Lets Explore Various African and African Diaspora History/culture VOL.1

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Human rights[edit]
Sankara's régime was criticised by Amnesty International and other international humanitarian organisations for violations of human rights, including extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions and torture of political opponents.[17] The British development organisation Oxfam recorded the arrest and torture of trade union leaders in 1987.[18] In 1984, seven individuals associated with the previous régime were accused of treason and executed after a summary trial. A teachers' strike the same year resulted in the dismissal of 2,500 teachers; thereafter, non-governmental organisations and unions were harassed or placed under the authority of the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution, branches of which were established in each workplace and which functioned as "organs of political and social control.".[19] "Popular" revolutionary tribunals, set up by the government throughout the country, placed defendants on trial for corruption, tax evasion or "counter-revolutionary" activity. Procedures in these trials, especially legal protections for the accused, did not conform to international standards. According to Christian Morrisson and Jean-Paul Azam of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the "climate of urgency and drastic action, in which many punishments were carried out immediately against those who had the misfortune to be found guilty of unrevolutionary behaviour, bore some resemblance to what occurred in the worst days of the French Revolution, during the Terror. Although few people were killed, violence was widespread."[20]

"Africa's Che Guevara"[edit]
“Che Guevara taught us we could dare to have confidence in ourselves, confidence in our abilities. He instilled in us the conviction that struggle is our only recourse. He, was a citizen of the free world that together we are in the process of building. That is why we say that Che Guevara is also African and Burkinabè.”

— Thomas Sankara [14]


Children "pioneers" of the Revolution, donning starred berets like Guevara


Sankara, who is often referred to as "Africa's Che Guevara",[1] emulated Guevara (1928–1967) in both style and substance. Stylistically, Sankara emulated Guevara by preferring to wear a starred beret and military fatigues, living ascetically with few possessions, and keeping a minimal salary once assuming power. Both men also considered themselves allies of Fidel Castro (Sankara was visited by Castro in 1987), are well known for having ridden motorcycles, and are often cited as effectively utilizing their charisma to motivate their followers. Substantively, Guevara and Sankara were both Marxistrevolutionaries, who believed in armed revolution against imperialism and monopoly capitalism, denounced financial neo-colonialism before the United Nations, held up agrarian land reform and literacy campaigns as key parts of their agenda, and utilized revolutionary tribunals and CDR's against opponents. Both men were also killed in their late thirties (Guevara 39 / Sankara 38) by opponents, with Sankara coincidentally giving a speech marking and honoring the 20th anniversary of Che Guevara's October 9, 1967 execution, one week before his own assassination on October 15, 1987.[21]

Assassination[edit]
On October 15, 1987 Sankara was killed by an armed group with twelve other officials in a coup d'état organised by his former colleague, Blaise Compaoré. Deterioration in relations with neighbouring countries was one of the reasons given, with Compaoré stating that Sankara jeopardised foreign relations with former colonial power France and neighbouring Ivory Coast.[1] Prince Johnson, a former Liberian warlord allied to Charles Taylor, told Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that it was engineered by Charles Taylor.[22] After the coup and although Sankara was known to be dead, some CDRs mounted an armed resistance to the army for several days.

Sankara's body was dismembered and he was quickly buried in an unmarked grave,[5] while his widow and two children fled the nation.[23] Compaoré immediately reversed the nationalizations, overturned nearly all of Sankara's policies, rejoined the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to bring in desperately needed funds to restore the “shattered” economy,[24] and ultimately spurned most of Sankara's legacy.

Legacy[edit]
"Africa and the world are yet to recover from Sankara’s assassination. Just as we have yet to recover from the loss of Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, Eduardo Mondlane, Amílcar Cabral, Steve Biko, Samora Machel, and most recently John Garang, to name only a few. While malevolent forces have not used the same methods to eliminate each of these great pan-Africanists, they have been guided by the same motive: to keep Africa in chains."

— Antonio de Figueiredo, February 2008 [10]

Twenty years later, on October 15, 2007, Thomas Sankara was commemorated around the world in ceremonies that took place in Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Niger, Tanzania, Burundi, France,Canada, and the USA.[6

 

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Afro-Colombians may often encounter a noticeable degree of racial discrimination and prejudice, as a socio-cultural leftover from colonial times. They have been historically absent from high level government positions. Many of their long-established settlements around the Pacific coast have remained underdeveloped.[5] In Colombia's ongoing internal conflict, Afro-Colombians are both victims of violence or displacement and members of armed factions, such as the FARC and the AUC. African Colombians have played a role in contributing to the development of certain aspects of Colombian culture. For example, several of Colombia's musical genres, such as Cumbia and Vallenato, have African origins or influences. Some African Colombians have also been successful in sports.

