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From discursive resistance to new genealogies: rethinking Israelite identities in Africa through the case of Nuer Christian Zionists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2021

Yotam Gidron
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Abstract

Scholars have commonly interpreted the emergence of claims of Israelite descent among African peoples as attempts of marginalized communities to construct empowering identities by drawing on biblical narratives. This article tries to make sense of such claims from a more emic perspective, not as an instrumental counter-discourse but as a genuine attempt to grapple with the nature of ethnic membership and the place of certain communities in relation to biblical genealogies, time and space. The article explores the claims of Nuer members of several Evangelical Zionist churches operating in western Ethiopia and South Sudan that the Nuer are among the ‘lost tribes’ of Israel. It demonstrates how Nuer Zionists have reinterpreted Nuer identity, known for its permeability and constructivist nature, in light of contemporary premillennialist Zionist notions of history and peoplehood, which emphasize ethnic fixity and focus on lineages, exclusive bloodlines and biological descent. The article offers a new perspective on Israelite identities in Africa and on the influence of born-again Christianity on the construction of ethnic identities.

Résumé

Résumé

Les chercheurs ont communément interprété l’émergence de prétentions à une descendance israélite parmi les peuples africains comme des tentatives, de la part de communautés marginalisées, de construire des identités valorisantes en s'appuyant sur des récits bibliques. Cet article tente de donner un sens à ces prétentions d'un point de vue plus émique, non pas en guise de contre-discours instrumental mais de véritable tentative de se colleter avec la nature de l'appartenance ethnique et la place de certaines communautés par rapport aux généalogies bibliques, au temps et à l'espace. Cet article explore les prétentions de membres nuer de plusieurs églises sionistes évangéliques, présentes dans l'ouest de l’Éthiopie et au Soudan du Sud, selon lesquelles les Nuer font partie des « tribus perdues » d'Israël. Il démontre comment les sionistes nuer ont réinterprété l'identité nuer, connue pour sa perméabilité et sa nature constructiviste, à la lumière des notions sionistes prémillennialistes contemporaines d'histoire et de peuple, qui mettent l'accent sur la fixité ethnique et se focalisent sur les lignages, les lignées exclusives et la descendance biologique. L'article offre une nouvelle perspective sur les identités israélites en Afrique et sur l'influence du christianisme régénéré sur la construction d'identités ethniques.

Type
Israelite identities in Africa
Information
Africa , Volume 91 , Issue 5 , November 2021 , pp. 832 - 851
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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