Gali Sabar

Based on qualitative research methodologies, this article will focus on exploring and analyzing notions of witchcraft and evil amongst African migrant labourers in the midst of deportation and harsh economics, beginning in the 2000s. The analysis will suggest that juxtaposing family, social tension, stress, and witchcraft is significant in understanding the role of witchcraft, evil forces, and malicious spirits in

Abstract Since 2005, asylum seekers from Eritrea and Sudan have been immigrating to Israel via the Egyptian–Israeli border. By February 2011, approximately 33,000 asylum seekers resided in Israel, most of them in the southern neighborhoods of Tel Aviv. Literature has focused on legal and political aspects of this new wave of migration, but little research has documented their social, religious and economic institutions and none has considered their self-established restaurants. This study examines asylum seekers' foodways and culinary establishments, revealing the importance to asylum seekers of preparation and consumption of familiar foods as part of their daily struggles for survival in a foreign land. By combining both anthropological and biological perspectives (that is, the evolutionary and adaptive significance of human behaviors, taking into consideration the biological mechanisms underlying these behaviors), we show how the triggering of memories by the sensorial experience of cooking and eating is an important component in the construction and management of identity in the context of forced migration.

In his crystal-clear style, the Anglican clergyman, tMost Revd Dr. David M. Gitari, not only defined his role as a religious leader but also challenged those calling for the separation of church and state or for the exclusion of religion from the political arena. While the official position of the Most Anglican Church was carefully maintained to indicate that it was not a rival claimant to power but simply sought to “complement” the work of the politicians, the political establishment regarded it as dangerous and treacherous, a view that helped push it further into opposition. Moi himself, careful to maintain the image of a devout Christian, tried hard to appear reasonable and conciliatory toward the churches, even while he came down ruthlessly on any and every form of criticism and opposition.

The religious arena created in Israel by sub-Saharan African migrants from 1990-2008 was an expanded and flexible one which touched on complex questions related not only to what some may term “purely” religious themes but, among other issues, to identity and rights. The present paper compares two waves of migration,<xref ref-type="fn" rid="FN1">1</xref> the first arriving in Israel by air as tourists or pilgrims throughout the 1990s, mainly from West Africa, part of a larger worldwide expansion of African international labour migration; and the second, which started in 2005, of predominantly Sudanese and Eritreans, who entered the country illegally in search of asylum or work opportunities across its lax border with Egypt. While the former cohort deployed a religious rhetoric of attachment to the Holy Land, the latter invoked international human rights to claim their rights as refugees in addition to religious rhetoric. The paper considers the context...

This paper, based on qualitative research, begins with a short overview of the history, theology and daily activities of the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star (BCS) in Israel, from its establishment in 1984 until its dismantling in 2003. Emphasis is given to the interpersonal relations that developed within the BCS congregation and on the relations between BCS and other

The study of labour in Africa has undergone important transformations over the last 20 years. Following a period of intense scrutiny from the 1950s to the 1980s, research on working classes, labour unions, capitalist expansion and proletarianisation in Africa experienced ...

In this paper I examine, in the context of transnational migration to Israel, the role of African churches that were initiated and operated by the migrants themselves. The focus is on the expanding sociopolitical arena of the churches, paying special attention to the bridges they created for their members to Christianity in the Holy Land, to sister churches back home, and to similar churches in other, non-African countries (mainly in Europe and North America). On a more theoretical level, it seems that focusing on the expanding role of the churches—an expansion that was both inward, to satisfy the ever-increasing needs of the churches’ members, and outward, to the “world”—may offer a unique contribution to our understanding of transnational diasporic Christianity. It may also enable us to understand African labor migrants as active agents in the complex processes of shaping their own religious identity, thus creating what I term “transnational mobile Christianity,” or “transnational Christianity in motion.”
In this article I frequently use the terms “Africa,” “African migration,” “diaspora,” and “Christianity” without always making clear geographical, ethnic, and/or religious specifications. I am well aware that these are not organic forms of self/community identification, and I do not think these specificities are unimportant. However, rather than limit my study and analysis to a very small homogeneous group, and in an attempt to expand the analysis, I have chosen to take this broader overview. Whenever I thought it necessary to identify the nation, ethnic background, or religious affiliation (for example, Anglican, Pentecostal, Catholic, etc.) of an interviewee, I have done so. Throughout my study I discussed this approach with several key informants who kept using these general terms when talking about themselves and other “Africans” or other “Christians.”

