The Lemba - ‘angel-stars’, ngoma lungundu and ancestors

Hendel (2004) states that “the remembered past is the material with which biblical Israelconstructed its identity as a people, a religion, and a culture. It is a mixture of history, collective memory, folklore, and literary brilliance. In Israel’s formative years, these memories circulated orally in the context of family and tribe. Over time they came to be crystallized [mainly] in various written texts” (my insertion). The experiential dimension of religion of ancient Israel and that of the Lemba (the so-called ‘Black “Jews” of Southern Africa’ and other African tribes) is expressed orally and textually, but also in art. It is in no small part also created by them, as they formulate new or altered conceptions of the sacred past. Guidance by stars, the ancestors and the ngoma lungundu (sacred drum of the ancestors) play a major role in the expression of Lemba and early Israelite religion, culture and art.