation – University of Utah 1979

type of research he undertook in the dissertation was necessary because “we” may never know about these types of groups otherwise. Of course, the question one must ask is just who the “we” are that Singer references. There is a fear that this Black group, already a “problem”, if allowed to exist without suspicion, will bring more problems for society as a religiously Black group. Singer presents one argument about the so-called deficient family structure of Black families in Chicago (of which the group were amongst) that relies on work from the Moynihan report which has been criticized for its pathologizing of Black family structures.

One of the more consistent writers on the African Hebrew Israelites of

Jerusalem has been the cultural anthropologist Fran Markowitz, a professor at Ben

Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. Fran Markowitz et. Al (2003)100 argue that the Black Hebrews push for citizenship in the state of Israel is not based on any actual empirical data or verified fact, but rather a “feeling” they have in their soul, something which would not hold up when immigrant status as citizens or residents is determined by the state. This “soul citizenship”, as coined in the article, is juxtaposed to the “normal options” people choose from – these being (according to

Markowitz) the choice of liberal and republic citizenship. “Soul citizenship” as a rejection of the hegemony of already defined options (or norms), allows individuals to define themselves and their type of citizenship to the state rather than allowing the state the freedom to determine if the people fit in with its construction of citizenship. Markowitz et. al see the group as mere opportunists, arguing that if the

100 Markowitz, Fran, Helman, Sara, and Shir-Vertesh Dafna. “Soul Citizenship: The Black Hebrews and the State of Israel” American Anthropologist. New Series. Vol. 1105. No. 2. (Jun 2003); 302-312

state of Israel expanded its definition of Jewishness to include Black Hebrews, it would alienate the Palestinians in the nation-state. This possible alienation should be avoided, it is argued, because it may further “sharpen” the racial distinction between Whites and Blacks. The article characterizes “soul citizenship” as an

“alternative discourse of belonging”. It details the long struggle for citizenship with the State of Israel since 1969. Markowitz is an anthropologist by profession, racially

White and religiously Jewish.

In another piece on the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem Markowitz101 aimed to display how the personal narratives of the African Hebrew Israelites of

Jerusalem were a “subjugated knowledge” used by their “social movement” to both counter and serve as an alternative to the White world. According to Markowitz, the type of subjugated knowledge embodied by the African Hebrew Israelites of

Jerusalem is located in a low position on the hierarchy of knowledge and owes its existence and life only to the “harshness of the rejection of it.” Markowitz launches into the discussion assuming that to be a descendant of the ancient Israelite is to be

White and hence, automatically equated to non-Black and non-African; hence, their attempts to “re-draw the map” are only their effort to counter whiteness. Markowitz argues that the map of Israel in the Middle East and connected to Asia is “normal” according to “professionals and lay people throughout the world as an obvious geographic fact.”

101 Markowitz, Fran.“Israel as Africa, Africa as Israel: ‘Divine Geography’ in the Personal Narratives and Community Identity of the Black Hebrew Israelites” Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 69. No. 4 (Oct. 1996); 193-205

By default this argument claims that those that do not view the world according to the “obvious” standards of professional and lay people are “crazy” or irrational. Markowitz disputes the basis for the African Hebrew Israelites of

Jerusalem’s quest for self-definition, disagreeing with the notion that their seizing the power to define is in fact evidence of their resurrection of old traditions. Rather, it is argued that the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem actually invent what they want by taking from other traditions that are not theirs, namely the history of the

Jewish people. Underlying this assumption is the notion that irrespective of what a

Jew is defined as, it is almost certainly not Black. For a Black people to attempt to claim a White people’s heritage is for Markowitz, evidence of that Black group’s issue with their own identity.

The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem argue that they have projected their own narrative based on historical facts as they interpret and value them.

Markowitz and other writers argue that their narrative is borrowed, invented, and/or mythical. The idea of “soul” in Markowitz’s work pertaining to the African

Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem assumes their narrative to be unstable and lacking equally of facts and empirical data. The quote below from Markowitz’s article displays the parameters of the debate over who owns the tradition and rights of appropriation. Markowitz says:

My aim here is to show through autobiographical narratives of community members how knowledge that has been discredited, disguised, or buried can, through powerful symbols such as the Black Hebrews’ redrawn map of Africa, emerge to reach surface consciousness and become the catalyst for developing a counter-hegemonic social movement102

102 Markowitz; “Israel as Africa, Africa as Israel”; 194

In this next quote Markowitz argues that the only reason for the interest of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem in returning to the state of Israel was opportunistic as the Jewish identity was already proven. She states:

I conclude with an analysis of the Black Hebrews’ Divine Truth that Israel is Africa, and Africa Israel by considering the consequences of appropriating another people’s (the Jews) central origin story to bolster their claims to a proud history. Why did they link Israel with Africa rather than strengthen identification with a precolonial African heritage and resurrect back-to- Africa movements? What is particularly compelling about the long written history of the Israelites that could provide the rallying force that Africa alone, and the Black Pride/Black Power movements of the 1960s could not sustain?103

Markowitz104 concludes that the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem chose the path of Judaism due to their envy for Jewish Holocaust survivors and the reparation and privileges given to them as a result of enduring the experience. As a result, the admiration and envy has metamorphosed into an unhealthy motivation to replicate, copy, and if possible, ultimately remove the White Jewish people.

Further, Markowitz argues that the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem utilize a

“double logic” of hybridity (double logic seeming to be a contradiction or illogical) which allows them the freedom to utilize narratives from various areas in order to create a mythical homeland whereby which they would be able to escape the current problem of racism in the United States. The more they achieved their desire the more lenient they were in overlooking those traditions (which Markowitz argues, were not theirs anyway).

103 Markowitz; “Israel as Africa, Africa as Israel”; 194 104 Markowitz, Fran “Finding the Past, Making the Future: The African Hebrew Israelite Community’s Alternative to the Black Diaspora” Chapter 6 in Gomez, Michael A. (ed.) New York and London Diasporic Africa: A Reader. New York University Press.. 2006; 123-146

The notion that the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem operate under an opportunistic type of logic is one that will be further explored via the concepts of orientation and location. Certainly how one is informed and what one is informed by helps to situate what value one holds for phenomena, however, in suggesting that the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem operate from a sort of conscious illogical framework, Markowitz minimizes their capacity for critical thinking. Markowitz’s phrase “double logic of hybridity” denies the group’s intellect and conscious thought, ultimately rejecting the notion of Black agency. In this way, Markowitz fails to divorce her ideology from typical White Supremacist logic.

Furthermore, James Landing105, in his historical treatment of Black Judaism in America puts forth the argument that Judaism as practiced by Black Jews is rooted in a Christian Millennial Protestantism background. He devotes much of his text at brushing aside and disproving the Black narrative of Judaic religious origins and at times he pulls from nonexistent associations to solidify his thesis.

Unfortunately, the links he articulates in order to situate his arguments are weakly constructed and unclearly defined. There are many assumptions. For example, since

Rabbi Wentworth Matthews, one of the great organizers of Hebrews in the United

States, was in New York at the same time in which Bishop Crowdy’s organization opened in New York, Landing assumes that they must have known each other, and as such, asserts that Matthews must have been trained or influenced by Crowdy. Of course, there is no evidence to back up these claims.

105 Landing, James. Black Judaism. Story of an American Movement. Durham, North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press. 2002

Seeking to disprove any links Blacks in America have with the Ancient

Israelites undergirds much of his investigations. By extension, much of the research is based on unfounded assumptions that to be Jew is to be White. Otherwise, the primary contribution of the text lies in the section Landing has written pertaining to the practices of Black Hebrews in Chicago and the additional section on the African

Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem’ journey abroad and eventual settlement in the State of Israel. These sections are essentially richer descriptions of what has already been recounted by others.

John L. Jackson Jr.’s work on the African Hebrew Israelites has certainly served as an alternative approach to studying the community. Though some methodological quandaries loom over his analysis, he successfully provided valuable documentation on the group’s experiences including details from the practices and observances witnessed during time spent in Dimona with the community (such as the New World Passover) and insight into the recent 2010 ouster of Prince Asiel from the community. However, special attention is given to his critique of the Afrocentric Paradigm (which he inappropriately labels as

“Afrocentrism”) and his assumption of its failure in addressing the African Hebrew

Israelite question.

In a 2009 article,106 and in his more recent text107 Jackson discussed the journey of the community to West Africa and to Israel and offered the argument that their relocation effort was predicated upon a “complicated kind of Afrocentrism”

106 Jackson, John L. “All Yah’s Children: Emigrationism, Afrocentrism, and the Place of Israel in Africa”; Civilisations vol. LVIII, No. 1; 2009 107 Jackson, John L. Thin Description; Ethnography and the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem; Cambridge: Harvard University Press; 2013; 165-168

consisting of a “mixture of Marcus Garvey-esque calls for an African centered politics” and “claims of an ontological African alterity”108. He asserted that the community’s conceptualization of the body helped to explain “their purposeful omission from broader discussions about Afrocentricity and its historical / institutional relationship to other varieties of African-centered counter- discourse”.109

In situating his definition of “Afrocentrism” Jackson argued that within its canon it situated as its classic texts Cheikh Anta Diop’s Civilization or Barbarism: An

Authentic Anthropology and Chancellor Williams’ The Destruction of Black

Civilization. Other texts he cited as essential to the canon were G.M. James’s Stolen

Legacy and Martin Bernal’s Afroasiatic Roots of Western Civilization. Further, the

“main academic protagonists and promoters of Afrocentrism” he argues, is Molefi K.

Asante, who Jackson suggested, asserts a brand that irrespective of whether “one is studying the historical record, processes of psychological development, political science or anthropology…” has as its every intention to “provide a radically anti-

Eurocentric point of entry into any of those domains.”110

Jackson argues that as a consequence of Asante’s “Orientalism”, and his subsequent “condemnation” of Islam for its role in African subjugation, so too would

Asante condemn Judaism and Christianity, and eventually the Hebrew Israelites111.

Jackson stated:

108 Jackson; “All Yah’s Children”; 93 109 Jackson; “All Yah’s Children”; 95 110 Jackson; “All Yah’s Children”; 95 111 Jackson; “All Yah’s Children”; 97

However, given his dismissal of Islam, Asante would not fully approve of the Hebrew Israelites’ reclamations of Africa, especially insofar as it pivots on a constitutive inclusion of Israel into the formulation. 112

Jackson makes a case that the group sees the body (or their bodies) as a means of politicization and performativity113 inherently suggesting that although the community sees itself as a certain type of African American, they are still able to offer a critique of African American society, the critique hinging on a “culture of poverty” and “African American pathological” assumption. Jackson suggests that for the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, the Black pathology is a consequence of

African Americans not only being subsumed in the larger American culture, but also being punished by the much greater will of God. As such, Black culture is seen as a function of people of African descent following the ways of American culture114.

Jackson suggests that this politicization and performativity is “a move similar to the kind that animates Afrocentrism115”.

While Jackson’s article is a decent attempt at engaging the ideologies and narrative of this long ignored community, his comparisons with Afrocentricity miss the point. For one, he fails to distinguish between Afrocentrism and Afrocentricity.

As Maulana Karenga suggested “Afrocentrism” tends to be more of a basic surface

112 Jackson; “All Yah’s Children”; 98 113 It is suggested that by the community making public the dumping of its own dead on toxic sites because the State would not provide them graveyards they consciously publicized through the use of their bodies how oppressed they were in the State of Israel. Additionally, in proclaiming their uniqueness and strange and peculiarness they, during their New World Passover mock themselves, through theatrical performances of the early history of their community. This festive moment captures not only their pride in their history but their ability to laugh at how others wrongly perceive them. The joke in this case is on those that do not understand them. 114 Jackson; All Yah’s Children; 107 115 Jackson; All Yah’s Children; 107

level pop-culturesque understanding of what the actual intellectually based

Afrocentric Paradigm (Afrocentricity) consists of116. James Stewart and Erskine

Peters refer to the idea of Afrocentrism propagated by Jackson as being one without any reference to the systematic intellectual approaches to the field117.

If Jackson executed a more in-depth analysis of Afrocentric paradigmatic frameworks, he would have noted that Asante, as Karenga and Stewart, has made clear distinctions between his Afrocentric Paradigm and the idea of Afrocentrism.

Jackson makes the all too common error of suggesting that to undertake an

Afrocentric approach is simply to study Africa or take the uncritical approach that

Africa has no errors. Such an assumption asserted by Jackson minimizes the intellect behind the paradigm while reducing scholars deploying Afrocentric analysis into mindless bodies and anti-intellectuals.

Jackson must realize that one can utilize the Afrocentric paradigm to study anything; whether it is political movements in Indo-Aryan India, European societies in the 15th century, or even as in this case the African Hebrew Israelites of

Jerusalem. The subject matter is limitless, but what distinguishes the scholar utilizing Afrocentric modes of inquiry is the essential question of centering. As such, an initial question would be, “How does the data pertain to people of African descent?” Jackson ignores this position when he argues that Asante’s “Afrocentrism”

116 Karenga, Maulana. Introduction to Black Studies. 3rd Edition. Los Angeles: University of Sankore Press; 2002; 46 117 Peters, Erskine. Afrocentricity: Problems of Method and Nomenclature” in Nathaniel Norment Jr’s The African American Studies Reader. Durham: North Carolina Press; (1993) 2001; 675-676 . In the article James Stewart labels such an approach used by Jackson in his understanding of the Afrocentric Paradigm along the lines of the category “Popular Afrocentrism”.

is “meant to provide a radically anti-Eurocentric point of entry into any of those domains.” While Jackson’s image of “Afrocentrism“ may be a reactionary, anti- intellectual undertaking, the actual Afrocentric Paradigm, is in fact, an analysis of phenomena concerned with the role of people of African descent in the world. It interrogates the agency of people of African descent. While the Afrocentric

Paradigm does not shy away from offering a critique of Eurocentric hegemony

(since the society operates under assumptions of a white supremacy) its intent is to critique any form of domination.

By allowing the members of the community to have their narratives take

“center stage,” Jackson’s work differs from the other research carried out pertaining to the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem. However, Jackson’s attempts at critiquing Afrocentricity (what he refers to as Afrocentrism), obfuscates the vision of their narratives more than it illuminates them. With un-becoming ad-hominems and a straw-man argument that Asante is anti-Muslim and anti-Christian, Jackson ultimately concludes that scholars utilizing Afrocentric inquiry are also anti-Muslim and anti-Christian and as such the paradigm could never find itself capable of engaging such a narrative as the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem. Whereas other scholars, noted previously, have argued that the community in Dimona is driven by emotion and “envy for Israelis,” Jackson does them one better by extending that argument past the actual subject of his work but towards members of an academic community.

Such is a characteristic of what Daudi Azibo would term as scholarship

“studying Black People118” – wherein for one’s scholarship to appear legitimate,

Black thought and Black agency must be marginalized. Attempting to appear

“objective” to the Dimona community in the name of gathering data, fused with undertaking the prestigious task of studying this long marginalized community,

Jackson renders an ineffective in-depth analysis and minimal critique of the African

Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem. Finding no one else to critique, Jackson turns to

Afrocentricity.

In the pages ahead, a methodology is presented utilizing an Afrocentric framework for inquiry. The assumptions underlying the news coverage in the mainstream media will be addressed as well as the arguments put forth by Lounds,

Markowitz, and others, that the community is envious of and infatuated with the

European Jewish community. In seeking to determine what interests the African

Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem have in the European Jewish community (or any community for that matter) I argue that interrogation of the group’s orientation and location make such interests visible. Additionally, the missing element in determining where their interests lie is contingent upon their grounding, or a proper interrogation of how they come to know about that which they eventually resist or become drawn to. Finally, the argument presented by John Jackson that

Afrocentricity, as a research methodology, is incapable of properly studying this type of community is put to the test.

118 Azibo, Daudi. “Articulating the distinction between Black studies and the study of Blacks” The Afrocentric Scholar. Volume 1, Number 1, May 1992

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

…[T]hings must have a meaning; the labour of the scientist must be inserted into the framework of a general activity, highly useful for civilization and for the universe, otherwise, absurdity would rule on a cosmic scale.119

ABOUT METHODOLOGY

As part of writing a dissertation, dissertators are asked to articulate a

“methodology.” In doing so the reader, or those critiquing the piece, would be led through an explanation as to how the author will logically construct his or her arguments, specifically, what methods are intended for usage toward researching and developing the project. Always underlying methodology is a knowledge storeroom the scholar revisits almost naturally without much thought in order to situate his/her assumptions. Therefore, prior to speaking of a “methodology” one must discuss the notion of “science” which I define as the process of acknowledgement (knowing) of some phenomena.

How one looks for, what one looks for, and how the phenomena is explained is contingent upon the researcher’s experience. Further, how the phenomena are explained will be in relation to some other recognizable entity from prior experience. So in a sense scientific inquiry is subjective. Simply proclaiming objectivity is not suitable evidence that one is not subjective. Therefore, it is important to note that notions and ideas of science may differ depending upon the values of the society one lives in and the power of that society to have its subjects

119 Diop, Cheikh Anta. The Cultural Unity of Black Africa: the domains of patriarchy and of matriarchy in classical antiquity; London; Karnak House; 1989; 196

adhere to its standards or values. All societies carry out a process of knowing, yet not all do it in the same manner. The very definition of “science” (or rather how its conceptualized) is culturally driven. Communities that create and existentially experience their own cultures may also have a unique process by which they know reality. This view of reality tends to be influenced by either natural environment

(temperature, geography, etc….) or socially constructed conditions (religion, spirituality, ethnic or racial distinctions, etc.).

An example pertains to the question of the Saqqara Pyramids in Middle

Kemet, which was attributed to being conceptualized and constructed under the leadership of Imhotep. Daudi Azibo,120 in making the case for a culturally relevant methodology, questioned what knowledge Imhotep had that rendered him capable of not only taking on the grandiose task, but conceptualizing the idea of creating a living monument for the King upon joining the realm of the ancestors. There was a base Imhotep relied on in order to even begin to conceptualize the realities he faced.

Then, almost more importantly, he had to put this knowledge to the test. This cannot be taken for granted. As times change, contexts change, and in order to address them the assumptions we make regarding our approach may need to be revisited each time we take on a new task.

If the discipline of Black Studies is to be a revolutionary discipline with revolutionary approaches to gathering data and interpreting data then African

American Studies must too be critical of the framework of the “traditional”

120 Azibo, Daudi. Azibo, D. "Articulating the distinction between Black Studies and the study of Blacks: The fundamental role of culture and the African-centered worldview." The Afrocentric Scholar 1, no. 1; 1992: 64-97

approaches toward the concept of “knowledge”. A revolutionary approach seeks to not only deconstruct that which is in error but to reconstruct a model, which at the least, begins to address the errors. Black Studies is by its very nature critical of

Western science because Western science assumes its own Eurocentric models as the universal norm for engaging, analyzing, and assessing all phenomena, even if phenomena are of a completely different cultural perspective and outlook.

Frantz Fanon121, W.E.B. Du Bois122 and a host of scholars explain in their works the problem of research guided by unfounded assumptions of White supremacy, especially the type that conceives Blackness as being representative of a non-entity or something always to be subjugated to whiteness. It is along those lines that understanding the science behind knowledge prior to offering a proposed methodology is vital. If the purpose of the dissertation is to successfully display that one is applying reason or logic, then it is of utmost importance to display what rules or conditions guide that reason or logic.

From these points a question arises. If the profession of the discipline is that of a “Scientist” and an Africologist is a “scientist” what is the conventional methodology for the Africologist? In articulating Africology, Molefi Kete Asante forges the notion of not only divorcing Black Studies from the confines and incarceration of Eurocentric constructs but also deconstructing and demystifying the assumptions and the various messages the term conveys. Asante successfully

121 See Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin White Mask. New York: Grove Press.1952 and Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth; New York: Grove Press; 1963 (1961) 122 See Du Bois, W.E.B. Souls of Black Folk; New York: New American Library; 1903; Black Reconstruction in America; New York: Altheneum; 1992; Dusk of Dawn: Autobiography of a Race Contract,; New Brunswick: Transaction (1940); The World and Africa, etc…

posits the argument that Western Science existentially – both as it is being practiced and historically, has not been and is still not to be equated with science, intellect, reason, visibility, nor that of a “high” civilization. This is highly visible in how

Western Science has historically treated its “study” of Black people. However, in taking an Africological approach, the proverbial baby has not been thrown out with the bath water. Asante chose from Western Science that which was universally

“scientific” and rejected that which was “pseudo-scientific” and “European” posing as universal. Though his synthesis was cloaked in and spearheaded from African sensibilities, he never allowed himself the convenience of overlooking diverse human concerns.

Asante’s Afrocentricity seeks to avoid what is typically the “normal” approach and outcome of Eurocentric scholarship, the view of a Black lack of intellectualism and hence the marginalization of Blacks within the story – typically exemplified when Blacks are framed as “the other.” In making certain that the voices of Black people are heard and their stories and lives are not assumed to be pathological or marginalized, this work is Afrocentric. This work pulls from what

Afrocentricity defines as its functional component, that all work is done for a purpose.

This work’s approach is not Eurocentrism in reverse or Eurocentrism with

Black Face. One lesson learned from the Eurocentric approaches is how its adherents and institutions structure and label a world according to Whites’ interests. African Hebrews should be discussed in Black Studies. And for the purpose of further clarity, in regards to what comprises the people of African

descent, irrespective of physical location, they are worthy of having their works engaged and studied.

ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF THE METHODOLOGY UTILIZED AND TESTED IN THIS DISSERTATION

The first assumptive stance of my methodology is the centering of the Black voice and experience within the narrative. Molefi Kete Asante123, within the

Afrocentric Paradigm notes this centrality of the Black voice and the Black experience within the narrative as “agency.” Agency is a self-conscious or deliberate and systemic effort to assume fully one’s place in the world. Modupe posits that agency utilizing the Afrocentric paradigm is a

…conceptualization that argues for and employs the philosophical ‘should’ of Africans being subjects of history and culture, and efficacious habit of being in which the African acquires the ‘desire’ and ‘capability’ of recognizing and effecting African subjectivity. 124

Being “centered” or displaying African agency in one’s research endeavor, according to Mazama,125 assumes that the research encompasses both a link with

African identity and a disposition towards that identity. In most of the literature reviewed it was extremely rare that the voice of the African Hebrew Israelites of

Jerusalem had been consulted. This marginalization or ignorance cannot be blamed on any lack of documentation or cultural products since the group had, since 1969, been writing its own literature, disbursing promotional videos, managing its own website, and facilitating various branches of its Soul Vegetarian restaurants across the world. Material is available, but none have seen it important enough to consult

123 Asante, Molefi Kete. An Afrocentric Manifesto 124 Modupe, in Ama Mazama’s The Afrocentric Paradigm. 125 Mazama, Ama. The Afrocentric Paradigm.

with what they had to say. For this research, the bringing to the surface of the Black voice is essential and at the very core of what the endeavor is founded upon.

As such, in seeking to display the group’s agency it is essential to treat first any narratives from members of the group. How is it that assumptions have been made about this group without first consulting their narratives in depth? In Black

Studies, if the approach to research is to make certain that the narrative of the people is central to an analysis, then undertaking a study of this magnitude should seem to be a “no-brainer”, for in which other way can the topic be treated accordingly if launched from assumptions not grounded in any evidence of the group’s existential reality?

W.E.B. Du Bois took this position in Souls of Black Folk126, when he asserted that his being an African-American grounded in the African-American experience would further enrich the study, shedding light in areas that one who was not

African-American would not be able to do. As indicated by his insistence that “I who speak here am bone of the bone and flesh of the flesh of them that live within the veil” is indicative of him viewing his role as a participant researcher as a way to ensure that the African American voice would be heard. Further, Du Bois exhibited the idea of agency when he argued in his Black Reconstruction in America127 that

President Abraham Lincoln did not free the slaves. Rather, it was African resistance that created the conditions by which Lincoln had no other alternative but to sign off on the Emancipation Proclamation. Stated another way, Du Bois argued that without

126 Du Bois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Norton 1999 (1903); 6 . 127 Du Bois, W.E.B. Black Reconstruction in America. New York: Atheneum; Toronto : Maxwell MacMillan. 1992 (1935)

enslaved Africans organizing themselves and consciously joining the ranks of the

Union Army during the Civil War, there would have been no Civil War victory for the

Union Army, and hence no United States of America. Prior to his undertaking, no scholar sought to examine or bring to the vision the role of Black folk in the discussion of the Civil War, and as a result the narrative reads as if they stood still and waited in limbo, as Lincoln determined their fate with the flick of a pen.

The spoken word is essentially how power is first actualized in an African sense; therefore, those items written or published are equally influential as that which is “voiced.” Furthermore, art, says John Henrik Clarke, holds value, irrespective of what the artist’s intentions are. In other words, what one writes, irrespective of what is written, offers insight as to what their mode of thought is.

Four questions I suggest when examining agency include, (1) What have

Black folks done?; (2) What can Black folks do?; (3) In what ways have Black folk responded to their environment; and (4) In what ways will Black folks continue to respond to their environment?

The second assumptive stance in this work is a commitment to reconstruction and re-conceptualization according to African ideal standards. It is

“Sankofic,” in the sense that it is guided by the notion that in order for people of

African descent to make stride towards progress, the demarcations for that progress must be in alignment with standards envisioned by the historical experiences of people of African descent since antiquity until modernity128. The Sankofic approach,

128 A term generated by the brilliant students in a methodology course taught by Dr. Iyelli Ichile in 2012 at Temple University for its Department of African American Studies. It is in regards to the Akan concept of “Sankofa”, literally meaning “Go back

which includes Ancestorism (paying homage to those that have lived closest to those standards) is best displayed when people of African descent consult their own models or “Blackprints” in addressing their world. Of this methodological approach

Asa Hilliard argues that if Black Studies is to teach or socialize its practitioners, it must be guided and controlled by African sensibilities rather than by “alien” sponsors.129

The third and final assumption of my methodology, very much connected with Wade Nobles’ insistence to reject conceptual incarceration, is a commitment to

Black liberation from any and everything that shackles Black folk. This plays out in research with a critical assessment of those factors that stifle or have the potential to stifle people of African descent. Muhammed Ahmed (Maxwell Stanford Jr.), the founder of Revolutionary Action Movement, reminds us in his work that true liberation must be linked with an independent and non-accommodative approach, rather than repressiveness, suppressiveness or willingness to accommodate ethos130. Kwame Nkrumah echoed this sentiment when he stated that the independence of Ghana was meaningless unless it was linked with the total independence of the African continent131. What they both suggested was that the struggle was protracted and in order to win we had to stay the course and use every opportunity to our advantage. The first step in staying the course is to be and take it” which ultimately speaks to the necessity of grounding our African actions in the ways and means of those exemplars that have come before us. 129 Hilliard, Asa. African Power. Affirming African Indigenous Socialization in the face of the culture wars. Atlanta: Makare Publishing; 2002 130 Ahmad, Muhammad. We will return in the whirlwind. Black radical organizations. 1960-1975; Chicago: Charles H. Kerr 2007 131 Nkrumah, Kwame. Neocolonialism the last stage of imperialism. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons. 1965

knowledgeable and diligent in updating our own knowledge base as times change and new moments come into fruition.

Within this dissertation, naming is essential. But for naming to be relevant and capture appropriately the perspective of the group itself, this study must not limit, marginalize, nor diminish the voice of the group in question. Keeping in alignment with projecting the African voice in the narrative, oppressive language will be carefully avoided. Rather, language that elucidates African sensibilities will be honored.

