Lost tribe of Jews in Ghana?

Public-radio editor Kevin Arnovitz writes of meeting a group of Ghanaians who have come to believe they’re descended from one of the lost tribes of Israel:

… From what the village rabbi told me, it seems that, in 1976, an inhabitant of Sefwi Wiawso [a Ghanaian village], Aaron Ahomtre Toakyirafa, was visited by spirits who informed him that he and his neighbors were descended from one of the Jewish tribes supposedly exiled by ancient Assyria.

This all seemed quite logical to Toakyirafa, given the similarities between certain village practices and Judaic traditions: The group celebrated a holiday that resembled Passover, followed kosher-esque dietary restrictions, and didn’t work on Saturdays.

Toakyirafa began proselytizing Judaism, and soon a number of families joined the fold ….

American Jews began to learn about the settlement in the 1990s. An American organization called Kulanu, which helps out Jews in remote locales, set up the Jewish Community of Ghana fund for the New Adiembrans. A Des Moines congregation sent prayer books and a couple of goodwill ambassadors.

Soon, a small tourist industry perked up for Lonely Planet-type Jews, and the community began to host visitors.

Because of these interactions, the traces of middle-class American Judaism are visible everywhere, from the goofy summer-camp classics like “David Melech Yisrael” that the village kids love to sing, to the satin yarmulke I saw in the synagogue with a little label underneath: “The Bat Mitzvah of Ariel Lieberman.”

Kevin Arnovitz, A Tribe Called Quest – In search of the lost Jews of Ghana, The New Republic, March 12, 2008 (paid registration required),

In the on-line version of the story, a commenter writes that DNA analysis may be able to confirm or refute the Ghanaians’ claim:

… Assuming there were Hebrew men among the settlers (some speculate these groups arose through traders or explorers so this is a likely assumption) the hypothesis could be tested by DNA sequencing of the Y chromosome, and this may have been done already.

Since the Y chromosome is solo, there is no crossing over in mitosis and the genetic composition is transmitted with little change through generations, making it possible to do some attribution as to origin of distant ancestors.

This has been done with other groups of this type with successful attribution of their Hebrew origins.

(Extra paragraphing added.)