قراءات
Volume 14, Numéro 1, Pages 743-756
2022-12-15

The African And Jewish Questions Between Religious Prophecy And Freedom Seeking: A Study In Edward Wilmot Blyden’s Philosophy

Authors : Bouchemal Ahmed . Meberbeche Senouci Faiza .

Abstract

Exile, slavery and persecution were tense and often challenging themes in African and Jewish history. For the Jews, the desire of return to Jerusalem was a response to the desperate plight encountered worldwide as well as a need to fulfill a religious prophecy. For Africans, repatriation to Africa meant an escape from the high amount of institutional racism and white abuses in the Churches of the United States. This study tries to expose the nature of the African and Jewish questions from the standpoint of Edward Wilmot Blyden. Through a close reading of Blyden’s thoughts, the article reveals that Blyden saw that the Jewish situation resembled that of Africa as both were harassed and stigmatized. Yet, he confirmed that the Jewish case is different in the sense that Jews’ long for repatriation was completely religious much more than racial or political.

Keywords

Blyden ; the Jewish question ; the African question ; Religion ; freedom