La Lettre Sépharade 12, US Edition, january 2003

Shalom Bwana

This new book by Moïse Rahmani mirrors his last book Rhodes, un pan de notre mémoire (Rhodes, a Slice of our Memory)2 published over a year ago with the same editor.
While the first book retraced the history and barbarous destruction of an endearing and ancient Sephardic community, Shalom Bwana, La Saga des Juifs du Congo makes us discover an unrecognized aspect of this history, that is the survival of Rodesli Jews who settled in the Belgian Congo from 1910-1959, offering us the incongruous and lively description of a colonial adventure at a time of decolonization.3 Thus, a fraction of the Jewish people of Rhodes was sheltered from the Nazis' destructive obsession, and one may understand why the kind welcome of the Belgium colonial authorities convinced some of those Jews to choose Belgium as a haven for their second exile.
A.Chouraqui prefaced the book with a beautiful letter, and drawing upon his own memories, noted that Moïse Rahmani is the writer -who laid the foundation stones of Jewish history in Black Africa.-
It is a comforting history, which illustrates life's continuity for this branch of a martyred people; Moïse Rahmani looks into the details of this cultural, economic, family and social life with some measure of cheerfulness, and with a kind of friendliness, that we may imagine as typical of veterans' reunion.
It is refreshing to notice how much importance the author gives to the good relations between Rodesli immigrants and African population in spite of the political difficulties. He describes the integration and the dynamism of this little community:- Rarely did so few men and women play such an important role in a country of 2,350,000 square kilometers, five times larger than France, and in such a short period of time.-
The author provides a wealth of information on individuals as well as families, which will certainly interest all those who have a connection with Rhodes. Interesting lists of family names are included in appendix for the genealogists.
In addition to the bibliography, there is a list of individual and collective filmed interviews, which can also be found in the Jewish Museum of Belgium, in the Fondation de la Mémoire Juive contemporaine in Brussels and in the Diaspora Museum (Beth Hatefutsot) in Tel Aviv

Reviewed by Lionel Levy*

*Translated by Rosine Nussenblatt

1 2002 Shalom Bwana
The Saga of the Jews of Congo
Edition Romillat
Collection Terra Hebraica
17 rue Pascal
75005 Paris, France
254 pages.
ISBN-2-87894-052-0
E-mail:romillat@romillat.fr

2 In French
2000
?

Rhodes, a Slice of our Memory?

3 Moïse Rahmani emigrated from Egypt to the Belgian Congo in 1956. He gives a lively description of this event in his book.