Fernandez Alarcon, Ainoa

Galm, Rahel Noemi

This qualitative study aims to give an insight into the lived experience of the African HebrewIsraelite Community (AHIC), an African American diasporic Bible-based community.Having migrated to Israel in 1969 from the US and promoting a vegan, holistic lifestyle, thecommunity’s unique history and status today poses a fascinating topic of inquiry. This paperilluminates how the collective identity of the AHIC is constructed and maintained, throughconducting ethnographic fieldwork in the ‘Village of Peace’ in Dimona. We employ thindescription and use various conceptualizations of collective identity and hybridity. Theresearch is anchored in a postcolonial, Afrocentric perspective. Our findings show thatdifferent foundations such as spirituality, lifestyle, and community are closely interconnectedand constitute each other. We argue that the AHIC found belonging in their power toself-determinate who they are

The Power of Self-Determination Through Spirituality - Collective Identity of the African Hebrew Israelites

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Roskilde Universitet