Your PhD thesis is about the emerging African Judaization. Why did you choose this subject? 

The decision resulted from a number of circumstances. Firstly, I have always been interested in questions of religion and identity. During a summer school, I met with one of the top scholars in the study of fringe Jewish communities and our exchange inspired me to explore the historical connections between Israel and the African continent. Following various circumstantial and methodological hurdles in the first phase of my doctoral studies, which was on a different subject, I decided, with the support of my supervisors, to reorient myself towards the study of the emerging Jewish communities in Africa. One intriguing remark that fuelled my curiosity towards that subject is the fact that, contrary to Christianity and Islam, the two most widespread religions on the continent, the history of Judaism in Africa was not closely connected with imperialism or colonialism, nor are Jews known for seeking converts like Christians and Muslims are. Therefore, the growing espousal of that identity among Africans over the past few decades puzzled me and I thought it was an important question to be examined.

How did you go about it, methodologically speaking? 

My methodology consisted in conducting interviews with as many people as possible from two less-studied countries — two countries —, — Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya — that are involved in a Judaization process, mainly through direct conversations during field trips, but also via digital means such as emails, WhatsApp, Skype, etc.

The main questions addressed to my informants were: 
How did you come to think of yourself as a Jew? What does being Jewish mean to you? How do you reconcile your African identity with your Jewish identity? How did your immediate social and political environments react to your Jewishness? What are your thoughts about and what is your relationship with mainstream Jews? What does Israel represent for you? What gains and challenges did you experience from embracing or seeking Jewishness? How do you view the future of Judaism at personal, communal, and international levels? 

This step was preceded by a clear presentation to the informants of the character and the aims of the research and of their right to participate or not, also informing them of their right to withdraw their consent after the interview was done.

My informants also included some diaspora members of the communities studied, non-Jewish people within the same geographical environments as the Ivorian or Kenyan Jews and Judeophiles, as well as scholars of religion in some of the local universities.

I also used archival data from the national archives of both countries and from other archives based in France and the United States by accessing their online repositories. All this data was supplemented with secondary literature from both academic and non-academic sources which allowed me to have a wide array of perspectives on which I built my analysis.

What are your major findings? 

Based on the life stories of most informants involved in Judaization processes, their claims to Jewishness came from deep personal questions about their ancestral origins, an urge to find God or the ultimate spiritual truth, and the need to adopt a way of life that makes sense to them intellectually, emotionally, and practically. 

I have also found that most of them are former Christians who grew dissatisfied with unaddressed or unsatisfactorily answered questions regarding some Christian doctrines they had been struggling with. However, one interesting remark is that these doubts did not lead them to discard their belief in the God of the Bible, but they rather inspired many Kenyans and Ivorians on a Judaization path to try and connect with that God by turning towards normative Judaism, which they perceived as the legitimate heir of the mode of worship and way of life of the Biblical Israelites. Therefore, contemporary Judaization in Africa, I found, is not only Jewish in its character, but it is also a phenomenon with markedly Christian, ethnic, and intellectual dimensions.

Can you tell us about the social and political implications of your thesis? 

On the social front, I think that my thesis can help people understand that religion or faith is a matter of very important value in many people’s decisions, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, which is the area of focus of my study. My findings demonstrate that the spiritual or religious factor should not be denied or minimised when trying to rationally explain social processes, something many scholars have often tended to do. 

Regarding the political aspect, I think my research can enlighten African leaders on the reality that the formation of group identities is still ongoing on the continent and in ways that escape the closed boundaries of nation-state, ethnicity, or religious affiliation through the embrace of both old and new concepts, and Jewishness is a case in point. This understanding will, I hope, inspire decision-makers to adopt better-informed policies when dealing with such social changes and issues of conflicts within their populations. I also expect that this thesis will enlighten the authorities of the State of Israel on the fact that the interest of many Africans in Judaism or in visiting the Holy Land is, in most cases, not driven by materialistic goals. Rather, it is a demonstration that Jewishness is an identity that escapes the purview of the Israeli authorities, and that they, as well as the other members of the mainstream Jewish communities, would benefit from showing more openness and attention to African Judaizers.

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Ayode Habib Daniel Dossou Nonvide defended his PhD thesis in International History, titled “Being Black and Jewish in Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya: Histories, Communities, and Life Stories”, on 13 February 2025. Associate Professor Carolyn Biltoft presided over the committee, which included Associate Professor Aidan Russell, Thesis Supervisor, and Associate Professor Nathan Devir, Department of World Languages and Cultures, University of Utah, USA.

Citation of the PhD thesis: 
Dossou Nonvide, Ayode Habib Daniel. “Being Black and Jewish in Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya: Histories, Communities, and Life Stories.” PhD thesis, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, 2025.

Access:
Members of the Geneva Graduate Institute can access the thesis via this page of the repository. Others can contact Dr Dossou Nonvide by email or via his LinkedIn profile.

Banner image by ungvar/Shutterstock.
Interview by Nathalie Tanner, Research Office.