There are some who believe that an ancient Jewish presence may have at one time existed in Cameroon via merchants who arrived from Egypt for trade.

According to these accounts, the early communities in Cameroon observed rituals such as separation of dairy and meat products, as well as wearing tefillin.There are also claims that Jews migrated into Cameroon much later, after being forced southward due to the Islamic conquests of North Africa.

It is the oral tradition of the Bassa that they immigrated to Africa from Egypt thousands of years ago with Melek, their chief and one of the great grandsons of Judah, son of Jacob.

Melek elected to stay behind rather than to follow Moses. Later he had a change of heart when he feared the Egyptians would take revenge against the Israelites who stayed behind. Melek led his family south along the Nile, then westward, crossed Nigeria, and eventually into Cameroon.

Rabbi Yisrael Oriel, formerly Bodol Ngimbus-Ngimbus, was born into the Ba-Saa tribe. He says there were historically Jews in the area and that the word “Ba-Saa” is from the Hebrew for ‘on a journey’ and means “blessing”. Rabbi Oriel claims to be a Levite descended from Moses and has been ordained as a rabbi.

Rabbi Oriel claims that in 1920 there were 400,000 ‘Israelites’ in Cameroon, but by 1962 the number had decreased to 167,000 due to conversions to Christianity and Islam. He said that although these tribes had not been accepted halachically, he believes that he can prove their Jewish status from medieval rabbinic sources.