text: who can tell me about the lost tribes of israel? weren't there 10 lost tribes? are they still around or did they just fizzle? the histories cornelius tacitus,  roman historian, 55-a.d  "some say that the israelites  were fugitives from the island of crete, who settled on the nearest coast of africa about the time when saturn was driven from his throne by the power of jupiter. others assert that in the reign of isis the overflowing population of egypt, led by hierosolymus and judas, discharged itself into the neighboring countries. many, again, say that they were a race of ethiopian origin, who in the time of king cepheus were driven by fear and hatred of their neighbors to seek a new dwelling-place."      the muslims said "they were living in great number to the south of the desert - a people cursed of god and predestines as slaves." the muslims also called the western sudan (west africa) "yahoodee" which means "the tribes of israel".         in another article by george e. lichtblau entitled   "jewish roots in africa", he gives a details about the hebrews in west africa.   "claims of a historic presence of jewish communities in certain regions of africa, notably west and southern africa, seem esoteric when first mentioned. this presence goes back not just centuries, but even to biblical times."    "the first place, many hebrewisms were discovered in the ashanti tribal customs. then several ashanti words were found to have a striking resemblance to those of equivalent hebrew meaning. finally, the supreme being of the ashanti gave strong indication of being the yahweh of the old testament.  it was indeed surprising how many hebrewisms, either real or at least apparent, were to be found among the unislamised tribes."  taken from the book hebrewisms  of west africa, by joseph j. williams  (copy written in the 1930's)  pages 22 & 23