Following the massive influx of African migrants to Israel since the early 1990's a new religious space was created. One that had links to the existing Christian arena of the Holy Land, to its religious roots back home and to the ever changing fluid global Christian arena. Juxtaposing global trends with local realities and needs of its members the Afro-Israeli religious arena was caught between flexibility and rigidity. We will shall show how the spaces they created were attuned to the specificities of the Holy Land, while at the same time being able to maintain a degree of fluidity and flexibility that would enable them to respond to diverse organizational and theological variations.
The paper will focus on four different groups of Christian migrants from the African continent namely: Ethiopians who came to Israel as part of the Ethiopian Jewish migration but continued to practice their Christian identity, Ghanaians and Nigerians who came as part of labor migration waves and established a wide and diverse types of independent churches, and finally Asylum seekers from Eritrea. Our focus will be on two intriguing religious manifestations, namely: Pentecostal churches established by Ethiopian, Ghanaian and Eritreans and The BCS, a Nigerian religious group sometimes referred to as a new Christian church and at times a cult. Within the former group we shall highlight the wide differences existing under the Umbrella term: African Pentecostalism while in the later we shall dwell on the question can be identified as part of the fluidity of African  Christianites or is it beyond its borders and should be considered a NRM.

This paper focuses on Sub-Saharan African musicians within African Initiated Churches in Israel between 1990-2005.  These musicians were part of a larger wave of Africans who migrated to Israel in search of work in the early 1990s. Within a short time, they created a well organized community in spite of the fact that practically all of them had no working visas and were therefore illegal migrants.  In the center of their community were dozens of African Initiated Churches which became not only their main religious arena but also the center of their social, political and cultural life, including the production and performance of music. These musical activities became an important tool for these musicians not only in their attempts to gain recognition as worthy artists but also in their attempts to challenge and expand the national borders and become part of a larger global musical community.

This study will analyze life stories of African women who came to Israel in the 1990s as undocumented migrant labourers. The story of Sub-Saharan migration to Israel has recently been dealt with in various studies, however, none have focused on women migrants. Taking into account the differences between the values and norms of behavior that the women migrants brought with them and those they acquired in Israel, I shall examine their role within the community of African labour-migrants between 1990-2006. The analysis of women's' discourses  will enables us to enter their world and raise important questions about processes related to their empowerment, gender relations within the Israeli context and also within their families, and to ascertain to what extent migration has precipitated changes in their worldview and way of life. I shall highlight the ways in which migration compelled  women to take initiatives and act independently, making autonomous decisions. Yet, at the same time, survival in Israel and the existential need to belong to the African migrant community led them to adhere to norms in the sphere of gender relations and the division of labour within the family, considered traditional. This complexity and ambiguity will be the focus of this chapter

The religious arena created in Israel by sub-Saharan African migrants from 1990-2008 was an expanded and flexible one which touched on complex questions related not only to what some may term "purely" religious themes but, among other issues, to identity and rights. The present paper compares two waves of migration , the first arriving in Israel by air as tourists or pilgrims throughout the 1990s, mainly from West Africa, part of a larger worldwide expansion of African international labour migration; and the second, which started in 2005, of predominantly Sudanese and Eritreans, who entered the country illegally in search of asylum or work opportunities across its lax border with Egypt. While the former cohort deployed a religious rhetoric of attachment to the Holy Land, the latter invoked international human rights to claim their rights as refugees in addition to religious rhetoric. The paper considers the context and grounds for this shift in political tactics and rhetoric of migrant discursive stance vis-à-vis the state.

Since 2005, asylum seekers from Eritrea and Sudan have been immigrating to Israel via the Egyptian–Israeli border. By February 2011, approximately 33,000 asylum seekers resided in Israel, most of them in the southern neighborhoods of Tel Aviv. Literature has focused on legal and political aspects of this new wave of migration, but little research has documented their social, religious and economic institutions and none has considered their self-established restaurants. This study examines asylum seekers’ foodways and culinary establishments, revealing the importance to asylum seekers of preparation and consumption of familiar foods as part of their daily struggles for survival in a foreign land. By combining both anthropological and biological perspectives (that is, the evolutionary and adaptive significance of human behaviors, taking into consideration the biological mechanisms underlying these behaviors), we show how the triggering of memories by the sensorial experience of cooking and eating is an important component in the construction and management of identity in the context of forced migration.

