After finishing his MA studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1957, Oded entered Israel's Foreign Ministry. In 1961, when African countries started receiving their independence, Oded received a scholarship from Israel's Foreign Ministry to study for his doctorate at Makerere University in Uganda which was at the time the only university in East Africa. During his one-year stay in Uganda, he was informed about a community of African Jews who called themselves the Abayudaya (which means "Jews" in the local language), which was unknown to the outside world and had been founded in 1919 by Semei Kakungulu, a successful army general of the Buganda Kingdom.See book: Michael Twaddle, Kakungulu and the Creation of Uganda, 1868 - 1928, James Currey Ltd., London, 1993, page 284 Oded was the first Israeli to make contact with this community and to conduct researches and interviews in Swahili as to how Semei Kakungulu came to convert to Judaism and how he founded the communitySee book: John S. Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy, East African Educational Publishers Ltd., Nairobi, 1994, pages 256–257 During many years, Oded kept in contact with members of the community, except during Idi Amin's regime (1971–1979).
