Out of Africa
Published in The Australian Jewish News
June 8, 2018
In 2006, Zara Sarzin worked at the World Bank and was posted in Uganda.
As Pesach approached, Sarzin, originally from Sydney, was eager to locate a Seder to join. She looked for a community of ex-pat Jews or Israelis with whom she could spend the chag. She googled, and this is when she first discovered the Abayudaya – Uganda’s Jews.
The Abayudaya are an impoverished community of approximately 2000 African Jews living in five villages near Mbale, a rural part of Eastern Uganda near the Kenyan border. They owe their origins to celebrated military leader Semei Kakungalu.
In the 1880s, Kakungalu was converted to Christianity by British missionaries. As time passed and conflict ensued between Kakungalu and the British, he would learn about Judaism, and proclaim himself a Jew. In subsequent years, the community would undertake formal conversions and finally the Jewish Agency would recognise the Abayudaya.