African Jewish odyssey captured in photographer’s e-book

An American-British photographer living in Tokyo is to release an e-book chronicling his travels through Africa, meeting some of the world’s least known Jewish communities.

Jono David, who is Jewish, spent four years from 2012 to 2016 travelling to 30 countries over eight trips, meeting both remote and established groups the length and breadth of the continent.

His book, The Jews of Africa: Lost Tribes. Found Communities. Emerging Faiths, available through Amazon Kindle Publishing from 1 April, includes 230 photos and access to a gallery of 300 images.

It explores the Jewish history of Africa in essays by Jewish African scholars, rabbis, curators, politicians and communal representatives, all of whom were asked: who are the Jews of Africa?

Some groups he encountered, such as the diverse and scattered Lemba in Zimbabwe, were isolated, while others, such as those in Cameroon, were makeshift, operating from somebody’s house. Some, such as those in Egypt, numbered fewer than 15, while communities in places such as Kenya were “not at all far-flung or rural, not hiding away, but open”.