Southern Africa Jewish Genealogy SA-SIG
Zion in Africa. The Jews of Zambia
Hugh Macmillan and Frank Shapiro
Editor: Dr Saul Issroff
Copyright © 1999-2000 Saul Issroff, Mike Getz, SAfrica SIG and Jewishgen Inc.
URL: http://www.jewishgen.org/SAfrica/bibliography/bibliog-1.htm
Date: 17 February 2000
THE * JEWISH * STUDIES * BOOK * REVIEW
Book Reviews and Cross-Posted Book Reviews
Published by H-Judaic: The Jewish Studies Network
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Book Review XIX [n.s.] * November 1999 * Readership = 6200+
for additional information: http://h-net.msu.edu/~judaic
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Macmillan, Hugh and Shapiro, Frank. _Zion in Africa. The Jews of Zambia_.
London/New York: I.B. Tauris, in association with the Council for Zambia
Jewry, 1999. ix + 342 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, sources, index.
Cloth. ISBN 1-86064-405-8.
Reviewed for H-Judaic by Yael Even-Levy, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies,
Brandeis University. E-mail: evenlevy@brandeis.edu
From Yiddish-speaking cattle traders and adventurers in the nineteenth
century to intellectuals and professionals in the twentieth, _Zion in
Africa_ chronicles the history and culture of the small Jewish community
in Zambia and affirms that Zambian Jewry, as an ethnic group, indeed
exists. The book is supplemented by maps of Zambia (also known before its
independence in 1964 as Northern Rhodesia), with its eight neighboring
countries in south central Africa, and central African cattle-trails (c.
1900s-1960). In addition to secondary sources, its eleven-page
bibliography provides explanations on the sources, list of interviews,
archives, and private collections. Photographs from the early 1900s to
1997 provide visual insights into the appearance of Zambian Jewry, their
Synagogue, shops, and the like. The book also includes a list of
abbreviations, copious endnotes, and a thirteen-page index.
The opening chapter provides a wide definition of the "Jewishness" of the
people discussed in this book. Unlike the strict religious definition that
values maternal descent, the authors provide an ethnic definition to
include anyone of Jewish descent, including those who converted to
Christianity, and others who consider themselves Jewish through paternal
descent and for other reasons. Jews in Zambia are viewed by Macmillan and
Shapiro as "a fairly common social phenomenon: an immigrant ethnic group
which, through the force of historical circumstances, rather than heredity
[specializes ...] in a particular field of economic and commercial
activity" (p.1). For the benefit of future descendants, this book lists
almost everyone in Northern Rhodesia/Zambia who falls under this category,
including those who have emigrated to, were born or raised in, and those
who settled for a while and then left. Macmillan and Shapiro's
fascinating in-depth research deals with Jewish settlers and refugees,
both men and women, often with meager financial means, who have emigrated
to the welcoming Northern Rhodesia/Zambia and became successful to a
certain degree. Regardless of how secular or assimilated many of these
immigrants were -- be they Yiddish-speakers from eastern Europe,
German-speakers from Germany, Ladino-speakers from the former Ottoman
Empire, or Anglophones from South Africa, England and Ireland -- all had
in common their ethnic identity and their social position as a minority
group. This resulted in building an infrastructure that included such
institutions as Hebrew congregations, synagogues, and even a commitment to
the secular national movement, Zionism.
The early grain or cattle-traders, risk-taking entrepreneurs, and farmers
endured great difficulties, such as widespread anti-Semitism and local
racism among the white population, blackwater fever, and bankruptcy.
Despite these hardships, they established trading communities along the
railway, in the geographic area known as the Line of Rail, and the copper
mines on the Copperbelt, they built rural stores, developed farms and
ranches, and they played a significant role in developing towns and in the
new Zambian industries such as textiles or the Tranz Zambezi Industries
(TZI). Macmillan and Shapiro state that "the status of the Jews as
economic or political refugees did give them a greater commitment to the
development of national interests, and national capital, than most other
settlers" (p.291). What is undeniable is that a strong motivation to
succeed, the predominance of close-knit family networks, and, what is most
important, a system of direct links with London merchants, personal trust,
and the extension of credit system were crucial elements that contributed,
for instance, to the eventual success of the Diamond family's business, or
that saved the Susmans from bankruptcy. Zambian Jewry's investment in the
land may be simply summed up with the words of Helen Mohrer, a German
Jewish refugee: "Northern Rhodesia was very good to us, and as Northern
Rhodesia grew, so we grew with the country" (p.293).
Several chapters are devoted to the history of prominent families in a
more explicit fashion. Chapter Two, for example, recounts the history of
the Susman family from their humble beginnings as cattle traders to their
contributions to the economic development of both Northern and Southern
Rhodesia. Both brothers Elie and Harry Susman came from an Orthodox family
in the Lithuanian shtetl of Riteve. As pioneer cattle-traders, they had
overcome the risks posed by the tsetse fly, lions, and crocodiles when
crossing the Zambezi river. Chapter Four provides information on Moss
Dobkins, a Jewish trader who arrived from England in 1905 and died at the
age of ninety in 1984. The information relies upon Dobkins' diary and his
partial autobiography. It describes his life and that of his family, his
joining the Northern Rhodesian Volunteer Force, Mobile Column (known also
as the Northern Rhodesia Rifles) in World War I, his relationship with
Christian missionaries and Freemasonry, and "how it felt, and what it
meant, to be an immigrant Jew in central Africa in the early years of the
twentieth century" (p.70). Abe Galaun, discussed in the tenth chapter, is
another example of economic success. This chairman of the Lusaka Hebrew
Congregation and former member of the Lusaka Chamber of commerce arrived
as an immigrant from the shtetl of Vorne in the Russian Empire. Abe
Galaun and his siblings came to Africa "because the United States was
effectively closed to them by the quota system" (p.182). With their
agricultural activities, the Galauns flourished economically in the
country, even during the post colonial period of economic decline, as
owners of eight farms totaling 25,000 acres of land, and of a vast amount
of retail businesses such as butcheries, grocery stores, a hotel, and the
first non-segregated movie theater in Lusaka. Their contributions to the
economic development of Zambia manifested itself by supplying cattle,
developing dairy production, and exporting tobacco, coffee, and
horticultural items.
