Journey to the Vanished City: the search for a lost tribe of Israel / Who are the strange Lemba people of Zimbabwe and South Africa? Are they indeed, as they claim, a lost biblical Jewish tribe directly descended from the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon? Or are they impostors, claiming to be Jewish merely to expedite a modern-day exodus to Israel, following a path undertaken by the Ethiopian Falasha Jews?
These are the questions that noted historian Tudor Parfitt tackles in this absorbing narrative, Journey to the Vanished City. Tracing the origins of these self-proclaimed black Jews in compelling whodunit fashion, Parfitt searches for the fabled city of Sena, from which the Lemba claim to have come centuries before. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that this is not merely an expedition through uncharted African territory, for the book takes on the aura of an epic journey through the terrain of myth. Along the way, the reader encounters fascinating stories of the Queen of Sheba, of long-lost Jewish kingdoms, of King Solomon's mines, and of Ophir, the legendary biblical land of gold.
A compelling travel narrative in the best tradition of Paul Theroux and John McPhee, this is a work that through its controversial thesis is bound to generate public debate. Journey to the Vanished City opens up a new and exciting chapter in Jewish history.
Notes
n a mixture of travel, adventure, and scholarship, historian Tudor Parfitt sets out in search of answers to a fascinating ethnological puzzle: is the Lemba tribe of Southern Africa really one of the lost tribes of Israel, descended from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba?
Beginning in the Lemba villages in South Africa, where he witnesses customs such as food taboos and circumcision rites that seem part of Jewish tradition, Parfitt retraces the supposed path of the Lembas' through Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Tanzania, taking in sights like Zanzibar and the remains of the stone city Great Zimbabwe. The story of his eccentric travels, a blend of the ancient allure of King Solomon's mines and Prester John with contemporary Africa in all its beauty and brutality, makes for an irresistible glimpse at a various and rapidly changing continent.
And in a new epilogue, Parfitt discusses recent DNA evidence that, amazingly, lends credence to the Lemba's tribal myth.
