The Jews of Senegal, West Africa

After the Portuguese King Manuel forcibly converted the Jews who didn’t manage to leave Portugal in 1497, he issued an order forbidding the “New Christians” to leave the country. Though some Jews managed to escape through the extensive escape network operated by Jews from Antwerp and London, thousands of Jews remained stuck in Portugal, living as conversos: Christians in public and Jews in private. Some of them were caught and burned at the stake by the Portuguese Inquisition.

In 1601, King Philip III gave a special authorization to New Christians, in exchange for payment, to leave Portugal and settle overseas. Conversos used this opportunity to get as far away as possible from the Inquisition.

This was easier said than done. Portugal at the time was heavily engaged in expansion and colonization, and the long arm of the Inquisition soon reached such faraway places as India and South America. The Portuguese had their eye on West Africa. They conquered several islands off the west African coast, among them Sao Tome, which they populated with Jewish children, torn from their parents’ arms and forcibly converted.

However, the Portuguese stopped short of attacking the kingdoms of the mainland Africa. The powerful Wolof Empire, in today’s Senegal, presented a formidable enemy. The Portuguese opted for a diplomatic approach and established trade relations with the Wolof people.

The desperate conversos saw an opportunity. About a hundred families arrived in Senegal and appealed to the king for protection¹. In 1607 or 1608, a converso, Sebastio Fernandez Cacao, wrote²:

To this port came people who profess the Law of Moses and here they do maintain their rituals and ceremonies like the ones of Judea, and the Portuguese seeking to kill them and expel them from that place ran a serious risk. Because the King took the side of the Jews and told the Portuguese that his land was a market where all kinds of people had a right to live. And no one could cause disorder in his lands otherwise he would order their heads cut off. If they wanted to make war they should do it by sea and not on [his] land.

Thus, the converso families from Portugal were able to settle in Senegal and practice their Judaism openly.

The Wolof king. Abbé David Boilat (1814-1901), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Under Royal Protection

The Jews settled in the coastal area of the Petite Cote, in the cities of Joal and Porto de Ale. Each community had a synagogue. Records indicate that conversos underwent circumcision and adopted Hebrew names. They practiced kosher ritual slaughter.

The conversos had much to catch up on in terms of Jewish education. Some of them traveled to Amsterdam to study Judaism and later returned to Senegal more equipped for Jewish observance³.

For example, the Inquisition records contain information about two brothers, Felipe and Diogo Vaz de Sousa. Felipe is described as being of small stature and with a hunched back. Diogo is described as “the younger,” in contrast to another Diogo who appeared on the Inquisition’s radar⁴.

Originally from Lisbon, where they were considered good Christians, the brothers moved to a Portuguese-controlled Sao Domingos on the island of Santiago. Perhaps influenced by conversos they had met there, the brothers traveled to Amsterdam, where they began practicing Judaism openly. They later returned to West Africa and settled in Senegal, where they were safe from the clutches of the Inquisition.

Their open embrace of Judaism aroused the Inquisition’s wrath. The vicar of Sao Domingos complained that the brothers “had made [themselves] Jewish.” Another local Christian, Gaspar Carneiro, testified, that the brothers “had been Christians when they were at the river of Cacheu and they converted and lived there openly [on the Petite Cote] as Jews⁵.”

Despite such clear incriminating evidence, there was nothing the Inquisition could do. Their jurisdiction did not reach the Petite Cote.

Other conversos are also mentioned in local Inquisition records, with evidence against them being just as solid. But, to their consternation, the Inquisition officials could only watch from afar as the conversos built vibrant Jewish communities in Senegal.

The Wolof queen. Abbé David Boilat (1814-1901), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Rabbi Jacob Peregrino

Not everyone was able to travel to Amsterdam to fill the holes in their Jewish education. Some requested that a rabbi come to them instead.

A Portuguese Jew from Amsterdam, Jacob Peregrino, came to the Petite Cote and took on the role of the rabbi. It is not clear from the records whether he was an ordained rabbi or simply a learned Jew. In fact, the records are few and far between. Historian Tobias Green attempted to compile Peregrino’s biography based on glimpses from different documents⁶.

According to Green’s research, Peregrino was born in 1562 in Tancos, Portugal. From Tancos, where he worked as a farmer, Peregrino moved to Lisbon and worked as a salesman. From Lisbon he moved to Venice.

Peregrino married a woman from Milan, and they had several children. While in Venice, Peregrino immersed himself in Torah learning, which was much more readily available in Venice than in Portugal.

At the same time, Peregrino was involved in commerce and maintained business relationships with the founding members of the Beth Jahacob Congregation, the first Sephardic synagogue in Amsterdam.

Eventually, Peregrino moved to Amsterdam with his family. As part of his business, he traveled to West Africa, bringing with him merchandise to trade. Likely, he continued traveling back and forth.

After his wife’s passing Peregrino and at least one of his sons moved to the Petite Cote. From his previous trips, Peregrino knew about the thirst for Jewish knowledge among the Jews of Senegal. Upon his move, he brought with him twelve copies of the Torah.

In the Petite Cote, in addition to his commercial activities, Peregrino performed circumcisions and acted as the de facto rabbi of the community. His son, Manuel, worked as a ritual slaughterer.