In order to assure that this work considers these sensibilities, the data or phenomena observed regarding the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem is fed through certain essential checkpoints before a final determination is made as to what they know, how they have come to know what they know, who they choose to identify with, the reasons why they select or reject people, what they see as the immediate challenge and response for those they associate with, and finally their level of commitment to their conceptualized plan of action.

AFROCENTRIC INQUIRY

LOCATION

In the first place, one assumes, based on historical analysis, that no phenomenon can be apprehended adequately without first being located. Thus, location is a principal activity of the Afrocentric analyst. A phenom, that is, any situation, event, text, or personality, must be studied and analyzed in relationship to psychological time and space. It must always be located. This is the only way to investigate the complex interrelationships of science and

art, design and execution, creation and maintenance, generation and tradition, and other areas bypassed by theory.”132

Molefi Asante argues that a researcher utilizing Afrocentric inquiry must realize that “one cannot express themselves without leaving some insignia133”. As a result, location may be examined in the areas of language, attitude, and direction. In terms of language, Asante asserts that “location is determined by signposts134” meaning that in any situation in which one acts he or she utilizes a characteristic pattern of symbols to articulate reality, mainly expressed through language. If one is in a racist society and has bought into the system, those goals are typically reflected in their language. In earlier works true to methodological form, Asante called for a

“language liberation,” especially since language connects back to one’s epistemological foundations135. Attitude, the second area of measuring location, refers to one’s outlook toward phenomena and this is typically expressed in what one’s long-term goals are. And the third area, direction, refers to one’s preferences for advancement.

Ama Mazama expounded on these arguments, suggesting that “location” deals with issues of centering, place and the belief that identity is determined by

132 Asante, Molefi Kete, An Afrocentric Manifesto; Massachusetts: Polity Press; 2007;25 133 Asante, Molefi Kete. Locating a Text: Implications of Afrocentric Theory in Ama Mazama’s The Afrocentric Paradigm. (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, Inc. 2011); 238 134 ibid; 238 135 Asante, Molefi Kete. Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social Change; (Chicago: African American Images; 2003; 41

one’s history, culture, and biology. 136 To be centered, says Mazama, is to “practice one’s culture and to apprehend oneself in a manner consistent with one’s history, culture, and biology”137. Location essentially is concerned with whether one acts in one’s own interest, or if one’s disposition is towards the needs of that which it orients itself to. If location is displayed by one modeling their existence and approaches to existence based on their own cultural values, then to be dislocated is to live on borrowed cultural terms. Dislocation then may be defined as apprehended reality through another group’s terms rather than one’s own terms138.

Axiologically speaking, Cheikh Anta Diop argues that for research on African people to be relevant and properly situated it must connect with African antecedents or those deep structural elements very much relevant to the African experience. His theories are foundational to the idea of location, helping to situate its parameters.

In the seminal text The African Origin of Civilization139 Diop asserts that the elements of human civilization began in Africa, debunking fallacies from Eurocentric

Egyptologists that the Ancient Egyptians either came from Asia or were

Mediterranean colonizers. In his critique of such scholars as Champollion-Figeac,

C.F. Volney, Marius Fontanes, Cherubinie, and Gaston Maspero, Diop argues that these scientists either attempted to attribute Egyptian society to peoples of an

136 ….though in this work we choose not to use the term “identity” since the very term in its western origins limits the self-concept as separate from the community or cultural center one orients themselves to 137 Mazama, Ama. The Afrocentric Paradigm. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, Inc. 2011; 25 138 Mazama; The Afrocentric Paradigm; 26 139 Diop, Cheikh Anta. The African Origin of Civilizations. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books; 1974

earlier origin or altogether asserted that Egypt was great but actually predated by another civilization. In the end, Diop displays how even in their attempt to argue without sufficient evidence that the Babylonians or Sumerians predated the ancient

Egyptians, the scientists failed to note how the ancient Babylonians or Sumerians were in fact remnants of Kushite colonies in Arabia.140 In other instances,

Champollion-Figeac contends that black skin and wooly hair of the Ancient

Egyptians did not necessarily characterize them as being of Negroid racial classification. However, Diop displays how, in the same work Champollion-Fiegeac states that frizzy and wooly hair was in fact the true characteristic of the Negro race.141 Other trivial assertions Diop made quick debunking of, included an argument by Cherubini that the ancient Egyptians could not be Black since they had fought against Black populations of southern Ethiopia (Kush/Nubia) and from

Fontane that although the Ancient Egyptians possessed Negroid features, their civilization derived from their being civilized by the Libyans who themselves had

“white skin and blue eyes”.142

In debunking the pseudoscientific hypotheses propagated by the aforementioned scientists, Diop displayed evidence of a civilizational characteristic based on geographic disposition. His findings provided the framework for what would come to be known as the Double Cradle Theory expounded upon earlier in his text The Cultural Unity of Black Africa143.

140 Diop; The African Origin of Civilization; 50 141 Diop; The African Origin of Civilization; 53 142 Diop; The African Origin of Civilization; 64 143 Diop, Cheikh Anta. The Cultural Unity of Black Africa: The Domains of Patriarchy and of Matriarchy in Classical Antiquity. Chicago: Third World Press. 1978

The Cultural Unity of Black Africa is Diop’s attempt at exhibiting the cultural unity still alive in Arica. The work is necessary for Diop to undertake since there is a misleading facade of African cultural heterogeneity whereas “a” highly civilized and homogenous European culture is assumed.

The original cradle, and hence the naming of his book as such, was in Africa and aptly named the Southern Cradle. This cradle consisted of the philosophies and the visible characteristics of the Nile Valley Civilizations and suggests that since the environment was abundant in vital resources societies tended to be sedentary, families matriarchal, Creators gentle, idealistic and peaceful in nature, and people tended to be xenophilic.

Alternatively the Northern Cradle was situated in the Eurasian steppes and included Greece and Rome. Since resources were minimal the societies developed nomadic tendencies, families tended to be patriarchal, God(s) was ferocious and warlike, women were debased and enslaved, people and culture tended to be xenophobic, existence caused great pessimism, and literature favored tragedy.

Similarly, Jacob Carruthers in a review of Diop’s work states

The theory in brief is that the severe climate and environment of Europe and Asia caused biological and cultural changes in the original human type resulting in the loss of pigmentation biologically and the development of an individualistic, xenophobic, aggressive, nomadic culture among the white isolates, in contrast to the cooperative, xenophillic, peaceful, sedentary culture among the blacks who still inhabited the more benign climatic and environmental zones. Not only did nature fashion the instincts, habits and ethical concepts of the two subdivisions before they met after a long separation, Dr Diop’s theory also claims that these early molds had permanent effects on the two civilizations which have endured until the present time.144

144 Carruthers, Jacob. Black Books Bulletin; Spring 1977; 43

In naming one’s realities, it is important to check with the ways in which

African people conceptualized their world. As such, very crucial to the discussion on location and operationalization of the concept and its specific categories, I turn additionally to the work of Marcia Sutherland. The continuum offered in Marcia

Sutherland’s Authentic Struggler Model145, is one of the first written syntheses of

Fanonian and Asantean thought. It fuses Afrocentric and Fanonian concepts in order to determine a psychological profile equated with degrees of direction towards Black liberation, or as explained previously, location.

In Sutherland’s model there are four non-ideal paths and one ideal path.

Amongst the non-ideal category are the “non struggler”, the “reactive struggler”, the

“opportunistic individual”, and the “partially committed struggler.” The ideal direction for individuals to aspire towards is what she labels as “authentic.” The four non-idealistic categories, says Sutherland, are “typified by the attitudes, personality attributes, and behavioral patterns that are antithetical to our [African] collective liberation.”146

The authentic struggler’s focus, says Sutherland, is to “facilitate the liberation of people of color.”147 These categories, she argues are fluid and as such, do not lay out a framework for consistent or inconsistent action. At any point in time individuals could move within different realms of the categorizations. Such a model,

I assert, is an essential apparatus for attempting to gauge Afrocentric location or to pinpoint what ends one’s actions are directed towards.

145 Sutherland, Marcia. Black Authenticity: A Psychology for liberating people of African Descent.. Chicago, Illinois. Third World Press 1993 146 Ibid. p41 147 Ibid.

Sutherland’s model is also in direct discourse with both the elements of the shared orientations of African peoples as expressed by Maulana Karenga’s and to a much larger extent, the components of African cultural unity as expressed by Cheikh

Anta Diop. Mazama argues that Karenga’s work, much as Diop’s provide the foundational underpinnings of Afrocentric inquiry, specifically in placing African ideas at the center of analysis and measuring (or “locating”) one’s intentions or direction148.

The authentic struggler is equated with one who is collective oriented, one who sees time in a non-static fashion - always in movement, and as such connects a local struggle with national and international struggles, and sees life and death not as polar opposites (within a life dedicated to exhibiting good character, dedication to excellence, struggle to upliftment of the ideals) but as examples of spiritual & physical immortality. In sum, the basis for all action of the Authentic Struggler is

Black liberation. Assuming full agency, the “authentic struggler” is culturally grounded, race-first (African centered)149, sacrifices and is selfless, pro-sovereignty

(pro self-sufficient), achieves liberation of psychological, military, economic, cultural, social, spiritual, and political progress, can never adjust to oppression, has

148 Mazama; The Afrocentric Paradigm; 9 . See also “Afrocentricity and Multicultural Education” a chapter in Mazama’s text. Karenga argues that these shared characteristics of African Culture are (1)centrality of the community (2)respect for tradition (3) a high level spirituality and ethical concern (4) harmony with nature (5) the sociality of selfhood (6) veneration of ancestors (7) the unity of being; 78 149 This element of being “race-first” I take to mean, in terms of liberation that focus of liberation efforts are for Blacks first. Since the liberation of Blacks is first and foremost one is honest and candid yet encouraging (not discouraging) with/to those who are non-ideal yet uncompromising towards the upliftment of Blacks. And is willing to place the collective over the individual that seeks to undermine group progress.

a global orientation and awareness, and is culturally, psychologically, and politically committed to Black struggle.

Within Sutherland’s classification of the “authentic struggler” in regards to the economic liberation and global orientation and awareness I argue, using Cedric

Robinson’s specification of the Black radical150 and Fanon’s warning to the victor in the Black liberation struggle151 - - that one does not come to a state of “freedom” to take the place of the oppressor and to utilize the systems of the oppressor. As such, the authentic struggler is anti-capitalist, anti oppression, and anti-exploitation.

Cornel West152 alludes to this when he argues that the focus of struggle (Black struggle that is) is not to only overcome oppression, but ultimately to regain normal environments conducive to normal human existence. This has to clearly be stated because the challenge for the Black struggler is not to become that which he is ultimately seeking to overturn and destroy.

Considering this, the path towards reaching Afrocentric location (given that an African person or community may be in fact dislocated or moving closer to being located) can be equated with Sutherland’s “non-struggler”, “reactive struggler”,

“opportunistic individual”, and “partially committed struggler” classifications.

Firstly, predicated on notions of the struggle, each of these types has a questionable

150 Robinson, Cedric. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. North Carolina; University of North Carolina Press. 2003. First published 1983 by Zed Press, 57 Caledonian Road, London. 151 Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of The Earth; New York: Grove Press; 1963 (1961) 152 West, Cornel. Race Matters. Vintage Books. Second Vintage Book Edition New York, NY. 2001 (1993) West argues “the genius of our black foremothers and forefathers was to create powerful buffers to ward off the nihilistic threat, to equip black folk with cultural armor to beat back the demons of hopelessness, meaninglessness, and lovelessness…” ; 23

commitment to struggle, in the sense that the struggle may be invalidated, downplayed, or intentionally confused. Secondly, in regards to freedom, these types hold various degrees of confusion as to what freedom is and as a result, may feel that it has already been accomplished or, conversely, is impossible to achieve. One’s knowledge base and community environment is essential to formulating an appropriate idea of freedom.

Typically, along the lines of oppression, the dislocated individuals, when viewed through the prism of Sutherland’s model, downplays or ignores the oppression, or worse, blames it on the victims or God. Their means of action are individualistic with little to no connection with the collective ethos and from time to time, they may see African communalism or African ways of life as a weakness. In terms of whom they see as ancestors or role models, they may look to non-Africans or even Africans divorced from shared cultural courses (as explained by Karenga).

This dislocation, if not checked may lead to the individual or group fighting against the interest of African people for the individual’s own self-interest.

The partially committed struggler, closest to the authentic struggler is said to be “conscious of his/her double consciousness”153. In order for individuals or

153 W.E.B. Du Bois says that all Blacks deal with this. I believe Sutherland is saying that the partially committed struggler is aware of the fact that he/she holds some elements of the double consciousness but can not control the other consciousness (the other side which seeks to dehumanize and put down the ideal-black consciousness) fully. For more discussions on DuBois’s double consciousness take a look at the text The Souls of Black Folk. He states of Double Consciousness “It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness, - an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”

collectives to transform to the ideal, Sutherland argues that this individual must reject the challenge of assimilation. Sutherland’s model provides a categorization of the various levels of location and dislocation and though one should seek consistency, it allows for flexibility and is situated to test constantly moving but never stagnant phenomena. In other words, there is a certain expectation that the individual or collective will seek to move closer to authentic status.

Modupe further argues that “location”, the first of what he terms as

Afrocentric Paradigm’s “pyramidal elements” is also connected with the notion of

“Situatedness” or the proper attitude toward African initiatives. Location, Modupe asserts, is inherently predicated upon one’s connection or lack of connection to the ancestors.154 While I do not disagree with this assertion, in this dissertation I also argue that before a discussion may be held as to how one charts his or her parameters and destinations it is necessary to know precisely (1) who one declares as their ancestor(s) and (2) who one orients him or herself to.

ORIENTATION

With regards to Modupe’s position, location cannot be determined until orientation is clarified. “Orientation” to Modupe is defined as such:

... having and pursuing intellectual interest in the African and the formation of a psychological identity direction, based upon that interest in the direction toward Africa. 155

154 Modupe, Danjuma Sinue. “The Afrocentric Philosophical Perspective: A Narrative Outline” chapter in Ama Mazama’s The Afrocentric Paradigm; 65 155 ibid; 63

In general, this interest is displayed in who one refers to as sources for self- explanation or self-definition. However, to be Afrocentrically oriented means to refer to African sources for self-explanation. What qualifies one’s level of Afrocentric orientation is how grounded and located those referred to are situated. Such a relationship is cyclical. Just as one’s ancestors would had to have lived exemplary lives according to African ideals, those referential beings currently living on earth have to live consistently by those ideals.

Modupe argued that orientation corresponds with axiological concerns or the value inherent in phenomena. I would argue that this dimension is more ontological than axiological, as values are not yet interrogated until one begins to mention names of ancestors and kinsmen in their narratives. In the process of naming, individuals or members of groups will always speak of another person or group of persons as points of reference. Typically, one’s affinity will be towards that which the person aspires to be associated with. Hence, the importance of the reference group’s values is contingent upon the level of reverence the individual has for the reference group.

Orientation, in this work, refers to the relationship or relationships one sees as highly important to their well being. Depending on how important such a reference is, the values it holds will be held in esteem as either lessons as what to do or what not to do. Operationalized, one’s orientation is one’s identification of ancestors, heroes, or kinsmen, those venerated and personalized.

GROUNDING

Modupe argues that the last of the three essential pyramid elements in the

Afrocentric framework is “grounding”, which is defined as “the acquisition of knowledge and experience centered in the history and culture of people of African descent, continental and Diasporan.156” Grounding, the comprehension of African historical and cultural experiences, relates to the epistemological reach of

Afrocentric inquiry. As a general rule, it is Pan-African in the sense that all information pertinent to the African world, continental and abroad, is treated critically and carefully irrespective of where it stems from.

Grounding, as Afrocentric theorists argue, is concerned with what knowledge base one draws from in order to situate their knowledge and value standards. This pyramidal element speaks to an African-centered familiarization, which in turn corresponds to an epistemological foundation. To be grounded generally is to have a certain theoretical basis for making statements on phenomena. As Asante states, for people to be grounded in an Afrocentric way, is for them to be theoretically rooted in the African experience in the various forms it may take, and to situate one’s knowledge in a communal communicative practice in which deliberation is constant157. One cannot be deemed as grounded in a specific area if either the facts one claims to know are not presented properly, or communally disagreed upon.

When discussing African people one must certainly be grounded in the

African experience, but also situate that grounding in a larger context of time and

156 Modupe, Danjuma Sinue. “The Afrocentric Philosophical Perspective: A Narrative Outline” chapter in Ama Mazama’s The Afrocentric Paradigm; 62 157 Asante, Molefi Kete. Miike, Yoshitaka., and Yin, Jing. The Global Intercultural Communication Reader; New York: Routledge: 2013; 212

space. To claim one’s research as Afrocentric, it is necessary to be grounded in

African sensibilities and the African experience, however, just knowing the African way alone may not be adequate when trying to explain what a specific African contribution is to the world, or in determining the best way Africans can do what

Africans do in a truly multicultural sense. Mazama reminds us that “while one may be well grounded in African culture and history, one is not necessarily Afrocentric, even when the narrative in question is African.158”

Karenga159 argues that having a proper grasp of history, or in this case to be properly grounded, prepares one to take on the project of rescue and recovery. This mission of rescue and recovery is tied into the ability to free one’s self or others from that which impedes ones abilities. Important to note is the interrelated nature of location, grounding, and orientation, what Modupe terms as “pyramidal elements” to Afrocentric inquiry.

What this means is that no one pyramidal element is independent of the others; no one pyramidal element is [of itself] capable of fulfilling the Afrocentric objective, and thus no one pyramidal element is definitive of the Afrocentric framework or of Afrocentricity as a theory.160

In undertaking such a study of this magnitude, to keep it true to Afrocentric methodological premises, key constructs of the paradigm had to be utilized to measure these questions. It must be stated that the elements utilized do correspond with certain elements in the realm of psychological studies. The connections and disconnections between these constructs will be spelled out in order for the reader

158 Mazama; The Afrocentric Paradigm; 7 159 Karenga, Maulena. “Afrocentricity and Multicultural Education” chapter in Mazama’s The Afrocentric Paradigm; 87-89 160 Modupe; “The Afrocentric Philosophical Perspective”; 63

to come to an understanding of the specifically unique approach utilized in this dissertation.

Avoiding conceptual incarceration is an imperative. Nobles argues that

“conceptual incarceration” is when the African social scientist operates from an alien framework. Nobles says

The worldview, normative assumptions, and referential frame upon which the paradigm is based, must, like the science they serve, be consistent with the culture and cultural substance of the people. When the paradigm is inconsistent with the cultural definition of the phenomena, the people who use it to assess and or evaluate that phenomena become essentially conceptually incarcerated.161

Naim Akbar suggests that this conceptual incarceration steers Black Studies scholars away from a Black Studies research objective.162 In measuring areas for which the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem identify it is important to take a peek into the assumptions that psychology relies upon and also at the concepts used to describe individuals or peoples’ relationships to them. In the case of the African

Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, lexical refinement will be utilized to make certain that in explaining the data or making assumptions in regards to the data, concepts are avoided that stifle appropriate explanation of the group’s perspective and experience. Identity, a term used very often without an interrogation of the assumptions underlying its usage, is critiqued in the coming pages.

161 Nobles, Wade. Nobles, W.W. (1978) “African Consciousness and Liberation Struggles: Implications for the Development and Construction of Scientific Paradigms”. Presented at the Fanon Research and Development Institute, Port of Spain, Trinidad 162 Akbar, Naim. “Africentric Social Sciences for Human Liberation” Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 14, No. 4 (Jun, 1984) , pp. 395-414

IDENTITY, IDENTITY THEORY AND CRITIQUE

Erik H. Erikson’s influential theory of psychosocial development assumed that in each of the stages of a person’s life (he divides lifespan into eight stages), specific psychosocial conflicts occur. Erikson saw adolescence as the stage for the most significant clash one would face in their life. Erikson viewed “identity” as a person’s definition and description of himself and this self-definition included the values, beliefs, and ideals that in turn would dictate behavior163. As explained by

Erikson (and later developed fully by James Marcia and other individuals)164, the process of “identity formation“ in adolescents began with “identity diffusion” in which adolescents’ passage to a successful identity featured little to no commitment to any issues. Moratorium, the second stage, featured the experimentation with rules, values, and beliefs. Finally, the integration stage was to be the point in which the adolescent chose and committed to the identity that best suited him. James

Marcia165 furthered Erikson’s Model of Identity Formation by adding the categories of exploration and commitment. Exploration was intended to connote the process individuals undertake in amending one’s self-concept while commitment included the consistent path one took to enforcing those amendments. Progression through each stage was predicated upon one’s level of exploration and commitment. Marcia’s additions provided the general framework utilized by psychologists on the concept

163 Erikson, Erik H. Childhood and Society (Revised Edition) New York: Norton. 1964 164 Hockenbury, Don H. and Hockenbury, Sandra E. Psychology. Second Edition. New York, New York: Worth Publishers; 2000 165 Marcia, James E. “Development and Validation of Ego identity status”. Journal of personality and social psychology. 3, 1966; 551-558 ; Marcia, James E. “Identity and self-development”. In R.M. Lerner, A.C. Petersen, & Jean Brooks-Gunn (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Adolesence (vol. 1) New York: Garland Publishing. 1991

of identity which includes: identity diffusion, identity foreclosure, moratorium, and identity achievement.166

Erickson’s model and Marcia’s additions to it have not gone without critique.

Harold D. Grotevant167 argued that more work needed to be done in the model towards documenting the exploration process. More importantly, he suggested more work needed to be done towards understanding the cultural and societal contexts of identity development since the standard group used as a measuring rod in the Eriksonian model of psychosocial development were White middle class college students. J.S. Phinney also noted issues around the areas of race and ethnicity168 finding from his study involving interviews and questionnaires of ninety-one tenth-grade students of various ethnicities, he found that although evidence was established for three of Marcia’s four identity statuses, there were questions as to whether two statuses were needed in order to accurately refer to a lack of ethnic identity exploration. A significant number of respondents offered responses that could have been in either the diffused or the foreclosure categories.

Additionally, Phinney reported that very few of the respondents reported negative attitudes toward their own groups.

What is of a concern in Erikson’s model is whether his conceptualization of identity as the “most important” or “key” psychosocial conflict, is in fact as universal a phenomena as he implies. What of people in societies whereby self-identification

166 Hockenbury; Psychology; 2000 167 Grotevant, Harold D. “Toward a process model of identity formation”. Journal of Adolescent Research. 2, 1987; 203-222 168 Phinney, J.S. “Stages of Ethnic identity development in minority group adolescents”. Journal of Early Adolescence, 9, 1989. 34-49

is ignored? In African societies since antiquity and the present day the key psychosocial conflict was how to harmonize one’s life in accordance with principles of balance and equity, specifically how to remain in alignment despite the many twist and turns that life offers. Actualized by the notion of MAAT in Ancient Kemet

(contemporaneously referred to as Egypt) and the Akan saying “Waaye Paa” (or “Do

Well”) in Ghana, the challenge may not be finding out who one is, but rather staying true to oneself in environments that may be unsympathetic. Secondly, why in

Erikson’s model is independence at such an early age highly valued and what does that say of those communities in which communal upbringing is the method? What of the effect the environment has on one’s growth, or lack of it thereof? In regards to addressing the Black condition, Erikson’s model is problematic.

I take the position in this dissertation that to assume a group of African people that have already named themselves, are yet searching for an identity is to presume that people of African descent are constantly searching for visibility. To approach the study as if the group is searching for an identity, would be to fall into alignment with the biased scholarship reflected in the general newspaper and academic coverage already presented. Of much more importance and relevance is the question of what is actually projected as the most important of the various modes of self-identification and whether this is healthy and functional for African people. In this way, the work allows the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem community to answer not only the question of what it thinks generally about itself, but the study also sheds light on our understanding of why certain reference groups

with their own unique narratives, are important to the larger groups to which they identify with.

Utilizing Western methodological assumptions, in studying the mind, have shortcomings when the same methodological frameworks are applied to people of

African descent. This has been well documented. Yusuf Omer Abdi’s work169 confirms this inherent conflict of applying a psychological approach grounded in

Eurocentric assumptions to Africans on the continent. Aside from its practitioners being trained in this methodology, Abdi argues that its community of scholars, or those holding discourse over diagnoses, treatments, and results, are predominantly

Europeans. In the 1990s Robert Guthrie170 discussed in his research how people of

African descent have been subjected to inappropriate psychological models whereas any ways in which they differed from European people, were diagnosed as a deficit.

Much of this perceived deficit would add fuel to the already fiery debate concerning eugenics, sterilization, and the so-called preservation of humans with “better genes”.

It was of course assumed that those with the “better genes” lived their lives and followed cultural traditions similar to those of people of European descent.

According to Bulhan171 Euro-American psychology has a tendency to blame the oppressed and ignore the efforts of the oppressive forces - - stemming from Freud’s

169 Abdi, Yusuf Omer; “The Problems and Prospects of Psychology in Africa”; International Journal of Psychology; 1975; Vol. 10 No. 3, 227-234. 170 Guthrie, Robert V. Guthrie, Robert V. "The Psychology of African Americans: An Historical Perspective." In Reginald L. Jones’ Black psychology; California: Cobb & Henry Publishers; 1991; 33-45. 171 Bulhan, H.A. The Amnesia of Euro-American Psychology, chapter in Bulhan, Hussein Abdilahi. Frantz Fanon and the Psychology of Oppression. New York: Springer, 2004.; 37-60

psycho analytic theory and more modern behavioralist perspectives devoid of any attention paid to social and political issues.

Continuing in the critique of identity, as perceived according to Eurocentric standards, Udeani172argues that what is taken for granted in the discussion on identity is that within a colonized space it is more than likely manufactured from outside the colonized group. and typically within the parameters as defined by the colonizing group. Udeani sees as an imperative, the need for people of African descent revive their own cultural heritage by first properly anchoring any conversations to that end on identity. As a cause for further contemplation of utilizing the notion of “identity” full scale in studies regarding people of African descent, Cross argued that much of the leading authorities on identity studies had their own concerns with their own ethnicity, specifically in regards to their fitting in within American society. Identity studies, and more specifically studies of identity regarding people of African descent, for them, became a place where they would make sense of their own challenges with the concepts. The Horowitz family changed their name to Hartley. Erik H. Erikson was originally known as Eric Homburg.

Alfred Adler, according to Cross, was Jewish, but claimed to have been baptized in the Christian tradition. Why people of European Jewish ancestry were so at odds with their religious and ethnic identification that they changed their names upon entering the United States of America, yet would situate most of their studies on the

African-American, has not gone unnoted.

172 Udeani, Chibueze C. “African Cultural Identity in the Context of Globalization: Opportunities and Dangers” in Blanchette, O. , Mamras, T., and Mcleon, G (eds) Philosophical Challenges and Opportunities of Globalization, Volume 1 for The council of Research in Values and Philosophy. 2001; 71-84

REFERENCE GROUP THEORY, REFERENCE GROUP ORIENTATION & CRITIQUE

Dawson and Chatman173 argued that as early as 1902, the work of Charles

Horton Cooley174, specifically his work around the “looking-glass self” in which one knows themselves from how others view them, and W.E.B. Du Bois’ 1903 discussion of “double consciousness”175 served as early intellectual foundations of reference group theory prior to Herbert Hyman’s articulation of the term “reference group” in

1942.176 Other scholars that are credited with further enriching the concept include the likes of Harold Kelly (who saw reference groups as the source of the individual using them as a point of reference’s axiological concerns) 177; Robert Merton and

Alice Kitt (who argued that there are multiple reference groups which are continuously placed in a pecking order)178; and Tamotsu Shibutani (he argued that the reference group was the individual’s primary source of identification) 179.

