Gold Meir in Kenya, 1960

Israelis were not surprised by last month’s terrorist attack by Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab on Nairobi’s Westgate Mall, killing 67 people. They had been on alert against such dangers since two attacks on Israeli targets in Mombasa in 2002. Since the Arab the downfall of Libya’s Qaddafi, East Africa especially has been awash in new terrorist recruits and arms.

The silver lining is that Israeli cooperation with African governments has also increased. During the past two years, more than 40 senior African dignitaries—including the presidents of Rwanda, Uganda, Togo, South Sudan, as well as the prime minister of Kenya—have visited Israel, with the Nigerian president expected soon.

Yet Israeli-African relations are not a new story—not is the story merely a reflex of current shared struggles against terrorism. There are pictures of then Foreign Minister Golda Meir—with sturdy pocketbook in hand—visiting Ghana in 1958 and Kenya in 1960.

The Jewish state’s relationship with Black Africa has been a roller coaster ride. In the 1890s, Edward Wilmot Blyden, pioneering founder of the African freedom movement, later led by led by W.E.B. Du Bois, Kwame Nkrumah, and others, lauded Theodor Herz for launching “that marvelous movement called Zionism.” Though without any knowledge of Blyden, Zionism’s “new Moses” reciprocated in his 1902 novel, Altneuland, having Professor Steineck remark: “Now, that I have lived to see the return of the Jews, I wish I could help to prepare the return of the Negroes.” (more…)