Lemba

The Lemba are a Bantu-speaking people of about 70,000–80,000 living mainly in Zimbabwe and South Africa, with smaller groups in Malawi and Mozambique. They speak the languages of their neighbors (Venda, Shona) but keep an oral tradition of Jewish descent from a place they call "Sena," likely in Yemen. Their customs match: male circumcision, no pork, ritual slaughter, a weekly holy day, no intermarriage with outsiders, twelve clans, and Stars of David on tombstones. The Buba clan holds priestly status and claims to have led the migration out of Israel. The "Cohen gene" refers to the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH) — a Y-chromosome marker common among Jewish men who claim descent from the biblical priesthood. A 2000 study (Thomas, Parfitt, Goldstein et al.) found the CMH at Kohanim-level frequencies in Lemba men, and in more than half of Buba men — far above surrounding Bantu populations. Later work (Soodyall, 2013) confirmed a real Semitic male-line ancestry but noted the CMH is broader than just biblical priests, so it shows Middle Eastern paternal origin rather than proving priestly descent specifically. Their mitochondrial DNA is overwhelmingly African, fitting the tradition of male migrants marrying local women.