Macmillan and Shapiro give us some information, although not enough, about
the Jewish women who emigrated to the area although they admit that women
held a central role in the formation of a Jewish community life in the
region. Their absence on the frontier in Northern Rhodesia in the early
years may help explain the difficulties in observing religious customs.
Macmillan and Shapiro tell us that "it was only with the arrival of Jewish
women and the formation of families, which went together with the
development of modern towns along the Line of Rail, that there was any
attempt at organized religious activity" (p.207). Women such as Frieda
Glasser, Helenne Illion, Peggy Rabb, or Hessie Lowenthal, just to name a
few, were active and independent. The devoutly orthodox Frieda Glasser,
for instance, owned the first bakery and dairy in Lusaka. We learn that
Peggy Rabb, the federal president of the Women's International Zionist
Organization (WIZO) and national president of the Union of Jewish Women,
was also the former president of the Women's Institutes of the Federation,
and former member of the Northern Rodesian Education Advisory Board. These
women were clearly active in Jewish communal organizations and were
important in the building of Hebrew congregations, but unfortunately we do
not learn about them in this book as much as we do about the men.
In addition to the detailed accounts of the early days on the frontier,
the strongest part of _Zion in Africa_ is the in-depth examination based
on archival documents and immigration files such as the 1930s Colonial
Office discussions about Jewish immigration which opposed Jewish
settlement in the area. The hardship involved in the settlement and
absorption of Holocaust survivors in the region is another interrelated
issue addressed in the book. Unlike the earlier settlers who spoke
Yiddish, the newcomers spoke German and were assimilated into German
culture resulting with a difficult period of adjustment. _Zion in Africa_
includes Jewish involvement in politics and contributions to Zambia's
history, all the while not neglecting to provide the reader with a general
history of central and southern Africa and providing details on several
riots on the Copperbelt and government mismanagement. Contributions to
public life and involvement in local government are manifested in the
position Jewish men held in this arena. Among them, just to mention a
few, are Hyan Schulman, the first Jewish mayor of Ndola in 1937, Maurice
Rabb twice mayor of Livingstone in 1951 and 1956, and Dennis Figov, twice
mayor in Luanshya. In the national politics, the civil engineer Simon
Zukas was appointed in 1991 deputy Minister to President Chiluba's Zambian
government. This immigrant refugee resigned following political
disagreements with the new constitution which "contained clauses debarring
immigrants, or their children, from running for the office of President"
(p.258). The book at times is too detailed. Nevertheless, its lucid style
makes the fifteen chapters a pleasure to read.
Although mentioned briefly, more attention perhaps should have been given
to the relationship between the Jewish minority and the African majority
and other immigrant groups, or to the African shop-assistants' and
customers' perceptions of the Jewish immigrants. But that may be a topic
for a whole new book. Although Macmillan and Shapiro prove that Jewish
immigrants were able to adapt quickly to tropical Africa in the years
before and after independence, this volume emphasizes, and almost
glorifies, the economic role of Zambian Jewry. Expressing their concern
that such a book may be useful to anti-Semitic theorists, Macmillan and
Shapiro say the economic roles of Zambian Jewry fits more closely with
Braudel's view of "showing that their relationship to places of economic
growth was as much symbiotic as catalytic" (p.287).
To our great benefit, Macmillan and Shapiro succeed in using their subject
matter to the fullest and thus fulfil the book's potential. _Zion in
Africa_ is quite enlightening and accomplishes what it sets out to do with
great skill and insight and provides a welcome addition to other books
dealing with Jewish communities in Africa, such as B.A. Kosmin, _Majuta: A
History of the Jewish Community of Zimbabwe_ (Gwelo, 1980); M. Kaplan, _
Jewish Roots in South African Economy_ (Cape Town, 1986); G. Saron and L.
Hotz (eds.), _The Jews in South Africa: A History_ (Cape Town, 1955); G.
Shimoni, G. _Jews and Zionism: The South African Experience, 1910-67_
(Cape Town, 1980); I. Suttner (ed.), _Cutting Through the Mountain:
Interviews with South African Jewish Activists_ (London, 1997); S.
Mendelssohn, _ The Jews of Africa_ (New York: 1920); and J. Williams,
_Hebrewism of West Africa: from Nile to Niger with the Jews_ (New York,
1967). _Zion in Africa_ may be best categorized in the field of social
history and the reader should find the biographical details valuable and
interesting.
By the 1960's most Jews left Northern Rhodesia. Although the Zambian
Jewish community of the 1990s is much smaller that it used to be following
World War II, it still exists and should be recognized as Zambian Jewry.
_Zion in Africa_ makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of
a Jewish community in Africa. Specialists in Jewish Studies may welcome
this book for the information it presents on this little-known topic.
This volume may be also valuable to readers interested in immigrant
communities or to economic development on this continent. Finally, _Zion
in Africa_ should find its place in every college and university library.
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