 

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José Prudencio Padilla


Admiral José Prudencio Padilla López (19 March 1784, in Riohacha, Colombia[1] – 2 February 1828) was a Colombian military leader who fought in the Spanish American wars of independence. He is best known for his victory in the Battle of Lake Maracaibo on 24 July 1823, in which a royalist Spanish fleet was defeated.

Life and career
José Prudencio Padilla (Riohacha, Colombia, March 19, 1784 - Bogotá, Colombia, October 2, 1828) hero of the independence of Gran Colombia (present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama). He was the foremost naval hero of the campaign for independence led by Simón Bolívar, the creator of the first Navy and Admiral of Great Colombia.
His parents were Andres Padilla, builder of small boats, and Lucia Lopez. He started life as a seaman in the domestic service of merchant vessels in port and homeland at 14 years old and appeared as porter at the Royal Spanish chamber of the New Kingdom of Granada. On October 21, 1805 he received his baptism of fire at the battle of Trafalgar, at which he was taken prisoner by the English. In 1808, after his release he returned to Spain, where he was appointed to the boatswain's arsenal at Cartagena de Indias. On April 11, 1811 he took part in the decision of the people of Gethsemane, who, in sympathy with the city of Cartagena, joined in the proclamation of independence of Cundinamarca and thus to disregard for the authority of the metropolis. In 1814 he saw action at Tolu and captured a sloop of war realistically with 170 crew that led to Panama, although the ship was captured best gunships that he commanded, he could not resist the attack and surrendered. In recognition of this, the government awarded Padilla granadino with promotion to second lieutenant of frigate.
In 1815 he served under the command of Simón Bolívar when he went from Bogota to Santa Marta to free, then Cartagena besieged by the army of General Pablo Morillo, defended its walls until it was impossible to sustain, and one of the ships Republicans was among the first to break the line of the squad that made it impossible to realistically out of the besieged. Then he went to Jamaica, and as Captain, he met Bolívar in Haiti to reinforce the expedition which sailed from Los Cayos de San Luis on March 31, 1816, the naval victory at Los Frailes (May 2) and landing Carupano (June 1). Promoted him to captain of the frigate commander in chief and the subtle forces of the river, made significant inroads over the province of Cumana. In 1819 participated in the campaign of Casanare, in which he managed the transportation of troops and war material. As second in command of Admiral Luis Brión was found on March 12, 1820 in making Riohacha and then in the battles of the Laguna Salada, Pueblo Viejo, Tenerife, La Barra, Cienaga de Santa Marta and San Juan. Named commander in chief of the subtle forces of the Republic, he was the Bay of Cartagena and captured several Spanish vessels. On April 19, 1823 was promoted to brigadier general of the Colombian Navy. This time was invested with the office of commander general of the Third Department of the Navy and the Squadron Operations Zulia, which made a brilliant work that culminated on July 24, 1823 in the naval battle of Lake Maracaibo, in which he defeated the Spanish squadron, which led to the capitulation of the field marshal Francisco Tomás Morales on August 3 following.
On November 24, 1826 was promoted to general of division. However, at the beginning of 1828, Padilla was involved in an act of indiscipline in which several officers were involved in Cartagena. Reduced was sent to prison in to Bogotá on May 26, 1828. During the night of September 25, 1828, which carried out the attack on the life of the Liberator (Septembrina Conspiracy), while the assault was executed at San Carlos Palace, some conspirators scaled the walls of the building which served as prison, and assassinated Colonel José Bolívar escorting him to appoint him as chief and release. There is no record of his escape, but was judged by the law of conspiracy, sentenced to death and executed in the Plaza de la Constitution de Bogotá shortly. the wreck of the Almirante Padilla rest in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Remedios Riohacha, which was declared in his honor as the Cultural Heritage of the Colombian nation. Was established in Venezuela in Zulia State Almirante Padilla Municipality in his honor. The reason of Padilla rebellion was because Simon Bolivar broke his promise to free black people as they agree in a previous meeting.

 

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:eazy:

 

