Temple Beth-El of the Church of God and the Saints of Christ was located in a poor section of town. It was a simple building made of corrugated fiberglass sheets that just about kept out the rain. Elder Benjamin was the leader and welcomed me – we had met on my last visit to Zimbabwe. The male congregationalists were mainly dressed in the same elegant brown tails with bow ties, and the women mostly wore an exotic blue silk blouse with a tie and black skirt. Many of the men wore white gloves which gave all the m ore exquisite appearance. What a contrast to the rickety building structure.

I arrived early, accompanied by Sister Elder Tabeth; and I was armed with my tape recorder and camera to document as much as I could during the next four hours. In the welcoming ceremony, there was a singing procession where everyone walked past Elder Benjamin and kissed him. After some more songs and readings, all the young children were asked to come forward to sing a song about obeying the 10 commandments. Then there was a sort of naming ceremony in which a baby was formally introduced in the congregation. The proud parent brought cakes and sodas for everyone to celebrate. Elder Benjamin gave a short lecture on the role of parents to educate their children, to train them to obedient, and to teach them to communicate, all of which would enable them to become good members of society. And he reminded the parents that corporal punishment was no the way to do such training.

The service was divided into various distinct sections. There was a bible reading and discussion and then a Sabbath school where on e of the Elders explained the meaning of Shovous, which would be celebrated in just ten days. Elder Benjamin gave another short talk where he explained how the African people were descended from the Israelites and had intermarried and headed south. They had been slaves in Egypt and liberated by Moses. Unfortunately, the Christian missionaries who later came to Africa (with the slavers and colonialists) had converted most of them to Christianity. They had forgotten their roots; however, if they examined many of their ancient traditions – like their totems, burial rites, circumcision, marriage customs, agricultural practices, etc. – they could trace them back to the early Israelites. He stressed over and over that they were the children of Abraham and one with all other Jews—no matter what their color. He made some intimation that the African Israelites had been punished with poverty, hunger and enslavement for not following the word of God.

The last part of the morning service was the Torah reading. The men all put on tallit and the women donned these beautiful colored hats or "crowns" as they were called. They took their service from a special book and then read a passage of the Bible—they had no Torah scrolls. In the final sermon, Elder Benjamin stressed that all people would again be brought together as one family thanks to the power of God. He noted that the ability to travel and communicate was bringing people around the world together, as illustrated by the presence there. "Everything is possible when you believe in God." At the end of the morning service they set up a bench in the center and asked people who were ill or had problems to come forward and the congregation would pray for them. The ceremony then adjourned with more singing, before the communal lunch.

Later, I asked Sister Elder Tabeth, who had befriended me, to tell me the story of this black Jewish movement taking hold in Southern Africa. She gave me a brief overview. Their prophet was William Saunders Crowdy, born an American slave, who became enlightened in the 1880s. He had been a Baptist deacon when he had a visitation from God and was told to recreate the religion of the Biblical Jews for the black people. Crowdy realized that he had to hide their Judaism, so he used the name "Church of God and the Saints of Christ." Around 1903 a man named Albert, in South Africa, had a vision that he should search out the prophet of God. His search took him to the United States where he "recognized" William Crowdy. Albert then brought back Crowdy’s teachings to South Africa. Around 1935 a village near Rusape, Zimbabwe, felt spiritually empty and sent an emissary to South Africa to learn about the teachings of prophet Crowdy, whom they had hard about. Their emissary brought these teachings back to Zimbabwe. After several generations of development in Zimbabwe, Rabbi Ambrose Mukawaza arose to become the chief Rabbi of the movement for Central Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia.

A great many questions arise about this movement of black Jews. Could the Bantu people really have descended form the lost tribes of Israel? Are the resemblances of so many traditional African customs to the customs of Biblical Jews just accidental? Is the movement of the church of God and Saints of Christ another form of crypty-Judaism, something like the Marranos, designed to protect these "born-again" Jews? More importantly, this is one of the few movements seeking to expand the Jewish religion. Should not Jews around the world recognize and support this emerging new branch of Judaism? How do you feel about these issues?