Peregrino was not the most successful of businessmen. His main legacy consists of teaching Torah to many conversos who had been deprived of a Jewish education back to Portugal, as well as performing circumcisions on adults eager to live openly Jewish lives.

Petite Cote. Painting by Henry Brokmann, 1912. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Trading and Commerce

The Jewish community in Senegal continued to grow over the first two decades of the 17^th century. Its members were involved in trade between Europe and Africa, utilizing their European connections and knowledge of several languages.

The main merchandise was blade weapons. European swords and daggers came from Italy, Antwerp, and Lisbon. African swords and daggers were made in Morocco and traded south across the Sahara⁷.

Other objects of trade were hides and ivory, exported from Africa to Europe. Peregrino was involved in hide trade⁸.

Though slave trade was a popular source of income at the time, there is no evidence that Jews were involved in slave trade. One document mentions a purchase of slaves by a Jew for his own household⁹.

Portuguese Carracks off a Rocky Coast, 16^th century, unknown artist. Royal Museums Greenwich, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Leaving Senegal

The Inquisition did not give up on its attempts to persecute the New Christians who had returned to Judaism. As we saw above, they continued to compile records of “apostasy” committed by Portuguese Jews.

In 1612, the vicar of Sao Domingos forwarded numerous testimonies to the Lisbon Inquisition. Other informants added more accusations. The Lisbon Office of the Inquisition was in possession of all the names of conversos who had openly returned to Judaism in Senegal. The Inquisition was also aware of Jews traveling to Amsterdam to study Judaism¹⁰.

Perhaps what bothered the Inquisition the most is that the conversos of the Petite Cote who had returned to Judaism took a special pride in being Jewish and living a Jewish life in public, even around Christians¹¹.

Political and military considerations prevented the Portuguese Inquisition from taking action against Senegal’s Jews. However, by 1620s the political situation began to change. As Portugal gained more influence in West Africa, the Jewish community became concerned. Jewish families of the Petite Cote who had made enough money in international trade began to move to Amsterdam. Over the next decade, the Jewish community of Senegal dispersed to more favorable locales¹².

In 1635, a Christian traveler visited Porto de Ale, where he met a total of “three or four” Jews. One of them was Peregrino, by then in his seventies, who “was extremely knowledgeable about his law: I have argued with him in the presence of all the Portuguese of this port¹³.”

The other Jews the traveler encountered were “being Jews only because they had been perverted by this one¹⁴,” or, in other words, converts to Judaism. It is not clear whether these converts were Europeans or Africans. What is clear is that the once vibrant Jewish community of Porto de Ale was much reduced.

The dedication of the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam, 1675. Bernard Picart. Rijksmuseum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Descendants of Senegal Jews

While living in Senegal, some Jews had married local women who had converted to Judaism. When they moved to Amsterdam with their families, the dark-skinned Jews became part and parcel of Amsterdam’s Sephardic Jewish community.

One of them, Moisés de Mesquita, became a pillar of the community. He arrived in Amsterdam in 1622. De Mesquita married a daughter of a prominent Sephardic family. In the 1630s, he donated a Torah scroll to the Bet Israel synagogue. In 1647, he was elected parnas – the equivalent of the president or trustee of the congregation, responsible for its financial administration¹⁵. Clearly, he enjoyed the respect and trust of Amsterdam’s Jewish community.

1. Peter Mark, José da Silva Horta. The Forgotten Diaspora: Jewish Communities in West Africa and the Making of the Atlantic World. Cambridge University Press, 2011. Page 21.
2. Simon Schama. Belonging: The Story of the Jews 1492-1900. Vintage/Penguin Random House UK, 2017. Page 154.
3. Peter Mark, José da Silva Horta. The Forgotten Diaspora: Jewish Communities in West Africa and the Making of the Atlantic World. Cambridge University Press, 2011.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Tobias Green. Further Considerations on the Sephardim of the Petite Cote. History in Africa, Volume 32, Cambridge University Press, 2005. Pages 165-183.
7. Peter Mark, José da Silva Horta. The Forgotten Diaspora: Jewish Communities in West Africa and the Making of the Atlantic World. Cambridge University Press, 2011.
8. Tobias Green. Further Considerations on the Sephardim of the Petite Cote. History in Africa, Volume 32, Cambridge University Press, 2005. Pages 165-183.
9. Ibid.
10. Peter Mark, José da Silva Horta. The Forgotten Diaspora: Jewish Communities in West Africa and the Making of the Atlantic World. Cambridge University Press, 2011. Pages 24-25.
11. Ibid., page 31.
12. Schorsch, Jonathan. “Chapter 21 Revisiting Blackness, Slavery, and Jewishness in the Early Modern Sephardic Atlantic”. Religious Changes and Cultural Transformations in the Early Modern Western Sephardic Communities. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004392489_022 Web.
13. Tobias Green. Further Considerations on the Sephardim of the Petite Cote. History in Africa, Volume 32, Cambridge University Press, 2005. Pages 165-183.
14. Ibid.
15. Schorsch, Jonathan. “Chapter 21 Revisiting Blackness, Slavery, and Jewishness in the Early Modern Sephardic Atlantic”. Religious Changes and Cultural Transformations in the Early Modern Western Sephardic Communities. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004392489_022 Web.

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