173 Dawson, E. Murell and Chatman, Elfreda A. (2001) “Reference group theory with implications for information studies: a theoretical essay.” Information Research, 6 (3) Available at: http://InformationR.net/6-3/paper105.html 174 Cooley, H. Human Nature and the Social Order. New York: Scribner; 1922; 184- 196, 229 175 Du Bois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Norton 1999 (1903); 11 176 Hyman, Herbert. “The Psychology of Status” Archives of Psychology; (Columbia University) 269, 5-91; 1942 177 Kelly, Harold. “Two Functions of Reference Groups” in Guy E. Swanson, Eugene Hartley, and Theodore Newcomb’s Readings in Social Psychology. New York; Henry Holt & Co. 1952; 410-414 178 Merton, R. and Kitt, A. “Contributions to the theory of Reference Group Behavior” in ed. Robert Merton and Paul Lazarsfeld’s Continuities in Social Research (Glencoe Il. Free Press, 1950; 69 179 Shibutani, “Reference group as Perspectives” American Journal of Sociology,Vo. 60 No. 6 May 1955 pp. 562-569

Hyman and Singer’s 1968 publication180 defined a reference group as any group that has the ability to induce the attitudes and behaviors of another entity

(group or individual). In their text it was argued that reference groups were used knowingly by people for negotiating their own social environments. Inherent in this theoretical approach is that people make conscious decisions to select groups from which to reference.181 Although this is an aspect of agency, one researching from a perspective that asks questions regarding the role of the person of African descent cannot discount the options made available for people to select from, especially when the most natural options are minimalized institutionally, which is precisely the case in societies overrun by White supremacist Anti-Black racism.

What happens when what one knows or even the standards by which one knows (epistemologically) are limited due to minimized opportunities for acquiring information? Certainly, one’s opportunities would be limited. And as a result one’s ability to negotiate their selection of a reference group would be severely hindered.

If it is true that reference groups serve as anchor points for a person’s reference for valued information and expected behavior as Hyman182 suggests, then certainly a cycle emerges. Those individuals with limited choices and limited options that have chosen unlikely reference groups then become the reference groups for future generations having to mold their own self-concepts. Failure to include the

180 Hyman, Herbert H., and Singer, Eleanor, Eds. (1968) Readings in reference group theory and research. New York: Free Press, London: Collier-Macmillan Limited 181 Hyman and Singer; Readings in reference group theory and research; 1968, 94- 95 182 Hyman, H.H. The psychology of status. Archives of Psychology, 1942; 269

experience that is racism in the notion of reference group does nothing to illuminate the true environment that impacts “conscious” decision-making.

Cross argues that race is not always the most salient dimension of an individual’s reference group orientation. As such, he asserts that people of African descent that choose not to hold a racial reference group orientation should not be perceived as possessing a negative identity, “no” identity, or having low self-esteem.

Rather, such a race-less orientation should suggest that Black people are diverse in their identities and possess a natural “dual group orientation.183 Though he in some ways makes a valid point, Cross erred in his analysis. Firstly, he equated his dual group orientation with Du Bois’ double consciousness although Du Bois did not explain it as a norm, but an abnormality stemming from living in a racialized society.

Additionally, if viewed from a lens that is oriented towards a healthy Black psychology in alignment with Afrocentric objectives, a “dual group orientation” in which the multiple groups are detached from one another is indicative of an unhealthy orientation and an eventual dislocation. Stating that double consciousness is not problematic is in itself problematic.

In terms of basic psychological functioning, there is nothing normal about a person that is content with having to constantly envision his own world through the prism of another people that defines their own existence upon his intellectual and physical demise. Though this dissertation operates from the assumption that all individuals choose a primary group for purposes of identification, it does hold firm to the notion that if the frame of analysis and measurement is to be of Afrocentric

183 Cross, William E. Shades of Black: Diversity in African American Identity; Philadelphia: Temple University Press; 1991; 142

paradigmatic standards, then a person of African descent that chooses not as his primary orientation a Black or African orientation, then he is inherently dislocated and his point of personal reference, whichever chosen is problematic. This is not to suggest that one should not become versed in multiple reference groups, rather the suggestion is that one launch from one’s own anchored position.

Cross argued that personal identity and reference group orientation are not mutually intertwined, however In the cosmology of various traditional African societies, who one identified as has always been contingent upon what or who the community was; a concept that is best represented in the idea of “Ubuntu” or “I am because we are therefore we are because I am”184. If one is who their community is it implies that one views his own community as his reference group in his own self- concept. It does not limit one’s agency because there is diversity within the community, and thus provides moral foundation for whatever creative endeavor he seeks. People have different approaches and personalities but who one is or what one represents is the same ethos. It is functional. All is connected.

I agree with Cross’s argument that identity is diverse, however, the assumptions underlying the cultural framework he relies on in order to argue for a

“Black identity” are not easily pinpointed. I assert that a healthy Black “orientation” is one which is (1) reflective of the Black community one is within, (2) integrated

184 See Rukuni, Mandivamba. Being African. South Africa: Penguin; 2007: 111-118; Hord, Fred L. I am Because We Are: Readings in Black Philosophy. Amherst. University of Massachusetts. 1995; and Venter, Elza. ‘The Notion of Ubuntu and Communalism in African Educational Discourse”. Studies in Philosophy and Education. 23: 149-160, 2004. The concept is also well developed in the work of Cheikh Anta Diop in his depiction of the characteristics of the Southern Cradle (The African Origin of Civilization) and African Cultural Unity and Continuity (The Cultural Unity of Black Africa)

with other aspects of one’s reference group(s), and (3) guided by and actively in alignment with organizing principles (i.e., elements of Diop’s African Cultural Unity).

While the analyses of Cross and the work of Dawson and Chatman are both noble in attempting to locate the notions of “reference group theory” within

Western thought, their approaches are limiting. Since antiquity, many have asked and provided responses and conceptual frameworks in order to answer the questions of “who am I” or “who am I not.” Though the terms “identity” or

“reference group” may have first been used by American scholars, the essential questions and concerns underlying the concepts did not originate in the west.

Wade Nobles argues that for people of African descent, one’s self-concept is intertwined with and even driven by the collective sense of community. In a sense, who one is and who or what one aspires to be is driven very much by what the community that one belongs to determines as necessary. But if one’s self-concept is in opposition to what is necessary for the attainment of success by individuals making up that community, then that self-concept is looked at as problematic. As stated earlier, the definition of reality is that which is ultimately grounded in the community ethos. From an Afrocentric framework, self-concept is reconceptualized as an “extended self-concept” in which the “I” of the western psychological approach becomes a “We” orientation. Nobles suggests that

Self-awareness or self-conception is not, therefore, limited as in the Euro- American tradition, just to the cognitive awareness of one’s uniqueness, individuality and historical finiteness. It is, in the African tradition, awareness of self as the awareness of one’s historical consciousness (collective spirituality) and the subsequent sense of we or being one. It is in this sense that the self is portrayed as a TRANSCENDANCE INTO ‘EXTENDATION.’ That is, the conception of self transcends and extends into the collective consciousness of one’s people… In accordance with the African

philosophical tradition, the analysis is different…When one takes into account the notion of interdependence and the oneness of being, then one can rightfully see that a single person’s conception of self and/or his self identity is rooted in being whatever his people’s definition is or was. Tribal or people membership, the we, in accordance with the extended definition of self, becomes the most fundamental and critical identity. One’s conception of self is thus rooted in being an Ashanti or Ibo or Black or African.185

Identity, or rather, one’s primary identity, then should be driven by the “we” or the collective community notion. And as a result all sub-identities should be intertwined with or understood from that primary identity. Afrocentric orientation then becomes essential in generating one’s self-concept in a way more relevant to people of African descent.

185 Nobles, Wade. Seeking the Sakhu: Foundational writings for an African Psychology; Chicago: Third World Press; 2006; 129

CHAPTER 4

METHOD

Writers are fundamentally committed to the principle of expression; one cannot express one’s self without leaving some insignia. From the writer’s own textual expression the Afrocentric critic is able to ascertain the cultural and intellectual address of the author.186

ON ANALYZING CONTENT

This dissertation utilizes Content Analysis, a type of research method characterized by the identification of themes and patterns in the logged communications. The content typically pertains to written data found on the internet, in publications, and in law and legislation, but may also include speech transcripts and visual media such as photos, flyers/posters, or paintings.187 Bernard

Berelson defines Content Analysis as, “a research technique for the objective, systematic, and quantitative description of manifest content of communications” and it is used mainly in media relations to determine the success of a specific campaign.188 Klaus Krippendorff’s189 six questions to be asked when using content

186 Asante, Molefi Kete “Locating a Text; Implications of Afrocentric Theory” ; Chapter in Ama Mazama’s The Afrocentric Paradigm; Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, Inc. 2003; 238 187 Lindesmith, Alfred R. and Reinharz, Shulamit. Feminist Methods in Social Research. New York: Oxford University Press; 1992; 146-147. See also Reinharz, Shulamit. On Becoming a Social Scientist: From Survey Research and Participant Observation to Experiential Analysis. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers; 1988 188 Berelson, Bernard. Content Analysis in Communication Research. New York, NY: Free Press; 1952; 64. See also Nuendorf, Kimberly A. The Content Analysis Guidebook. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications; 2002 189 Kripendorff, Klaus. Content Analysis: An Introduction to its Methodology. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications; 1980; See Also: Kripendorff, Klaus. & Bock, M.A. The Content Analysis Reader. Beverly Hill: Sage Publications; 2008

analysis include (1) what data is being analyzed; (2) how is it defined; (3) which population is the work for; (4) is the context relative; (5) what are the boundaries; and (6) who is the target market? In this research the suggestions offered by these scholars are respected.

Alfred R. Lindesmith, a sociologist trained by Herbert Blumer at the

University of Chicago, is credited with originally advancing the method of Content

Analysis. By the 1960s it had been overwhelmingly referred to as “grounded theory”. The terms often used interchangeably to refer to content analysis collectively speak to a research method focused on determining frequency of keywords in order to ascertain the most important structures of one’s writing or point of view. Barney Glaser one of the earliest of the twentieth century articulators of the method in his co-authored text with Anselm Strauss, referred to the method of discovering data through the analysis of information as “The Constant Comparative

Method of Qualitative Analysis” and later renamed it “Grounded Theory” in order to broaden its scope to the realm of methodology.190 This study, for reasons already articulated, utilizes the analytical method but not the pillars of its “universal” methodology.

The four stages of content analysis include: (1) the interrogation of codes

(Identifying anchors that allow the key points of the data to be gathered); (2) the identification of concepts (collections of codes of similar content that allows the data to be grouped); (3) categorization (Broad groups of similar concepts that are used to generate a theory); and (4) theoretical situating (A collection of

190 Glaser, Barney Galland and Strauss, Anselm Leonard. Awareness Of Dying; New Jersey: Transaction Publishers; 2005

explanations that explain the subject of the research). The intent is to display the development of meaning through patterns in speech pertaining to a relevant context. The underlying assumption is that words and word combinations (phrases) are symbols and although one word may link to multiple connotations the actual connotation it represents may be pinpointed by investigating every time it is used or observed.

Holsti191 following the outline provided by Glaser offers three basic categories of content analysis, which include making inferences about the antecedents of a communication, describing and making inferences about characteristics of a communication, and making inferences about the effects of a communication. However, as Bos & Tarna192 suggest both the social environment in which the text arose and the position and environment of the interpreter of the text are important. It is clear from the work of Holsti, Bos, and Tarna, that soliciting inquiries without being properly grounded in information regarding the background of the phenomena under study would be defeating the overall purpose of the research. If the researcher finds it challenging to situate the data within the relevant time and era, the analysis will be disconnected from the reality it seeks to discover.

191 Holsti, Ole. Content Analysis for the Social Sciences and Humanities. Austin: Addison-Wesley; 1969 192 Bos, Wilfried, and Christian Tarnai. "Content analysis in empirical social research." International Journal of Educational Research 31, no. 8; (1999); 659-671. Bos is a Prof. of Res. Methodology in Education at Erfurt College, Germay. Tarnai is Professor of Methodology for the Social Sciences at the Dept of Education of the University of the Federal Armed Forces Munich , Germany.

Early content analysis focused on the manifest content of text, how many times a word or phrase was used and how much time was devoted to certain ideas/passages. As Bos and Tarnai stated, “Pure quantification offered no guarantee for the validity and reliability of the results.”193 While, for instance Holsti focused more on themes (a single assertion about some subject) and argued that they were the most useful unit for content analysis, Berelson argued that it was important to note space and time measures194. In various spaces and over time significance and meanings of terms utilized may vary. In performing a content analysis it is critical to remember that intensity, association, attitudes and other measures cannot be sufficiently documented by merely extracting word frequencies. This is the challenge of taking only a manifest content analysis approach and would be in complete opposition to the Afrocentric paradigm’s requirement of seeking functionality.

In this dissertation the expectation is that content consisting of publications from the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem would be more unadulterated and reflective of the author’s sentiments. The logic is that if one has the willpower to write about a topic meaningful to himself, even on behalf of the organization of which he is a member of, the writer will not only express what they may deem as acceptable to the group(s) that the individual is oriented but will also tend to focus significant effort on explaining what he or they are not. These are juxtaposed to news articles written by detached journalists and academic works written by biased

193 Holsti; Content Analysis for the Social Sciences and Humanities; 662 194 Berelson, Bernard. "Content analysis in communication research." Chapter in Marris, Paul and Thornham, Sue; Media studies: A reader ; New York: NYU Press; 2000: 200-209.

researchers that are more concerned with promoting their agenda than bringing out the deeper intricacies of the narrative.

In order to situate the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem or even to determine the degree of alignment with the concepts proposed it is imperative for any researcher concerned about honest scholarship to engage the subject’s voice. In engaging their voices researchers not only succeed in creating opportunities for novel possibilities, but a core requirement of any unbiased research is fulfilled which allows the people to articulate for themselves, what they see as their own realities.

As discussed previously in the Chapter on Methodology, how the African

Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem characterize and articulate the elements of their preferences are crucial elements in understanding how they define their own existence. Additionally, the research will seek to inquire as to how those definitions relate to: (1) their experiences as African-Americans (in relationship to African

American orientation); (2) their experiences as Black people (in relationship to

Black orientation); (3) their experiences as African people (in relationship to African orientation); and finally (4) their experiences as Black people living in a society predicated upon the possession of a Jewish identity.

Upon completing the inquiry, a conclusion will be arrived at in regards to (1)

Characteristics that attribute to or comprise their orientation(s); (2) What the significance and relevance of each orientation is to their existence; (3) Whether or not the group referred to underwent any changes over the life span of the group as

indicated in the literature, (4) if the group underwent changes, how, how not, why, and why not.

ADVANTAGES/DISADVANTAGES OF CONTENT ANALYSIS

Aside from its unobtrusive nature, content analysis is advantageous because it allows researchers to notice trends and patterns in communication during the times and contexts relevant to the people and issues under study. Additionally, one would, by default, have the ability to note what was not spoken of often or frequently discussed. An additional advantage is that the method brings into focus the data accessible for examination. For example, after the study is read and engaged, readers will be able to access the same writings, websites, and other material as investigated by the researcher to compare arguments and evidence. This may be of a major benefit to the reader who rarely gains access to completed surveys, questionnaires, or interviews pertaining to the study.

An added benefit is the utilization of primary source documents of which the group itself has created without the prompt of a researcher. These types of documents are very important since the people writing these documents have had time to think about what they wanted to write and time to consider how others may react to them. For the most part, when products are made for public consumption by individuals in a centralized organization or committee, a certain level of thoughtfulness, reflection, and checks and balances occur. As such, what is published is as close as someone would get to a scripted performance. What will come across is what the group wants to be known. What will be castigated against

or even marginalized in the text is that which the group does not see itself as. In either way, this is informative for the research.

A general disadvantage shared with general research is that what is written may not mirror the full reality. What a researcher is engaging is only a snapshot of an aspect of reality. The overarching question with any type of research is in regards to whether or not one will ever be able to fully realize another person or another group’s reality. Interviewees or respondents may express their experiences to the researcher in person, but how can it be truly gauged as to whether what they offer is the full truth? Although people do not always use written forms of communication, those instances in which written correspondence transpires are important, specifically in its provision of tangible research material.

One other shortcoming of content analysis is in the realm of time and space.

For something to be written, it typically means that the individual had to conceptualize the words and take the initiative to pen (or type) the content. Unless the document is updated continuously, a publication can only be expected to speak to what happened until that day, never afterwards. For example, if someone wrote a memoir of their life experiences and published it on October 6, 2013 at 5:23am, everything from 5:24am on is not covered in the work. This is not to suggest that what was discussed after the date is irrelevant. Such is the case with content analysis. If the person or topic under review publishes or is published consistently then that time gap may be shortened, but if the publication or content under review was published over 30 years ago, then 30 years of content is missing from review.

The question of space is important to take into account as well. People vary in vantage points. People looking at the same event will more than likely, if probed intensely enough, explain different phenomena associated with that event. Content under review, since it too stems from people’s vantage points and the various spaces they occupy (mental, spiritual, political), will tend to differ as well. Content analysis is significant in that it captures as many different sources of information that are possible. However, unless every single piece of possible content is gathered and analyzed, what derives from the investigation at most, is a pattern of some sort but never a definitive single pinpoint-able conclusion.

In avoiding faulty reasoning about units of analysis there are a number of approaches this research takes. Reductionism is a strict limitation of the kinds of concepts considered relevant to the phenomenon under study. Researchers must realize that all things cannot be explained through one phenomenon or even a single set of phenomena. A researcher should never suggest that they have successfully captured the entire significance and meaning of a phenomenon and likewise, overgeneralization or viewing a small pattern as evidence for a much larger pattern as a rule for all, rather than speaking to the sample itself and how it may offer insight into the area of study, would be incorrect as it would not be representative of all. This research focuses on that which has been selected by a range of a particular group’s written material prior to 2014. It is not indicative of the group’s speeches or written material beyond 2014. In such cases the contribution of the work should not be overlooked, as it may be utilized by researchers to assess alternative productions by the group. It is part and parcel of an entire picture.

One of the most significant challenges this research faces is falling into an ecological fallacy, or faulty contextual reasoning about units of analysis in which the research erroneously draws conclusions about groups based solely on the observation of individuals. It is important to note that this research will only reach a tentative conclusion about who the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem are.

Though the literature counted here is an important representation of the members’

“canon”, it does not represent the full weight of their existential possibilities.

CODING AND ORGANIZING THE DATA

During the close reading of the selected texts, I searched for any and all statements that made reference to race and other types of personification. Data was analyzed according to both its manifest and latent content. Manifest data is a quantifiable category that allows the researcher to measure and compare patterns to one another. For example, there may be a number of statements suggesting that

Hebrews are attached to one phenomena, while there may be a significant number of statements suggesting the opposite. As a result, manifest content allows measurement of the amount of times a certain term, phrase, or concept is used in the work for a sense of its relative importance. Latent content, on the other hand, engages the underlying meaning of the content of the communication identified through the manifested data. The operational definition of any variable is composed of the attributes included in it. Once the statements and patterns are presented in the Chapter on Findings the significance and meaning of these patterns are discussed in the Final Chapter.

RESEARCH DESIGN

STEP 1: METHODOLOGICAL SYNTHESIS

Described in the previous Chapter on Methodology, operationalization of the three Afrocentric pyramidal elements “grounding”, “orientation”, and “location” was accomplished. The operational definitions arrived at reflected these three central elements of Afrocentric inquiry to reach across and beyond western psychological concepts (e.g. Cross’s Reference Group Orientation and Erikson’s notion of

‘identity”). “Grounding” in this dissertation refers to the reservoir of knowledge one draws from in order to situate their value standards. This may be viewed through footnotes, texts cited, or quotes utilized as referential points. “Orientation” refers to the individuals or groups mentioned in the texts as ancestors or kinsmen to the authors. References to these entities will typically appear as personalized messages or references. Also, in distinguishing what they are not some inference is offered to clarify who they are. “Location,” how one acts towards the interests of their orientation group(s), is operationalized across a number of categories.

First tested was how the group defines struggle and its role in bringing it about. Second, location was measured along the lines of: (1) how the group defined freedom; (2) who the idea pertains to (which will typically correlate to who they are oriented to); and (3) its beneficiaries’ role in bringing it about. It was also concerned with oppression and specifically with what they have to say about it. Fourth, location was additionally measured in how they (4) critiqued and offered correctives towards their collective vision. This area also informs us of their grounding, or what framework they utilize in order to address their environment

and propose alternatives or adjustments. It may also be linked with the notion of an ideological outlook. In these regards, questions were posed as to what specific values the group, relies upon for critique and which values are embedded in their ideas for the reconstruction or rebirth of society.

STEP 2: DETERMINING A UNIT OF ANALYSIS/SAMPLE

Although individuals have written the texts analyzed as a representation of a group’s voice, they each have been verified and given the stamp of approval by the community. Specifically, since the 1985 publication of God, The Black Man, and

Truth, a philosophical treatise from the anointed spiritual leader of the community

Ben Ammi, the group has continued to publish on a number of topics ranging from religio-spiritual concepts to guidelines to healthy eating. The books selected below offer insight into who they say they are, and equally as important, who they say they are not.

The texts analyzed include: God The Black Man, and Truth (1985); God and the Law of Relativity (1991); The Impregnable People (1992); An Imitation of Life

(1999), Resurrection from Judgment to Post Judgment (2005), The Ramle Seven:

Seven Men and the Destiny of a Nation (2007); and Physical Immortality:

Conquering Death (2010). These selected texts represent content published by the group in every decade since the 1980s and should be well representative of the collective ethos of the community during these timeframes. They represent all but

two of the texts195 published by the group in the past decades, and these books were left out only because they are of an entirely esoteric nature, meant to be instructive for members of their community to live the Hebrew tradition. Other books published include cookbooks, which for obvious reasons would not inform the present study. A number of the texts selected have been written by the spiritual leader of the group; one, because he has been the predominant writer in the community, and two, because his articulation of their philosophy and ethos is a common basis for others producing written testaments from the group.

STEP 3: FIRST READING OF TEXT: EXPLORATION (EXPLORATORY READING PHASE)

I approached the first reading of each text as a “feeling out” of the content. In this course of action I began the process of sectioning out themes, keywords, and recurring phrases, as well as the style of the text, the category of the work presented

(philosophy, opinion, history, historiography, psychological study, etc…) style of the writer(s), type of evidence displayed, and whether or not images were used throughout the text and what they were intended to convey. In this exploratory reading I was able to know what to look for or be aware of as I endeavored towards the next step of conceptual measurement and in-depth critical analysis.

195 These two texts are The Messiah and the End of this world and Yeshua the Hebrew Messiah or Jesus the Christian Christ. The concepts from each of the texts are well represented in the selected literature; specifically in regards to the AHIJ’s concept of Messiah.

STEP 4: CONCEPTUAL MEASUREMENT & IN-DEPTH CRITICAL ANALYSIS

In this step any quotes, phrases, terms, images, or form/structure signifying relation (manifest or latent) to the pyramidal elements were noted. Then, one by one, the relevance to the pyramidal element was investigated and if a connection was found, then the association, as well as the significance and meaning it stated was recorded. Afterwards, patterns were sought in not only associations that had been established but also in the noted significance and meaning of the associations.

In doing so, the relevancy of such data extrapolation, was validated and explained in the findings.

STEP 5: COMMUNICATION OF FINDINGS

In completing the content analysis one of the most important elements is the communication of the findings and proper explanation of the implications. As

Morrow and Williams remind us concerning trustworthiness196, skipping out on this step renders the research mute regardless of how reasoned and balanced one’s qualitative study is197. In order to establish trustworthiness the findings and implications have been separated into two separate chapters. The next chapter will relay the findings from the content analysis while the final chapter will provide the implications.

196 Morrow, Susan L. “Quality and Trustworthiness in Qualitative Research in Counseling Psychology”; Journal of Counseling Psychology; 2005; Vol. 52. No. 2; 250-260 197 Morrow, Susan L. and Elizabeth Nutt Williams. “Achieving trustworthiness in qualitative research: A pan-paridigmatic perspective.” Psychotherapy Research, July-September 2009; 19(4-5); 576-582; 580

CHAPTER 5

FINDINGS

We who have freed ourselves from the Euro-gentile’s power to define, define for ourselves, speak for ourselves and name ourselves and thereby control our destiny. History has proven that the good which is relevant to white America is evil unto the Sons of God.198

In order to assess grounding, orientation, and location, it was essential to put each text analyzed through the rigorous reading process outlined in the method chapter. Provided in this chapter are the themes from each text and presentation of the recurring patterns amongst those themes, including commonly used phrases, names, terms, and connotations.

The first line of inquiry focused on the major themes, concepts, and connotations. The second line of inquiry focused on the names of people or groups mentioned. To allow the author’s voices to speak to the major themes in the text, proper space was allotted for direct quotations from the texts themselves.

In terms of the structure of this chapter, each text is addressed independently. Each features a summary of the text itself and details the patterns prevalent in the text. At times, percentages are used to differentiate between varied connotations of singular terms or to highlight the prevalence of a term’s usage.

198 Ben Ammi. God the Black Man and Truth. Washington DC: Communicators Press; 1983; 47

GOD, THE BLACK MAN, AND TRUTH

God, The Black Man, and Truth was first published in 1982, nearly thirteen years after the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem first began to settle in

Dimona, a southern city in the state of Israel. Written by Ben Ammi, the group’s spiritual leader, the book features a philosophical treatment of how people of

African descent should reorient themselves to “God” and in so doing, they would be furnished with the “truth” in order to return back to former glory.

In total, the book covers its topics in 272 pages. Not including the Foreword,

Introduction, and Reference sections, the book is divided into nine sections (they are not labeled as chapters), including a “Special Prayers and Lamentations from

Jerusalem” section.

The cover of the text features a photo of Ben Ammi amidst a backdrop collaged with images of African American figures such as Frederick Douglass,

Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and images depicting African enslavement in

North America.199 The very first page of the text features a map entitled

“Chronological Breakdown of the Captivities of the Nation of Israel and the

Migration of the African Hebrews.” The map is of what would currently be identified as the African continent200.

God, The Black Man, and Truth, is the first text written by the spiritual leader of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem. Because it is not intended for academicians, the work does not follow typical academic rules and standards for documentation and citation. Rather, it reads more as a “how to” or “self-help” type of

199 See Appendix A 200 See Appendix B

text written from a spiritual-philosophical perspective. Rather than footnotes or citations, references are typically provided in the form of Biblical passages or excerpts from magazines or newspaper articles pasted into the work. It came into its second edition in 1987 and was published by Communicators Press out of

Washington, D.C.

“AFRICA” AND “AFRICAN”

In the text the term “African” was utilized a total of 170 times while “Africa” was used 44 times. “Africa” is noted continuously in this text as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of the original men that fostered some of the greatest empires known to the world201. In addition, Ammi argues that it has produced great centers of learning, scientific achievements, culture, great leaders, and architectural and engineering wonders. Of the great empires mentioned (i.e., Ghana, Mali and

Songhai) there is no mention of Kush and Kemet. However, when the great leaders are mentioned, the biblical Queen of Sheba is featured202.

