In 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.