Zion in Africa: The Jews of Zambia FROM THE PUBLISHER
Zion in Africa is the definitive account of the Jewish community in Zambia, one of several such communities in Central Africa. It tells the story of the arrival of the first German-speaking adventurers and Yiddish-speaking cattle traders in the area in the late nineteenth century. It goes on to outline the establishment of settled Jewish trading communities along the Line of Rail and on the Copperbelt and their role in the development of towns. Macmillan and Shapiro describe the heyday of the Jewish community in the mid-twentieth century and its decline following Zambian independence.
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
Dealing primarily with the Jewish traders and farmers in Zambia, who immigrated in the early part of the century, Macmillan (history, U. of Transkei) and Shapiro, who has taught Jewish history in Israel, Zambia, and England, depict the rise and fall of the Jewish communities in central Africa. They argue that these German and Yiddish-speaking newcomers flourished in the face of both anti- Semitism and their own social dislocation. The authors set issues such as the arrival and settlement of Jewish refugees from the Holocaust; Jewish religious life in the region; and the cultural and professional roles played by the Jewish settlers, in the context of a general history of southern and central Africa. Distributed by St. Martin's Press. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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