The notion that Igbos migrated from Israel was
never a fabrication by the Igbo indigenes, it was first identified by the early europeans to enter the shores of Nigeria. They were astonished of the fact that the tradition practice by the Igbos were of similarity to those practice by the Israel of the Bible, even though their had never been any bible exposure to Africa as at then .

Daniel Lis, from the Institute for Jewish Studies,
University of Basel, Switzerland, is one of the
foremost researchers on Jewish identification
among the Igbo. He says there has been a clear
continuity of Jewish identity among the Igbo. "It's
not just something that happened yesterday," he
says.

The Swiss-Israeli anthropologist says that Igbo-
Jewish identity can be traced back to the 18th
century. Cross-cultural comparisons have been
documented by people ranging from George
Thomas Basden, the influential Anglican missionary
and ethnographer who proposed that the word
"Igbo" evolved as a corruption of the word
"Hebrew," to Olaudah Equiano, a freed Igbo slave
living in 18th century British society. The oral stories and historic notations of cultural resemblances between the Igbo and the Jews have proven compelling enough to lure a diverse array of
people to southeastern Nigeria.

Michael Freund, an American Jew based in Israel, is
planning his first trip to Nigeria to get a first-hand
look at the culture of the Igbo. "I've read about them but of course there is nothing like actually hearing the stories of the people themselves," he says. Discovering "lost" Jewish communities around the world is what Freund does. He is the founder and chairman of the independent non-profit
organization Shavei Israel. According to its media
spokesperson Arik Puder, Shavei Israel is the only
organization in Israel that focuses on finding
descendants of the legendary lost tribes.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/01/world/africa/nigeria-jews-igbo/

Below are some of the known traditions of Igbos
even before missionaries came to Africa:

1. In Igboland a woman lives apart from their
husbands nor cooks for them or enters their
husband’s quarters when she is on her period, she
is seen as unclean . Even up till today such practice
is still applicable in some part of Igboland especially
by the traditionalist. Before a woman can enter the
palace of Obi of Onitsha , she will be asked if she is
on period, if yes, she will be asked to stay out.

Leviticus 15: 19-20
When a woman has her monthly period, she
remains unclean, anyone who touches her or
anything she has sat on becomes unclean.

2. An Igbo man’s ancestral heritage, called “Ana Obi” is not sellable, elders will not permit this. If this is somehow done due to the influence of the West the person is considered a fool and is ostracized by the community.

1 king 21:3
I inherited this vineyard from my ancestors, and the
lord forbid that I should sell it, said Naboth.

3. Igbos have practiced the taking a late brothers
wife into marriage after she had been widowed until
the white men came. Now it is rarely done but
except in very rural villages of the bush.

Deuteronomy 25:5
A widow of a dead man is not to married outside the family; it is the duty of the dead man's brother to marry her.

4. In Igboland, there is a unique form of
apprenticeship in which either a male family
member or a community member will spend six(6)
years (usually in their teens to their adulthood)
working for another family. And on the seventh year, the head of the host household, who is usually the older man who brought the apprentice into his
household, will establish (Igbo: idu) the apprentice
by either setting up a business for him or giving
money or tools by which to make a living.

Exodus 21:2
If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve you for six
years. In the seventh year he is to be set free
without having to pay you anything.

5. In Igboland , the yam is very important to the Igbo as it is their staple crop. There are celebrations such as the New yam festival (Igbo: Iri Ji) which are held for the harvesting of the yam. New Yam festival (Igbo: Iri ji) is celebrated annually to secure a good harvest of the staple crop. Those old days it is an abomination for one to eat a new harvest before the festival. It's a tradition that you give the gods of the land first as a thanks given.

Deuteronomy 16:9
Count 7 weeks from the time that you begin to
harvest the crops, and celebrate the harvest festival
to honor the lord your God, by bringing him a
freewill offering in proportion to the blessing he has
given you. Celebrate in the lord's presence together
with your children, servants, foreigners . Be sure
that you obey my command, said the lord.

6. In Igboland it's a tradition that the male children
are circumcised on the 8th day. This tradition is still
practice till date.

Leviticus 12:3
On the eighth day, the child shall be circumcised.

7. In Igboland, there a practice known as "ile
omugwo ". After a woman has given birth to a child,
a very close and experienced relative of her, in most case her mother is required by tradition to come spend time with her and her husband. In which she is to do all the work of the wife, while the new mom’s only assignment to the baby will be to breastfeed. This goes on for a month or more. In the Igbo old tradition, at this time, the new mom lives apart from her husband, would not cook or enter his quarters.

