The jewish community of Uganda near Mbale  – Abayudaya of Nabugoye Mbale.

Found among the residents of Putti in Mbale district, Uganda, the Jewish community known as The Abayudaya, or The People of Judah, follows Judaism. The organization has its roots in the conversion of Muganda military commander Semei Kakungulu to Christianity by British missionaries in 1880.

Having captured Bukedi and Bugisu in war, he thought the British would let him be King of the territory. Semei Kakungulu started to distance himself from the British, nevertheless, when they reduced his domain to a much lesser scale and denied him royal recognition as they had promised.

He joined the Bamalaki sect in 1913, a cult with a theological system combining aspects of Christianity, Judaism, and Christian Science, most famously, a rejection to use western medicine. This caused strife with the British when the Bamalaki refused to vaccinate their livestock.

But Semei Kakungulu came to see from further Bible research that the rules and traditions Moses outlined were really accurate. When Kakungulu insisted on circumcision as recommended in the Old Testament in 1919, the Bamaliki objected and informed him he would be like the Jews if he had the surgery. Kakungulu said, “then, I am a Jew!” Declaring that his neighborhood was Jewish, he shaved his boys and himself.

Seeking refuge at the foot of Mount Elgon, he lived in Gangama and founded a separatist group known as Kibina Kya Bayudaya Absesiga Katonda (the Community of Jews who believes in the Lord).This behavior incensed the British, who thus cut all links with him and his supporters.

The arrival of a foreign Jew known as “Yosef” in 1920 whose ancestral roots are thought to have been European helped the community to learn about the seasons in which Jewish Festivals including Pesach, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Succot, and others take place.

According to a source from the Abayudaya community, the first Jew to visit the town was Yosef, who lived with and educated the people for around six months. He would therefore seem to have introduced the Jewish calendar to the Abayudaya community.

Moreover, Yosef first brought the regulations pertaining to Kashrut to the society. Still now, the community performs kashrut. Inspired by Yosef’s teachings, Semei Kakungulu founded a Yeshiva-style institution to carry on and teach the information and skills initially acquired from him.

Following Semei Kakungulu’s tetanus death in 1928, one of his students, Samson Mugombe Israeli, assumed leadership of the community spiritually. They secluded themselves for self-defense and endured persecution—including that of Idi Amin, who demolished synagogues and forbade Jewish ceremonies.

Some of the Abayudaya community turned to either Christianity or Islam in response to religious persecution during Idi Amin’s persecutions. Still, a core group of around three hundred people remained dedicated to Judaism, worshiping in secret, worried of being found by their neighbors and denounced to the police. Later on, this group came to identify as “She’serit Yisrael,” the Remnant of Israel, that is, the surviving (Ugandan) Jews.

Visiting the Abayudaya in 1962, Israeli student Arye Oded of Makerere University met Samson Mugombe. Since Yosef, this was the first Jew the Abayudaya had seen and the first time they had ever seen an Israeli.

Oded described to Mugombe and other officials how Jews in Israel practiced Judaism throughout several protracted conversations. Oded then published a book (“Religion and Politics in Uganda,”) along with several pieces on the group and its rituals, therefore exposing them to global Jewry. The community saw a rebirth throughout the 1980s.

Five Conservative branch of Judaism rabbis legally converted over 400 Abayudaya community members in February 2002.

Unexpectedly find the woods; the synagogue is a simple, but elegant rustic red-brick structure to remodel. Held Friday from 6:00 to 8:00pm and Saturday at 9:00am, the Jewish community of Uganda on the outskirts of Mbale on Nabugoye hill dadtes from the early 20th century services in English and Hewbrew.