Geographically, Ammi argues that the Middle East was previously connected to the continent of Africa prior to the excavation of the Suez Canal, and as a result, modern day Israel, Syria, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia actually comprised the northeastern-most part of Africa203. Furthermore, not only were the ancient

Israelites African, but relying on the work of Joseph Williams’ Hebrewisms of West

201 Ben Ammi, God, The Black Man, and Truth, (Washington DC: Communicators Press. 1982), 8 202 Ammi; God, The Black Man; 8 203 Ammi; God, The Black Man; 9

Africa204, Ammi argues that some of the other Israelite descendants on the African continent included the Fulani, Ewe, and Lemba205. Since the text is not meant for an academic audience, it often lacks in citations and references to primary data to solidify its assertions such as these, but is important to note that irrespective of references or the lack of them, members of his community read these texts as they would any biblical community its bible. Since Ammi is later viewed by the group as the living Anointed (Messiah) of God, his texts become if not scripture itself, the closest thing to it206.

In terms of history, Ammi argues that the Biblical narrative should be utilized as a historical reference for people of African descent, in the sense that it is an

African text, originally written by people of African descent. The accompanying assertion is that the Bible has been mistranslated and misappropriated towards

Eurocentric interests. Just what those mistranslations are, he does not address. Its characters, including Jesus and Moses, were African messianic figures and as a result the forcing of European names on people of African descent is in alignment with the idea to “obscure” and “undermine” any notions of African achievement.

As a result of this symbolic “whitewashing” of the Bible, Ammi finds it appalling that the African world often gives credibility and respect to European derived “Christian” names versus family and tribal names. Consequently, the

204 Williams, Joseph. Hebrewisms of West Africa, from Nile to Niger with the Jews. (Biblo & Tannen Publishers, 1930). 205 Ammi; God, The Black Man; 10 206 Elyahshuv, Taahmenyah. The Highway of the Seed Study Guide: As revealed from the Holy Scriptures. Israel: Communication Press; Date not listed

Africans, says Ammi, have forsaken their “God” and fallen prey to the white definition of “God”. 207

In his work the label “Children of Israel” was used interchangeably with

“African” as was the designation of “African American”208. Ammi argues that the

African in America “surrendered spiritually to their masters and oppressors, accepted their names, and as a result, became powerless and ineffective.” In sum, says Ammi, “The slave became European in the spirit and remained African only in the flesh209”, essentially believing the narrative that Africans were everything ungodly.

The best level of one’s African self was when one, as Ammi states, “possessed his soul”, resisting against that which would attempt to break his soul, and ultimately kept his “sole thoughts” on “freedom and Africa”. Losing one’s soul was equated with becoming the “most docile and tractable being on the planet”. Ammi argued that for the African to demand equality within white America’s social structure is ludicrous. He states,

Is he totally without understanding or is he faking it? A lone sheep depending equality in the midst of a pack of raving wolves is the correlative of the Black/white experience in America.210

According to Ben Ammi, the worst level of one’s African self was to take a position in which one had no concern for his or her own people. To one’s fellow

207 Ammi; God the Black Man; 124 208 Ammi; God, the Black Man; 72, 77-80, 90, 95, 114,125, 128, 161, 167, 217, 223 209 Ammi; God, The Black Man; 128 210 Ammi, God, The Black Man; 140

peers, it is suggested that such a position should be a “shocking” revelation211.

WHITE/EUROPEAN/EURO-GENTILE

The term “White” was used 43 times in the text as not only the antithesis to the “Black” designation, but as an entity personifying those whom serve as bonafide enemies to the “Sons of God”. Ammi argues that Whites have seized the power to define and through it have not only whitewashed general definitions and associated them with White-only political concerns, but have also created a world governed by these “deceptions” and “fantasies”. However, the cause of concern about this trend is that people of African descent have believed the deception. Ammi states:

The irony of African Americans desiring to be white can best be termed ridiculous considering the agony they have undergone as a result. Everything brought to us from Europe divides us. It tears us apart. His religion divides us. His material wealth divides us. His standards of manhood and womanhood divide us. And brothers and sisters, a house divided against itself cannot stand. Consequently, we are weak before the strong and foolish before the wise. Everything that they have given us is the fruit of dissension, the religion of discord, the wealth of chaos, the education of disagreement. They have torn us to pieces like a lion tearing at his prey. The more of his beliefs that we are fed, the farther we grow apart.212

The larger term used to speak specifically about Whiteness as a global entity throughout the text is “Euro-Gentile”. It had been used in 83 instances throughout the text. Of the 83 times the term was used, 37 of them (at least 45% of the time) associated “Euro-Gentile” with a hegemonic force driven by corrupt and immoral desires for continuous expansion. This hegemonic intention, says Ammi, tortured

211 Ammi, God, The Black Man; 170 212 Ammi; God, The Black Man; 136

not only humanity but also other members of creation (e.g., the environment, plant life & animal life). Ammi writes:

If it could be totaled, the moans and groans which have been heard and the pain which has been felt by the human body during the last two hundred years of rule of the modern Euro-American, would greatly surpass all the moans, groans and pain of the preceding five-thousand, eight hundred years combined. There has never been a time in history as it is now when it could be generally stated that everyone is sick, suffering or dismembered (35 million operations are performed yearly in America alone). Before the coming of the Euro-gentile dominion, man, beast and the creation had never suffered so much and so regularly: the axe is taken to the trees, the gun to the birds, and the scalpel to man.213

In 13 instances the term was used as an entity attempting to cause inferiority in people of African descent, and partially responsible for forcing a soul transformation of the people of African descent. In seven instances, Euro-gentiles were labeled either as, “teachers of darkness”, promoters of ungodly and racist doctrines, and masters of re-defining reality according to Euro-Gentile purposes214.

Ammi argues that the specific concepts turned on its face by the Euro-gentiles are the notions of “hell” and “heaven”, the existence of the “supernatural” as something greater than nature, “truth“ as subjective, “worship” as a way that people practice religion disconnected from all aspects of existence and life, and an overall

“hypocritical” system of standards and values.

“Hell” was defined as an existential condition one resides in characterized by one existing in a “downward” or “depressed” state. Alternatively “Heaven” was associated with a “higher” or “elevated” state of being. These ontological categories

213 Ammi; God, The Black Man; 178 214 Ammi; God, The Black Man; 24

are grounded in the community’s interpretation of Biblical law and actualized with the values idealized. Te text stated:

When we read the latter part of Proverbs 15:24 we find a very sharp contrast: “…that he depart from hell beneath.” Hell is always low. The elders once pictured it as being a place beneath the ground. Again, they knew, but without the instructions of God, they could not define “hell” accurately. They knew subconsciously that hell was the same place that the dead reside; they knew it was a low place inhabited by the dead. They expressed it as best they could without the clear prophetic understanding of God’s word. Their analysis was somewhat correct, however, hell is not beneath the earth, literally. It is below Heaven, and is a place where the people have the minds of the devil and are dead in God. To escape from hell, you must be resurrected: given a new, living mind, and taught again how to live in God and with God. You must begin with a new, wise and right way of life. As you continue progressing in God you go higher and higher. At last, when your heart is pure, ye shall see God.215

“Worship” was articulated as the entire way of life, not just what one does in a church or temple. Everything one does, irrespective of time or physical location is worship and “has to reflect the righteousness of God”216. The modern concept of worship is termed “religion” and as such, “a fitting illustration of the ruse perpetuated on the world in which right is actually wrong, heaven actually hell.”217

This false, or rather “evil” sense of worship is exemplified by President Harry

Truman going to church after dropping an atomic bomb on Japan. Ammi asks, “What did he hope to accomplish by going to church?”218

Ammi argues that the only way to worship God is in spirit and in truth219, and since “truth” is the “right knowledge of reality” then in order to accurately worship

215 Ammi; God, The Black Man; 217 216 Ammi; God, The Black Man; 27 217 Ammi; God, The Black Man; 53 218 Ammi; God, The Black Man; 93 219 Ammi; God, The Black man; 19

100

God it would be prudent that one gains an accurate knowledge of reality grounded in accurate biblical understandings.220

As such, one must also not deem themselves to be above or “superior” to nature. For the African to believe in the “supernatural” (which Ammi notes as being of Euro-gentile origins) is to believe in a notion that is not historical since “African

(and other traditional) peoples held no force ‘superior’ to nature. They knew by the spirit of truth that the works of God (nature) had not been overdone, could not be outdone, and need not be redone.”221

The term “Europe” is used in 23 occurrences. In 12 of these Europe is noted as the location in which “slave-oriented” Christianity developed and emerged. In 11 occurrences it was connoted as the stronghold of current world policy. Also in these eleven occurrences it is and often used synonymously with the symbolic “Babylon”.

AFRICAN AMERICAN / BLACK

Ammi does not differentiate between the terms “Black” and “African”. In fact, the terms “African American”, “Children of Israel, “Sons of God” and “Daughters of

God” are often used interchangeably with “Black”. The term African-American was used 37 times in the text and referred to Africans in the United States that had undergone what Ammi calls a “Soul Transformation.” This “Soul Transformation” is not a positive but rather the condition stemming from the 400-year period of enslavement and dehumanization. Their “prophetic destiny” according to Ammi is not to be American.

220 Ammi; God, The Black Man; 34 221 Ammi; God, The Black man; 35

101

The “devil’s angels” is a label Ammi used to describe the African-American middle class that exploited their own in a manner as “ruthlessly” as have the

Whites222, and having no interest in the liberation of their Black brethren. Ammi seeks to demystify the assumptions people of African descent have for the

European. The Euro-Gentile, says Ammi, serves not as an agent acting of its own will, but rather, for African Americans a “rod of correction in the plan of redemption of

God Almighty”223. For African Americans to accept the “rod of correction” is to come to the realization that they are not meant to be servants to the Euro-gentile or to exist as Negroes. Coming to that realization is equated with the understanding that all of the “hell” he faces is due to African-Americans not being themselves. As a parent may discipline a child with the intention of having the child to go in the right way, Ammi asserts that God punishes African-Americans (through the Euro-gentile) in order to help them to realize who they truly are. In such a way, the only way for true redemption is to assert one’s agency in alignment with the law of the Bible.

The term “African American” is also used interchangeably with the term

“African Hebrews,”224 This is not thoroughly explained in the text and in regards to

222 Ammi; God, The Black Man; 225 223 Ammi; God, The Black Man; 145 224 “We know from the findings in the work Hebrewisms of West Africa by Joseph J. Williams that the early Northeast Africans (Middle Easterners), those people like Abraham, were Black. According to Hebrew and Arabic histories, King Nimrod was the son of Cush, grandson of Ham, and the ruler of the kingdoms of Shinar (2450BC), Babylonia, and areas northward along the Tigris River over Assyria….Black people are the seed of Abraham of whom God spoke and it is African Americans (African Hebrews) who as slaves and second-class citizens have lived in service to a strange people for more than 400 years.”; 10

102

this, many questions arise. Are all Africans that were brought to the United States of

America Israelites, or is the term being used symbolically or metaphorically?

“Black” was used 185 times throughout the text. The first use of the term is in the actual book title, which designates the intent and eventually the target audience of the text. On the opening page of the text the term is first mentioned in regards to an accompanying map of Africa displaying various dispersions of the Ancient

Israelites southward throughout the entire African Continent. A caption mentions the 70 AD Roman invasion of Jerusalem under Roman General Titus who dispersed all remnants of the “Black Northeastern African tribespeople” including remnants of the Israelites and Egyptians. So although “Black” is used in reference to African

Americans, it is also used to refer to people of the ancient African world, including the Israelites. As was observed and stated earlier, the land of Israel is envisioned as the Northeastern section of Africa, the Israelites too, according to Ammi, are to be included in discussion of people of the “African” lands.

Ammi reinterprets “Africa” away from modern geographical boundaries and into a historical time frame in which descendants of Kush occupied lands in Arabia and in lands as far East as India. Though the text does not make mention of the historical source it relies on for its geographical re-conceptualization, the idea that people of African descent had inhabited lands of Western and Eastern Asia had been treated by scholars such as John G. Jackson (1970)225, Runoko Rashidi and Ivan Van

225 Jackson, John G. Introduction to African Civilizations. New Jersey: Citadel; 2001 (1970); Chapter 2: Ethiopia and the Origin of Civilization

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Sertima (1987)226, Diop (1989)227, Rashidi (2012)228, and Muhammad229. Diop230 argues that the Ancient Israelites may have been within the “zone of confluence”, or one of the groups that were African in origin but after interactions with the Western world began to incorporate Northern Cradle characteristics into its makeup231. Ben

Ammi’s connection of the Ancient Israelites with African peoples is not farfetched.

The community’s insistence that this geographic position is realized in mainstream circles is a critical part of their attempts to re-define reality away from modern

Eurocentrically driven perspectives and assumptions.

FREEDOM

Ammi argues that “True Freedom” for the Black man in the United States is achieved when people of African descent embark on their exodus from the ways and bounds of the country232. He argues that the difficulties African Americans face in identifying and finding solutions to their problems, are in fact consequences of accepting wholesale as true the definitions of the Euro-233. Primary in this Euro- gentile re-definition of reality is their re-creation of religion. As a consequence, in

226 Rashidi, Runoko and Van Sertima, Ivan. African Presence in Early Asia. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers; 1987 227 Diop, Cheikh Anta. The African Origin of Civilization. New York: Lawrence Hill Books. 1974 228 Rashidi, Runoko. African Star Over Asia; The Black Presence in the East; 2012 229 Muhammad, Wesley. Black Arabia & The African Origin of Islam. A-Team Publishing; First Edition, 2009 230 Diop; The African Origin; 120-121 231 Diop argues that they seem to be a product of crossbreeding and suggests that they were of “Negro” origin as were the Phoenicians of that era . these prototypes, suggests Diop “had nothing in common with the official Jewish type” (European) of the modern era. Diop; The African Origin; 120-121. 232 Ammi; God, The Black Man; 2 233 Ammi; God, The Black Man; 29-31, 33, 47, 55

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attempting to define and eventually achieve freedom, Black people have been

“trapped in the web of religion” or rather Europe’s version of it.234 The primary concern that Ammi seeks to address is a cosmological one.

The Black world is not conscious of the far-reaching consequences of Euro- American names because Blacks have been taught to believe that whatever Europeans give them is acceptable. Black scholars no longer study the events of the Old Testament, nor do they understand that Hebrew history is African history. Therefore, they do not attribute the disenfranchisement of Africans to the misunderstanding of the power of God.235

In order to turn the tide of “disfranchisement”, Ammi recommends that the Black world return to God…and not just any God, but the “true” God of the Israelites. The group’s argument is that the Bible is not the problem236 but rather, the issue is when people of African descent, following Eurocentric interpretations of the book, agree with the ridiculous notion that Blackness is a curse via the myth of the cursed

Hamite237. As such, the internalization of the Eurocentric interpretation leads to the projection of a “Negro” persona, or what Ammi views as the lowest form of the Black human.238 Ammi writes:

Acceptance of the absurd title ‘negro’ or ‘nigger’ by the slaves demonstrates the extent to which the spirit of Black people was subdued.239

On the other hand, ‘Superfly’ the Black pimp in the movie of the same name, is not only a mean of negative qualities but his name suggests a symbol of one of the lowest species on God’s earth – a fly. Yet this is the name and image after which Black youth pattern themselves.240

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The arrogant and boastful negro-American, replete with patriotic energies, trembling with closed eyes as he recites the pledge of Allegiance, is the one who sided with the establishment during the Black revolt of the sixties. He is the informer, the ‘Uncle Tom,’ the head scratching, bowing and grinning Negro.241

Things that once touched his Black African soul had become strange to him… The negro cannot relate to things pertaining to himself because he is not himself. His soul is the soul of one that oppresses Blacks, so negroes oppress one another. …The negro spends very little time being involved in the affairs of Black folks, for they have nothing to offer him. He has no desire to find himself or solutions to the problems of Black people because the problems of black people are not his problems.242

As a result, what emerges as a result is a sort of hierarchical positioning by

Ammi of levels of African American Blackness. At the top level is one who is in touch with his African (Hebrew) soul. This individual, knowing and asserting his heritage, has attained the highest level of agency. At the lower levels are those who are soulless, “the Negro” who neither possesses knowledge of self nor any true commitment to Black people. This individual believes in the American dream and will do anything the oppressor requires of him.

SEIZING THE POWER TO DEFINE

First introduced in his text is what could arguably be the cornerstone of the community’s tenets: a concept referred to as “seizing the power to define”. Within its conceptualization, power is envisioned as an ability to act and enact. As such, it is an ability that every entity possesses, much likened to the idea of agency. And since at the core of the Euro-Gentile agenda is the White world’s ability to apply

Eurocentric definitions to all possible phenomena and have others follow it unquestioned, the only suitable means of existing on one’s owns terms is to reveal

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the mythology of a white supremacy. In seizing the power to define reality, the

African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem envisioned their migration to the State of

Israel as not only a return to their homeland which is “in fact” Northeastern Africa, but a designation by which the Black world can make tangible its Black Nationalist mission.

The spirit of Almighty God inspired 400 African Americans to make an exodus from America during the height of the civil rights era in the late 1960’s. When others were marching and singing ‘We Shall Overcome; 400 Black Hebrews were marching out of 400 years of captivity in America back home to Africa. No others have been successful in bringing nationalism to African Americans in the true sense. What so many others, including Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, and Martin R. Delaney dreamed about, was fulfilled.243

In sum, the text in its discussion of the “Euro-Gentile”, “the power to define”, and

Israel as Northeast Africa and the Israelites as Africans, introduces its readership for the first time to much of the foundational terminology of the African Hebrew

Israelites of Jerusalem that will resurface in later writings. If it is not the seminal text, it is at least central to the canon of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem.

GOD AND THE LAW OF RELATIVITY: A BLUEPRINT FOR SURVIVAL INTO THE 21ST CENTURY

In 1991, Communicators Press published God and the Law of Relativity, the second text from Ammi’s resurrection series. In the Foreword, by Odehyah Baht

Israel Gavriel, it is argued that living the “good life’ should not be measured by material gains because if that had been the case “we” (people of African descent) would have been “spared” from the daily mental, physical, and spiritual battles that the world presents “us” with. The greatest achievement in life, she argues, is the

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attainment of “harmony with your spouse, your children, and most importantly, your God.” The greatest reward, she states, is the “love of God and respect of your fellow man.” She argues that Ammi’s purpose for writing the text was to map out a formula to “overcome much of what ails society.”

Ammi’s use of the term “relativity” refers to how God’s law and Divine order corresponds to every aspect of life, requiring that humanity accept responsibility in all areas of existence. This relativity, he argues is not a new phenomenon and as such has been mentioned in the famous clichés: “what goes around comes around”,

“you reap what you sow”, you “sleep in your own bed”.

The text, God the Black Man and Truth; appears to be primarily a self-help guide on how one should apply righteousness directly to one’s life. Whereas God the

Black Man and Truth laid out many of the concepts for analysis, God and The Law of

Relativity zeroes in on how one’s every actions bring about outcomes and consequences. In alignment with the idea that every action is “worship,” Ammi attempts to illustrate for his readers examples of how such cases transpire.

The introduction casts a distinction between the “Agents of God” and the

“Agents of Satan”. The United States is characterized as a nation guided by and living under the directives and doctrines of the latter. Living in the U.S. as an African person means that one, no matter how much they fight, has accepted the consequences of living in a wicked society. To leave the country, as the African

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Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem has, would be to take a “more remedial solution to the problem” by avoiding degradation244.

In the first chapter, “God, Life, and Living” Ammi defines “relativity” as “the state of being dependent for existence on or determined in nature, value, or quality by something else.”245 In other words, actions bring about natural responses. The question of relativity is expressed in a number of realms. The most important relationship is between Creator and Creation. The second relationship of importance is that of humanity with nature. These relationships, according to Ammi, do not exist in a vacuum. For example, one that is kind to the earth, not exploiting or harming it will allow the earth to do well for him. Throughout the text, doing well is associated with fulfilling a moral obligation in bringing about an environment in which one is blessed or invokes the presence of “God”. To do otherwise is to bring about an environment in which one invites the presence of “Satan” or his “curses”.

In the next chapter, “The Mechanics of Evil Reasoning”, Ammi explains in detail his evidence that the structure of the United States personifies the satanic way, specifically in a systemic manner. One example he cites is the funneling of products by the fast food, alcohol, and tobacco industries of the United States, specifically concerning how their earnings were contingent upon their impeding of people’s ability to make proper decisions. As these products were pumped into communities its consumers developed ailments. Eventually the consumers were directed to medical institutions that were actually supplied by their own

244 Ben Ammi; God and the Law of Relativity: New World Concepts of Love, Family, Salvation, Male/female Relationships and More. Washington DC: Communicators Press: 1991; ix 245 Ammi; God and The Law of Relativity; 2

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pharmaceutical industries. Such a scenario, according to Ben Ammi, is indicative of the never-ending cycle:

In other words, the evil pharmaceutical firms can’t exist without the preponderance of industries that produce cancer-causing foods and chemicals (practically everything that is in use with the exception of some ‘natural’ or ‘health food’ products), radioactivity (microwave ovens, for instance), pollution, and the like. This is called “profun-dity of evil.” They all must toe- the – line and they are aware of their limits of protest. They’re attached to evil roots and they know it. It is this interdependence of evil institutions which ensures their survival.246

In the third chapter Ammi takes on an area affected and impacted by the

Euro-gentile power to define, the family unit. In the next chapter, “Redefining the

Rights of Parents and the Privileges of Children” Ammi argues that statements such as ”children are the future” only sought to remove proper guidance from parents and caretakers. As a result, he recommends that the world should not only question, but also shun Eurocentric approaches for training and rearing children247. In the chapter “Atonement and Repentance”, Ammi argues that the way in which society should restore its outlook, values, personality and order would be to first take a serious look at what is wrong and to divorce themselves from the Euro-gentile system. As expressed in the final chapter, “The Love of God”, Ammi suggests a redefinition of love and hate away from the mainstream definitions and more defined by proximity to the Creator. For example, a Godly type of love requires righteous demands and moral responsibilities rather than the “instinctive attraction” many identify “love“ with248.

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WHITE/EUROPEAN/EURO-GENTILES

For the first time in Ben Ammi’s writings’ there is, included at the beginning of the text a “Note to our readers” section that explained amongst other terms,

“Black” and “Euro-Gentile”. The various terminologies utilized to refer to those of

European descent (Euro-gentile, Euro-American, Europeans) Ammi described as those who were the “fathers of deep rooted racism”, the destroyers of the environment, and the creators of the methodology that subdues people of African descent. The term used more often than most was Euro-gentile, which was used in thirty-one instances. The author argues that to be of the Euro-gentiles was to be significantly associated with a “power elite”, “first world”, “majority” and completely liable for actions that have placed the “stigma” of color on all of the earth’s inhabitants249. In the text it is questioned as to whether the African and African

American fate of “destruction” had been pre-destined by the “death-obsessed Euro- gentile” and what their “evil and corrupt nature” can be attributed to. 250 Ben Ammi characterizes the Euro-gentile as continuously destroying the balance of the eco- system, and simultaneously subjugating nature for the sake of their evil and greedy intent251. He likens them to “modern day Pharaohs” and the main antagonists to the

African cause252. As such, the control of the world system is likened to other ancient kingdoms, including that of the Ancient Egypt. He states:

The ancient Egyptians were no doubt very proud of their achieve-ments, just as American and Europeans are proud of their institutions and ‘progress’ today. They certainly did/do not view themselves as evil, Godless villains.

249 Ammi; God and The Law of Relativity; Foreword 250 Ammi; God and The Law of Relativity ; xiv 251 Ammi; God and The Law of Relativity ; 2 252 Ammi; God and The Law of Relativity; 34

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Neither did/do they feel they were /are in violation of the Plan of God. They were/are confident that they could/can master anyone and anything in their very advanced societies and institutions. Their (ancient Egypt) might, pomp and glory is often mentioned in the Holy inspired Writings the most notable paradox concerning those societies (ancient Egypt and the modern Western World) is that the Holy One of Israel continues to warn us of the danger of any allegiance with them. We were warned to disassociate ourselves from and reject their image and standards altogether. In our return unto God, we must not desire nor lust after them or their way of life. We must not depend on them, nor trust in them.253

AFRICAN-AMERICAN/BLACK

The term “African-American” is used in 24 instances throughout the text,

“African” 5 times, and “African Hebrew” in 6 instances. Commonly, it is asserted that the fate of the African is intertwined with the fate of the African American, and as such, the common foe are the systems of the world that seek to transform the

African into an “apathetic” state of mind and into a “Negro” identification254. To annihilate the Black man in America is to follow an ideology that seeks to obliterate the African heritage255. Much of the problems of the African American, Ammi attributes to either their non-belief in their own cosmological traditions or belief in cosmological traditions that seek to wipe away their own256. At times throughout the text, the system is likened to the system of the Ancient Egyptians. In fact, in the thirty instances in which the text makes reference to the land of Egypt or the ancient

Egyptians, either the land or people are likened to the “evil” lands of Babylon,

America, or Europe. The reference follows the Biblical narrative that “Mzraim” is the place of bondage and a place that God does not desire his people to look towards. It

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is used continuously as a metaphor for the places of modernity that are massive in their reach, but incapable in their morality257.

In God and the Law of Relativity, Ben Ammi argues that for humanity and creation to reach ideal status, humanity must turn to a nature-oriented value system rather than the “standard” value system predicated upon the quest for materialistic acquisition. In doing so, humanity and Creation is brought back into alignment with the way of God. Actions bring about results, and the torture or “hell” humanity feels is due to the followed of paths laid by Euro-gentiles who have had no intentions of bringing about proper harmony and balance with Creation.

The Impregnable People: An Exodus of African Americans Back to Africa

The Impregnable People was written in 1993 by Prince Gavriel HaGadol and

Odehyah B. (Baht) Israel, both high-ranking members of the community. It differed from Ben Ammi’s earlier texts, as it was more of a historical account of the group’s efforts at migration to Liberia and Israel than a theoretical philosophical work.

The chapters of the text marked various stages throughout the group’s organizing, migrating, and settling to Liberia, as well as a small treatment of the early stages of the group’s trek to Israel. In the first Chapter, entitled “The

Awakening”, Prince Gavriel speaks of his early days in Chicago. detailing his experience as an African American. The environment he remembered was one of racial separation. Miscegenation, if it was practiced, was for the most part not done publicly. Police officers, those expected to serve and protect, were, in fact the main

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antagonists of the racialization with Black police following in the footsteps of their white counterparts. HaGadol’s launch into serious critique of the United States appeared in his discussion of World War II Black Veterans returning back to the

United States hoping at a chance of participating in the “democracy” they fought for; disillusioned at their being denied access to the opportunity due to skin color, despite their being United States military veterans.

“Transition”, the second chapter, featured much of the questions Prince

Gavriel and his best friend Ben Ammi began to ask about the conditions they faced as African Americans in Chicago in the 1950s. After arriving at the conclusion that they were “landless, language-less, and cultureless258” they deduced that anything had to be better than to live a life under those conditions.259 They began to look at the work of Congressman Adam Clayton Powell for his efforts of agitation and connect their struggle with the global African struggle via international headlines concerning the efforts of Kwame Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba. Through connecting with national struggle and international African struggle they came to the realization that they were not truly citizens of the United States of America.