Leviticus 12:1-4
For seven days after a woman gives birth, she is
ritually unclean as she is during her monthly period. It will be 33 days until she is ritually clean from the loss of blood; she is not to touch anything that is holy.

hmmm...
I never new that most of these are biblical inclined.

iri ji, ile omugwo, igba boi... hehehe lol

#ProudIgboBoy

You people make me sick with this sentimental hogwash.. Anybody can claim a direct lineage to Israel that doesn't make it true. This nonesense makes it even harder for Igbos to trace their real history...

The cultural practices listed above are generic to all Igbos, and I will describe them as frontend cultural practices.
However there are backend Igbo cultural practices that has a lot in common with the Jewish traditional practices and these can be gotten from Nri towns of Enugwu-Ukwu, Enugwu-Agidi, Agukwu (now kniwn as Nri) and Nawfia. Some of these practices include
1) Ikpu alu
2) certain rites performed during the coronation ceremonies of an Eze Nri e.t.c

For a more rounded research, the one that plans to visit Nigeria should make sure to also visit any of the Nri towns for more of these backend cultural practices that umu Nri carry out for Ndigbo, else it will be like the proverbial blindman that got the wrong impression of what an elephant is, by only touching its tail.

The Edos have all the above but are not Jews.

Accepted, but igbos re the cursed tribe of israel, cos majority of israelites re muslims and idol worshipper.christains re countable in israel
But 98.9 igbos re christain which means igbos re the cursed tribe of israel cos in terms of religion you don't seem to relate cos both religion hate each other bitterly

Who actually told igbos that they from Isreal?
How come Igbos are dark skin and isrealites are white?

its a fact i ve always knwn and i ve a book by an igbo author that lends credence to these findings

bokohalal:
The Edos have all the above but are not Jews.

They ARE. Or were neighbours of the Jews. One of the great mistakes of this entire debate is our forgetting that OTHER GROUPS AS WELL, including the Edo, Yoruba, Hausa, Efik, Tiv and others, have a history of ancient migration from the Nile Valley and Middle East in ancient antiquity. The Edomites of the bible. Look them up. I suspect there are related the Edo people. Also the Jebusites. Connect them to the Ijebu people etc etc. The Hausas appear to have have had links to the ancient Canaanites. 'Kano'' is a rendition of 'Canaan'.

In fact I have seen ancient European maps depicting the entire West African region as the 'land of Judah', implying that many inhabitants of West Africa descended from fleeing Jews of antiquity.

2sex:
Who actually told igbos that they from Isreal?

How come Igbos are dark skin and isrealites are white?

For the same reason Egyptians are white today while the ancient Egyptians were black.

A couple of thousand years ago, there was a concerted effort to drive away or enslave the blacks who lived in the middle east. This led to mass migration of blacks into Africa. Those who took their place simply began claiming those lands for themselves. That is why we have white Egyptians today and white Israelites. In fact the SUDAN is a perfect example and continuation of this ''whitewashing'' of previously black-held lands to the north.

Northern Sudan, which was once pure black, is now 'Arab' and 'mixed'.

In say 500 years time, it will be totally Arab, and the people there would start claiming they were the original Sudanese/Nubian people. Just as the Israelis and Egyptians today are claiming they were the original inhabitants of Israel and Egypt.

OfoIgbo:
The cultural practices listed above are generic to all Igbos, and I will describe them as frontend cultural practices.
However there are backend Igbo cultural practices that has a lot in common with the Jewish traditional practices and these can be gotten from Nri towns of Enugwu-Ukwu, Enugwu-Agidi, Agukwu (now kniwn as Nri) and Nawfia. Some of these practices include
1) Ikpu alu
2) certain rites performed during the coronation ceremonies of an Eze Nri e.t.c

For a more rounded research, the one that plans to visit Nigeria should make sure to also visit any of the Nri towns for more of these backend cultural practices that umu Nri carry out for Ndigbo, else it will be like the proverbial blindman that got the wrong impression of what an elephant is, by only touching its tail.