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Arab slave trade

The Arab slave trade was the practice of slavery in the Arab world, mainly in Western Asia, North Africa, Southeast Africa, the Horn of Africa and certain parts of Europe (such as Iberia and Sicily) during their period of domination by Arab leaders. The trade was focused on the slave markets of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa. People traded were not limited to a certain race, ethnicity, or religion.[1]
During the 8th and 9th centuries of the Fatimid Caliphate, most of the slaves were Europeans (called Saqaliba) captured along European coasts and during wars.[2] However, slaves were drawn from a wide variety of regions and included Mediterranean peoples, Persians, peoples from the Caucasus mountain regions (such as Georgia, Armenia and Circassia) and parts of Central Asia and Scandinavia, English, Dutch and Irish, Berbers from North Africa, and various other peoples of varied origins as well as those of African origins.[citation needed]
Toward the 18th and 19th centuries, the flow of Zanj (Bantu) slaves from Southeast Africa increased with the rise of the Oman sultanate, which was based in Zanzibar in Tanzania. They came into direct trade conflict and competition with Portuguese and other Europeans along the Swahili coast.[3] The North African Barbary states carried on piracy against European shipping and enslaved thousands of European Christians. They earned revenues from the ransoms charged; in many cases in Britain, village churches and communities would raise money for such ransoms. The British government did not ransom its citizens.
Scope of the trade


19th-century engraving of Arab slave-trading caravan transporting African slaves across the Sahara
Historians estimate that between 650 and 1900, 10 to 18 million peoples were enslaved by Arab slave traders and taken from Africa across the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Sahara desert.[4][5][6][7] The term Arab when used in historical documents often represented an ethnic term, as many of the "Arab" slave traders, such as Tippu Tip and others, were physically indistinguishable from the "Africans" whom they enslaved and sold. Due to the nature of the Arab slave trade, it is impossible to be precise about actual numbers.[8][9][10]


A Bantu slave woman in Mogadishu (1882–1883).

 

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To a smaller degree, Arabs also enslaved Europeans. According to Robert Davis, between 1 million and 1.25 million Europeans were captured between the 16th and 19th centuries by Barbary corsairs, who were vassals of the Ottoman Empire, and sold as slaves.[11][12] These slaves were captured mainly from seaside villages from Italy, Spain, Portugal and also from more distant places like France or England, the Netherlands, Ireland and even Iceland. They were also taken from ships stopped by the pirates.[13] The effects of these attacks were devastating: France, England, and Spain each lost thousands of ships. Long stretches of the Spanish and Italian coasts were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants, because of frequent pirate attacks. Pirate raids discouraged settlement along the coast until the 19th century.[14][15]
Periodic Arab raiding expeditions were sent from Islamic Iberia to ravage the Christian Iberian kingdoms, bringing back booty and slaves. In a raid against Lisbon in 1189, for example, the Almohad caliph, Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur, took 3,000 female and child captives, while his governor of Córdoba, in a subsequent attack upon Silves in 1191, took 3,000 Christian slaves.[16]
The Ottoman wars in Europe and Tatar raids brought large numbers of European Christian slaves into the Muslim world.[17][18][19] In 1769 a last major Tatar raid saw the capture of 20,000 Russian and Polish slaves.[20]
The 'Oriental' or 'Arab' slave trade is sometimes called the 'Islamic' slave trade, but a religious imperative was not the driver of the slavery, Patrick Manning, a professor of World History, states. However, if a non-Muslim population refuses to pay the jizya protection/subjugation tax, that population is considered to be at war with the Muslim "ummah" (nation), and it becomes legal under Islamic law to take slaves from that non-Muslim population. Usage of the terms "Islamic trade" or "Islamic world" has been disputed by some Muslims as it treats Africa as outside of Islam, or a negligible portion of the Islamic world.[21] Propagators of Islam in Africa often revealed a cautious attitude towards proselytizing because of its effect in reducing the potential reservoir of slaves.[22]
From a Western point of view, the subject merges with the Oriental slave trade, which followed two main routes in the Middle Ages:

• Overland routes across the Maghreb and Mashriq deserts (Trans-Saharan route)[23]
• Sea routes to the east of Africa through the Red Sea and Indian Ocean (Oriental route)[24][25]

The Arab slave trade originated before Islam and lasted more than a millennium.[26][27][28] Arab traders brought Africans across the Indian Ocean from the Swahili Coast of present-day Kenya, Mozambique, and Tanzania,[29] and elsewhere in Southeast Africa and from Eritrea and Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa to present-day Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Somalia, Turkey and other parts of the Middle East[30] and South Asia (mainly Pakistan and India). Unlike the trans-Atlantic slave trade to the New World, Arabs supplied African slaves to the Arab world, which at its peak stretched over three continents from the Atlantic to the Far East.