Gavriel writes;

We were on the outside of white American society and any attempt to assimilate, show our loyalty or just uplift ourselves was met with contempt by whites. Many whites equated our lack of employment to ‘shiftlessness’ and ‘sluggishness’, saying that we had no desire to work. On the other hand, where I worked some whites were offended by ‘arrogant’ black workers who competed for their jobs. We were mocked as being unreliable and irresponsible, yet whites felt threatened when we became assertive and responsible. They openly and unhesitatingly declared their disgust at our

258 HaGadol, Gavriel and Israel, Odeyah B. The Impregnable People An Exodus of African Americans Back to Africa (Israel: Communicators Press; 1993); 53 259 HaGadol & Israel; The Impregnable People; 54

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‘backwardness,’ and low levels of academic achievement. Yet, the black institutions - - to which the white power elite (corporations and government) hold the purse strings – were always under-financed and thus more inclined to miseducate rather than stimulate, perpetuating the vicious cycle. Facing these harsh realities confronting our people, Ben and I asked the questions, ‘Where do we go from here? Is there no help for us? Why are we in this despicable condition? Should we join one of the existing Black movements and seek to negotiate our freedom or attempt to arm ourselves and take it?’ Historically, negotiations had proven futile. The ballot box was a farce and to opt for the bullet was suicidal. Sure, we could take up guns and bullets (like the Black Panthers were to do years later), but that was a sure way to die and we simply wanted a way to live in a truly just society.260

“Preparation Time” the brief third Chapter engages the doubts the group had of leaving for Liberia, the “signs” affirmed by looking at what at the time was happening around them, and the constant encouragement by Ben Ammi to overlook the doubts in order to envision a future forged. The doubts they held were: (1) of their own capabilities somehow programmed to believe that leaving for better opportunities was indistinguishable from “overthrowing the government”261; (2) a consideration of how already doubtful family members would perceive their migration to “backwards Africa” and “the jungle”262; and (3) the failures of other

Pan-Africanists in their initial goals263. Discussing their departure, he says:

“Preparation time” for us was at first an agonizing, soul-wrenching, critical period because it was at this point that we truly began to realize that we, as ex-slaves, were not mentally or spiritually equipped for any kind of a challenge. We had been beaten into total dependency. Where once we had been physically abused and spiritually whipped into being subservient to the slave master, we were not domesticated – thoroughly conditioned to do nothing other than adhere to the way of life the slavemaster had established. And worst of all, most Black Americans desired nothing more. If our food had

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not come from the shelves of A&P grocers, we would have starved, --for we no longer knew how to farm.264

Eventually, it was the apprehension of living in America that prevailed over their lack of enthusiasm to leave. Despite the challenges that loomed in a transition to Africa, there was a genuine yearning to situate themselves in a healthier environment. Ben Ammi was optimistic and persistent in reminding other members of the long-term implications of their return and “drawing upon another source of strength” to overcome the doubts. At this moment he solidified his leadership of the community.

“The Plot to Destruct” the fourth Chapter described the conditions that brought about the immediate and urgent necessity to leave America, including

Chicago police raiding their homes, taking their passports, and Liberia almost refusing to reissue visas after being misled by United States officials. The struggle, says the group was not to use integrated toilets or live by white standards but for what they termed as “true freedom.” They desired freedom to live in unity according to the “will and plan” of the true God and “not the one that White men created for us.”265

“Exodus”, the next chapter loops forward to 1967 and explains their leaving

America for Liberia. On May 17th of 1967 they sent a delegation to Liberia and found that the place was ripe for settling. “In The Wilderness”, Chapter 6, likens Liberia to

“the wilderness” in a reference to the Biblical wilderness described in “Exodus”, the place where the Israelites were tested and sharpened before making pathways

264 HaGadol & Israel; The Impregnable People; 97 265 HaGadol & Israel; The Impregnable People; 117

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towards their next destination. It explains the challenge of leadership, raising finances, dissent both within the community and with some members of the

Liberian government. The chapter culminates with the group receiving financial and emotional assistance and support by the President of Liberia, William Tubman in supplementing their settlement.

While in Liberia they faced internal challenges such as several bouts with malaria, malnutrition, insufficient shelter, and the horrific conditions led to what

HaGadol names as “the first major rebellion” in September 1967. He states:

The first major rebellion took place in Liberia during the month of September 1967. There were nearly two hundred men, women and children living on the temporary site at Gbatala. Ben Ammi received a telegram from Ben Yaacov instructing him to come immediately because the camp had split. Ben Ammi, together with his faithful lieutenant Rockameem, flew to Liberia right after receiving the telegram. On arrival, he found the sisters and brothers literally armed with weapons. Just imagine the western movie ‘High Noon”. Everyone was waiting for the other to make a false move. Some were armed with revolvers, others with rifles or shotguns. Still others were walking around with knives and machetes. Ben Ammi later told me that the most disheartening and disappointing sight of all for him was the poor physical condition of the entire lot. The majority were sick and weak from the loss of weight. Many had already contracted malaria. Their eyes were sunken into their heads. The children’s bellies were swollen as a result of malnutrition. They were definitely a weather-beaten lot. The deceptive Liberian sun had taken its toll on the entire camp of Hebrew Israelites. Some of the tents which were sitting upon the bare ground had begun to rot. This condition was a result of the hard rain which had dampened the tents and then the hot sun which later dried them. A few weeks of this cycle had eventually dry-rotted the cheap Sears and Roebuck tents. Rockameem told me of the bugs and ants crawling in and out of the tents (now full of holes), running sores that attracted flies to the pus and mosquito bites covering the naked arms of the children. Included in this wretched lot were Ben Ammi’s lovely wife and four children along with my expectant wife and our three sons.266

It was found that one of the leaders of the encampment attempted to reduce the allotment of funds that typically went to the families that traveled for

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employment. Upon learning of the unilateral decision the families literally took up arms to secure their allotment. Ben Ammi arrived just in time to quell the drama.

Oftentimes the lack of finances created internal rifts within the community. While in

Liberia they depended on moneys sent from family in the United States. When the family support waned, the community attempted to reach out to other Hebrew communities in the United States but did not find much support.

The Eighth Chapter, “Darkness before Dawn” explained the purging process of group members, whom in hindsight, the authors argued were not truly dedicated to the exodus while many members of the group sought the help of the American embassy to return to America because of their problems adjusting, others moved into the major city of Monrovia to work for corporations267.

One of the pressing challenges for the community was their own relationships. Marriages were strained and sometimes broken when additional wives were brought into the mix. HaGadol addresses his challenge with implementing “Divine Marriage” in his household.

We had wanted to wait until we had arrived in the motherland before we married, but as our love grew, so did our passions. Our fateful night, apparently feeling the ‘blues’, she telephoned me and asked if she could come over. At first I said no, but after a little coaxing on her part, I submitted. To this day she denies that she enticed me that night. At any rate, our first sexual relationship sealed our union as man and wife. During the days of our forefathers there were three types of legal marriages: by written contract, by payment of a sum of money (or an equivalent) before witnesses, and by force, as in a man compelling a woman to submit to him or by seduction. My

267 On page 204 Gadol suggests that a number of the young men and women had moved to Monrovia in search of the same nightlife that they had left behind in America, forsaking their “moral and spiritual commitment to God in return for western mini-dresses, suits, and mores. Others feeling the financial drain and the challenges of living in Africa solicited the assistance of family back home and if necessary the American embassy to return to America.

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marriage to Tekia falls into the third category. I accepted Tekia as a “virgin daughter of Zion,” simply because she had spiritually separated herself from America and reunited with the nation of Israel…Little did I or Tekia know that as our community continued to develop, that so would the institution of Divine marriage. We would not always look favorably upon the third form of marriage and our new marriage guidelines would be stringently observed. The institution of Divine marriage would be closely monitored by the future members of our community. At the time of my marriage to Tekia, our movement had no organized infrastructure – no priests, marriage laws, and the like. We were then in our inception, but we developed swiftly. Western law and religion condemned polygamy or what we preferred to call “Divine marriage”. We Hebrews had long since separated ourselves from the western system, and overtly defied those laws that prevented our development.268

Hagadol’s first wife Karmiah had a different account of his attempting to institute Divine marriage into their household. She states:

He used to tease the sisters so hard about Divine marriage that I never thought he would laugh about it and then hurt me like that. I never thought he’d do it. That’s just how naïve I was about the whole situation. When new people arrived at the camp, it would often turn out to be somebody’s new wife. After a while, it got to the point where I stopped going out to greet new people. Well, little did I know that I would be one of those gossiped about. One of those new people turned out to be Gavriel’s wife. He was trying to justify his new wife, and I wasn’t hearing any of it. He had been there all that time and never once did he open his mouth about it. He was trying to get me to come to some agreement before she got there, but I wasn’t coming to one.269

From the accounts above, it is made clear that the decision to conceptualize the Divine marriage was solely the male’s in the relationship to make. Although, in the case of Tekia, she agreed to have an intimate relationship with Hagadol despite the fact that he had already been married. The account does not suggest that she was aware of the marriage or that she was entering into a Divine marriage. It appears as if the women were told of their joining this marriage arrangement after

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they had already been committed to their men. There was a bit of deception in the matter and the women were not too happy about. To HaGadol’s credit he suggests that such entries into marriage as his were later looked down upon by the more polished and refined organized structure. In fact, a recent news article referenced

Ambassador Ahmadiel Ben Yehuda’s suggestion that since 2006 the group had decided to stop polygamous practices270.

The practice of polygamy is not a new phenomenon to African peoples.

However, the challenge is in what voice each of the participants have in the matter.

For a male or female to be coerced into such a relationship is problematic either way. In the picture painted by HaGadol, the institution of Divine Marriage may easily be visualized as a patriarchal undertaking where in women are subjected to the decision of their male counterparts. Although women do have the capacity to walk away, given their connection to the wider community (including having family members deep within the community fabric), the possibility of leaving the community would be felt more as an excommunication from all one knows than a

“there are other fish in the sea” choice. The early stages in the foundational Liberian experience would be revisited decades later as the group sought Israeli citizenship.

Gadol’s text recounts the problem of the Liberian government officials who insisted on the group’s assimilation into the Liberian way of life. Citing a 1968 article in the Chicago Sun-Times that suggested that “The U.S. Embassy was worried that the settlement might become a center for anti-American sentiment” and a 1968

270 Kamin, Debra. “The lost sheep of the house of Israel”; The Times of Israel; April 7, 2014; last accessed June 19, 2014. http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-lost-shee-of- the-house-of-israel/

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JET Magazine article suggesting that due to the problem of the “black Jews” the

Liberian lawmakers “may resort to changing the constitution that allows for ‘any black man from anywhere in the world’ to own land in the country,” Gadol opines that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the U.S. Embassy in Liberia had spread the thought to Liberian government officials that the Black Hebrews came with ulterior motives271. This was not a major worry for the new settlers since

President William V.S. Tubman took a liking to them, even providing the members of the community monthly stipends of fifty dollars to the heads of each of the families.

Although they had their occasional run-ins with other government officials and locals he suggested that much of their problems had come from within, finding that “it was not quite so easy to let go of all of our American culture and ways” he describes some initial challenges:

Much of our hard times could also be attributed to our false pride and ignorance. No doubt many of us also brought with us snobbish attitudes of somehow being better than other African brothers and sisters for having been exposed to a “better” life. Those misled feelings dissipated just as quickly as did the spiritual veil which had covered our eyes. Had we not been blind, we would have bought the tasty, nutritional foods in the marketplaces and would have chosen the pineapples, oranges, avocados, etc…, instead of processed American cheese, crackers and soft drinks.272

Despite the splits and discord, those that remained grew in their knowledge of agriculture, indigenous medicine, and fundraising in Liberia, some even opened a number of restaurants in Liberia, and created a band known as The Soul Messengers that played at venues across the country.

271 HaGadol and Israel; The Impregnable People; 180 272 HaGadol and Israel; The Impregnable People; 188

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Also in that year (1968) they began to correspond with the Israeli consulate and on May 1st 1968 sent their first two members to Israel to scout the land to test the Israeli Law of Return. In the Epilogue, Gavriel argues that the group in their eventual settlement in Israel accomplished a number of feats, none greater than assuming control of and responsibility for their own destiny. In the final analysis,

Prince Gavriel asserts that they staked claim to their land, language, and culture and laid the foundation of a truly free society.

WHITE/EUROPEAN/EURO-GENTILE

Regarding the usage of the term Euro-Gentile in the text, used interchangeably with Euro-American, the following is stated:

You will frequently encounter the use of the term “Euro-gentile” throughout this work. It is a term coined by the African Hebrew-Israelites in keeping with our having seized the “Power to Define,” (a concept which will be made clear in the chapter of the same name.) The suffix “gentile” simply denotes a people or nation that is without the knowledge of the True and Living God of Creation. When using the term “Euro-gentile,” (often interchangeably with “Euro-American”), we are in fact referring to the entire European family of nations, i.e., Europe, the United States of America, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, etc. Its usage also reflects the pervasive and powerful social, economic, cultural and political influence those nations have wielded on this planet. As such, though these ‘Euro-gentile” nations are obviously and unquestionably responsible for having brought all of humanity and creation to the brink of destruction as a result of their continuously evil activities and deeds, no racist or otherwise negative connotations are inferred by the phrase.273

In explaining the characteristics of the Euro-gentiles the authors argue that the Europeans are victim to their own “demented and deadly inferiority

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complex.”274 As a result, in their seeking to control humanity they have made one of their top priorities the submission of people of African descent. The authors note that as a result, people of African descent, succumbing to the hegemony, have used

Euro-gentile languages as their main modes of communicating and determining their own realities, which ultimately furthers white supremacy and keeps Africans running in circles towards no destination towards freedom.

Throughout the text the term “Euro-Gentile” was used in 29 instances. It was used interchangeably with the term “Euro-American” and typically utilized to refer to an ungodly nation ignorant to the purpose and ways of God.275 The authors suggest that the Euro-gentiles are characterized as a people possessing an anti- nature, competitiveness and individualism, with a knowing no limits orientation, inasmuch that they do not know the term “enough”276. They have instigated theories of a White racial superiority, inflicted serious trauma on people of African descent, shifted ideas of love, progress, and success in relationships, and specifically in regards to the Lebanese influx into Liberia, have brought into Africa (such as through the “great infusion of Euro-gentiles into Northeast Africa by wars and conquest”) continuous means of exploitation277. As a result of these self-inflicting actions, it is noted that the time of their dominion is ending since that very same dominion was in fact instituted by God to punish people of African descent for their own lack of commitment to the “Godly” way of life. He states:

274 HaGadol & Israel; The Impregnable people; 4-5 275 The Impregnable People; vii,; 4 276 The Impregnable People; 6 277 The Impregnable People; 148

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We must cause them to understand that their right is not because of any exceptionally ingenious or extraordinary talent that has been bequeathed unto them by God. Their present rule on earth was made manifest only because of the sons’ and daughters’ of God transgression of God’s laws, instructions, commandments, and judgments.278

BLACK/AFRICA/AFRICAN AMERICAN

Alternatively, the term “Africa”, used in 87 instances throughout the text, referenced the homeland of Black people that has been constantly under siege by the Euro-gentile nations. The group themselves assert the belief that Canaan land

(the land of the Canaanites) was in Northeast Africa but due to resettlements and conquests of what is known today as Northern Africa and the Middle East, confusion abounds as to the true history of the African Hebrew Israelites.

This confusion is said to have arisen when the group desired to leave Chicago for Liberia and Israel. The brainwashing of African Americans in Chicago led to members of the community being questioned as to why the group would leave

America for a “backwards Africa”279. Also, among themselves the authors admit as to how even their thoughts that Liberia was a jungle where lions, tigers, and man- eating reptiles ran wild influenced their purchase of guns in preparation for the journey280. It was in fact, the purchasing of these guns, albeit legally, that led to the arrest of some members of the group prior to embarking on the actual journey to

Liberia.

An additional theme throughout the text was the perception of the authors’ characteristics of African culture; family was extended, traditions and traditional

278 HaGadol & Israel; The Impregnable People; 4-5 279 HaGadol & Israel; The Impregnable People; 95 280 HaGadol & Israel; The Impregnable People; 128

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laws were conducive to a people’s equally beneficial interaction with nature281, and a family more fluid than the monogamous standard as promoted in America282.

References to Egypt or the Egyptians occurred 41 instances throughout the text.

Nearly 100% of the references likened Egypt to either the American power elite or the modern day America or Babylon283. One instance proclaims that the people of

Egypt were Black but only to refer to how people of that area of the world, including the Hebrews, were of darker hue. While Liberia (referenced in one-hundred-twelve instances) was mentioned as a critical location for the group coming to an understanding of self, it is mentioned in their statements about their legacy, as the

“bush”, in which the group fought off wild beasts and inner turmoil to refine itself.

Certainly if any images of Africa as a jungle are deemed negative by the group, why did the group feel the necessity to classify their experience in Liberia in this regard?

Certainly, the terrain the community encountered was wooded and may have had wildlife but I argue that the utilization of such an analogy to describe Liberia as such, served more to elevate their narrative in the eyes of readers as a community that went through the trials and tribulations rather than to shed a holistic light on

Liberia. From accounts of the American Colonization Society of the 19th century and later Back-To-Africa accounts, Liberia has been well noted as a difficult terrain for the newcomer to navigate. It is unfortunate that in projecting its narrative about its time in Liberia, the dominating narrative relies on an explanation likened to early

Western and European explorers onto African soil.

281 HaGadol & Israel; The Impregnable People; 1 282 HaGadol & Israel; The Impregnable People; 11 283 HaGadol & Israel; The Impregnable People; 52

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The term “African” was used 19 times throughout the text, and in addition to being used interchangeably with Blacks (which was itself used in eighty-five instances) it was utilized almost 80% of the time to reference the idea that Africans, regardless of physical location, were under attack and that as a result all people of

African descent should see Africa as for the Africans and be willing to share expertise, skills, and resources, with one another. The other 20% of times in which

“African” was used, was in regards to African Americans as kidnapped Africans.

Used in 23 instances throughout the text is the term “African American”. The first usage of the term is in the title of the text. And remarks must be made in this regard. The fact that this group, already established in the State of Israel and already referring to themselves as the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, had still decided to label itself as “African Americans” making an exodus is indicative of the connection and kinship the group continued to feel, not with the United States of

America but the Africans of the nation (referred to as African Americans). This is indicative of how they chose to name themselves. Even if as “ex-African Americans”, the idea that they are willing to voice that not only within their narrative but also as the title of their narrative is worth noting. The second usage of the term is in relation to a series of questions regarding just what options and possibilities the

African in America have. The questions are:

“Do African Americans possess the necessary intelligence, skills, spiritual discipline and unbreakable willpower to build a society that truly provides for our needs? “Can we move to Africa and live? Can we get along with one another and respect our own people?”284

284 HaGadol & Israel; The Impregnable People; viii

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There is an obvious affinity and assertion that they are not only Hebrews, but also descendants of Africans in the United States, African Americans. The term

African American is also used in its relationship to other Africans, specifically how any unity between the two is intentionally blocked by Euro-gentiles. To overcome the disunity the authors assert in the text that African Americans must not only accept that Africa was home, but also that Africans must accept African Americans when they return home.

Having seized the power to define, Ben Ammi’s group did not see its leaving from America as running away from the fight of Black folk in America, but rather a conscious decision to fight back against a society (United States of America) that saw them as less than human. Additionally, they denied the classification of their group as either an offshoot of the Black power movement, or a religious sect. The book The Impregnable People, as argued by its authors, is a testimony of who the community truly is rather than a mere creation by the Press. Ammi wrote:

During the turbulent decade of the ‘60’s, over 300 of us set out in search of a homeland, language and culture for Black people. Like many others, we dreamed of a land devoid of European manipulation and control; a place to call our own. Unlike my famed brethren who did not live to see their dreams and ambitions of freedom and land for their people realized, I have succeeded with the help of my leader and our comrades in freeing myself, my family and many others from the abyss of poverty, the bonds of discrimination and the stigma of the label ‘minority’ I go to sleep each night content in the knowledge that my sacrifices were not in vain. Today I look into the faces of my free-born children secure in the knowledge that my struggles were worth all the agony felt along the way. Perhaps history may one day recall me as one who was able to turn his dreams into reality.285

In summary, the text describes a group that operated under the assumption that their efforts to leave the United States for Liberia and eventually Israel were

285 HaGadol & Israel; The Impregnable People; Prologue

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steps towards reclaiming their African Hebrew heritage. And the fact that they were successful in doing so meant that they were also successful in the first battle over one’s own say in what or who they are.

AN IMITATION OF LIFE: REDEFINING WHAT CONSTITUTES TRUE LIFE AND LIVING IN THE NEW WORLD

The argument propelled by Ben Ammi in this text is that that proper application of values and concepts of godliness have been blocked intentionally by

Euro-Gentiles in their re-definition of what would typically be radical and revolutionary concepts. The only weapon against the material weapons of the Euro- gentile world is “truth” but unless the deception is revealed and removed, any challenge to the system would be misdirected and ineffective. 286

The battle, Ammi argues, is between Regenerative and Degenerative processes. The “regenerative processes” are those ways of life guided and directed by God at its core. The “degenerative processes” are those ways of life guided and directed without God at its core. Those practices which Ammi deems as being against “Yah” (one of the Hebrew names for Creator) include individualism, greed,

286 Ben Ammi; An Imitation of Life: Redefining what Constitutes True Life and Living in the New World; Washington DC: Communicators Press; 1999; M (introduction). These pre-determined definitions are characterized by the re-creation of Black images with white features; the reappropriation of Black narratives towards Eurocentric objectives (as in the simplification of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s mission to his “I have a dream” speech); “education” informing people away from critical thought and towards servitude; technology as that which can best exploit the universe rather than building it up; and religion as that which people do away from their daily lives aside from spiritually in which righteousness is required in every aspect of life…not just when one is in the place of worship.

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homosexuality, denial of parental authority over children, and destruction of the inherent masculine and female gender.287

In the end, Ammi suggests that people refuse to take a separation-of-God from life approach similar to the separation of church and state ideology that is characteristic of the United States, in the sense that the moral grounds of one’s life could never be compromised or marginalized. This type of belief is personified by

Euro-gentile religion, which he argues is a false imitation of true divine spirituality288. In suggesting a return to the “Adamic” Man in order to envision and realize our future Ammi asks:

Is there an inseparable connection between liberal democracy and immorality, corruption, desolation, prostitute, gambling, individualism, greed, male-female division, drugs, organized crime and legalized perversion (lesbianism-homosexuality)?289

In this text Ammi introduces new terms290 into the reader’s lexicon, which will be articulated below. Otherwise, he expounds on many of the same terms previously presented.

BLACK/AFRICAN/AFRICAN-AMERICAN

The newer term “African Edenic” was used 35 times throughout the text but seemed to be almost used interchangeably with “Black” or “African” racial designations. It is very much linked with the focus of the community to revert back to a type of human state prior to the fall of Adam and Eve, a sort of paradise where,

287 Ammi; An Imitation of Life; 82 288 Ammi; An Imitation of Life; 169 289 Ammi; An Imitation of Life; 176 290 Some of these Terms include “African Edenic”; “Imitations”, and the previously explained “Adamic”

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according to the group’s logic, all was well and people were clear as to what their life mission was. Such a return to this Genesis state is a return to a time in which mankind was in alignment with the way of God. Ammi states that the African Edenic person…

…must undertake the GENESIS RESURRECTION which will bestow upon them the mental and moral efficacy to perform in harmony with the will of Yah and follow the pre-determined course of events which will lead them to their complete liberation, freeing them to build a new world for the children of the Most Holy.291

The modern and typical African person is not only locked in the past but as

Ammi states, have also “fallen into a sense of degeneracy”. This state of degeneracy has allowed…

…the exposed Adamic family to become institutionalized replications, destroying, or at the least, impairing their capacity for expedient Yah-thought or decisive regenerative action.292

Similar to their “African American” and “African” counterparts, those who have the potential to take up the task of an African Edenic people, African Hebrews are under attack by Euro-gentiles and must resist both individualism and what

Ammi claims as its “two inseparable achievements; mass production and mass destruction.” Essential to defining the way forward Ammi suggested a new African- oriented methodology, he wrote:

Individualism leads to two inseparable achievements: mass production and mass destruction. We must once again be introduced to the Laws of Limitations. We African Edenic people are at a crossroads and we must decide which way to go forward and regain our soul and dignity. One major demand is that we find an African definition for progress. Another is to

291 Ammi; An Imitation of Life; 154 292 Ammi; An Imitation of Life; 15

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redefine success making it Afro-centric while clarifying what we are trying to achieve and the methods we prescribe.293

The term “African” (used 99 times throughout the text) was utilized to: (1) establish the connection of African people with the Ancient Israelites and the physical land of Israel; (2) sound a call to arms for people of African decent to avoid

Euro-gentile perspectives or definitions regarding “life” or imitations about life’s true meanings; and (3) seek clarification of concepts rather than basing actions off of misappropriated terminology and frameworks. In asserting that Israel was Africa,

Ammi attempts to make the case that not only was this fact distorted throughout history but it served as the consequence for African disobedience to their God.

Ammi does not go into depth with an explanation of this argument, but states that to be Israelite and African is no contradiction, and additionally that the house of Israel is in fact the spiritual strength for all of Africa294.

EUROPEANS/EURO-GENTILES/IMITATIONS

More importantly than anything else, Ammi saw fit to address what he labels

“imitations”, or the cheap duplication or fabrication of reality in order to deceive a people. For Ben Ammi, some of the more common imitations are exemplified in how Israel was “re-designated in history, geography, and politics from Africa to

Asia”, how biblical characters were “transformed from African to European”, and how Hebrew ways of life were redesigned as being Jewish and under the realms of

Judaism. To counter these imitations, Ammi suggests that, Africans, must share their

293 Ammi; An Imitation of Life; 185 294 Ammi; An Imitation of Life; 8

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truth and challenge each other to reevaluate their positions. Throughout the text, the term “imitation” was utilized 169 instances and it was utilized to separate those aspects of society which were “deadly” from those deemed as “regenerative”.

The Euro-gentiles and their “liberal democracy” are the main group leading the deception to make the world believe that the imitation is in fact the original.

Ammi argues that imitations are presented as authentic and original which in turn protects topics from any serious critique or questioning. In addition, those ideas linked with the original in any capacity are under constant attack for their own authenticity295. Only with serious study or the presence of experts can the more entrenched imitations be detected.

Whether it be the cloning of animals, the genetic modification of food, the

Eurocentric approaches to the traditional view of Creation as evolution, the institutes of learning that are deemed “Higher” education, or the reimagining of

African figures as either European or Africans with European ideals, Ammi argues that the need to imitate indicates a much deeper sociopathic psychological issue296.

