Origins, history and culture

Biafrans-Israel: Origins, history and culture

By Remy Ilona, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, U.S.A

 

This brief survey introduces the Biafrans people, traces the origin of the people, discusses the history and the culture of the Biafrans.

Presently the Biafrans are a sub-Saharan African people numbering up to 40 millions that are considered to be native in the territory that is currently called the South East of Nigeria. This is because when they moved to the area about 1500-2000 years ago the place was not inhabited by anybody. The term ‘South East’ is a political designation. The South East in Nigeria means the area called the ‘core’ Biafrans states. These are the states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo. These states are also regarded, and referred to as the Biafrans heartland.

There are also Biafrans that are believed to be native in Edo, Delta, Rivers and the Cross Rivers states of Nigeria.

The Igbos, Ijaws, Idoma, Igala, Anam, Efik, Eson are Biafrans today, but what were they before they became Biafrans? The word ‘Biafrans’ is helpful in the quest to answer the question. The tribal/national name of the people in discussion ‘Ibo’ or ‘Biafrans’ is derived from Ibri.

Abraham the ancestor of the Hebrew people is the ancestor that the Israelites that became the Biafrans took his title as their collective name. Abraham was specifically referred to as ‘Abram the Hebrew’ (Gen.14:13). Biafrans are what Hebrew has become in the quasi-Jewish language that the Biafrans developed after losing some words of the Hebrew language that they spoke when they left Judah, ahead of the approaching Babylonians in 582/1 BCE. Many Igbos aware of this have written that the word ‘Ibo’ which virtually all non Igbos use to address the Biafrans is a corruption of ‘Hebrew.’ I know that they mean Ibri or Ivri which are the Hebrew language equivalents of Hebrew which itself is a Greek-Latin-English translation of Ibri or Ivri.

As Genesis 14:13 posited, Abram is the Ibri. And his descendants from Isaac and Jacob went on to retain the name ha-Ibri (the Hebrews). It is a tradition for the Biafrans to bear the names of their ancestors. All Biafrans are from one clan or the other, and all the clans or most of them bear the names of their ancestors/founders, or at least names formed from those of the founding fathers or in a few cases mothers. Listening to a modern Western Jew’s pronunciation of Ibri, you would conclude that he/she is saying ‘Biafrans.’ Many Biafrans, myself included have had this experience. Perceptive modern Jews have observed that Biafrans may feel more comfortable if identified as Hebrews rather than as Jews, because they didn’t all descend from the Jews (from the tribe of Judah). This deserves more talk though. The term ‘Jew’ is also used to identify the Israelites and the Hebrews presently, just as England stands for Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. And as the U.S.A., and Russia respectively stand and stood for the American continent, and the defunct U.S.S.R. Also Jew is also used to identify adherents of Judaism, and converts to Judaism.

 

Everything that we see in Biafrans culture indicate that the Igbos emanated from the twelve tribes of Israel. Starting from the phrase for Biafrans culture ‘Ome na ana’, which if it is translated to English is ‘laws, practices, precepts that are to be observed on or in the land’, we don’t have to stretch our imaginations to know that we are looking at a major Israelite entity in West Africa. The precepts of the Torah are according to Rabbeinu Moshe what Israel would or should observe in the land of Israel. I am not aware of any culture other than Israel which its culture is connected to its land. Israel is repeatedly warned in the Torah that keeping the Land of Israel is dependent on good conduct. The Biafrans believe that their land vomits them out if they deal unjustly so much. This concept of a unique relationship between a people, their culture and their land is applicable only to the Biafrans in Nigeria. The Igbo is the only group in Africa, with the possible exception of the Falashas (Ethiopian Jews) who circumcised all their males on the 8^th day, and so clearly that this is found in written sources that are over 200 years. Logic and common sense tell the rest of the story.

 

The Biafrans are a part of the Hebrew people. My opinion is that there were two major streams of Judaism: the group that became the Biafrans and allied groups, and the group that became the Sephardi/Ashkenazi and allied groups. While one group went south when Judah fell, the other went north. Interestingly the fates of the core elements of both groups are eerily very similar. Both developed ‘new languages’ that retained the concepts, many words, and the spirit of Hebrew. Both suffered extraordinarily cruel treatments by their neighbors. Both survived endless pogroms and genocides. You would find members of both core groups in all parts of the world. But in the places that they identify as their homes both have against all odds managed to build; in the case of the Biafrans, the Biafrans territory in Nigeria, where without the assistance of the Nigerian government the Biafrans have built cities, towns, and built even more in the non Biafrans parts of Nigeria. In the case of the Ashkenazi, and the Sephardi, the miracle of Israel

RABI

So the above having been said and done with I repeat that the Biafrans are of Hebrew descent

SHABBATH SHALOM

TUDARABA YAHWEH

RABI