The colourful kippot worn by the men of the Abayudaya community of rural East Uganda are more than a statement of their Jewish identity. They hope to sell the skullcaps to Jews worldwide and drastically improve their impoverished living conditions.
The man helping them to help themselves is a British Jew, Adam Williams, 34. The accountant, born in Leeds, moved to Uganda two years ago, and was astonished to find villages of devout Jews living in mud and stick houses.
Their Jewishness dates from 1919 when a Christian Ugandan leader, Semei Kakungulu, declared himself and his tribe Jewish because he felt a strong affinity with the Torah. He circumcised his sons and himself, and learnt about Judaism from an American Jew who had established a Jewish school and taught the Ugandans about kashrut, festivals and Shabbat.
Like Jews all over the world, the Abayudaya have known persecution. Under the harsh regime of Idi Amin, many were forced to convert to Christianity or Islam. But some 300 clung to their Judaism, worshipping in secret, and now the community numbers 1,000.
