Lemba people

Lemba
Sena
	A Lemba man from the Gutu District
Regions with significant populations
	South Africa (esp. Limpopo Province), Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe
Languages
	Presently Venda, IsiNdebele, Karanga and Pedi (Previously Old South Arabian languages)
Religion
	Christianity, Islam, Judaism
Related ethnic groups
	Swahili, Shirazi, Hadhrami

The Lemba, Remba, or Mwenye^[1] are an ethnic group which is native to South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe of mixed Bantu and Yemeni ancestry. Within South Africa, they also reside around Limpopo province.

Since the late twentieth century, there has been increased media and scholarly attention about the Lemba's common partial descent from Semitic peoples of West Asia.^[2]^[3] Genetic Y-DNA analyses have established a paternal West Asian origin for the majority of the Lemba population, while the matrilineal origins are exclusively from Sub Saharan Africa.^[4]^[5]

^ Parfitt, Tudor (4 April 2000). Journey to the Vanished City: The Search for a Lost Tribe of Israel. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-375-72454-1. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
^ Parfitt, Tudor (1993/2000) Journey to the Vanished City: the Search for a Lost Tribe of Israel, New York: Random House (2nd edition)
^ Parfitt(2002), "The Lemba", p. 39
^ Spurdle, AB; Jenkins, T (November 1996), "The origins of the Lemba "Black Jews" of southern Africa: evidence from p12F2 and other Y-chromosome markers.", Am. J. Hum. Genet., 59 (5): 1126–33, PMC 1914832, PMID 8900243
^ Soodyal, H (2013). "Lemba origins revisited: Tracing the ancestry of Y chromosomes in South African and Zimbabwean Lemba". South African Medical Journal. 103 (12). Retrieved 9 May 2014.

[1] Parfitt, Tudor (4 April 2000). Journey to the Vanished City: The Search for a Lost Tribe of Israel. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-375-72454-1. Retrieved 19 May 2024.

[Parfitt,_Tudor_2000-2] Parfitt, Tudor (1993/2000) Journey to the Vanished City: the Search for a Lost Tribe of Israel, New York: Random House (2nd edition)

[3] Parfitt(2002), "The Lemba", p. 39

[SpurdleJenkins-4] Spurdle, AB; Jenkins, T (November 1996), "The origins of the Lemba "Black Jews" of southern Africa: evidence from p12F2 and other Y-chromosome markers.", Am. J. Hum. Genet., 59 (5): 1126–33, PMC 1914832, PMID 8900243

[Soodyal2013-5] Soodyal, H (2013). "Lemba origins revisited: Tracing the ancestry of Y chromosomes in South African and Zimbabwean Lemba". South African Medical Journal. 103 (12). Retrieved 9 May 2014.

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