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The Lemba or Lembaa are a group of people numbering 70,000 in southern Africa. Although they speak Bantu languages similar to their neighbours, they have specific religious practices and beliefs similar to those in Judaism, which have been remembered and transmitted orally through the generations.
Some Lemba beliefs and practices that are linked to Judaism include:
They also have a tradition of being a migrant people with clues pointing to an origin in the Middle East or North Africa. According to the oral history of the Lemba their ancestors were Jews who came from a place called Sena several hundred years ago and settled in East Africa. According to the findings of British researcher Tudor Parfitt, the location of Sena was more than likely in Yemen.
Another possibility is that Sena refers to the Portuguese trading post founded on the Zambezi River in the late sixteenth century. As many "New Christians" (converted Jews) from Portugal went to settle overseas following the persecutions of the Inquisition, it is likely that a good many people of Jewish genetic heritage may have settled there, as they did in Guinea, Congo, Angola and Brazil, where the Inquisition's reach was less. Since Sena was noted for its commercial contacts, and since even in the colony they might have been persecuted, it is possible that a group of them could have immigrated to their present location through such trading contacts.
Marriage to other Lembas is preferred. The Lemba have restrictions on intermarriage with non-Lemba, with it being particularly difficult for a male non-Lemba to become a member. A woman who marries a Lemba must learn Lemba religion, dietary rules, etc. She may not bring any cooking equipment from her previous home. She may have to shave her head. Her children must be brought up as Lembas.
The presence among the Lemba of a disproportionate number of men carrying a particular polymorphism on the Y chromosome known as the Cohen modal haplotype suggests an ancestral link to the Jewish population. One sub-clan within the Lemba, the Buba clan, is considered by the Lemba to be their priestly clan. Among a small sample of the Buba, fifty-two percent of males were found to carry the Cohen modal haplotype, which is generally indicative of Y-DNA haplogroup J, but notably prevalent among Jewish Kohanim, or priests. More microsatellite markers would need to be tested to be more sure of the reality (or not) of any such link. The Lemba also have a large percentage of genes often found in non-Arab Semites.