He explained that:

In fact, it was the European realization that they were not chosen by God that prompted their attempt to become an inalienable and accepted imitation as they disguised themselves as angels of light and their people as the teachers of righteousness. The Euro-gentiles have spawned the notion of a Son of God which is in their image. This concept promotes doubt in the short run and denial of the existence of God in the long run because of the Euro-gentiles’ questionable and despicable reputation. When African Edenic people follow the course of this lie, they arrive at a dead end. When they cannot prove a white God as taught to them by the oppressor, they simply choose denial for they dare not consider a search for a God in their own image.297

295 Ammi; An Imitation of Life; 3; 6 296 Ammi; An Imitation of Life; 183 297 Ammi; An Imitation of Life; 44

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The term “Euro-gentile” was used a total of 44 times throughout the text and as indicated in the text’s “Note To Our Readers” section, it is often used interchangeably with the term “Euro-American”. They are predominantly used throughout the text to signify a nation that is responsible for not only creating imitations but also imposing those imitations on everyone. In turn, these imitations are upheld as universally true for all people. Ammi argues that the ways of the group are sociopathic because in their attempts at having people to live according to their reality they simultaneously pose alternatives within that reality. As an example

Ammi uses suggests that the Euro-gentile:

…on one hand he endeavors to compete with Yah, by flooding the world with imitations of nature, and on the other hand – acknowledging indirectly, that ‘nature is best’. As a socio-path he kindles the flame that ignites into war, which slaughters thousands, even millions. Afterwards, he becomes an altruist and quells the flames with eloquent words of deception. He convenes the peace conferences where he designs and fashions the plans (of the ‘peace’ conference). He inspires the combatants to shake hands and shows his gratitude by promising them even bigger and deadlier weapons, under the guise of balancing the power.298

The Resurrection From Judgment to Post Judgment

In 2005 Ben Ammi offered the text The Resurrection from Judgment to Post

Judgment. The front cover of the text depicts what the group determined as the major polarities of existence. On the left side of the cover are the degenerative outcomes: a slave ship, a dark and gloomy backdrop, two people of African descent hanging from a tree while whites watch, famine in Africa, graveyards, and fires in a city. On the right of the cover are those areas of life symbolic of the regenerative

298 Ammi; An Imitation of Life; 183

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outcomes, a backdrop of a Hebrew Torah scroll featuring on it a dove in flight, blue sky and clouds, scales of balance, a waterfall, and plant life.

In the foreword, by Odehyah Baht Israel, she argues that the choice readers can make in the text is between the Greco-Roman influenced New Testament or the

Afro-centric Old Testament299. For the “uninformed”, such a choice, says Baht Israel, is often decided before thought about the choice begins, since the “uninformed” is has already accepted Eurocentric notions of right and wrong.

In the text, Ben Ammi sets out to not only clarify what truth is, but also to figure out, in his own words, how to “evoke its power”300, in order to address what the community deems as the major threat to human existence, individualism. He states:

The reckless promotion of individual rights and ‘free choice’ can, and has been used to justify anything and every behavior. Except that the Adamic civilization is woven back together individualism will continue to wreak havoc in their habitat. 301

He argues that truth is as essential to our existence as oxygen, and as such, is the true breath of life and God. In applying this truth to our lives we are successfully carrying out the process of exhalation. According to the story of Adam and Eve as interpreted by members of the community, the forbidden tree is that knowledge that takes “us” away from God. As a result, states Ammi, the crux of “our” problems is neither political nor economic: it is spiritual302. The governance of the Euro-

299 Ben Ammi; The Resurrection: From Judgment to Post Judgment; Washington D.C.: Communicators Press; 2005 Foreword (h) 300 Ammi; The Resurrection; Introduction (n) 301 Ammi; The Resurrection; Introduction (p) 302 Ammi; The Resurrection; 11

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gentile makes God’s message lost in translation. Evil or anti-life actions are made to be the norm and disharmony with creation is made to appear as harmony. These two opposing ideas, that of God (the “holy spirit”) and that of the “Euro-logos” compete over times, seasons, and definitions of reality. In all actuality, states Ammi,

Yah-Centric Culture (which he argues as being synonymous with African-centric or

“Afro-centric” culture) is under attack303.

In the efforts to re-define their reality the community argues that “Hell” is a social construct. All we know about “Hell” or “Death”, says Ammi, is that these are places that one cannot actually speak of from direct experience, but still a place none would agree to go to voluntarily304. In defining “death” Ammi relies on his interpretation of the Hebrew concept, which states that the punishment of death for

Adam and Eve was not that they would fall dead immediately, but rather their perception would change and as a result their values, intent, and behavior would change. What made them dead, although they were walking and physically breathing, was the fact that their intent and will were no longer connected with the will of God.305 Even their perception of God changed, and as a result when people envisioned freedom it was a short sighted freedom and in all reality equated with moving further away from the Creator.

In short, a certain type of freedom is equated with a possession of a certain type of knowledge. A “profane” freedom continues the captivity and keeps people ingesting lies rather than a diet of truth. A “righteous” type of freedom, according to

303 Ammi; The Resurrection; 26 304 Ammi; The Resurrection; 93 305 Ammi; The Resurrection; 102

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Ammi, frees one from submissiveness to the will of the Euro-gentile (which is synonymous with the evil way).306

The 1969 movement of the community to the State of Israel, via Liberia, is noted by Ammi as an awesome event. For the community it is significant in that it reconnected the African American freedom struggle of the 1960s and 1970s to “its biblical roots.” Such a struggle, rooted in God, would never be rendered incapable of producing righteous fruits. Ammi argues that Martin Luther’s King Jr.’s statement that “we will get to the mountain top” is realized in the group’s exodus to Israel. It is noted as a “prophetic statement” rooted in African messianic statements from times past. Progress, says Ammi, must be not only linked to the Bible, but the community’s brand of belief and worship. He told followers that:

Unless African Edenic people begin comprehending the truth… about how the bible (Hebrew canon) and prophecies have been employed behind the scene to determine their adversaries’ policies, and use a more scriptural- oriented approach to rescue the African continent and its inhabitants from their present situation, all progress will remain superficial.307

While reparations in the modern sense of the term are not frowned upon,

Ammi argues that the first type of reparation must be between a people and their

Creator rather than from one’s own oppressors. To be resurrected one must have not only a sense of self ,but also an additional understanding of what he/she as a human has stakes in. Once that is decided upon, then one can recognize that resurrection does not have to wait until one dies nor does it depend on a

Eurocentric concept of life308.

306 Ammi; The Resurrection; 58 307 Ammi; The Resurrection; 160 308 Ammi; The Resurrection; 194

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White/Euro/Euro-Gentiles

In the 35 instances that the term “Euro” was used either in the form of “Euro- centric”, “Euro-gentile” or “Euro-American”, over 50% of the references made mention of the satanic or adversarial world and institutions that people of African descent are subjected to. In reference to the educational institution of the United

States and the general European world Ammi states:

The buildings are immaculate, the campuses are extensive, the equipment is state-of-the-art. Instructors are plentiful and salaries are rewarding. These are all the lures to attract innocent souls to enter within her walls. They are called institutes of higher learning. They are the heartbeat and the pulse of the Euro-gentile, anti-God social system309.

Other passages suggests that the power behind the European world’s institutions or even America’s (“Euro-America”) system is not only “satanic” but guided either by Euro-centrism or ways of the Euro-gentile310.

Black/African-American/African

There were 18 references utilizing the term “Black” and they connected to sections in God, The Black Man, and Truth. Aside from 2 mentions of the Black struggle, more of the discussion was pertaining to the African. There were 51 references in the text utilizing the term “Africa.” Of the 51 instances, 10 were in reference to “African Americans” and basically urged the group to return to their heritage as opposed to that which had been imagined for them.

Six instances in which the term was used spoke to the issues of the hypocrisy of foreign entities infiltrating Africa as they simultaneously pump the image to the

309 Ammi; The Resurrection; 17 310 Ammi; The Resurrection; 17, 19, 26

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world of an impoverished, war driven/blood lusting, and needy Africa. Twenty-four times in which “Africa” was referenced in the text, Ammi argued that the real infatuation of Euro-gentile peoples with Africa is concerning the African devotion to the Creator. Ammi in fact, does not make a distinction between African culture and culture guided by the Creator of the Hebrews, Yah311.

Ammi argues that “African customs” were more closely “aligned with God and His principles” and that as a result, its customs and systems have been under attack. The African people, or African-Edenic people as Ammi posits have been primarily attacked in the area of religion and spirituality. He says that:

Slavery robbed people of their African values and replaced it with their own value system. Africa has become stigmatized as problematic… The Euro- centric idea has never been focused on freeing African Edenic people. The objective has always been to bind us, a prerequisite to plunder our house, and to take possession of everything of value.312

A page later the synthesis is more direct when he says that:

Contemporary religion, secured from an assault by Truth, has become the perfect weapon of control adopted by satanic society. It has rendered its African adherents completely powerless, with seemingly no tangible vision or power to affect any genuine change for the better. Regardless of their locale, be it on the continent of Africa or throughout the Diaspora, the plight of African people is similar.313

To confront the hegemonic invasion of the Euro-centric ideology, Ammi asserts that Africans need to carry an independent investigation in order to seek clarity in a number of areas. Firstly, it is suggested that independent investigation be undertaken in the area of truth, specifically in regards to how the bible had been

311 Ammi; The Resurrection; 26 – The real target , says Ammi, is “African or Yah- centric culture which is still too dominant in African countries.” 312 Ammi; The Resurrection; 143 313 Ammi; The Resurrection; 144

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employed “behind the scenes” to “determine their adversaries’ policies.” Secondly,

Ammi suggests that people of African descent “use a more scriptural-oriented approach” in order to “rescue the African continent and its inhabitants from their present situation.” Ammi contends that unless these steps are followed all progress will remain superficial.”314

“EGYPT”

Of the seven times the term “Egypt” was used, 100% of the time, whether in references to biblical passages or commentary, it was represented as an African geographic location, but a place of captivity. Ammi states:

Historically, it is obvious that whatever accomplishments the few amongst the chosen people achieved in righteousness, Israel as a whole continued their journey and course leading away from Yah, from their coming out of Ancient Egypt to their going into contemporary Egypt. It is evident that no significant directions-altering change occurred. The people did not hearken, nor were they inclined to alter their perception315.

THE RAMLE SEVEN: SEVEN MEN AND THE DESTINY OF A NATION

The text Ramle Seven: Seven Men and the Destiny of a Nation was written by

Shamiyah E. Elyahkeem. At the time of its publication in 2007, she was Director of the Prince Asiel Center for International Studies in Dimona, Israel. She was born in

Mississippi, made an exodus to Israel in 1974 and had served in both the community’s Ministry of Divine Education and the Ministry of Divine Economics.

314 Elyahkeem, Shamiyah E. The Ramle Seven: Seven Men and The Destiny of a Nation; Israel: Communicators Press; 2007; 160 315 Elyahkeem; The Ramle Seven; 103

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Provided in the work is the historical account of a time the group defines as the “time of judgment.” It traces the legacy of seven members of the African Hebrew

Israelites of Jerusalem that were detained and arrested as the community came under suspicion of the Israeli state. Members described the conditions they faced as one in which their rights as migrants and even repatriates into Israel were brought under question for no other reason than the fact that they refused to compromise when it came to defining themselves.

They were striving for human rights, but the State of Israel would only grant those rights if they would accept the label the state desired for them. As stated in the

Prologue their rights were:

…subsequently rescinded, and consequently, they were not accepted as part of the Lost Seed of Abraham. Israel was ready to accept the Hebrews and maintain a relationship with them similar to the Jewish-Black relationship in America: that being a superior-inferior, master-servant type relationship.316

They define a moment of their experience as “The Great Siege” in which the

Israeli army was sent after members of the group. Men were not able to work (for fear of being arrested and deported), and the community had little funds to provide for even basic necessities. The Great Siege of 1973 was a period when:

…the Israeli government began to actually send police officers to the work sites where the brothers were working, brothers would leave to go to work in the morning and simply not return. They’d be arrested, taken to Ramle prison, processed, and then sent back to America. It was very, very tense. Prince Shaleahk expected the police to come and surround the entire concentration of our housing, the major area where all of our apartments were centralized. Brother Ben Khayel HaGibor began to train us as to how to use the staffs, we actually were preparing for a physical confrontation with the Israeli police or the Israeli army, and our weapons were going to be our staffs. If the first line of defense would fall, the sisters would be lined up behind us, and behind them the children. This was our strategy. We were

316 Elyahkeem; The Ramle Seven; 15

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going to fight to the last soul, to earn the right to remain in this land. I remember we had to set up security shifts. It was three hours on, three hours off. This went on for a couple of weeks.317

Accordingly, the text does not only feature the historical account of their struggle in the State of Israel, but furthermore offers insight into the background of each of the individuals as they arrived in the State of Israel as members of the

African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem. The text mentions, for example, how one member named Abshalom recalls his experience as an African-American in the

United States prior to joining the community. He stated:

As I reflect back, I realize that I must have looked totally ridiculous in my store-brought keepah (crocheted headwear) and hand-sewn robe (I had never sewn anything prior to that garment) with nothing matching or coordinated. But my soul was crying out: “I am not a Negro!”318

AFRICAN AMERICAN/AFRICA/EGYPT

In a few references regarding African Americans, the author questioned the type of religion practiced by African Americans. He posited that their oppression had continued because the religions they followed were insufficient. One can assume that the writer is making the case that had one taken up an alternative belief system, basically one more in alignment with the African Hebrew Israelites of

Jerusalem, African Americans would have had the ability to escape the status that the United States placed on them. However, such an assertion is odd, since the challenges the members of the group themselves have documented in the text is much the same, they are just in a new geographic location.

317 Elyahkeem; The Ramle Seven; 84 318 Elyahkeem; The Ramle Seven; 75

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“Africa” is only referenced to speak of the Hebrew community in Israel

(“African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem”) and “Egypt” is mentioned 10 times throughout the text, referencing the modern Arab Egypt, specifically in regards to the conflict with the State of Israel. The connotations of the terms indicate that the group recognized a difference between Egyptians of ancient Africa and those of modern times who are not of African descent.

THE STATE OF ISRAEL/ISRAEL/ISRAELIS

The major discussion in the text pertains to the relationship between the

African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem and the State of Israel. In the 84 instances in which it is referenced, neither the state of Israel, nor its citizens are compared to the

Euro-gentile or Europeans. However, what does surface in the subliminal mentions of the commentary about the State of Israel, is a distinction between the African

Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem and the Jewish settlers that have citizenship in the

State of Israel. Their community shares commonalities with the Ancient Israelites while the modern European Israeli does not.

Elyahkeem argues that towards the “American slum dweller” (members of the community and the community itself), the Israeli government took a stance of

“toleration.” Once they began to speak out about their conditions publicly, the members argue that they were viewed as Israel’s “Black problem”319. In the time designated as the time of the Great Siege, accounts in the text explain the conditions as an environment in which the State of Israel went to war with the Children of

319 Elyahkeem; The Ramle Seven; 16

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Israel or as one of the accounts suggest, the existence of “confrontations between the Israel army and police forces and the Children of Yah.”320 Laws welcoming all

Jews were changed when this Black group entered into the country321, members of the community were arrested in mass while at work with intentions of deportation322, and the government in collaboration with the United States embassy, did everything in their power to keep the group from renouncing their US citizenship (taking a full workday to process one individual out of an entire group’s attempt at renouncement).323

After suffering a number of deportations and conflicts with the State of Israel, the community came to terms with the State of Israel in the 1990s. The group received temporary resident status which allowed them some social benefits, but with the condition that they allow no more members of the group to come in from the United States.

Later that year, states the author, the group signed an “Agreement of

Understanding” with the government in which legal status was acquired and the group in turn would receive temporary residency which included “rights”

(quotation marks is as it is written) of work permits, travel, education, and insurance. 324 In 2002 the State of Israel awarded permanent residency status to the group.325

320 Elyahkeem; The Ramle Seven; 17 321 Elyahkeem; The Ramle Seven; 21 322 Elyahkeem; The Ramle Seven; 25 323 Elyahkeem; The Ramle Seven; 28 324 Elyahkeem; The Ramle Seven; 144 325 Elyahkeem; The Ramle Seven; 144

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No explanation is provided by Elyahkeem as to why the community desired these statuses or what conditions they had to do to receive them. Generally, the obvious concern is that it took nearly forty years for the State of Israel to provide the community of settlers in its territory with reasonable assistance and protection.

And as a result, whom the Law of Return covers is subject to how members of the

Israeli government define what a Jew is. In a society that equates being a Jew with either being of European ancestry or following a Judaism guided by European sensibilities, it would certainly be challenging for those that do not fit in with that culturally sensitive framework. Given those circumstances, Elyahkeem asserts a victorious outcome for the Ramle Seven that is best exemplified by their acceptance in Israel and globally.

PHYSICAL IMMORTALITY CONQUERING DEATH

“Longevity is not immortality!” These words by Minister Ahmadiel Ben

Yehuda in the book’s foreword define the purpose and mission of this latest work by

Ben Ammi. In the text Ben Ammi proposes a methodological formula towards immortality. First, in re-conceptualizing immortality Ammi seeks to reconnect humanity with the Adamic mind, meaning, the Biblical Adam before the fall from grace after he and Eve partook from the forbidden tree. One issue in achieving immortality, says Ammi, is the belief in the Euro-gentile version/concept of immortality as longevity and the products it pedals towards those ends.

In re-conceptualizing immortality one must rid themselves of the Eurocentric concept of immortality and ultimately existence. Secondly “begin to see our mind,

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body, and soul as an absolute eternal whole.” Truth, he argues is an essential element for immortality. Ammi speaks of this metaphorically. If truth is as oxygen, then lies are those elements that block the inhalation of oxygen. This “Asphyxia” due to the oversaturation of lies, has led to a scenario in which people are without access to truth and ultimately in a doomed state326.

Another essential element to immortality is one’s dietary standard for the body and the mind. Ammi argues that what we put into our minds will determine what we define as suitable to put into our bodies as well as the earth and the atmosphere. Eventually, people have the ability to determine what other aspects of creation have the ability to produce. Being of a proper mental state is critical to

Ammi’s program of immortality. In fact, “Salvation” is not contingent upon whether or not one professes to being saved, but whether one is successful in rewiring their brain to protect against mental afflictions327. Notions that “life is short” or one urging another to “do what you can while you’re still here” are common phrases, that, according to Ammi, turn ones attention from what one does currently and towards what happens after they die.

Ammi suggests approaches towards re-sensitizing humanity towards immortality including meditation, emotionalization of feelings, and touching and speaking with creation, and repetitive and continuous application of each. Whether baking a cake or growing watermelons the formula holds true: if the results are not

326 Ben Ammi. Physical Immortality Conquering Death; Israel: Communicators Press; 2010; 21 327 Ammi; Physical Immortality; 30

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right, check the ingredients, the seeds, or the methods applied, as only the right formula can yield the right results328.

What Ben Ammi suggests is not a surefire way to immortality, but for him a sure response to those that posit that the only possibility is mortality. In suggesting that, “If immortality is not taught, then death wins by default” Ammi asserts that the question we should ask is – “How can I learn to live as long as I desire?”

EURO-AMERICAN/EUROPEAN/EURO-GENTILE

In this text, even in the infrequent use of Euro-based terms there exists a significant connotation as to how the “Euro” (Euro-gentiles, Euro-American, Euro- centric) terms are applied. Aside from the typical explanation of what is meant by

Euro-gentile in the “Notes To Our Readers” section, the three times it is used throughout the entire text are very informative. In the first usage of the term, Ben

Ammi promises that in the text he will:

…closely examine the Euro-centric social idea that has pulled off the greatest fraud in human history. It has cheated men of their manhood, woman of their womanhood, children of their childhood and immortals of their immortality. Also stolen in the heist was drinkable water, breathable air, rainforests and vital foods. All that was left in our possession was a ‘good’ education that indeed made us feel that it was the best experience to undergo on the planet. Thus convinced, we should do all in our power to persuade others to relinquish their sanity and share our fate329.

The methodology underlying such an adverse idea of immortality is attributed to the Euro-gentile people. So while there is not much use of the

328 Ammi; Physical Immortality; 77 329 Ammi; Physical Immortality; 12-13

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indicators typical of racial terminology, what the text alludes to, in its entirety is a system that is in fact predicated upon certain assumptions. He says that:

The Euro-centric idea’s transformation of the planet’s social, political, and economic institutions has led us to the brink of extinction and, except that its application is halted, there will be no flesh left alive on this planet. Under their influence, no nation/people have a future beyond chemically polluted waters, poverty, social inequality, social violence, wars and rumors of wars, polluted air, genetically modified and irradiated food (which destroys the corresponding nutritional content that was given to sustain a living soul) and inevitable extinction.330

However, we must understand the extreme fear to seek solutions to our problems beyond those prescribed by the present dominant Euro-centric social system. Nevertheless, in these, the days of the Kingdom, the eternalizing of body and soul will become commonplace while death and physical infirmities will be increasingly uncommon. In the future it will be eternal life that will be taken for granted and not death. However, I am aware that sickness and disease in this world have been enshrined and given great power. It is going to require great courage and an irrepressible will to live beyond the present experience to overcome them. 331

BLACK/AFRICAN-AMERICAN/AFRICAN

In this text, the overt reference to racial categories is minimal. However, any indication that the text is race neutral is cast aside early on. The term “Africa” is used only seven times throughout the text. Of these, three times it is in reference to

African Americans returning to the Promised Land under the leadership of Ben

Ammi. It is also noted, in the footnote as “the largest organized settlement of African

Americans anywhere outside of the United States.”

From this statement, two questions arise. (1) If the group is returning to

Africa, why is it not noted as a re-settlement, and (2) If it is the largest settlement of

African Americans anywhere outside of the United States, which label is being

330 Ammi; Physical Immortality; 19 331 Ammi; Physical Immortality; 40-41

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privileged; African American, African, or Hebrew? This is not to necessarily suggest that the group is confused, but that even in trying to appear racially neutral, glaring revelations regarding race are visible.

DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

Each text featured in it a proposed map towards salvation with the African

Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem leading the way. In a world ruled by two forces “Yah” and “Satan”, how one maneuvered that world was contingent upon personal realization of truth and the decision as to which side one would choose to live according to. Throughout the analysis of the publications, much of the concepts utilized spoke to this dual world and the two choices individuals could make in order to navigate to each pole. Ammi’s “Law of Relativity” suggested that one truly reaped what they sowed and although people had choices, the only true choice was that which was not the lie. It was suggested that one had to make the conscious decision to cleave to regenerative decisions rather than degenerative ones in order to experience heaven on earth rather than hell on earth. Ammi and other members of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem asserted that the world of today is filled with imitations and in order to realize the imitations, one only needed to reflect on the conditions they found themselves in as evidence.

In the publications of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem no voice within the community loomed larger than that of Ben Ammi’s. Even the publications that were not written by him contained passages from his texts and concepts he developed. In addition, every writer credited Ammi with not only serving as their

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greatest influential figure but as a Messiah or Savior. In order to better situate the assessment of the pyramidal elements, the next couple of pages are devoted to explaining the magnitude of his influence within the community, his role to the community as “Messiah”, his ushering in the era of the Kingdom of God, and how this role serves as a distinguishing factor from other communities of other African communities claiming Israelite heritage.

BEN AMMI AS THE MESSIAH

In the Front Matter of Ben Ammi’s God the Black Man and Truth, Gavriel

HaGadol, a childhood friend of Ammi’s and high ranking member of the African

Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, explained how Ammi conceptualized and directed the community’s establishment of “the long-awaited Kingdom of God – on earth.”332

He suggested that as a “master teacher” and chosen communicator with God, Ammi had taken up a “prophetic mandate to lead all men- in word and deed – back unto

God.”333 HaGadol is quoted as saying:

First of all, I am forever indebted to my mentor, Saviour, brother and friend Ben Ammi, who has taught me, loved me, carried me, inspired me and directed me in a way no man could adequately describe. To my people, the Messianic Nation, who motivated me to write this book in the first place.334

Truly God has intervened into the affairs of men. There is now hope for those who acknowledge this and worship Him. We are presently living in the Messianic Age. The Messiah himself has come in the personage of he who established the Kingdom of God at Jerusalem, Israel, Northeastern Africa.335

332 Ben Ammi, God, The Black Man; 2 333 Ben Ammi, God, The Black Man; 2 334 HaGadol, The Impregnable People; v 335 HaGadol and Israel, The Impregnable People; 6

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Foundational to the community’s doctrine is the notion that Ammi followed a divine mandate to lead African Americans and others back to God336. In prefaces to his writings and other texts written by members of the community, he is referred to by a number of monikers, including one who has brought them back to God337,

“Messianic Leader of the Kingdom of God” 338, “Man of God” 339, “The Holy

Messiah”340, and “The Holy Father”.341

These terms reflect not only the highest reverence for him, but also an assertion that his words are God’s words. Thus, his writings and the interpretations and perspectives from his own assumptions (or as his community would suggest his translation of God’s words) set much of the epistemological framework for the community. Concepts are coined and articulated in his writings.

Since within the community Ben Ammi is accepted as the Messiah, and hence leader of God’s Messianic Kingdom on Earth, those others that fail to acknowledge his interpretations or leadership have, in effect, turned their backs on God. The

Kingdom of God is the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem’s attempt at creating a location whereby which those that desire to worship the “true” God could do so without worry or concern. HaGadol suggests that:

Truly God has intervened into the affairs of men. There is now hope for those who acknowledge this and worship Him. We are presently living in the Messianic Age. The Messiah himself has come in the personage of he who has established the Kingdom of God at Jerusalem, Israel, Northeastern Africa.342

336 Eliyahshuv; Highway; 23 337 Ben Ammi, Imitation; 14 338 Ben AMmi, Imitation; d 339 Ben Ammi, Imitation; d 340 Elyakeem, Ramle Seven; 6 341 Karaliah; The Sacred Diet; 3 342 HaGadol and Israel; The Impregnable People; 6

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It has been reiterated throughout their writings that Ammi was a resurrection of Yeshua (Jesus). For example, Taahmenyah Elyahshuv, a priest of the

African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem asserts that Ben Ammi is the world’s newly arrived Messiah. He suggests that as the newly anointed Messiah, Ammi ushers in the 8th and final Covenant (which the author coins as the “Ben Ammiac

Covenant”)343. He states:

Ben Ammi “has come” to fulfill the promises and prophecies that were unfulfilled during the advent of Yeshua (Deut 30:3), “Kingdom” (Gen 1:26-28; Zech 12; 8-14), “Day of the Lord” (Isaiah 2:1-10, Rev 19:11). One must make the conscious decision to come out of this world and come into the new world government governed by men who are governed by God. Only in the Kingdom of God will humanity experience heaven and paradise on earth as in the first Genesis by once again being in harmony with God and the creations of God. Those that hath ears to hear, let them hear!344

To members of the community, Ben Ammi’s role as “The Messiah” was further entrenched when the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) initiated its counter-intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) and stated that they desired to “prevent the rise of the Black messiah.”345 HaGadol asserted that

Federal Bureau of Investigation Chief J. Edgar Hoover sought desperately to prevent the rise of a Black Messiah, as we were to learn two decades later. We were so intoxicated with the spirit of Blackness and blinded by our own euphoria, that we never realized the conspiracy being formulated in the board rooms of white corporations and government offices to quell a movement that would incite the spirit of Blacks. Neither did we fully comprehend the power behind our spiritual awakening. Like Pharaoh in ancient Egypt who destroyed the male children and Herod in Jerusalem who murdered the first born sons, the American power elite conspired to prevent the redemptive work of the Living God. And like their ancient and foolish

343 Elyahshuv; Highway of the Seed; 20 344 Elyahshuv; Highway of the Seed; 23 345 HaGadol and Israel, The Impregnable People; 109

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predecessors, they would fail. There was no way I could know it at that time, but the object of their scheme was my childhood friend Ben.346

Aside from linking ancient Egypt to the “ancient and foolish” Roman Empire and American government, the quote speaks to the community’s conscious effort at negotiation, transforming events pertaining to the general African American experience to “prophetic” moments. For members of the community, the proof was in the terms employed. The FBI’s attempt at preventing the rise of the “Black

Messiah” was indication of a spiritual attack on God. Since they claimed Ben Ammi as The Black Messiah, they saw the FBI’s program as a direct attack aimed at the

African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, although history actually revealed that

COINTELPRO was aimed at black organizations and individuals including the Black

Panthers, Philadelphia’s Revolutionary Action Movement, and the personages of

Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), and Maxwell Stanford Jr.