 

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A recent and controversial topic
The history of the slave trade has given rise to numerous debates amongst historians. For one thing, specialists are undecided on the number of Africans taken from their homes; this is difficult to resolve because of a lack of reliable statistics: there was no census system in medieval Africa. Archival material for the transatlantic trade in the 16th to 18th centuries may seem useful as a source, yet these record books were often falsified. Historians have to use imprecise narrative documents to make estimates which must be treated with caution: Luiz Felipe de Alencastro states that there were 8 million slaves taken from Africa between the 8th and 19th centuries along the Oriental and the Trans-Saharan routes.[31]
Olivier Pétré-Grenouilleau has put forward a figure of 17 million African people enslaved (in the same period and from the same area) on the basis of Ralph Austen's work.[32] Paul Bairoch suggests a figure of 25 million African people subjected to the Arab slave trade, as against 11 million that arrived in the Americas from the transatlantic slave trade.[33] Ronald Segal estimates between 11.5 and 14 million were enslaved by the Arab slave trade.[34][35][36]
Another obstacle to a history of the Arab slave trade is the limitations of extant sources. There exist documents from non-African cultures, written by educated men in Arabic, but these only offer an incomplete and often condescending look at the phenomenon. For some years there has been a huge amount of effort going into historical research on Africa. Thanks to new methods and new perspectives, historians can interconnect contributions from archaeology, numismatics, anthropology, linguistics and demography to compensate for the inadequacy of the written record.[citation needed]
The Arab trade of Zanj (Bantu) slaves in Southeast Africa is one of the oldest slave trades, predating the European transatlantic slave trade by 700 years.[37][38][39] Male slaves were often employed as servants, soldiers, or laborers by their owners, while female slaves, including those from Africa, were long traded to the Middle Eastern countries and kingdoms by Arab and Oriental traders as concubines and servants. Arab, African and Oriental traders were involved in the capture and transport of slaves northward across the Sahara desert and the Indian Ocean region into the Middle East, Persia and the Far East.[38][39]
The most significant Jewish involvement in the slave-trade was in Al-Andalus, as Islamic Spain was called.[40] According to historian Alan W. Fisher, there was a guild of Jewish slave traders in Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The guild had about 2000 members.[20] The city was a major center of the slave trade in the 15th and later centuries. By 1475 most of the slaves were provided by Tatar raids on Slavic villages.[20] Until the late 18th century, the Crimean Khanate maintained a massive slave trade with the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East, exporting about 2 million slaves from Poland-Lithuania and Russia over the period 1500–1700.[41]
650 to 20th century
Main article: Slavery in contemporary Africa
From approximately 650 until around the 1960s, the Arab slave trade continued in one form or another. Historical accounts and references to slave-owning nobility in Arabia, Yemen and elsewhere are frequent into the early 1920s.[37] In 1953, sheikhs from Qatar attending the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II included slaves in their retinues, and they did so again on another visit five years later.[6]
As recently as the 1950s, Saudi Arabia's slave population was estimated at 450,000 — approximately 20% of the population.[42] It is estimated that as many as 200,000 Sudanese children and women had been taken into slavery during the Second Sudanese Civil War.[43][44] Slavery in Mauritania was legally abolished by laws passed in 1905, 1961, and 1981.[45] It was finally criminalized in August 2007.[46] It is estimated that up to 600,000 Mauritanians, or 20% of Mauritania's population, are currently in conditions which some consider to be "slavery", namely, many of them used as bonded labour due to poverty.[47]
The Arab slave trade in the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, and Mediterranean Sea long predated the arrival of any significant number of Europeans on the African continent.[37][48]
David Livingstone wrote of the slave trade in the African Great Lakes region, which he visited in the mid-nineteenth century:[49]
We passed a slave woman shot or stabbed through the body and lying on the path. [Onlookers] said an Arab who passed early that morning had done it in anger at losing the price he had given for her, because she was unable to walk any longer.[50]
Some descendants of African slaves brought to the Middle East during the slave-trade still live there today, and are aware of their African origins. The number of descendants was limited as men were castrated by their Arab masters to be eunuchs in domestic service.[30][51]

 

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Love the Afro-Columbian drop. Lets talk about the African diaspora in India. My Siddi brehs.

The Siddi (Urdu: شیدی ‎; Kannada: ಸಿದ್ಧಿಗಳು; Hindi, Marathi, Konkani: सिद्दी or शीदि/ಸಿದ್ಧಿ; Sindhi: شيدي; Gujarati: સીદી), also known as Siddhi, Sheedi,Habshi or Makrani, are an ethnic group inhabiting India and Pakistan. Members are descended from Bantu peoples from Southeast Africa that were brought to the Indian subcontinent as slaves by Arab and Portuguese merchants.[1] The Siddi community is currently estimated at around 20,000–55,000 individuals, with Karnataka, Gujarat and Hyderabad in India and Makran and Karachi in Pakistan as the main population centres.[2] Siddis are primarily Sufi Muslims, although some are Hindus and others Roman Catholic Christians.[3]

Etymology of name[edit]
There are conflicting hypotheses on the origin of the name Siddi. One theory is that the word derives from sahibi, a Arabic term of respect in North Africa, similar to the word sahib in modern India and Pakistan.[4] A second theory is that the term Siddi is derived from the title borne by the captains of the Arab vessels that first brought Siddi settlers to India. These captains were known as Sayyid.[5]

