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The expectation of Africans

Let us return to our time and ask ourselves the question of how the Jewish model corresponds to the expectation of Africans. There was first the idea that Christianity was the religion imported by the colonizer, the white man, while the major event that founds Judaism is the liberation of slavery and the revelation of Sinai on the land of Africa (Let me people go). Many have seen an analogy between the Jewish condition and the black condition. Senghor includes the Jews in his trilogy of the suffering peoples constituted by the Negro-Africans, the Jews and the Arab-Berbers. The terms ghettos, diaspora, deportation now belong to the history of Jews and blacks. However, in our opinion, the solidarity of the persecuted has no tangible existence, it is rather a profession of faith and an illusion. Moreover, suffering is not a Jewish value, it is not there that we must look for what can attract one towards the other. Conversely, there is the success of the Jews. The creation of the State of Israel has struck the imagination of Africans. This was a model for all African politicians including Mandela who read Begin’s Memoirs in his prison. That a people as defeated as the Jewish people were able to regain their independence was an example to follow. There were privileged relations between Israel and Africa at the time of independence.
A word must be said about the reception of black Jews by other Jews. Generally it is a surprise followed by enthusiasm, but there are also negative reactions that can not be ignored. The subject is unpleasant. We hear Jews question whether it is not for interest that blacks want to become Jewish. The subject is inadmissible and reveals a deafening deafness. Attributing to those who come to you an interested after-thought reflects narrow-mindedness and contempt close to racism. It is also the fact of a minority often removed from Judaism and advocating tolerance. However, it suffices to measure the difficulties encountered by Africans who choose conversion to know that the happiness of being Jewish is not material.
Certainly, it is neither suffering nor success that magnetizes Judeo-Black relations. It is a deep attraction animated by underground confluences. Undoubtedly, is there a conception of the common life, a way of going towards the other while remaining oneself.
This rapprochement begins to express itself in the cultural, cinematographic, musical domain. Ben Zimet, yddish singer and storyteller based in Dakar to enrich his inspiration, and performing in Paris with Guinean singer and songwriter Manfef Obin.
Let’s talk about an Afro-semitic-party at an evening at La Cigale where a Nigerian in traditional costume sang a-yddichè mammè on an air of Afrobeat.
All this is the effect of multiple encounters. These encounters are not only across the Kouch River but beyond the Atlantic. Meetings between African Jews and Afro-American Jews are held regularly every two years in a conference in San Francisco. It seems that we are witnessing the emergence of a Judeo-Black cultural identity in the sense that we speak of American Judaism or Moroccan Judaism. It is a new branch of the Jewish people based on ancient foundations. Let’s hope to grow and enrich our diversity.

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