(Muhammad Ahmed) amongst others.

As the community overcame threats of deportation, mass arrests, criminalization, and negative press coverage (events all attributed to the FBI’s war on the Black Messiah), Ben Ammi was claimed to have ushered in a new era in the world. It is stated:

The Great Siege signified a new era in the Kingdom of Yah, and He who was called ben Ammi, the Son, Nasik HaShalom (the Prince of Peace), Rahbee (the Master Teacher), the Messiah, and the Anointed would become known because of His righteousness. His great dedication to truth and His great wisdom. The testimonies of the Ramle Seven was one of the ways that He became known as the Great Peacemaker and a great Savior of righteous men.347

346 HaGadol and Israel, The Impregnable People; 51-52 347 Elyakeem, Ramle Seven; 23

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For members of Ben Ammi’s community in Dimona, his role as “Messiah” allowed him “divine” authority to select national heroes348 and to dismiss members who have “lost their way”349.

Utilizing a biblical passage from the Book of Isaiah, Taahmenyah Elyahshuv situates Ben Ammi’s divine role 350 as an ushering in of “the” messianic kingdom351.

He states:

From its pinnacle to its fall, the redemption of humanity has always been linked to a messianic man or woman sent by the Holy One of Israel. Modern theological teaching has proliferated the concept of a messiah, but one that has caused people to look to the clouds for deliverance rather than for that messianic man or woman in their own midst.352Almighty God has judged this civilization as the Civilization of Deception for it has been during the tenure of this civilization that satan, through his liberal democratic institutions has deceived the whole world. The presence of Ben Ammi HaMasheahk signals the end of the dominion of the Civilization of Deception and the end of the famine of Truth, and that the physical demise of the infrastructure of this civilization is at hand.353

Not all members of the community went along with the title. According to

Prince Asiel, the title of Messiah was a product of Ben Ammi’s perversion of the

348 Elyakeem, Ramle Seven; 24 – Ben Khayel HaGibor, one of the members of the Ramle Seven was ordained the first national hero of the community by Ben Ammi. 349 Jackson, Thin Description; 259 350 “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this”. Isaiah 9:6-7 351 Eliyahshuv, The Highway; 19-20 “The Holy One of Israel then called forth in this 7th and final Dispensation of time, the Messiah, Ben (son of Adam) Ammi. It is here also, the Creator made the 8th and final Covenant with the Children of Israel. Their charge is and has always been to be a witness that God not only exists but can live in man and illustrate the blessedness of serving the true God. The 8th covenant with Yah establishes that one’s Israeliteness would no longer be based on genealogy. (Jeremiah 31:31-33)” 352 Eliyahshuv, The Highway; 3 353 Eliyahshuv; Highway; 23

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original vision of the community, one that was envisioned by Ben Ammi in collaboration with Asiel and Nasik Shaleakh Ben Yehuda in 1970.354 Prince Asiel was eventually removed from his post and suspended from the community indefinitely.

The larger Black Hebrew world would have issue with how Ben Ammi’s community claims him as “The” Messiah since it asserts his messiahship for all, including those Hebrew communities not of the African Hebrew Israelites of

Jerusalem. Secondly, the labeling of their community as the “Kingdom of Yah” may be seen as problematic since other Hebrew communities of African descent do not recognize it as such, but rather as just another Hebrew congregation355. Certainly,

Ammi and the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem would probably argue that such detractors are non-believers and part of the original groups that refused to support their initial exodus from the United States of America. Whether one is a

Messiah, or whether a Messiah even exists, is a point of contention between most

Hebrew communities since the question of freedom and liberation from the great captivity has not yet been achieved. The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem’s contention that they have the Messiah in their community, belief that they have ushered in the long awaited Kingdom of God, and the fact that they have made such a determination unilaterally without consulting other Hebrew communities of

African descent has understandably ruffled some feathers. Such contentions are

354 “A Letter of Great Importance from the Ambassador”; October 9, 2011. In the letter Asiel states his side of the story in the split from Ben Ammi’s leadership and the community. He suggests that Ben Ammi has ruled as a dictator and in the process stifled the original intent of the community. Also in Jackson’s Thin Description, pages 259-260 discuss some of the background of the rift including a footnoted response from Ahmadiel Ben Yehudah to the charges levied by Asiel. 355 Jackson; Thin Description; 299-308

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brought to the surface when a minority makes decisions for a majority. Even in the cases when the minority makes a fully realistic decision, the majority may feel diminished or marginalized in the process. In these cases, it is easier for hostilities to materialize.

Nonetheless, the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem’s utilization of the power of definition in order to re-define their own desired realities is indispensable to understanding their belief in the necessity of controlling their own vision. Though they vest in Ben Ammi the authority to define their realities, their viewing him as

Messiah and voice of God on earth only reinforces the practice of the ultimate form of faith, trusting God through his anointed.

Not unexpectedly, their works revealed a number of contradictions. This is human, and certainly probable given the politicized and hostile contexts of much of the group’s experiences, however, when synthesized, the findings from each text revealed a clear philosophy, ethos, and plan toward life. How each construct measures out in regard to the central elements of this study – grounding, orientation, and location – is displayed below.

GROUNDING

In all of the texts examined, it was found, whether written by Ben Ammi or other members, the framework referred to for explaining the group’s reality are, more often than not, biblical references. For example, in re-conceptualizing ideas of

“life” and “death”, “immortality”, “gender roles”, and even “geography” the group relied on Biblical data. Humanity, returning to a nature-oriented position was noted

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as “Edenic” or “Adamic.” Africa, and areas of what is commonly referred to as

“Middle East” (Israel included) are re-interpreted as “Northeast Eden.” In critiquing

Euro-Gentile domination, the institutions of Western Society are compared with the

“wicked”356 institutions of ancient time such as Babylon and Assyria. Racialization, deception, and European hegemony are all associated with the way of the “Euro- gentiles” but these ways are also the ways of Satan, or that which is “Anti-Yah”.

Interestingly enough, it is not a simple reading of the Bible that the group relies on but a purposeful re-interpretation away from Eurocentric bounds. Images of “angels” conceived through the prism of Eurocentrism are ridiculed for not portraying the people of the book in their proper essence, and as such, angels are reconceptualized by Ammi and the other writers of the community, as any individual doing the work and will of The Creator, rather than mystical figures with wings. More importantly, ancient Israelites are not European but one of many

African peoples.

As evidence of what is wrong with humanity’s relationship with nature and one another, these writers from time to time cite newspaper and magazine articles covering events that justified their predictions. For example, in Immortality, Ammi discussed the numerous “lifestyle diseases” that people had been deceived into seeing as normal. He cites online articles from “The natural health perspective”, the

“Jamaican observer” and “people.com” as evidence of his suggestion listing the issue of “lifestyle diseases” although no mention is made of who the authors of the cited

356 “Wicked” too is re-conceptualized from a Biblical standpoint as those that are against the will and way of “Yah”

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articles are nor an introduction as to what makes them legitimate357. In God the

Black Man and Truth, Ammi cites Carter G Woodson’s The Mis-Education of the

Negro and Amy Jacques Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, not as basis for any historical discussion, but for discussion of how people of African descent in the

United States of America should improve their conditions.

The only historical text mentioned as evidence of an African element in Asia and for Israelite heritage was Joseph Wiliams’ Hebrewisms of West Africa which itself cites the work of Harry Johnston and Professor W. Max Miller to state that the ancient Babylonians too were Black (possessing Negroid features). In discussing the

Israelite presence in Egypt, he cites the work of Biblical historian Samuel Mercer who argued that in 1650 BCE Jacob and his family may have been Hyksos but refers to nothing but biblical narratives to suggest that they were also slaves while in ancient Egypt358.

In certain areas contradictions emerge. Firstly, since the group relies overwhelmingly on the Biblical narrative and since the Hebraic term “Mzraim” is translated by “common” translations into “Egypt” the group associates the perception the Israelites had with those who were of “Mzraim” with those the interpreters associate as “Egyptians.” While the group accepts the fact that the people of Ancient Egypt (Mzraim) were African and Black, they argue that the

Egyptians were as great as are the western empires are of modernity were, and similarly failed in its appeal to morality. This association is problematic in a number of ways. Firstly, one must ask which part of Ancient Egypt is the term “Mzraim”

357 Ben Ammi; Immortality; 54-55 358 Ben Ammi; God The Black Man and Truth; 10-11

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referring? Secondly, what time frame is under discussion? A non-reliance on historical facts and context causes the group to falter in its understanding of the possibilities of the historical context. This limitation has the group to fold all of its narrative of Israelites being forced to build cities and under bondage by a people of

“Mzraim” into the entire 3500-year history of Ancient Egypt. Since location is inherently based on grounding, this sometimes ahistorical logic has a significant impact on how the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem perceive both the African world and their vision for the African world.

In seizing the power to define, the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem have seized control of their narrative and reverted back to the time of “Adam” whereby which he asserted his power as a human to name that which he saw according to its nature as he interpreted it. In their re-naming and re-defining of their reality, they assert their agency. However, at times their re-definition is predicated upon a certain type of dogmatism rather than a complete historically grounded reality. Whereas the possession of the Edenic mind is envisioned as the original ideal state of mind. the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem continue to utilize the isolated Biblical interpretation of ancient Egypt as wicked and evil despite a plethora of information that details a 3,500 year history of its people and dynasties. They also suggest that the wretched condition of African Americans are owed to Africans following the wrong God and following the God of the European as slaves in the United States. In such cases, traditional African practices (and its people) are negated for not following a Hebraic way of life. Those who were

Hebrew and shipped to the Americas transgressed by succumbing to Euro-Gentile

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ideologies and imitations. Such an understanding of history is limited and equally influential on the degree of one’s identification with other members of the African world.

ORIENTATION

There are a number of reference groups identified in the literature, including a significant mention of the Euro-Gentiles, however, no other people are mentioned more by the writers than “African-Americans,” “Hebrews” and “Israelites.” As indicated by the title of Ben Ammi’s first book, God, The Black Man, and Truth,

Ammi’s focus was on specifying the “true” idea of “God” to the Black world. But the

Black world, as identified in the text, only includes continental Africans and Africans in the United States of America (African-Americans). The reference to “Africa” is indicative of both a geographic location, and the heritage from which the writers assume African American people originated. Aside from those African peoples claimed by AHIJ writers to have connections with a Hebrew heritage (“Hebrewisms” as discussed in Joseph Williams’ text), and the group’s experience with the Liberians

(as discussed in Gavriel HaGadol’s text), specific African peoples were not mentioned. In the literature, other African peoples were mainly non-existent.

Though the group refers to itself as African, the writers representing the African

Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem project a view of Africa that is directly determined by the African group’s assumed proximity to the Hebrew way of life as they interpret it.

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The constant references to the Ancient Hebrews, or the Ancient Israelites, correlates with the standard for behavior the members of the group assert. In fact, in defining its new world as the “Kingdom of Yah,” the group envisions a world in which people of modernity live in alignment with the principles Ammi and others in the community envision as those exemplified by the ancient people. As mentioned earlier, in the orientation stage, the reference typically corresponds to the section of the Bible prior to the “fall” of humanity (as symbolized by the partaking of the forbidden tree by Adam and Eve). In predicating its future vision off of this aspect of the narrative, the writers are able to regain more of a freedom to re-imagine the vision according to what the current moment desires.

At times, conversations in the literature directed towards African Americans offered no distinction between them and the Israelites captured, enslaved, and shipped to the New World. In other words, the literature suggested the perception that African Americans are of Israelite heritage, but are unaware. As such, it appears that the writings of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem are intended to

“awaken” the African Americans to their Hebrew heritage. But this approach rests on faulty logic, since, for one, history tells us that there were people of various ethnicities and belief systems throughout the African continent that were captured before being shipped into the United States. There are remnants of people of various traceable African ethnicities in the United States that are not of Hebrew descent.

Secondly, the assumption that all people of African descent in the United

States are Israelites relies on a logic that the narrative intended for people of the

Israelite faith and culture is a universal text for all people of African descent. This

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approach is not in any way different from the approach Eurocentric ideology takes towards those not adhering to its standards. For example, Eurocentrism’s conceptualizations of democracy, progress, or success, are the only ones worth noting, and all that reject it have no true idea of these concepts. This exemplifies not only the pitfalls of following biblical logic without appropriate historical understandings, but also the challenge of conceptualizing one’s reality in a world dominated by Eurocentric approaches to phenomena. Oftentimes a clean break is more difficult than can be imagined.

Fran Markowitz was accurate in her assertion that the group was free in their re-conceptualization of reality, but incorrect in attributing this re-conceptualization to a “soul” feeling, rather than a fully conscious, thought out process. The group has skillfully devised not only a ideology that helped them to leave the United States of

America, but also the wherewithal to envision a plan to bring others of African descent with them. The argument promoted by Rabbi Israel Gerber in 1977,

Graenum Burger in 1978, and Markowitz in 2006, that the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem are infatuated with the Jewish people, or, as Markowitz suggests, possess the desire to replicate (almost to the effect of removing and replacing) the

Jewish people, is unfounded in the analysis.

In fact, even within the two texts that feature accounts of the group’s interaction with Israelis or practitioners of Judaism, the African Hebrew Israelites of

Jerusalem somehow managed to avoid discussing in depth their relationship with their Israeli counterparts. For the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem to assert that the Ancient Israelites were people of African descent and darker hued, it does

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suggest does suggest that their claiming Israelite heritage hinges upon an exclusion of all that are non-African from the same direct ancestral descendence. However, in the few references made to the European Jews, the African Hebrew Israelites of

Jerusalem do not identify them as Euro-Gentiles neither do they identify them as

Ancient Israelites. Likewise, the reference to the Euro-Gentile is only as a reference as to what not to do, and, as suggested, a measuring rod to see how far the true people of God have strayed from Creator and Creation.

In Gavriel HaGadol’s text, it is mentioned that he and Ben Ammi’s growth in consciousness, aside from the will and allowance of the Creator, was directly attributed to their looking to the examples of Adam Clayton Powell. Powell’s voice, according to HaGadol, “over-shadowed the conservative talk of A. Philip Randolph, and Roy Wilkins” and “captured a part of our souls, stirring a dormant fire in us.”359

Ammi and HaGado also came to a global African consciousness when looking at the cases of Kwame Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba, realizing that people of African descent irrespective of physical location were under attack. While the resentment of the United States grew, the sense of solidarity and responsibility between themselves as African Americans with other African Americans and Africans were further solidified.

Throughout much of the literature analyzed, there was constant reverential reference to the personages of Martin Delaney, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King

Jr., and Malcolm X. The group argued that in returning to and settling in Northeast

Africa, they have not only followed the lead of Garvey and Delaney, but have fulfilled

359 HaGadol; The Impregnable People; 57

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the dreams that each voiced. Regarding Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., reference is continuously made to the last speech he made before he was assassinated in

Tennessee. The assertion that “we will get to the promised land” and that he has

“seen the mountaintop” but cannot “get there with you” were taken as prophetic statements prophesying the settlement of an African American community in the promised land. The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem settlement in Israel, was the fulfillment of the prophetic call to return to the Promised Land. It was suggested as a fulfillment of King’s prophetic words. In similar fashion, they saw their refusal to integrate into American society and their subsequent settlement in the promised land as an additional fulfillment of Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X’s calls for self- determination and separation as opposed to integration.

If one displays orientation’s by identification with ancestors, heroes, kinsmen, or those venerated and personalized, it becomes clear from the literature that the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem value notions of African Agency and a certain race centrality. Although the purview is limited mainly to a continental

African and African American dynamic, the focus is on people of African descent. As much as Mazama’s acknowledgement that Garvey in his religious concepts may have had some bit of influence by European education, I would argue as Mazama, that that the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem should be appreciated for their

“victorious sense” regarding the struggle for self-determination.360

In the literature it was found that Ben Ammi’s use of the term “White” decreased since 2001, while usage of the terms “Europe”, “European”, and “Euro-

360 Mazama; The Afrocentric Paradigm; 12

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American” decreased since 1999. In addition, every year that Ben Ammi had written, his use of the term “African-American” decreased. Beginning with the publication of

God and the Law of Relativity his usage of the term “Black” dropped significantly with each subsequent publication.

In sum, it is concluded that reference to “racial” terms or terminologies have decreased since the 1990s. Culminating with the Immortality text, it appeared as if a conscious decision was made not to use racialized terminology or at least to give that appearance. It may be argued that the decrease in the utilization of racial terminologies was due to the subject matter of the text. For example, God the Black

Man and Truth was specifically geared towards an African American population, while The Impregnable People was concerned with documenting an African-

American experience. However, if a racial discussion was not intended, Ben Ammi and other writers may have utilized another term rather than “Euro-gentiles” as a representative of whom the “satanic world” or “wicked system.”

Alternatively, such a drastic reduction in discussion of racial terminologies and racialization may suggest that the community has purposefully shied away from offering a critique on the State of Israel. Aside from the African Hebrew Israelites claiming themselves as the true descendants of the Ancient Israelites, there is little to no discussion of the people they share space with in Israel. The silence speaks volumes. Is this indicative of the “agreement” mentioned in The Ramle Seven? As alluded to earlier in this work, since the 1990s they achieved temporary residency status and eventually permanent residency and citizenship in the 21st Century. As witnessed in the literature review, once the last decade of the 20th century ensued,

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media coverage changed its approach to the group. No longer was the group characterized as criminals and misfits, but eventually referred to as a community welcomed in Israel. Evidence from the content analysis suggests that the members of the group were less frequent in their critique of the State of Israel.

This fact, including their wanting to no longer being referred to as “Black” or

“African” Hebrew Israelites, but just Hebrew Israelites, combined with fact that members of the community joined the Israeli military, provides insight into the group’s relationship with the State of Israel. As news outlets are reporting that fellow Africans (as migrants) and fellow Israelites (those of the Ethiopia Beta Israel community) have been mistreated and labeled as undesirables in the State of Israel, how the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem respond may offer further insight on their orientation. Not much has been offered publicly from the African Hebrew

Israelites of Jerusalem in regards to the expulsion of African migrants, and the manner by which the expulsion has transpired. One is left to wonder as to whether the relationship the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem has forged with the State of Israel since the 1990s, required that they blunt their critique regarding matters of race.

Although they name Liberia as “the bush” and “wilderness”, and Ancient

Egypt is as the evil land of Babylon, the literature of the African Hebrew Israelites of

Jerusalem present clear evidence of an orientation to African Americans and continental Africans. Worth discussing is their relationships to other Israelite groups and where their orientation to these other communities lay.

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The Beta Israel361 community of Gondar (Ethiopia) is one of the more widely known communities of African descent claiming Israelite heritage. Since they had been recognized in 1975 as “Jews” by the State of Israel, the Beta Israel have undergone several airlifts from Ethiopia into Israel. Although they possessed their own unique Torah scrolls, oral traditions, practices, and clerics, they were ordered upon arrival in Israel to undergo a formal conversion to the form of Judaism recognized by the Israeli authorities.

Ben-Jochannen argued that this was problematic since the Beta Israel (whom he refers to as the “Agaw”) were no longer being persecuted by the Ethiopian government, although “propaganda” had been publicized suggesting otherwise. He asserted that the propaganda behind the airlifts had an ulterior motive: to have an

African form of Judaism eradicated since it naturally challenged the European version.362 For Ben-Jochannen, the re-conversion was problematic, as the Beta

Israel had just as much rights to claim authority over their own Jewish status as the

European to claim their own brand.363 Despite Ben-Jochannen’s arguments against the Beta-Israel going into an Israel occupied by “White Zionist Jews,”364 a significant number made the voyage.

361 The Beta Israel are also referred to in Ethiopia as “Falasha”, “Falashim”, or “Falasha Mura” (Outcasts) but they refuse the term since it is regarded by them as a derogatory label. For more explanation of the issues with the term “Falasha” See David F. Kessler’s The Falashas: A Short History of the Ethiopian Jews. Routledge; 2012; xiii , Daniel Summerfield’s From Falashas to Ethiopian Jews: The External Influences for Change C. 1860-1960. New York: Psychology Press; 2003; 133 362 Ben-Jochannen; We The Black Jews; 270 363 Ben-Jochannen; We The Black Jews; 399 364 Ben-Jochannen; We The Black Jews; 270

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Similar to the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, a number of Beta Israel joined the Israeli Defense Forces, but unlike the African Hebrew Israelites of

Jerusalem, members of the Beta Israel participated in Israeli politics.365 However, both currently reside in the State of Israel, and as people of African descent, share the experience as being subjected to racial discrimination. A recent Israeli news article suggested that 95 percent of Israelis agreed that racism was prevalent, including a whopping 79 percent, which stated that Ethiopians were the most racialized group in the state.366 In 2012, Shlomo Molla the first Ethiopian Jew to be elected to the Knesset367, penned an open letter to the people of Israel detesting the

“cold” treatment of Ethiopians, as evidenced by discriminatory job and housing opportunities368. In 2013 Pnina Tamano-Shata, the first woman from the Beta Israel to be elected to the Knesset, was rejected from participating in a blood drive due to her African heritage.369 Although the two groups share similarities of circumstance, the Beta Israel have integrated into society at a faster rate than the African Hebrew

365 Newspaper accounts mentioned the recent 2013 Knesset election three “Ethiopian Jews”; Pnina Tamano-Shata, Shlomo Molla (who had been reelected), and Alli Admaso. 366 “Poll: 95:of Israelis believe racism is a proplem” haaretz.com March 17, 2014; last accessed June 19, 2014. http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/1.580293 367 “Making history: Ethiopian immigrant MK Shlomo Molla appointed deputy Knesset speaker” Israel HaYom. August 4, 2011. Last accessed June 19, 2014. http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=590 368 Molla, Shlomo “Open leter from Shlomo Molla, Ethiopian-Israeli Knesset Member” Al Monitor. January 2012. Last accesed June 19, 2014. http://www.al- monitor.com/pulse/originals/2012/al-monitor/article-by-mk-shlomo-molla.html# 369 Linder-Ganz, Ronny. “Ethiopian blood affair in Kneset a political ambush”. December 13, 2013. Last accessed June 19, 2014. http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.563273 . See also Azulay, Moran “MDA reject blood of MK of Ethiopian descent”. December 11, 2013. Last Accessed June 19 2014. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L- 4464240,00.html

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Israelites of Jerusalem, although they have been in the country for a shorter period of time.

Equally important to the discussion of orientation is a brief analysis of the relationship between the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem and the Lemba. The

Lemba, a people currently in Malawi, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, are also included in the community of Africans claiming Israelite heritage. Relying solely on their oral narratives and no physical text, they have continued to observe practices of the

Ancient Israelites: including observing a seventh day Sabbath; performing the ritual of animal sacrifices according to ancient Israelite traditions; and consuming meat and other food items according to the torah diet.370 Their narratives suggest that under the leadership of their priestly clan they were led out of Judaea into Yemen before finally traversing into the African continent.371 Tudor Parfitt, one of the scholars leading the efforts to research the Lemba, suggests that the Lemba’s sacred ngoma lugundu, or “the drum that thunders,” is in fact their replica of the Ark of the

Covenant.372 DNA tests concluded that not only were more than 50% of the Lemba found to have originated in the Middle East373, but that a significant amount of males

370 Le Roux, Magdel. The Lemba: A Lost Tribe of Israel in Southern Africa? South Africa: Unisa Press. 2003; 174-186 see also Vickers, Steve. “Lost Jewish tribe ‘fond in Zimbabwe’. BBC News; March 8, 2010; last accessed June 18, 2014. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8550614.stm . 371 Parfitt, Tudor. Journey to the Vanished City: The Search for a Lost Tribe of Israel. New York: Vintage: 1st Vintage Departures (ed edition).; 2000; 12, 87, 300-328 372 Parfitt, Tudor. “The Lemba an African Judaizing Tribe” in Judaizing movements: Studies in the Margins of Judaism, edited by Parfitt, Tudor, and Trevisan-Semi E. London: Routledge Curzon, 2002; 30-49 373 Thomas, Mark G. ; Parfitt, T.; Weiss, Deborah A; Skorecki, K; Wilson, James F.; leRoux, Magdiel; Bradman, N; and Goldstein David B.; “Y Chromosomes Traveling South: The Cohen Modal Haplotype and the Origins of the Lemba – the “Black Jews of Southern Africa”; The American Journal of Human Genetics; February 2000; 66:2;

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of their Buba clan carried the Cohanim Modal Haplotype (CMH), a marker prevalent amongst Jewish priests.374 Interestingly enough the Buba have always been considered by the Lemba to be the clan consisting of their priests. Although DNA linkages have been found that connect the Lemba to the people of Judaea and

Yemen, their “Jewishness” is still in question by the State of Israel.375 On the account that there was no documentation of an unbroken matrilineal line of descent amongst the Lemba, the Orthodox rabbinical authorities and ultimately the State of

Israel have yet to recognize them officially.376

Unlike the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, who as of 2010 became citizens in the State of Israel, the Lemba continue to reside in Zimbabwe, Malawi, and South Africa. Despite this contrast, they both share in their being classified by the Israeli government as Non-Jews. The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem refuse to convert to the Israeli’s version of Judaism, and reject subjecting themselves to DNA tests on the basis that Judaism exists in the brain, and in the responsibility

674-686; and see Spurdle, A.B.; and Jenkins, T. “The origins of the Lemba ‘Black Jews’ of southern Africa: evidence from p12F2 and other Y-chromosome markers.” American Journal of Human Genetics; November 1996; 59:5; 1126-1133 ; See also Wade, Nicholas “DNA Backs a Tribe’s Tradition of Early Descent from the Jews”; The New York Times. May 9, 1999. Last accessed June 19, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/09/us/dna-backs-a-tribe-s-tradition-of-early- descent-from-the-jews.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm 374 This classification of a “Jewish” priest is in itself questionable since the prototypical Jewish Priest have not had to have their DNA measured by anyone predating them. The basis upon which the Priestly link is established is not itself scientifically founded. 375 Soodyall, H. “Lemba origins revisited: tracing the ancestry of Y chromosomes in South African and Zimbabwean Lemba”, South African Medical Journal. 2013 Oct 11: 103; 1009-1013 376 Parfitt, Tudor and Egorova, Yulia. Genetics, Mass Media and Identity: A Case Study on the Genetic Research on the Lemba; Routledge; 2006; 73-88 see also Tudor Parfitt’s Black Jews in Africa and the Americas. Harvard University Press; 2013

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one takes on, not necessarily in “the genes or the ethnicity”377. While the Lemba have taken DNA tests and have been linked with what scientists argue is an exclusive priestly chromosome, their claims to ancient Israel and eventual claims to the land of modern Israel are rejected by Israeli authorities.