Similarly, another term for Siddis, habshi (from Al-Habsh, the Arabic term for Abyssinia), is held to be derived from the common name for the captains of the Ethiopian/Abyssinian ships that also first delivered Siddi slaves to the subcontinent.[5] The term eventually came to be applied to other Africans and not only to emancipated Siddis. In time, it came to be used to refer to their descendants as well. It is sometimes pronounced "Hafsi" and is considered an insult.[6]

Siddis are also sometimes referred to as African-Indians.[7][8][9] Siddis were referred to as Zanji by Arabs; in China, various transcriptions of this Arabic word were used, including Xinji (辛吉) and Jinzhi (津芝).[10][11][12][13]

 

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A fine example of Indo-Islamic architecture, theSidi Saiyyed Mosque in Ahmedabad, India was constructed in 1572 by Sidi Saiyyed, a slave of Sultan Ahmad Shah.[14]


The first Siddis are thought to have arrived in India in 628 AD at the Bharuch port. Several others followed with the first Arab Islamic invasions of the subcontinent in 712 AD.[15] The latter group are believed to have been soldiers with Muhammad bin Qasim's Arab army, and were called Zanjis.

Most Siddis are descended from Bantu peoples from Southeast Africa that were brought to the Indian subcontinent as slaves by the Portuguese.[1]While most of these migrants became Muslim and a small minority became Christian, very few became Hindu since they could not find themselves a position in the traditional Hindu caste hierarchy.[4]



Flag of the Siddis from Murud-Janjira an important vassal of theMughal Empire.


In Western India (the modern Indian states of Gujarat and Maharashtra), the Siddi gained a reputation for physical strength and loyalty, and were sought out as mercenaries by local rulers, and as domestic servants and farm labour.[citation needed] Some Siddis escaped slavery to establish communities in forested areas, and some even established small Siddi principalities on Janjira Island and at Jaffrabad as early as the twelfth century. A former alternative name of Janjira was Habshan (i.e., land of the Habshis). In the Delhi Sultanateperiod prior to the rise of the Mughals in India, Jamal-ud-Din Yaqut was a prominent Siddi slave-turned-nobleman who was a close confidant of Razia Sultana (1205–1240 CE). Although this is disputed, he may also have been her lover.[16]

As a power centre, Siddis were sometimes allied with the Mughal Empire in its power-struggle with theMaratha Confederacy.[citation needed] However, Malik Ambar, a prominent Siddi figure in Indian history at large, is sometimes regarded as the "military guru of the Marathas", and was deeply allied with them.[17] He established the town of Khirki which later became the modern city of Aurangabad, and helped establish the Marathas as a major force in the Deccan. Later, the Marathas adapted Siddi guerrilla warfare tactics to grow their power and ultimately demolish the Mughal empire.[17] Some accounts describe the Mughal emperor Jahangiras obsessed by Ambar due to the Mughal empire's consistent failures in crushing him and his Maratha cavalry, describing him derogatorily as "the black faced" and "the ill-starred" in the royal chronicles and even having a painting commissioned that showed Jahangir killing Ambar, a fantasy which was never realised in reality.[18]

 

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Arab views on African people


Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli in Tangier, Morocco.

In the Quran, the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and the overwhelming majority of Islamic jurists and theologians, all stated that humankind has a single origin and rejected the idea of certain ethnic groups being superior to others.[52] According to the hadiths:
...an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action.
—Muhammad, The Farewell Sermon[55]
Despite this, some ethnic prejudices later developed among Arabs for at least two reasons: 1) their extensive conquests and slave trade;[52] and 2) the influence of Aristotle's idea that slaves are slaves by nature.[56][POV? – discuss] A refinement of Aristotle's view was put forward by Muslim philosophers such as Al-Farabi and Avicenna, particularly in regards to Turkic and black peoples;[52] and the influence of ideas from the early mediaeval Geonic academies regarding divisions among mankind between the three sons of Noah, with the Babylonian Talmud stating that "the descendants of Ham are cursed by being black, and [it] depicts Ham as a sinful man and his progeny as degenerates."[57] However, ethnic prejudice among some elite Arabs was not limited to darker-skinned people, but was also directed towards fairer-skinned "ruddy people" (including Persians, Turks and Europeans), while Arabs referred to themselves as "swarthy people".[58] The concept of an Arab identity itself did not exist until modern times.[59] According to Arnold J. Toynbee: "The extinction of race consciousness as between Muslims is one of the outstanding achievements of Islam and in the contemporary world there is, as it happens, a crying need for the propagation of this Islamic virtue."[60]
The famous 9th-century Muslim author Al-Jahiz, an Afro-Arab and the grandson of a Zanj[38][39][61] slave, wrote a book entitled Risalat mufakharat al-Sudan 'ala al-bidan (Treatise on the Superiority of Blacks over Whites), in which he stated that Blacks:
...have conquered the country of the Arabs as far as Mecca and have governed them. We defeated Dhu Nowas (Jewish King of Yemen) and killed all the Himyarite princes, but you, White people, have never conquered our country. Our people, the Zenghs (Negroes) revolted forty times in the Euphrates, driving the inhabitants from their homes and making Oballah a bath of blood.
—Joel Augustus Rogers and John Henrik Clarke, World's Great Men of Color[62]
And that:
Blacks are physically stronger than no matter what other people. A single one of them can lift stones of greater weight and carry burdens such as several Whites could not lift nor carry between them. [...] They are brave, strong, and generous as witness their nobility and general lack of wickedness.
—Yosef Ben-Jochannan, African Origins of Major Western Religions[63]
Al-Jahiz also stated in his Kitab al-Bukhala ("Avarice and the Avaricious") that:

"We know that the Zanj (blacks) are the least intelligent and the least discerning of mankind, and the least capable of understanding the consequences of their actions."
Jahiz' criticism however, was limited to the Zanj and not blacks in totality, likely as a result of the Zanji revolts in his native Iraq.
This sentiment was echoed in the following passage from Kitab al-Bad' wah-tarikh (vol.4) by the medieval Arab writer Al-Muqaddasi:

As for the Zanj, they are people of black color, flat noses, kinky hair, and little understanding or intelligence.[64]
Al-Dimashqi (Ibn al-Nafis), the Arab polymath, also described the inhabitants of the Sudan (region) and the Zanj coast, among others, as being of "dim" intelligence and that:

...the moral characteristics found in their mentality are close to the instinctive characteristics found naturally in animals.
—Andrew Reid and Paul J. Lane, African Historical Archaeologies[65]​

 

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Siddis of India[edit]
Siddis of Gujarat[edit]


Siddi Folk Dancers, at Devaliya Naka,Sasan Gir, Gujarat.
Supposedly presented as slaves by the Portuguese to the local Prince, Nawab of Junagadh, the Siddis also live around Gir Forest National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary, the last refuge in the world of the almost extinct Asiatic Lions, in Junagadh a district of the state of Gujarat, India.[19]

On the way to Deva-dungar is the quaint village of Sirvan, inhabited entirely by Siddis, a tribe of African people. They were brought 300 years ago from Africa, by the Portuguese for the Nawab of Junagadh. Today, they follow very few of their original customs, with a few exceptions like the traditional Dhamal dance.[20]

Although Gujarati Siddis have adopted the language and many customs of their surrounding populations, some African traditions have been preserved. These include the Goma music and dance form, which is sometimes called Dhamaal (Gujarati: ધમાલ, fun).[21] The term is believed to be derived from the Ngoma drumming and dance forms of Bantu East Africa.[21] The Goma also has a spiritual significance and, at the climax of the dance, some dancers are believed to be vehicles for the presence of Siddi saints of the past.[22]

Siddis of Karnataka[edit]


Siddi Girl from Yellapur District, Karnataka, India.
Main article: Siddis of Karnataka
The Siddis of Karnataka (Kannada: ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ ಸಿದ್ಧಿಗಳು) (also spelled Siddhis) are an ethnic group of mainly Bantu descent that has made Karnataka their home for the last 400 years.[1] There is a 50,000 strong Siddhi population across India, of which more than a third live in Karnataka. In Karnataka, they are concentrated around Yellapur, Haliyal, Ankola, Joida, Mundgod and Sirsi taluks of Uttara Kannada and in Khanapur of Belgaum and Kalghatgi ofDharwad district. Many members of the Siddis community of Karnataka had migrated to Pakistan after independence and have settled in Karachi,Sindh. The majority of the Siddhis in Karnataka are descendants of Siddhi slaves who were brought from East Africa (mostly Mozambique) and Ethiopia to Goa by the Portuguese, British and the Arabs between the 16th and 19th centuries. During the Goan Inquisition, some of these slaves were freed and some escaped into the forests of the neighbouring Karnataka state. It has been reported that these Siddis believe that Barack Obama shares their genepool and that they wanted to gift a bottle of honey to him on his visit to India in 2010.[23]

Siddis of Hyderabad, India[edit]
In the 18th century, a Siddi community was established in Hyderabad State by the Arab Siddi diaspora, who would frequently serve as cavalry guards of the Asif Jahi Nizam's irregular army. The Asif Jahi Nizams patronised them with rewards and the traditional Marfa music gained popularity and would be performed during official celebrations and ceremonies.[24][25][26] The Siddis of Hyderabad have traditionally resided in the A.C. Guards (African Cavalry Guards) area near Masjid Rahmania, known locally as Siddi Risala.