EJIGHI ISI NWA NRI AGU ARO....PROUDLY NWA AFO ENUGWU UKWU

DICK4UCKPUSSY:
Accepted, but igbos re the cursed tribe of israel, cos majority of israelites re muslims and idol worshipper.christains re countable in israel
But 98.9 igbos re christain which means igbos re the cursed tribe of israel cos in terms of religion you don't seem to relate cos both religion hate each other bitterly

WHAT IS CHRISTAIN AFONJA MUSLIM

2sex:
Who actually told igbos that they from Isreal?

How come Igbos are dark skin and isrealites are white?

ORIGINAL JEWS ARE BLACK

shotster50:
You people make me sick with this sentimental hogwash.. Anybody can claim a direct lineage to Israel that doesn't make it true. This nonesense makes it even harder for Igbos to trace their real history...

The igbos didn't actually say that they are Hebrews......It's the white men that said it.

PrecisionFx:



The igbos didn't actually say that they are Hebrews......It's the white men that said it.

THE White men??

Life did not start in Israel that is wrong


Africa is where all humanity migrated from so if you want to mke any argument it should be that the Jews migrated from Enugu and not the the other way round.
There have been been people in Nigeria long before there was any Israel

The ideas of menstrual uncleanliness are near universal and many so called Jewis traditions exieted in the Middle East before the Jews.

aribisala0:


White men??

are yorubas arabs or did their ancestor fail down from haven like i was told.

loveth360:
are yorubas arabs or did their ancestor fail down from haven like i was told.

Wha has that got to do with this

aribisala0:

Wha has that got to do with this

we are all hear to learn,so tell me.

Rossikki:


They ARE. Or were neighbours of the Jews. One of the great mistakes of this entire debate is our forgetting that OTHER GROUPS AS WELL, including the Edo, Yoruba, Hausa, Efik, Tiv and others, have a history of ancient migration from the Nile Valley and Middle East in ancient antiquity. The Edomites of the bible. Look them up. I suspect there are related the Edo people. Also the Jebusites. Connect them to the Ijebu people etc etc. The Hausas appear to have have had links to the ancient Canaanites. 'Kano'' is a rendition of 'Canaan'.

In fact I have seen ancient European maps depicting the entire West African region as the 'land of Judah', implying that many inhabitants of West Africa descended from fleeing Jews of antiquity.

loveth360:
we are all hear to learn,so tell me.

Are we hear to learn calculus?
IF you want to learn create a thread on that matter .

This thread is about African Jews

aribisala0:

THE White men??

U blind?

aribisala0:

THE White men??

U blind?

If it takes European missionaries to come to Igboland to remind us of our Jewish heritage before we realised we are Jews that means Eri and his descendants must be very dumb to have forgotten who they were and where came from.This very unlike the Jews all over the world.
Why did the so called Jews end up in the middle of other African tribes in Southeast Nigeria?
Ethiopian Jews knew who they were from the time of King Solomom to date.

Rossikki:


They ARE. Or were neighbours of the Jews. One of the great mistakes of this entire debate is our forgetting that OTHER GROUPS AS WELL, including the Edo, Yoruba, Hausa, Efik, Tiv and others, have a history of ancient migration from the Nile Valley and Middle East in ancient antiquity. The Edomites of the bible. Look them up. I suspect there are related the Edo people. Also the Jebusites. Connect them to the Ijebu people etc etc. The Hausas appear to have have had links to the ancient Canaanites. 'Kano'' is a rendition of 'Canaan'.

In fact I have seen ancient European maps depicting the entire West African region as the 'land of Judah', implying that many inhabitants of West Africa descended from fleeing Jews of antiquity.

Let historians n Anthropologist write about Yoruba Hausa n Edo links to Jews.

OK iyam goyin

paramakina202:
If it takes European missionaries to come to Igboland to remind us of our Jewish heritage before we realised we are Jews that means Eri and his descendants must be very dumb to have forgotten who they were and where came from.This very unlike the Jews all over the world.
Why did the so called Jews end up in the middle of other African tribes in Southeast Nigeria?
Ethiopian Jews knew who they were from the time of King Solomom to date.

The igbos knew they were Hebrews from time immemorial up till this day.

PrecisionFx:


The igbos knew they were Hebrews from time immemorial up till this day.

Story!

Where are the Synagogues in Igboland why were we not observing the Sabath day?

paramakina202:


Story!

Where are the Synagogues in Igboland why were we not observing the Sabath day?

LMFAO.

There's nothing to discuss wit u. Ur not Igbo so I wander why u are carrying this matter for head like unriped plantain.