Also informative for this study and discussion on orientation is the relationship between African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem and other Hebrew communities of African descent in the United States. Rabbi Capers Funnye, leader of

Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation, expressed the opinion that many Hebrews that call themselves Jewish were in no way connected to

Judaism, including “the ‘black Hebrews’ living in Dimona, Israel.378 Oddly enough,

Funnye’s congregation was created by a merge between one of the congregations that Ben Ammi’s teacher, Landar Buie used to attend in the 1930s (The

Congregation of Ethiopian Hebrews). In the 1930s and 1940s it was under the leadership of Rabbi Abihu Ben Reuben, who was ordained by Rabbi Wentworth

Matthew. As suggested earlier in the Preface, Matthew himself received his authority from Rabbi Ford, the UNIA Choir Director that found solitude and clerical authority through the Beta Israel community while in Ethiopia. Funnye, member of

Chicago’s mainstream Board of Rabbis, and cousin to First Lady Michelle Obama, suggests that in his brand of Judaism, Black Jews do not convert but rather return to

Judaism. As the author of the article suggests Funnye’s brand stems from his

377 Kamin, Debra. “The Lost Sheep of the House of Israel” April 7, 2014. The Times of Israel. Accessed June 19, 2014. http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-lost-sheep-of- the-house-of-israel/ 378 Kamin, Debra. “The Lost Sheep of the House of Israel” April 7, 2014. The Times of Israel. Accessed June 19, 2014. http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-lost-sheep-of- the-house-of-israel/

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connection with the Israelite Rabbinical Academy, which itself sprung from Rabbi

Matthew’s Commandment Keepers in Harlem. Of Matthew he states:

Matthew taught that Hebrew Israelites had no need to conform to the conversion requirements of mainstream white denominations; nor did he himself seek smicha — formal rabbinic ordination via an established rabbi or rabbinic panel — to function as a rabbi. Matthew avowed that all this was unnecessary because the roots of black identity reached back to the Israelites of the Torah. Black Jews, even today, view themselves as having returned to their true identity, which was obliterated by the catastrophic Middle Passage into slavery, when millions of Africans were torn from their homeland and dispersed, effectively erasing their history, culture and family ties.379

The author makes an important point about the connection forged between the earlier Hebrew communities in the United States with the Beta Israel communities, suggesting that Funnye has kept the connection alive. He states:

As if echoing history, black Jews in the US today feel a connection to African groups who identify as Jews. Funnye has traveled to Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda to connect with and assist in the education of the Lemba, Igbo, and Abayudyah — ethnic groups with members who assert a Jewish identity. A bridge-builder, Funnye is associate director of Be’chol Lashon (In Every Tongue), a San Francisco-based nonprofit that advocates for inclusiveness and diversity among the Jewish people and sponsors his work in Africa. 380

In the literature The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem rarely made any mention of their relationships with the Falasha, Lemba, or any other Israelites of

African descent that settled on the continent. In the infrequent cases in which others were mentioned, African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem writers asserted merely that these groups were examples of the spiritual reawakening of Hebrews

379 Lyons, Len “Black Jews Gain Wider Acceptance”; forward.com; July 23, 2012; last accessed June 22, 2014. http://forward.com/articles/159587/black-jews-gain- wider-acceptance/?p=all ; 2 380 Lyons, Len “Black Jews Gain Wider Acceptance”; forward.com; July 23, 2012; last accessed June 22, 2014. http://forward.com/articles/159587/black-jews-gain- wider-acceptance/?p=all ; 3

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worldwide.381 One is left to wonder of the relationship between the community in

Dimona and the Beta Israel that have resettled in Israel (or other Israelites in general), especially given the fact that the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem see themselves as the vanguard and arbiters of the “Kingdom of Yah,” God’s community on earth. Since the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem conceptualize their

Kingdom of God according to Ben Ammi’s interpretation, concerns arise as to whether the community is truly oriented to other Hebrews of African descent. The only mention made of other Hebrew communities in the publications is in regards to those of the United States; that being a reminder that the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem unsuccessfully sought assistance from African-American Hebrews for their voyage to Liberia382.

LOCATION

The location of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem as indicated in the literature is that of a nature oriented logic with a few serious exceptions. At times the authors speak of the power of redefining reality. Connected with this redefinition of reality is a reconnection to nature, including a demonization of all imitations (or things/concepts/life forces genetically modified), and a re- conceptualization of life and death as conditions one experiences while living, as opposed to some abstract realm of existence.

Immortality was re-envisioned as a spiritual continuity rather than physical longevity, and freedom, as an exodus from the ways and values of the Euro-gentile.

381 Ammi, God The Black Man; 89 382 HaGadol and Israel; The Impregnable People; 210-211

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Regarding the restoration of African people to their prior greatness, the content analysis revealed that for the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem the only way for resurrection was not just a general re-association of oneself with those principles and values that they deemed to be characteristic of Africans in their former glory, but unequivocally, a return to the “true God of Israel”. The outlook that the only way to achieve redemption is through their prism, denotes either a

Northern Cradle, or at worst Zone of Confluence characteristic with regards to how one interacts with creation; attempting to subdue it rather than to collaborate with it. Along those lines, the infrequent mention of other Africans of the Diaspora could possibly suggest that the group assumes a sort of hierarchy amongst African people; with Israelites as the model African group. Although they see themselves as African, there is a certain sense of individualism and superiority within the designation. To truly be Pan-African in the truest sense of the word, every person of African descent irrespective of physical location must be accounted for. For the African Hebrew

Israelites of Jerusalem to only focus on Africa and the United States of America, a privileging of the African-American experience over that of other Africans of the

Diaspora is displayed.

When the degree of location is measured in the literature of the African

Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem against Sutherland’s model, the group is more or less in alignment with the partially committed strugglers category. The unaccounted for aspect within the model is the limited awareness of the contradiction between claiming oneself as African, yet not seeing enough value in the cultural aspects of

Africa to co-exist. While the group accepts full agency, grounding in the perpetual

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constant that is African history is not displayed. The group is pro-sovereignty but contradictions emerge as to their desire for citizenship, joining the Israeli military, and essentially becoming Israelis. In the literature, a clear global orientation is not visible.

As a result of the limitations in grounding, the group is not in alignment with a Pan-African directive and hence dislocated. If the analysis of one’s history as

African people is not initiated with an accurate reference and comparison to the classical African civilizations, then it may be assumed that, as Asante notes, the overall understanding of African phenomena will more than likely be inadequate. If what Kemet established remains to be one of the essential standards by which the

African world evaluates the possibilities of their own productivity383, then for this group to properly evaluate their place as African people in the world they must come to terms with the fuller relationship between their identified Hebrew ancestors and those of Kemet.

The term “Mzraim” must be critically examined in order to ascertain who is precisely being referenced, where precisely (geographically speaking) the reference is to, and what point in history (time) the reference alludes to. This cannot be understood without a proper historical context. The “Egypt” envisioned by

Europeans cannot be used as the measuring rod for interrogating the various segments of the connected but diverse experience that was Upper, Lower, and

Middle Kemet.

383 Asante, Molefi Kete. Kemet, Afrocentricity, and Knowledge. (Trenton: Africa World Press; 1990); 48-49

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Many areas of the group’s attitude and direction are in alignment with what

Diop terms as the Zone of Confluence. Some northern cradle elements are visible, including the notion that the one true God is the God of the Hebrews. Consequently, those worshipping in another belief system, or utilizing another language that the group does not recognize, are deemed as not worshipping the true God. This idea of a jealous god is fueled by a peculiar xenophobia; both elements of the Northern

Cradle. Although the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem work with others to secure funding and other means of support, they view their community in Dimona and their international branches as the sole representatives of God’s Kingdom on earth, and all of creation must act accordingly. Further, the group maintains a patrilineal family structure with children taken on the names of the male parent. As referenced in the text The Impregnable People and in Jackson’s Thin Description384 the group is aware of its patriarchy and gender imbalance. How they address these challenges only time will tell.

Alternatively, certain aspects of the group’s ideology find semblance with

Diop’s southern cradle characteristics. First, they are agricultural and extremely nature oriented in how they conceptualize their world; from clothing to the food they eat. Second, they are against genetic modification and committed to utilizing products in their natural states. Third, they have a strong commitment to community, though this varies depending on how they define their community. For example, their relationships with other Hebrews of African heritage are still questionable, as is their true perspectives on other African peoples. It is possible

384 Jackson; The Impregnable People; 257-258

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that a group may name themselves African but hold some suspicions about African traditions and African practices. The xenophobia and ultimately the assertion that all should come into alignment with an African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem’s definition of Godliness does not allow much room for any people of African descent to exist according to African axiological standards. For the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, just being African is not enough.

The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem’s lack of clarification in their specification of what an African is stifles their own clarification of the necessary actions toward African interests. To claim one’s own culture and way of life as the ideal way of life for all Africans (even if that way of life promoted is claimed as

African) is to fall once again into the trap of Eurocentric ideological conceptualization. Forcing one’s religious beliefs on another people suggests that the subjects possess no intellectual ability to make sense of the intervention.

Furthermore, it also suggests that the subjects’ potential for growth is nonexistent.

Such an approach, from one African people towards another African people, minimizes African agency. If the sentiment is that people are practicing their belief system in an incorrect manner, or towards an insufficient direction, then the focus should not be wiping it out; especially since spiritual traditions stem from existential realities, history, and cultural memories. Rather, in sankofic fashion, the

African Hebrew Israelites should carefully work with the group towards refocusing and realigning it with those core African sensibilities accepted as true to the collective Pan-African world. Though seizing the power to define is a grand undertaking, one runs the risk of running fast to no destination if the cultural

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frameworks one relies on to conceptualize (1) power, (2) the intentions for seizing power, and (3) the concepts relied upon to re-define are situated in anti-African realities.

Finally, the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem’s joining the Israeli

Defense Force ultimately suggests that they are willing to fight on behalf of the interests of the State of Israel. While it is possible to fight for the interests of various people, orientation and location are significantly determined by the entities one is willing to risk their lives for. It would be interesting to see the response that the

African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem would have taken had they served in the military during Israeli involvement in apartheid South Africa, or during Israel’s intervention in Angola’s quest for independence. In an increasingly militarized world such scenarios are not far-fetched.

The community reconciles their volunteering for the Israeli military with the rebuttal that African-Americans join the United States military, despite the country’s horrific treatment of the racial group. The rebuttal is flawed in a number of areas.

Firstly, African-Americans are not required to join the United States military, whereas the State of Israel requires the service for those hoping to receive its rights of citizenship. Secondly, African Americans did not arrive in the United States with the intentions of eventually ruling the country, as the African Hebrew Israelites of

Jerusalem intended. Since the group desires citizenship they made a conscious decision to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces. This is not to suggest that they are locked into such an arrangement. Should they decide to revisit their desire for

Israeli citizenship, they may also revisit their involvement in the military.

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In conclusion, the findings reported that the African Hebrew Israelites of

Jerusalem utilization of the biblical “Eden” or “Adam” was their main device for negotiating contemporary realities and needs. When contradictions arose, in such areas as diet and geography, Eden was deployed to offer additional alternatives.

Most scholars would argue that the vast majority of events described in the biblical narrative are yet to be verified by the historical sources. The reliance solely on an account that in some cases militate against verifiable historical accounts breeds limitations in the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem’s frame of analysis.

This limitation in grounding trickled into their orientation, as above all other entities they identified mainly with their own Kingdom of God. Though the African

Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem closely identified with African Americans, including common African American heroes, their assumptions that African-Americans were lost Israelites that have yet to be found, channeled that identification into a Kingdom of God framework. Since the references to African people were minimal, the supposed orientation to African people is limited by their understanding of what

Africa and African denotes.

Finally, with regards to location, the group was situated within Diop’s zone of confluence, a classification in which clear southern cradle elements are fused with northern cradle elements. The group’s joining of the Israel Defense Forces and willingness to defend the State certainly call into question their true relationship with the State of Israel, and the overall relationship with Jews of European ancestry.

In the chapter to come a few of these overarching questions will be further explored.

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CHAPTER 6

CONCLUSION

Any reflection on the African past or the human past should allow us to discern the direction history is moving. Of course, any proper discernment of that direction is based on an adequate reading of the past.385

ARE THEY AFROCENTRIC?

The use of the term location in the Afrocentric sense refers to the psychological, cultural, historical or personal place occupied by a person at a given time in history. Thus, to be in a location is to be fixed, temporarily or permanently, in a certain historical space. When the Afrocentrist says that it is necessary to discover one’s location, it is always in reference to whether or not the person is in a centered or marginal place with regards to his or her culture. An oppressed person is dis-located when she operates from a standpoint, that is, location that is centered in the experiences of the oppressor.386

According to the content under analysis, the group would argue that they are

Afrocentric, in the sense that their approach to phenomena is from an African center. And much as their narrative exhibits, they would suggest that they are concerned with uplifting people of African descent. In re-imagining Africa as Eden, and Israel as Northeast Eden, the group asserts that not only are the Israelites an

African people, but their form of the Israelite way of life is in fact the best of what

Africa has to offer.

385 Asante, Molefi Kete; Cheikh Anta Diop an Intellectual Portrait; Los Angeles: University of Sankore Press; 2007 386 Asante; Manifesto; 42

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However, in measuring the Afrocentric elements of the group evidence suggests that a lack of grounding impacted the meaning held for the group’s orientation, and ultimately their construction of a pathway to African redemption (location).

The group has not fully achieved its Afrocentric potential. For one, their analysis of the African world appropriates Kmt (which they identify as Mzraim) as not only a place that one should neither emulate nor model one’s institutions after, but also as a place in which any semblance of a respectable culture or morality was nonexistent. Essentially, it is suggested that nothing good comes out of Kmt. Even if an argument is made that the group’s view of Egypt is only symbolic, a serious concern is posed, as many view the institutions of Kemet and the elements of Kemetic civilization as the original link to the continuity present in many contemporary

African societies, as noted in the work of Diop. Such a characterization of Kemet as an immoral and ruthless slave-owning civilization eats away at the feasible type of

African cultural unity the group claims to possess.

What is problematic is not that the group utilizes the Bible as a foundational piece in explaining their reality, but that it is utilized as the only source for explaining their reality. For those of the Abrahamic belief systems to demonize any

African civilization without a proper understanding of that system or historical grounding is a fatal error. In their misapplication of “Mzraim” to Kmt, and subsequent generalization of a 3500-year history based upon a four hundred year history387 they render an ahistorical analysis.

387 This is if the equation of Mzraim with Ancient Egypt/Kmt is accurate

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These questions must be considered when making statements about any civilization. Specific details must be inquired after. All societies, including those of the classical Nile Valley have their shortcomings and should be critiqued accordingly. However, in doing so the full stories must be engaged. The histories of all African societies and all African people must be interrogated and no stone should be left unturned when doing so. One’s methodological assumptions are just as important as the tools one uses to investigate phenomena. While it is understood that individuals may have good intentions, it must be clear that if their conceptualizations are grounded in Anti-African standards, then those good intentions are rendered sterile. Any misinterpretations of the narrative upon which one’s entire reality is predicated can have grave consequences when applied to the contemporary world.

EXPANSION OF FUTURE RESEARCH ON HEBREW AND OTHER BLACK COMMUNITIES

Through this dissertation a framework was established for scholars to work from when engaging the history, experience, and ideologies of the African Hebrew

Israelites of Jerusalem. For a fuller account of the African Hebrew Israelites of

Jerusalem narrative, audiotapes, videos, and any contemporary publications coming from the community should be analyzed. Additionally, any websites affiliated with the group should be examined. Of utmost importance, is the task of interviewing not only the leadership of the community, but of the general membership, those whose names are never mentioned in the literature. Aside from a pamphlet regarding women’s health topics, cookbooks, and the Ramle Seven, most of the authors on

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texts stemming from the community are men. Ben Ammi suggested a complementary relationship between men and women in the sense that the order was neither oppressive nor regressive388. This should not only be mentioned in the group’s literature but also reflected in the authorship of their literature.

Of additional importance are any narratives from individuals that have defected from the community. Aside from it being monumental, such work would be necessary for having a detailed engagement of the world of the African Hebrew

Israelites of Jerusalem. Finally, this framework may be used and possibly expanded to carry out similar works on not only other Hebrew communities but all Black societies and religious/political organizations across the world to ascertain their collective approaches and visions.

AFRICANITIES, PAN-AFRICANISM, AND LOCATION

In terms of African people, the concept of location is not concerned simply with displays of Africanness or Africanities. Rather, the concern is with what type of

African one is. Merely wearing African clothes or even claiming a “recognized”

African belief system, while it is a logical step in an African-centered direction, does not make one immune to having their location evaluated. Mazama reminds us that being grounded does not automatically make one Afrocentric. To add to that, I would argue that being grounded does not automatically equate one with being properly oriented or located.

388 Ben Ammi; God the Black Man and Truth; 43

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The issue in the case of grounded-but-disoriented African peoples is that what one has oriented himself or herself to misdirects their actions for the good of unworthy beneficiaries. If one’s orientation is to African people and their location is in alignment with Diop’s southern cradle characteristics, Karenga’s shared characteristics of culture, or Sutherland’s authentic struggler classification, then and only then is one Afrocentrically located. These concepts may be measured, so discourse alone is insufficient to claim Afrocentric consciousness.

THE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE STATE OF ISRAEL

The findings revealed that at least in the major publications, on the topic of

Israelis or Jews of European descent, the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem were mainly silent, aside from a few clandestine statements asserting who they were. Joining the Israeli military in the 1990s was certainly a critical means toward gaining permanent residency and eventual citizenship, but concerns loom as to what might have been the group’s reasoning for making such a decision it seemed to be against upon their entry into the country in 1969. With the conflicts transpiring currently in Israel revolving around the rights of African migrants and settlers from

Beta Israel communities, was the awarding of citizenship and subsequent agreement to join the Israeli Defense force an agreement to be silent on the policies of the government?

What was discovered in the data was a realization by the community that many others had viewed their leaving for Liberia and Israel in the midst of a serious struggle in the United States as an avoidance of struggle. The group argued that

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given the major problems facing people of African descent in the United States they saw their leaving “Babylon” as a way to create a space to begin to seize their power to define. Inquiry needs to be made as to how different their experience in the State of Israel is, or has been, when compared to the African American experience in the

United States.

ACADEMIA

Morris Lounds argued that the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem named themselves as Israelites only as a means for escaping the reality of being Black in

America.389 Evidence from this dissertation suggests otherwise. The members of the

African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem suggest that they “returned” to their Israelite heritage, and through it initiated the process of asserting whom they were in a society that sought in any way possible to legitimize their defining their own existence. Rather than using their Israeliteness to run away from oppression in the

United States, the Israelite identification was utilized in order to address and confront the challenge. It was the perfect mechanism by which they could deconstruct the reality that had been established as the norm. If anything, the connection with a Biblical tradition brought them closer with the African-American experience, since it too is in constant interaction with Christianity and the Bible. It was the perfect way to communicate with family about the challenges facing the

African in America. This research suggests that if there was anything that the

African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem sought to avoid, it was not Blackness itself,

389 Lounds; Israel’s Black Hebrews; 45

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but the negative stigma “Euro-gentiles” sought to attach to the label. In their hierarchy, the lowest level a person of African descent sits at is at the level of a

“Negro”, when one accepts without thought what the Euro-gentile suggests a Black person should be. Contrary to what Lounds suggests, it never crossed their minds that the Ancient Israelites were not Black.

Similarly, Markowitz asks why was it that the group decided to link Israel to

Africa rather than to strengthen identification with a pre-colonial African heritage, and resurrect back to Africa movements. What Markowitz misunderstood was that the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem viewed Israel as Africa and situated their geographical framework in a time period nowhere near the time Europe engaged the African continent, almost one thousand years prior to the Common Era.

Although the group is not as successful in reconciling the reality of other peoples living through that era, they do suggest in their re-mapping of the African continent the reality that Africans of the Classical period established some of the first settlements on Arabian soil.

According to Thomas Bertram the earliest inscriptions in Arabia stemmed from Ethiopic script.390 W.J. Perry suggested in his text that “the myths, legends and tradition of the Sumerians point to the African Ethiopia as the original home of these

390 Bertram, Thomas. The Arabs; The Epic Life Story of a people who have left their deep impress on the world. London: T. Butterworth; 1930; 13-14

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people.”391Further, J.A. Rogers in his Sex and Race asserted that “Arabia is but an extension of Africa.”392 Ali Mazrui, in his Euro-jews and Afro-Arabs stated:

A European decision to make Africa end at the Red Sea has decisively de- Africanized the Arabian peninsula…tyranny of the sea is in part a tyranny of European geographical prejudices. Just as European map-makers could decree that on the map Europe was above Africa instead of below (an arbitrary decision in relation to the cosmos) those map-makers could also dictate that Africa ended at the Red Sea instead of the Persian Gulf. Is it not that that this dual tyranny of the sea and Eurocentric geography was forced to sink to the bottom?393

Certainly, the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem’s assertion that people of African descent did not see Arabia as a land ethnically different is not farfetched.

The Africa presence in the East is well documented. Although the African Hebrew

Israelites of Jerusalem do not provide much evidence for such beliefs, the historical record does verify their claims of an African presence in Asia, and furthermore, that

Africans were not visitors but major players in constructing societies indigenous to the region.

The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem chose not to utilize the geographical Africa recognized in mainstream circles, not for any envy for the modern Israelis as Markowitz suggests, but due to grounding in the biblical narrative that pinpoints Jerusalem as the homeland. Furthermore, their assertion that Israel is the northeast section of Edenic Africa, extends Jerusalem as the homeland, not only for the Israelites, but also for all people of African descent. In

391 Perry, W.J. The Growth of Civilization. New York: Penguin; Newly Revised Edition; 1937; 60-61 392 Rogers, J.A. Sex and Race: Negro-Caucasian Mixing in All Ages and All Lands, Vol. 1: the Old World. St. Petersburg Fl. Helga M. Rogers. 1967; 95 393 Mazrui, Ali A. Euro-Jews and Afro-Arabs: The Great Semetic Divergence in World History; Lanham: University Press of America; 2008; 140

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this sense, the returning Back-To-Africa movement is reinvigorated and made possible through their efforts. They would argue that they are in fact resurrecting

Back To Africa traditions. Though there is a possibility of their orientation to the

State of Israel and European Jews to an extent, their initial justifications for naming themselves as the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem was not rooted in any envy for modern Israelis or a symptom of Black self-hatred.

These findings suggest that both religious studies and the humanities would be best served by engaging groups of African descent on their own merit rather than basing their analysis on a comparison with a White ideal or an assumed White origin to a belief system without due diligence. What the narrative of the African

Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem suggests is that irrespective of the sources utilized

Black groups have the capability of consciously constructing their reality. Although they may not use conventional mainstream sources or citations to back their assertions, researchers should first seek to determine if the suggestions within the narrative are accurate rather than writing off the narrative completely. If the purpose of scientific study is to identify truth then it would behoove scholars to address the assumptions guiding their own research prior to undertaking the study.

Misguided assumptions could ruin a study before data is even collected.

BLACK STUDIES

To simply label a person or people, especially of African descent, without conceptualizing and operationalizing the terms does not only a disservice to the subjects of the research but to those seeking to engage in serious scholarship.

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Hence, the study of groups such as the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem brings about a much-needed holistic discussion of what Africa is and can be. Will it continue to be accepted that the continent is geographically the way that the mainstream has conceptualized it, or will Black Studies practitioners search for antecedents in regards to how people of the continent in their respective regions have been identified?

If one were to design a world based on the literature analyzed in this study of the

African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, one would envision a world of dualities: right and wrong, God and Satan, originals and imitations, Euro-Gentiles and

Africans, and Light and Darkness, where one world that is composed of what they explain as all that is wrong is juxtaposed with the world they are hoping to build.

Seizing the power to define, as the group suggests is the first step to realizing the reality of a people’s hopes.

In leaving from the United States, or Babylon, the group argues that it has taken the first of many steps towards self-realization and self-actualization. For having the audacity to make such a move the group deserves much credit, and for being a people of African descent the world of Black Studies must take note. Although the group has not reached Afrocentric or Authentic status, as of yet, they should not automatically be placed in a Euro-centric, Asio-centric, or anti-African position. They are, as all things in motion, in the state of becoming. Serious study and serious investigation are warranted to track their progress, and for the hopes of achieving a true African unity, to predict the direction in which they are headed.

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The beauty of this research and of Afrocentric inquiry, is that it allows scholars to acknowledge other people’s understandings of reality as worthy for consideration, while simultaneously extending the reservoir of knowledge for the discipline, free of conceptual incarceration and bias. Essentially, the more we know of others the better we can generate models to better understand our societies and ourselves. When it was said by the ancients to know self who would have ever known that one of the major keys of self-assessment is having accurate knowledge of others?

As proven in this work, Afrocentric Inquiry is more than sufficient to study marginalized groups of African descent. In fact I would argue that its awareness to cultural and racial sensibilities make it the most suitable of paradigms to engage the

African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem as a subject. Whether it is used critically depends on the scholars utilizing it.

Critical analysis is always necessary, as what we see with the eye is literally only the exterior level of understanding. In order for scholarship to be worth its salt and offer rectification and improvement, it must inquire as to not only what is within the shell but also the very reason the shell exists. For this reason, research is ongoing, and no matter how dense or substantial we desire our explanation to be we must realize that in the grand scheme of things it is only one step in the proper direction.

On February 1, 2014 I had the pleasure of sitting with Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannen to discuss my dissertation. He reiterated then as he did in his We The Black Jews that although he was born an Israelite in the Beta Israel tradition, he was above all else oriented to African people. Dr. Ben Jochannen’s concern in his text as to what would

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take priority in his life and his addressing that concern394, spoke then to the larger question of Afrocentric location. As a Pan-African he was clear that if the interpretation of the belief system he followed was contradictory to those ideal elements common to African people, then he was better off without religion. Though he would never come to disown his birthright, he realized that his being Israelite should never cancel out his being Pan-African. The larger lesson gleamed from Ben-

Jochannen is that while claiming to be Israelite or even African may be beneficial, it takes an indisputable courage to interrogate the significance of what that orientation means, and ultimately which goals, values, and actions one’s location is directed towards.

394 Ben Jochannen; We The Black Jews; xxxi

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APPENDIX A

Cover Page – God, The Black Man, and Truth

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APPENDIX B

MAP: MIGRATION OF THE AFRICAN HEBREWS

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APPENDIX C

DEFINITIONS

Adamic: A term utilized by the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem to refer to the time of the first man/human (Adam).

African/Black: Of or relating to the people of the African continent

African Agency: A self-conscious or deliberate and systemic effort to assume fully one’s place in the world. Four questions one may ask when examining African agency include, (1) “What have people of African descent done? (2)“What can they do?”; (3)“In what ways have they responded to their environment”; and (4)“In what ways will they continue to respond to their environment?”

Ancestorism: Paying homage to the ancestors by implementing in one’s actions their ways. Youthfulness and creativity is bound in morality, wisdom, and cultural motifs.

Axiology: Of or relating to one’s values

Cosmology: Of or relating to the universe is conceptualized

Eden: The place referred to by the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem as an ideal, divinely inspired, and not subject to conceptual and geographic boundaries outside of God’s will.

Epistemology: Of or relating to knowledge, how it is conceptualized

Method: The tools utilized in order to gather information/data.

Methodology: The assumptions undergirding the research including the parameters of inquiry and analysis

Sankofic: An approach to phenomena best displayed when people of African descent consult their own historical models or “Blackprints” in addressing their world.

Science: The process of acknowledgement (knowing) of some phenomena

Yah: Shortened name for the Hebrew YHWH (proper Hebrew name for God)

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