 

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im going to cop a zoot suit

 

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Sheedis of Pakistan[edit]
In Pakistan, locals of Black African descent are called "Makrani", or "Sheedi". They live primarily along the Makran Coast in Balochistan, and lowerSindh. In the city of Karachi, the main Sheedi centre is the area of Lyari and other nearby coastal areas.[27] Technically, the Sheedi are a brotherhood or community distinct from the other Afro-Pakistanis. The Sheedis are divided into four clans, or houses: Kharadar Makan, Hyderabad Makan, Lassi Makan and Belaro Makan.[28] The sufi saint Pir Mangho is regarded by many as the patron saint of the Sheedis, and the annual Sheedi Mela festival, is the key event in the Sheedi community's cultural calendar.[28] Some glimpses of the rituals at Sidi/Sheedi Festival 2010 include visit to sacred alligators at Mangho pir, playing music and dance.[29] Clearly, the instrument, songs and dance appear to be derived from Africa.[30][31]

Linguistically, Makranis speak Balochi and Sindhi, as well as a dialect of Urdu referred to as Makrani. In Sindh, the Sheedis have traditionally intermarried only with people such as the Mallahs (fisherpeople), Khaskeli (laborers), Khatri (dyeing caste) and Kori (clothmakers).

Famous Sheedis include the historic Sindhi army leader Hoshu Sheedi[32] and Urdu poet Noon Meem Danish.[33][34] Sheedis are also well known for their excellence in sports, especially infootball and boxing. The musical anthem of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, "Bija Teer", is a Balochi song in the musical style of the Sheedis with Black African style rhythm and drums.[35]Younis Jani is a popular Sheedi singer famous for singing an Urdu version of the reggaeton song "Papi chulo... (te traigo el mmmm...)."[36]

Siddis or Sheedis in lower Sindh[edit]


Sawan Qambrani, resident of villageSyed Matto Shah, Tehsil Bulri Shah Karim, District Tando Muhammad Khan, Sindh
Sheedis are largely populated in different towns and villages in lower Sindh. They are very active in cultural activities and organise annual festivals, like, Habash Festival, with the support of several community organisations. In the local culture, when there is a dance it is not performed by some selected few and watched idly by others but it is participated by all the people present there, ending difference between the performers and the audience.[37]

Sheedis in Sindh also proudly call themselves the Qambranis, Urdu: قمبرانی ‎; Sindhi: قمبراڻي, in reverence to Qambar, the freed slave of the Islamic caliphAli.[citation needed]

 

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Genetics[edit]
Recent advances in genetic analyses have helped shed some light on the ethnogenesis of the Siddi. Genetic genealogy, although a novel tool that uses the genes of modern populations to trace their ethnic and geographic origins, has also helped clarify the possible background of the modern Siddi.

Y DNA[edit]
A Y-chromosome study by Shah et al. (2011) tested Siddi individuals in India for paternal lineages. The authors observed the E1b1a haplogroup, which is frequent amongst Bantu peoples, in about 42% and 34% of Siddis from Karnataka and Gujarat, respectively. Around 14% of Siddis from Karnataka and 35% of Siddis from Gujarat also belonged to the Sub-Saharan B haplogroup. The remaining 30% of Siddi had Indian or Near Eastern-associated clades, including haplogroups H, L, J and P.[1]

Thangaraj (2009) observed similar, mainly Bantu-linked paternal affinities amongst the Siddi.[38]

mtDNA[edit]
According to an mtDNA study by Shah et al. (2011), the maternal ancestry of the Siddi consists of a mixture of Sub-Saharan and Indian haplogroups, reflecting substantial female gene flow from neighbouring Indian populations. About 53% of the Siddis from Gujarat and 24% of the Siddis from Karnataka belonged to various Sub-Saharan macro-haplogroup L sub-clades. The latter mainly consisted of L0 and L2a sublineages associated with Bantu women. The remainder possessed Indian-specific subclades of the Eurasian haplogroups M and N, which points to recent admixture with autochthonous Indian groups.[1]

Autosomal DNA[edit]
Narang et al. (2011) examined the autosomal DNA of Siddis in India. According to the researchers, about 58% of the Siddis' ancestry is derived from Bantu peoples. The remainder is associated with local Indo-European-speaking North and Northwest Indian populations, due to recent admixture events.[39]

