Lemba People

Lemba People

The Lemba or 'wa-Remba' are a southern African ethnic group to be found in Zimbabwe and South Africa with some little known branches in Mozambique and Malawi. According to Parfitt they are thought to number 70,000. Many of them claim a partial common descent to the Jewish people.

Although they are speakers of Bantu languages related to those spoken by their geographic neighbours, they have specific religious practices and beliefs similar to those in Judaism, which were transmitted orally.

Today, many Lemba are Christians (including Messianic Jews) or Muslims, and they maintain several Jewish practices. Recent genetic analyses have established a partially Middle-Eastern origin for a portion of the Lemba population.

The name "Lemba" may originate in chilemba, a Swahili word for turbans worn by East Africans or lembi a Bantu word meaning "non-African" or "respected foreigner". Magdel le Roux points out that the name VaRemba may be translated as "the people who refuse" - probably in the context of "not eating with others" (according to one of her interviewees).