Tracing the Hebrew Roots of West Africa: A Forgotten Legacy
- So Am I Books
- Jun 29
- 2 min read
For centuries, the spiritual and historical identity of West African peoples has been filtered through the lenses of colonialism, Eurocentrism, and religious revisionism. But what if the mainstream narrative overlooks a profound legacy—one rooted in the ancient traditions of the Israelites? Historical sources from as early as the 18th century suggest just that: that many West Africans, particularly those along the Niger River, are not merely converts to Abrahamic faiths, but descendants of the very people who once walked the land of Israel.
One such reference appears in the 1714 publication Atlas Geographus: Or, A Compleat System of Geography, Ancient and Modern for Africa. It states:
> "Judaism was the Religion of the ancient Africans for a long Time... Some of the Jews who inhabit both Sides the Niger derive themselves from Abraham. Others fled hither from Asia when Vespasian destroy’d Jerusalem, or from Judea when t’was wasted by the Romans, Persians, Saracens, and Christians. Some were banish’d from Italy in 1342, from Spain in 1462, from the Low Countries in 1350, from France in 1403, and from England in 1422."
This passage acknowledges a multi-layered Jewish presence in Africa. Some Jews arrived as refugees following the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, while others came later, displaced by waves of persecution across Europe and the Middle East. Their migrations carried their traditions, languages, and religious practices into the heart of Africa, where they took root among various communities.
But this historical presence goes beyond mere geography. In a 1962 article titled "The Ritual Approach to Hebrew-African Culture Contact," Jewish anthropologist Raphael Patai made a startling observation:
> "The Supreme Being not only of the Ashanti and allied tribes, but most probably of the whole of Negro Land as well... is not the God of the Christians... but the Yahweh of the Hebrews, and that too of the Hebrews of pre-exilic times."
This suggests that the conception of God among various West African tribes was not a byproduct of Christian missionary work, but an inheritance from an earlier form of Hebrew faith. The Yahweh they worshipped bore more resemblance to the God of ancient Israel than to the theological constructs introduced during colonialism.
