Can You Tell Someone Else's Story? | Peter Decherney | TEDxPenn

Key Concepts

• Collaborative Storytelling: The practice of artists partnering with others to tell stories, especially across cultural and global divides.
• African Jewish Communities: Diverse Jewish communities located across sub-Saharan Africa, with varying origins and traditions.
• Oral Traditions: The transmission of historical knowledge, cultural beliefs, and stories through spoken word.
• Aliyah: The immigration of Jews to Israel.
• Long Exposures: A photographic technique used to capture images in low light, often revealing stillness and contemplation.
• Kibbutz: A communal settlement in Israel, adopted as a model for communal living by some African Jewish communities.
• Shabbat: The Jewish Sabbath, a day of rest and spiritual observance.
• Bat Mitzvah/Bar Mitzvah: A Jewish coming-of-age ceremony for girls and boys, respectively.
• Feedback Loop: A process of continuous interaction and mutual influence in a partnership.

The Power of Collaborative Storytelling in African Jewish Communities

The speaker, a portrait photographer and filmmaker, advocates for collaborative storytelling as a means to foster understanding in an increasingly polarized world. She emphasizes that while owning one's narrative is powerful, partnering with others to tell their stories builds global connections and expands perspectives on identity, particularly within the context of Jewishness.

Amplifying African Jewish Voices

For the past seven years, the speaker has partnered with African Jewish communities to amplify their stories. This work is presented as a reciprocal journey, enriching both the communities and the speaker's understanding of her own heritage. She highlights the often-unknown existence of numerous African Jewish communities across sub-Saharan Africa, including:

• Ethiopian Jewish communities: With oral traditions linking them to the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, or the lost tribe of Dan. Approximately 100,000 members have immigrated to Israel since the 1980s, but many remain.
• Lemba Jews of Southern Africa.
• Igbo Jewish communities in Nigeria.
• Emerging communities in Kenya, Tanzania, Côte d'Ivoire, and Cameroon.
• The first synagogue in Madagascar.

These communities are described as growing in intensity and size, seeking connection with each other and with global Jewish communities. The speaker's partnerships aim to facilitate these global relationships, offering potential spiritual and material benefits.

Methodology: A Feedback Loop Approach

The speaker outlines a collaborative methodology characterized by a "feedback loop":

1. Building Rapport: Getting to know individuals before using a camera.
2. Sharing Progress: Sharing photographs as they are created.
3. Returning Work: Bringing finished films and photographs back to the communities.

This approach ensures that the storytelling process is inclusive and respectful of the subjects' experiences.

Case Study: Ethiopian Jewish Community in Gonder

The speaker shares the story of Tig, a Jewish business owner in Gonder, Ethiopia, a city with a synagogue of approximately 7,000 congregants. Ethiopian Jews in Gonder trace their heritage to ancient roots and many aspire to make aliyah (immigrate to Israel).

• Artistic Technique: The speaker uses long exposures in low light to capture moments of stillness and introspection, as exemplified by a portrait of Tig where her hand is still slightly blurred, indicating movement within stillness.
• Challenges and Resilience: A subsequent portrait of Tig shows her looking "forlorn" a year later. The COVID-19 pandemic devastated the local economy, a civil war in the neighboring Tigray region resulted in the loss of family members, and Tig's father died and husband left her. Tragically, she withdrew her application for aliyah, relinquishing her lifelong dream.
• Deselane's Story: Another individual, Deselane, was kidnapped for ransom to fund the war. He endured two weeks of begging for his life while his family raised money for his release. The speaker notes that kidnapping has become a "local business" in the community since the end of the war.
• Community Spirit: Despite hardships, children in Gonder play soccer outside the synagogue. A story is shared about a soccer team that received matching jerseys, won local games, and chose to observe Shabbat (the Sabbath) over playing a championship match.
• Post-Immigration Experiences: The speaker recounts being contacted by Getu, the former soccer coach, who had immigrated to Israel. While photographing him during Sukkot, she later had to check on his safety following the Hamas attacks of October 7th, as he lived in southern Israel. Getu and his family were safe, and the speaker maintains contact via WhatsApp.

Case Study: The Abayudaya Jewish Community of Uganda

The speaker details the history and resilience of the Abayudaya Jewish community in Uganda, which is neither ancient nor purely emerging.

• Origins: The community's story begins in 1919 with Semei Kakungulu, a local ruler who, in an anti-colonial stance, rejected British rule and missionary influence, embracing the Old Testament and converting to Judaism. Over 50 years, he built a community of several thousand members and established connections with other Jewish communities.
• Persecution under Idi Amin: In the 1970s, dictator Idi Amin outlawed Judaism, forcing the community to convert to Islam and Christianity. Those who continued to practice did so in secret in a cave synagogue.
• Resurgence and Revival: Idi Amin was overthrown on the first day of Passover, a parallel the Abayudaya draw to their own story of near extinction. In the 1980s, JJ Keki (who was a boy during Amin's rule and now an elder) and his brothers re-established the community. They reclaimed Nabagoya Hill, their traditional home, and established a kibbutz (communal living). They also recorded a Grammy-nominated album of traditional Abayudaya music.
• Rachel's Experience: Rachel, JJ's daughter, born during this revival period, became a lead singer. In a short film, she discusses the value of Shabbat as a respite from the demanding domestic work often performed by women in Uganda. She also recounts experiencing anti-Semitism and how the community fostered inclusivity by building schools with Muslim and Christian neighbors and starting a farming cooperative.
• Deepening Partnerships: The speaker's collaborations with the Abayudaya continue to deepen. She has created music videos for new songs by the Abayudaya band and served as a photographer for Zahava's Bat Mitzvah, Rachel's daughter, and Mera's Bat Mitzvah. The service was led by Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, Mera's uncle and the chief rabbi of Uganda. Rabbi Sizomu expressed his awe to his brother JJ, stating, "Who could have imagined when we started the kibbutz movement that our granddaughters would be reading Torah?"
• Intergenerational Continuity: The Abayudaya community now has a fourth generation.
• Preserving History: On a recent trip, the speaker and her team returned to the cave synagogue with students and Abayudaya members, showing them a film about the cave. They also left a camera with their translator, Mosiya, who is using it to create oral histories of elders, a project that continues to thrive.

The Responsibility of Storytelling

The speaker concludes by reflecting on the profound responsibility of telling someone else's story. It requires accuracy not only in facts but also in capturing the nuances, colors, and beauty of everyday and significant accomplishments. While individuals are the experts of their own stories, telling another's story involves entering an "impossible but worthy abyss of trying to understand each other." When done well, this process benefits both the storyteller and the subject, leading to mutual growth and understanding. She contrasts her personal experience of feeling "restless" in synagogues in the US with the joy she finds in participating in the lengthy storytelling of Queen Esther during Purim in Gonder, Ethiopia, highlighting the unique privilege of her work in Uganda.