User:Olabimpea/sandbox

Article Evaluation
Everything within the article is relevant to the Lemba people and takes no definitive opinion on the topic. There should be more updates within the "Synagogue" section that update the reader on the progress of construction. If the Lemba people began building in 2015, there should be significant progress, if not completion by the end of 2018. The article is also neutral. The editors have contributed a variety of perspectives on whether or not the Lemba people are considered Jewish and reports on every perspective equally. The links work and there are multiple sources cited across multiple mediums (websites, encyclopedias, and articles). The links support the information presented on the wiki site. There is discussion of updating the page as well as clarification requested and some of these discussion have their own references cited. The article is apart of three WikiProjects pages: Jewish History, Africa, and Ethnic Groups.

Article Selection (Choose a topic)
The Lemba People follow certain traditions that are associated with Judaism such as the abstaining from eating pork, male circumcision, and the practice of keeping one holy day a week. They claim to be a descendant of Buba, a man who lead them out of Judea; however, there is no proof of the presence of Buba. Thus, they're claims have been questioned due to the proximity of southern Africa to the holy lands mentioned in the Bible. Modern-day researchers have conducted studies to test the genetic ties of the Lemba to see if their claims are true.

I would like to expand more on the research about the chromosomal tie of the Lemba people to Judaism because I find the biological perspective of this extremely interesting. I also think it would be easier if it was updated to include more research that has come out in this past decade.

Notes (Drafting my contribution)

 * "Lemba are discouraged from marrying non-Lemba, just as Jews and other cultures are discouraged from marrying non-members of their direct community." Lemba people
 * "After ancestors intermarried with local women and became established in Africa, at some point, the tribe split into two groups, one staying in Ethiopia and the other travelling farther south, along the east coast. Lemba people
 * I want to add a section to the "Halakhic status as Jews" heading about the treatment of the Lemba in post-apartheid South Africa and their struggle to be recognized as a distinct African ethnic groups
 * The Lemba Cultural Association face misconceptions about their goals such as the idea that the Lemba identify more with trad
 * Academic journal article by Noah Tamarkin
 * Explores the factors that have prevented the Lemba people from fully integrating in post-apartheid South African democracy and society
 * Factors include:
 * Misconceptions that the Lemba identify more with European Judaism than they do with other black/African Judaism and groups
 * Struggles with the "lost tribe of Israel" narrative which alienates them from their South African ties
 * I think it would be interesting to expand on the notion that due to their journey to solidify their ancestral ties to Judaism, the Lemba have now lost a piece of their South African ties. We've discussed the notion of blackness through the lens of racial, ethnic, and national lenses. By focusing on the Lemba through both a tribal and national lens it will be interesting to see how citizenship and nationality are bundled into their identity.
 * I found an interesting news article about William Rasdell, a "researcher, photographer, and visual artist," who recently began to focus on Afro-Judaism and traveled to Zimbabwe to photograph the Lemba people. I would like to use this article to update the "Representation in the Media" portion of the Wikipedia article.
 * I found an interesting news article about William Rasdell, a "researcher, photographer, and visual artist," who recently began to focus on Afro-Judaism and traveled to Zimbabwe to photograph the Lemba people. I would like to use this article to update the "Representation in the Media" portion of the Wikipedia article.

Response to Peer Review

 * "Lemba are discouraged from marrying non-Lemba, just as Jews and other cultures are discouraged from marrying non-members of their direct community." Lemba people
 * "After ancestors intermarried with local women and became established in Africa, at some point, the tribe split into two groups, one staying in Ethiopia and the other travelling farther south, along the east coast. Lemba people
 * The Lemba people are known as being from the"lost tribe of Israel" which further separated them during apartheid South Africa due to the religious difference of Judaism not being the "right kind" of difference to establish themselves as a distinct ethnic group requiring separate development. The Lemba Cultural Association face misconceptions about their goals such as the idea that the Lemba identify more with European Judaism, only aim to affiliate with the European Jewry and not other black Jews, and are distanced from South African politics. However, while the Lemba do identify with their religious Judaism, many practice Christianity as well.
 * To go in the "Representation in the Media" section
 * William Rasdell, a researcher, photographer, and visual artist developed the JAD photographic field study that outfits Lemba people of Zimbabwe with a point-and-shoot camera to document aspects of their daily lives.