The Black People of India: The Siddis
Many diasporans of the African continent have found their way in each and every continent in the world, including in some places that most have not considered. Much like the United States of America, people of African descent are treated like “outsiders”. Or at least, that’s what Africans like Saidi feels.
Saidi, an African male from Gambia, lives in India. He was interviewed for BBC’s segment on “What is it like being black in India?”. “There’s not good history between African and Indians,” Saidi told the BBC reporter, “they don’t trust us.”
Well, Saidi’s right. Many Africans came to India as slaves or merchants. They played important roles in India’s history, in conquests and kingdoms- some, even becoming rulers of land.
In India the word for African is “ Habashi,” which also means Ethiopian in Arabic. In the 16th century, there were many powerful Habshis [Africans] in the politics of India.
Today there’s a group of native Afro-Indians who are better known as the Siddis. The Siddis were a group of freedmen who traveled to West India in 1100 AD. They “converted to Islam and became known as the Siddis,” according to the African American Registry. Many say the Siddis came to India as slaves of the Portuguese and fled into the forests once slavery was abolished.
The Registry also reported, “ The Siddis were active up to the end of the 19th century. . . Indian states employed foreign slaves as military officers and government administrators.”
Even with this said, what Saidi’s opinion on discrimination and personally mediated racism still prevails. Ironically enough, Indians are discriminated by Caucasians for the same reasons, they dislike Africans or people of Afro descent.
There are at least 20,000 people of African origin living in India. The Siddis are located in small villages in the Indian states of Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. These people are descendants of Bantu people of East Africa, which makes a relative amount of sense considering the proximity. These people are isolated from civilization and once they leave their villages are considered “outsiders” to other Indians outside their tribe.
In earlier times, Siddis served as guards for royalty and even managed to move up in ranking.
Africans brought to India a realm of traditional music and religious dance, and mastered in the fields of architecture, artists, and reformers between the early 14th and 17th centuries.
In the video produced by BBC, a native catches me by surprise when he says, “The African culture is still visible amongst us.”
He recognized that if one were to pull a Black person from Africa, a Black person from the Siddi tribe, and begin to play the drum- both would start dancing.
Another member of the Siddi tribe was asked if he’d like to go back home to India. He proclaimed his tribe had been there for over 400 years, much like the African-Americans of America, and that for him, India was his home.
The people of this tribe, while outcasted by society and completely reserved within their own villages, have received significant impact on Indian culture by the look of their dressing, cultural customs, and societal norms.
But there are both abstract and concrete things that give away their clear African lineage, rather it be the texture of their hair, the darker complexion of their skin, African features such as widened noses and thick lips, to the dance styles that they appreciate, artwork, body paint, and African culture.
It was very interesting for me to learn of the Siddi people of India because I often find myself intrigued by the African diasporans of the world. Learning about the similar prejudices we might face bond us together. The widely accepted cultural customs we share, bonds us together.
Despite our different places in the world, I find it a beautiful thing that we all have one thing in common- Africa.
References:
https://aaregistry.org/story/african-history-in-india-a-brief-history/
