ANTHROPOS
106.2011: 579 – 595
Origin of the Yoruba and “The
Lost Tribes of Israel”
Dierk Lange
The article is a revised version of a
paper presented at the Conference “Jews and Judanism in Black Africa and Its
Diaporas” which was held at the School of African and Oriental Studies,
University of London,30 – 31 October 2010.
Abstract.
– On the basis of comparative studies between the dynastic tradition of
the Ọyọ-Yoruba and ancient Near
Eastern history, the present article argues that Yoruba traditions of provenance,
claiming immigration from the Near East, are basically correct. According to Ọyọ-Yoruba tradition, the
ancestral Yoruba saw the Assyrian conquests of the Israelite kingdom from the
ninth and the eighth centuries b.c. from the perspective of the Israelites.
After the fall of Samaria in 722 b.c., they were deported to eastern Syria and
adopted the ruling Assyrian kings as their own. The collapse of the Assyrian
empire is, however, mainly seen through the eyes of the Babylonian conquerors
of Nineveh in 612 b.c. This second shift of perspective reflects the
disillusionment of the Israelite and Babylonian deportees from Syria-Palestine towards
the Assyrian oppressors. After the defeat of the Egypto-Assyrian forces at
Carchemish in Syria in 605 b.c. numerous deportees followed the
fleeing Egypto-Assyrian troops to the Nile valley, before continuing
their migration to sub-Saharan Africa.
([Nigeria, Assyrians in Africa, Lost Tribes of Israel, migrations,
state foundation, conquest state, dynastic traditions, oral traditions, African
king lists] Dierk Lange, Dr. Troisième Cycle (1974 Paris), Thèse
d’État (1987 Paris); Prof. em. of African History, Univ. of Bayreuth. – Field
research in Nigeria, Niger, and Libya. – Publications include books and
articles on the history of the medieval empires of West Africa (Ghana, Mali,
Songhay,Kanem-Bornu) and on the history and anthropology of the Yoruba,
Hausa, and Kanuri. – See References Cited).
