Slavery food, soul food, salvation food: veganism and identity in the African Hebrew Israelite Community

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews the transformation of meaning of food items central to African American fare from symbols of slavery to means of salvation as the African Hebrew Israelite Community (AHIC) live out their Biblically inspired lifestyle and perfect the vegan diet at its core. Although originating in Chicago in the late 1960s, for over 40 years the institutional and residential base of this transnational millenarian community has been in the Israeli desert town of Dimona. Based on long-term ethnographic acquaintance with their foodways in Israel and in the US, our analysis follows the AHIC’s eclectic incorporation of circulating religious, political, and scientific theories into their Bible-based cosmological-nutritional tenets of regenerative health and spiritual salvation. We argue that their ‘Edenic Diet’ reacts to the traumatic history of African Americans as slaves and as a discriminated against minority in the US, by serving as a means in their struggle for place and acceptance in modern Israel and an active component in their social and spiritual plans for the future.

KEYWORDS:

• African American foodways
• Black Hebrews
• divine diet
• Israel

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Israel grants immediate citizenship to any Jew wishing to immigrate to or ‘ascend’ (la’alot – a value laden term and practice), to Israel. One way of addressing the needs of such Jewish migrants are ‘absorption centers’, aimed at providing physical needs such as lodging and food, as well as social and cultural training, support, and guidance. These centers are composed of dwelling sections, with small apartments intended for short stays of a few month, a dining room, community services such as a synagogue and a social club, and classrooms where Hebrew language classes and acculturation training take place.

2 This explains, at least to a certain extent, the perception by some White Americans, past and present, of African slaves as ‘happy nigras’ who had no worries nor obligations, as their owners bore complete responsibility for their material and social needs, as well as their moral standards (Genovese 1976, 472; see also Andrew Anglin ‘Blacks loved slavery and regretted its end’ published by the Daily Stormer).

3 The Community is officially listed on the internet as the African Hebrew Israelite Community of Jerusalem. In Israel, they are known as the Hebrew Israelite Community of Dimona. When they first entered Israel, and throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s they called themselves the Original Black Hebrew Israelite Nation.

4 These are primarily Atlanta, Chicago and Washington, DC. The AHIC also operates branches in London and in Ghana and South Africa, but these are outside the scope of this inquiry.

5 ‘And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and you shall be left few in number among the nations, where the Lord shall lead you’(The Jerusalem Bible, Devarim/Deuteronomy 4:28).

6 A Community dictum states that absolute adherence to the original Edenic diet (Gen 1:29) will bring about eternal life, which was God’s plan for Adam and Eve before they sinned. Discussion of members’ beliefs in and attitudes toward eternal – or even prolonged – life resulting from veganism and righteousness is beyond the scope of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This article has benefited from the Israel Science Foundation’s ISF Grant [795/16].