Based on qualitative research methodologies, this article will focus on exploring and analyzing notions of witchcraft and evil amongst African migrant labourers in the midst of deportation and harsh economics, beginning in the 2000s.. The analysis will suggest that juxtaposing family, social tension, stress, and witchcraft is significant in understanding the role of witchcraft, evil forces, and malicious spirits in the way African migrants experience the modern world. Finally, the article will explore how African migrants incorporated local Jewish religious powers into their understanding of evil and witchcraft, thus expanding the discourse on belief systems in the context of transnational migration globalization and modernity,

This chapter analyzes the role of the African Initiated Churches (AICs)1 in the lives of the African migrant workers in Israel. At their peak, more than 40 congregations functioned in Tel Aviv alone. In 2003, one by one, the African churches closed down, either because their pastors and lay readers were deported or because people were afraid to come. By the beginning of 2004, only a handful of churches were left and even those were unstable and in daily fear of closure.
Religion has long been recognized as a central component in the lives of migrant communities (e.g., Glazer & Moynihan, 1963; Gordon, 1964; Herberg, 1955). Recent literature emphasizes the role of religion in processes of identity formation of migrants in general (Frerichs, 1993; Poewe, 1994; Ranger, 1993; Smart, 1999; Ter Haar, 1998; Tweed, 1997; Van der Veer, 1996; Vertovec, 2004; Warner & Wittner, 1998) as well as migrants’ use of religious institutions to gain legitimacy in their host country (Basch, Glick Schiller, & Szanton Blanc, 1994; Baumann, 2000; Burghart, 1987; Corten & Marshall-Fratani, 2001; Ebaugh & Chafetz, 2000; Glick Schiller, Basch, & Szanton Blanc, 1992; K. J. Kim, 1991; Y. Kim, 1994; Marshall, 1991; Meyer, 1992; Ojo, 1988; Roof, 1998; Smith & Guarnizo, 1998; Van Dijk, 1993, 1997, 2002; Vertovec, 2004).
Whether as a spiritual force or a source of social identity, belonging and recognition, religion is a powerful component of people’s lives, especially in times of uncertainty and crisis, like migration (e.g., Beyer, 1994; Cohen, 1997; Gibb, 1998; Patterson & Kelley, 2001; Ter Haar, 1998; Vertovec, 1999, 2000). It has been described as “the last refuge of unadulterated difference, the last reservoir of cultural autonomy” (Habermas, 2002: 1). Moreover, religion has been acknowledged as an important component in the lives of many Africans, and religious organizations throughout Africa serve as a major channel of political and social expression (Gifford, 1993; Hansen & Twaddle, 1995; Haynes, 1994; Sabar, 2002). It is only natural that Africans would draw upon their religious practices and beliefs in their countries of migration.
This chapter, based mainly on interviews with hundreds of Africans, examines the rise and fall of AICs in Israel, focusing on the significance of these churches in the lives of the African migrant workers from the perspective of the Africans themselves.

In this paper we shall analyze the ways in which Anglican leaders used religious sermons in an attempt to challenge the regime of President Daniel Arap Moi. We shall focus on the ways the sermons were used as a vehicle for political and social transformation in Kenya between 1982-1989, the first years of the struggle for political change, multi-party and democracy. We shall examine the issues they raised and asses their influence on the political processes taking place in those years. Though analyzing several leading Anglican clergy, the focus will be on Dr. David Gitari who not only formed the political debate through the sermons but also led the struggle and set the path to others to follow.

This paper, based mainly on participant observation and interviews with hundreds of Africans,  examines the role of African Initiated Churches (AICs) in the lives of African migrant laborers in Israel. Its aim is to attain a deeper understanding of religion and church affiliation among African migrant laborers in Israel from the perspective of the Africans themselves. It traces the creation and development of the AICs in Israel, including the various services and activities that the churches provided for their members in the social, economic and political arenas. I will show that the African churches in Israel occupied a particularly large and central place in their members’ lives compared to migrant churches in other Western diasporas, taking on roles of other traditional social, economic, political and civil actors in Africa.