Nalubembe Synagogue

INTRODUCTION

Nalubembe Jewish Community is part of the Abayudaya Jewish communities in Uganda. It is a conservative synagogue located in Eastern Uganda, Kibuku district, Nalubembe. It comprises about 50 committed members including children and adults.

BRIEF HISTORY

Nalubembe synagogue began as a small group of seriously committed Jewish folks under the leadership of Edube in Nabiswa. Nabiswa is a small village neighbouring Nalubembe. This group of people was installed by Semei Kakungulu who had taught Judaism to various parts of Eastern Uganda. In 1971 Amin Dada seized power and became the president of Uganda. He abolished all religions except Anglican, Catholics and Muslim. It became illegal to hold any congregational prayers for any other religion apart from the above-mentioned religions in the country. Consequently, this small Jewish group of people got dispersed, some members changed to other religions while others remained strong and prayed incognitos within their own homes. However, as it is always, no situation is permanent. In 1986 President Yoweri Kaguta Museven became the president of Uganda. This new regime of leadership came along with complete package of freedom to worship. At this particular moment, Judaism had been practically wiped out in Nabiswa and it was only left in hearts of a few individuals.

In 1996, Edube Yokonan emulated his grandfather’s Jewish culture. He was later accompanied by other members from the linages of the other folks. They reformed a Jewish community in Nalubembe and built a round grass thatched synagogue whose walls were made of mud. This was unstable structure which was later blown off by wind. This group of people was led by Edube Yokonan and this generation suffered a lot from illiteracy and its not surprising that Edube didn’t know how to read. But his wife Naula Esther knew how to read Luganda. This gave them an advantage to dig deeper into the Luganda translated Old Testament in search for the truth. Shabbat observance was a key issue. They loved Judaism so much and made all the efforts to know its culture, traditions and customs. However, their search for Judaism was limited due to various factors. Lack of connections to other Jewish communities, illiteracy and lack of Rabbi to mention but a few. This community was too inadequate of information concerning Kashrut, Jewish high holidays and festivals. Nevertheless, they put in practice every bit of Jewish culture they learned.

Around 2000, Nalubembe Jewish community fortunately got connected to Nabugoye Jewish Community which was more advanced in Jewish learning. Edube together with his wife plus other members rod manual bicycles to Nabugoye synagogue for shabbat prayers and learned more about Judaism. Some young people were sent to reside at Nabugoye and learned Judaism.l This improved their Jewish experience and learned more Jewish culture. It’s about 53km distance from Nalubembe to Nabugoye. It’s such a big distance to be rod and reach in time. Besides Mbale is hilly and the hectic part of the journey was the fact that men always rod bicycles with their wives sat behind the bicycle carriers. By 2008, a big number of members did conversion at Nabugoye synagogue by Rabbi Gershom and a group of other Rabbis.

After the wind destroyed the round grass thatched synagogue, another temporary synagogue was built using papyrus in 200.... This too got spoiled with time. In the recent years Jonathan Mwima one of the sons of Edube surrendered his incomplete house to the community to be turned into a synagogue. Community members made contributions for the completion of the structure and it’s being used up to date. It’s stronger compared to other previous synagogues. It’s made up of bricks and iron sheets. However, it’s small compared to the community’s population and also lacks most of the synagogue requirements.

WAY OF LIFE

Culture.

Over the years, the Jewish culture in this community has steadily grown with the continuous learning. Primarily the community lacked understanding of all Judaism practices but with frequent visits to Nabugoye synagogue, and studying of the Torah, it came to learn most of the practices. The community lacked the Torah scrolls so it resorted to chumash plus reading the Old Testament in Luganda. The community took seriously every lesson learnt. From the beginning the community has strictly observed Shabbat. They always did all the work in the six days and had complete rest on shabbat. Community members always collected food from each family for shabbat meals. The common meal was a mixture of millet flour and cassava flour that was mingled together to form what is locally called Kalo. Kalo was a kind of meal which could easily go bad on shabbat besides it only tested sweet when it had been just prepared. It lost its good test when cold. The community also celebrated various Jewish festivals and high holidays but with difficulties due to lack of most requirements. The community composed various songs in Luganda which are direct translations from the book of Psalms, it also sang various Israeli songs. This trend of life has been kept up to date.

Economic status.

This community suffered a lot from illiteracy due to lack of funds to teach its members in schools. It barely lived from hands to mouth. It practised subsistence farming on small scale which could only sustain their stomachs. They grew crops such as cassava, millet, beans, rice and maize. A good harvest always gave them great smiles as they could sell some of it to cater for their other basic needs and leave some for own consumption till another harvest. Due to unreliable weather conditions and poor farming practices, crops yielded less sometimes and this meant suffering. They also reared small numbers of animals and birds such as goats and chicken.

Currently, the community is not far from this very way of life except that most members have learned how to read and write and have more understanding of Jewish culture. Some members have had basic education.