Colonial scholars mapped biblical Hebrew traits onto African peoples like the Masai

Evidence

In his detailed and carefully researched work Merker believed that he had found significant parallels between the Masais’ myths and customs and those of the biblical Hebrews. Merker discovered parallels between the beliefs and customs of the ancient Jews including: similarities in the names of God; in circumcision; in a belief in the figure of Moses (whom Merker identified with the Masai Marumi or Musana); and in a variety of legends that included the stories of the creation of the world, Adam and Eve and the fall of man, the story of the flood, the theft of the birthright, the bronze serpent, and the ten commandments. He concluded that both the Masai and the “oldest” Hebrews originated from the same people. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 338

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s broader interest in how colonial discourse repackaged Jewishness, paralleling themes in ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ about displaced identity signaling.
• CANDY: The claim that a German officer identified Moses with the Masai figure Musana is a striking, easily-retold oddity of colonial scholarship.