ABSTRACT
In the mid-1990s a study was conducted by Spurdle and Jenkins to determine whether the Lemba may have had any genetic markers which would indeed point to a partly non-African origin. Such markers were found and indicated that there was a general Semitic contribution to the Lemba gene pool; however it was not possible to say whether this contribution could be Jewish (Spurdle and Jenkins 1996). To provide a more detailed account of the Lemba genetic heritage a further study building upon the Cohanim research and led by Mark Thomas was conducted later, which analysed 399 Y chromosomes for 6 microsatellites and 6 biallelic markers in 6 populations including the Lemba, Bantu, Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews. The study discovered that Lemba Y chromosomes were divided into Semitic and Bantu clades and interestingly, the allegedly most senior and allegedly most important for ritual purposes Lemba clan, the Buba, carried the Cohen Modal Haplotype at a high frequency (Thomas et al. 2000: 674). In other words, the genetic evidence turned out to be consistent with the oral tradition of the Lemba. Both Bantu, Jewish communities and other Semitic populations could have formed founding groups for some Lemba clans, though the CMH could have a purely Judaic origin (Thomas et al. 2000: 685).
