[Nikas777]

There was a huge push in the late Renaissance through the Victorian era for rulers in Europe to somehow establish a religious authority of their rule or country by claiming some sort of descent from Israel or the early church. They wanted to prove their nation was ordained by God and in many cases, made up entire lineages and histories. Many of these are still being used a source material in modern Anglo-Israeli type groups and beliefs. For example, the Scottish historian(sic) Sir Lawrence Gardner has written and documented extensively from these old documents how Scotland was actually the 'new Jerusalem' and the Scottish kings were the rightful rulers of Britain through such (as well as a bunch of other nutty connections.) It makes for fascinating fiction, but only if you understand it as such and the motivation behind it.

I think the actor Yaphet Kotto comes from an African tribe that bought into the lost tribes mythology the English missionaries pushed.

I read somewhere that geneticists also doubt the science behind the Lemba of South Africa and the Cohen gene but I am going by memory on that one. The Lemba also only stared to talk about being a Lost Tribe of Israel only after British missionaries told them that they were.

Now you also have actual Jewish rabbies going to these self identified 'lost tribes' and 'converting' them as well - also for political reasons.

[mnehring]

I thought the Lemba where one of the better connections once Genetic testing was done? The Lemba and the Ethiopians (the latter is better documented in the Apocrypha) as having the closest ancient Hebrew connections outside of Israel.

http://www.enotes.com/forensic-science/african-lemba-tribe

...The genetic material was analyzed for the genetic markers that have been found in the Jews. Similar to the general Jewish population, the Cohen Modal Haplotype was found in nearly 10% of all Lemba men. In addition, the Cohen Modal Haplotype was found in nearly half of the men in the Buba tribe...