I wanted to look up some videos about the history of the Ethiopian Hebrew identity, but nothing immediately came to light except a video with a link in the description to the “Lion of Judah Society” website. I didn’t even realize what Rastafarianism was up until that point, so it was really interesting to see the connection between it and the Ethiopian Hebrew identity talked about in the first Weisenfeld chapter this week. In general, I think it’s interesting how many fringe-to-large African American movements decided to align themselves with either Judaism or Islam, and the myriad odd ways in which they chose to do so. I had never heard of Moorish anything at least within recent history until this week, and when I found out that there is still a fairly sizable congregation belonging to the Moorish Science Temple of America, I was kinda shocked. It’s definitely cool, but it’s also a little bit annoying how many people try to use very similar words to describe themselves, and the ways in which they can get tangled up.
Here’s the video that led me down that weird rabbit trail, though: