The welcoming committee to Entebbe Uganda did not wait for me to disembark from the airplane. An annoying mosquito would not stop buzzing in my ear on my plane ride to Addis Ababa Ethiopia. In harmony to the mosquito’s symphony my Ugandan seatmate jabbered in my other ear incessantly imploring me time and again to lean back so I would not block his view through the window.

I have always been fascinated by the tale of the Abayudaya tribe in and its leader and founder Samai Kakungulu. The story goes that Kakungulu a key figure in Ugandan politics in the early 1920s eventually converted to Judaism and that many of his clan followed him. They named themselves Abayudaya with the obvious connection to Yehudi and they kept Torah and mitzvos. Over the course of decades after his death in 1928 ties to the tribe were lost. Occasional messages sent to Israel by Abayudaya members indicated that once their leader had died the community dwindled. Many converted to Christianity and intermarriage threatened to wipe out the rest.

In the 1960s Jews worldwide began to take an interest in the tribe and it witnessed a rejuvenation with many people joining the descendants of the original members who still identified themselves as Abayudaya. I was always curious as to what these people so far removed from the rest of world Jewry could keep and finally thanks to honorary Ugandan consul to Israel Amos Golan I was able to make the trip to find out for myself.

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