European settlers catalogued Zulu ritual parallels to ancient Jewish practice

Evidence

Henry Francis Fynn who had established a small Zulu chieftaincy in the 1820s and who had spent decades living among them noted: “I was surprised to find a considerable resemblance between many of the [Zulu] customs and those of the Jews.” These included: “War offerings; sin offerings; propitiatory offerings; Festival of first fruits … periods of uncleanness, on the decease of relatives and touching the dead; Circumcision; Rules regarding chastity; Rejection of swine’s flesh.” — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 332

Categorization

• SHARE: Wonderful list of ‘lost tribe’ evidence someone into missionary accounts or the Hamitic hypothesis would savour.