Similarly, Shah et al. (2011) observed that Siddis in Gujarat derive 66.90%–70.50% of their ancestry from Bantu forebears, while the Siddis in Karnataka possess 64.80%–74.40% such Southeast African ancestry. The remaining autosomal DNA components in the studied Siddi were mainly associated with local South Asian populations. According to the authors, gene flow between the Siddis' Bantu ancestors and local Indian populations was also largely unidirectional. They estimate this admixture episode's time of occurrence at within the past 200 years or eight generations.[1]

However, Guha et al. (2012) observed few genetic differences between the Makrani of Pakistan and neighboring populations. According to the authors, the genome-wide ancestry of the Makrani was essentially the same as that of the adjacent Indo-European speaking Balochi and Dravidian-speaking Brahui.[40]

 

[cole phelps]

By the 14th century, an overwhelming number of slaves came from sub-Saharan Africa, leading to prejudice against black people in the works of several Arabic historians and geographers. For example, the Egyptian historian Al-Abshibi (1388–1446) wrote: "It is said that when the [black] slave is sated, he fornicates, when he is hungry, he steals."[66]


Mistranslations of Arab scholars and geographers from this time period have led many to attribute certain racist attitudes that weren't prevalent until the 18th and 19th century to writings made centuries ago.[7][67] Although bias against those of very black complexion existed in the Arab world in the 15th century it didn't have as much stigma as it later would. Older translations of Ibn Khaldun, for example in The Negroland of the Arabs Examined and Explained[68] which was written in 1841 gives excerpts of older translations that were not part of later colonial propaganda and show black Africans in a generally positive light.
In 14th century North Africa, the Arab sociologist, Ibn Khaldun, wrote in his Muqaddimah:
When the conquest of the West (by the Arabs) was completed, and merchants began to penetrate into the interior, they saw no nation of the Blacks so mighty as Ghanah, the dominions of which extended westward as far as the Ocean. The King's court was kept in the city of Ghanah, which, according to the author of the Book of Roger (El Idrisi), and the author of the Book of Roads and Realms (El Bekri), is divided into two parts, standing on both banks of the Nile, and ranks among the largest and most populous cities of the world. The people of Ghanah had for neighbours, on the east, a nation, which, according to historians, was called Susu; after which came another named Mali; and after that another known by the name of Kaukau ; although some people prefer a different orthography, and write this name Kagho. The last-named nation was followed by a people called Tekrur. The people of Ghanah declined in course of time, being overwhelmed or absorbed by the Molaththemun (or muffled people;that is, the Morabites), who, adjoining them on the north towards the Berber country, attacked them, and, taking possession of their territory, compelled them to embrace the Mohammedan religion. The people of Ghanah, being invaded at a later period by the Susu, a nation of Blacks in their neighbourhood, were exterminated, or mixed with other Black nations.
—William Desborough Cooley, The Negroland of the Arabs Examined and Explained[68]
Ibn Khaldun suggests a link between the decline of Ghana and rise of the Almoravids. However, there is little evidence of there actually being an Almoravid conquest of Ghana[69][70] aside from the parallel conflict with Takrur, which was allied with the Almoravid and eventually absorbed by them.
Ibn Khaldun attributed the "strange practices and customs" of certain African tribes to the hot climate of sub-Saharan Africa and made it clear that it was not due to any curse in their lineage, dismissing the Hamitic theory as a myth.[71]
His critical attitude towards Arabs has led the scholar Mohammad A. Enan to suggest that Ibn Khaldun may have been a Berber pretending to be an Arab in order to gain social status, but Muhammad Hozien has responded to this claim stating that Ibn Khaldun or anyone else in his family never claimed to be Berber even when the Berbers were in power.[72][relevant? – discuss]
The 14th-century North African Berber geographer and traveller, Ibn Battuta, on his trip to western Sudan, was impressed with occasional aspects of life.
Battuta later visited the Zanj-inhabited portions of East Africa and held more positive views of its black people.[3][73]
We ... traveled by sea to the city of Kulwa (Kilwa in Tanzania)...Most of its people are Zunuj, extremely black...The city of Kulwa is amongst the most beautiful of cities and most elegantly built... Their uppermost virtue is religion and righteousness and they are Shafi'i in rite.

[The people of Mombasa in Kenya] are a religious people, trustworthy and righteous. Their mosques are made of wood, expertly built.


This statue on Charles Bridge in Prague depicts Christians, imprisoned by Muslims, and the saints who founded the Trinitarian Order that was established to free Christian slaves.
Ibn Battuta was also impressed with aspects of the Mali Empire of West Africa, which he visited in 1352, writing that the people there:

...possess some admirable qualities. They are seldom unjust, and have a greater abhorrence of injustice than any other people. There is complete security in their country. Neither traveler nor inhabitant in it has anything to fear from robbers or men of violence.
—Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354[74]​