The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean World

[Safferz]

This is a great virtual exhibit a while back from the New York Public Library. Take the essay and comments on Ethiopia with a huge grain of salt... they do not have a tradition of maritime trade and they certainly were not seafarers in the Indian Ocean world, so I don't know what shoddy scholar wrote that section up. "Habash" or "Ethiopian" historically did not have the same meaning as it does now, but it is common for people to claim much of the continent's history as Ethiopian in the contemporary sense by overlooking this.

 

 

"Over the course of nearly 20 centuries, millions of East Africans crossed the Indian Ocean and its several seas and adjoining bodies of water in their journey to distant lands, from Arabia and Iraq to India and Sri Lanka.

 

Called Kaffir, Siddi, Habshi, or Zanji, these men, women and children from Sudan in the north to Mozambique in the south Africanized the Indian Ocean world and helped shape the societies they entered and made their own.

 

Free or enslaved, soldiers, servants, sailors, merchants, mystics, musicians, commanders, nurses, or founders of dynasties, they contributed their cultures, talents, skills and labor to their new world, as millions of their descendants continue to do. Yet, their heroic odyssey remains little known.

 

The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean World traces a truly unique and fascinating story of struggles and achievements across a variety of societies, cultures, religions, languages and times."

 

 

A few images from South Asia from the collection, you can explore the rest here: http://exhibitions.nypl.org/africansindianocean/index2.php

Indian painting depicting the Persian story of Darab fighting the Zanjis (Africans), c.1580

 

Pakistan has the largest number of people of African descent in South Asia. It has been estimated that at least a quarter of the total population living on the Makran coast are of African ancestry—that is, at least 250,000 men and women can claim East African descent on the southern coast of Pakistan and in the easternmost part of southern Iran. In Pakistan, African descendants are called Sheedi (Siddi.) Many are also called Makrani, whether or not they live in Makran.

Much of the vocabulary used by the Afro-Sindhi is a modified Swahili. For instance, the word for shield in Swahili, ngao, is gao among the Afro-Sindhi; the word for moon (or one month) in Swahili, mwesi, is moesi in Afro-Sindhi. In Lyari, a neighborhood of Karachi, there is a Mombasa Street, the name coming from the Kenyan port city. These women are celebrating the Sufi saint Mangho Haji Syed Sakhi Sultan at Manghopir, a suburb of Karachi. Sheedis, like the Siddis of India, also revere the African saint Bava Ghor.

In 1490, an African guard, Sidi Badr, seized power in Bengal and ruled for three years before being murdered. Five thousand of the 30,000 men in his army were Ethiopians. After Sidi Badr’s assassination, high-level Africans were driven out and migrated to Gujarat and the Deccan. In the Deccan sultanate of Bijapur, Africans formerly enslaved—they were called the “Abyssinian party”—took control. The African regent Dilawar Khan exercised power from 1580 and was succeeded by Ikhlas Khan. The Abyssinian party dominated the Bijapur Sultanate and conquered new territories until the Mughal invasion in 1686.

This portrait is believed to be the Afro-Indian Sultan Burhan Nizam Shah III (1605-1632), who ruled in the sultanate of Ahmednagar, in northwest Deccan.

This portrait, putatively of Malik Ambar, is believed to be of his son, Fateh Khan. Fateh Khan married the daughter of another Habshi (Ethiopian), one of the most powerful nobles in the kingdom. In 1631 vizier—top official—Fateh Khan deposed the sultan and installed Hussain Shah in his place. Khan held the real power until 1633, when both were exiled to Delhi and the kingdom was annexed by the Mughals.

Malik Ambar's tomb - “A mile outside Raoza [now Khuldabad] proper, north-west, stands the tomb of Malik Ambar, the celebrated minister of Ahmednagar and the founder of the city of Aurangabad. It is built of plain stone, and is surmounted by a lofty dome, the interior of which is carved in various devices, and is remarkable for the echo which it possesses. The grave, which consists of a small stone-covered mound in the usual Mahomedan style, occupies a raised platform in the centre. It contains no inscription of any kind.”

Siddis—also called Habshi, Kaphri or African—number about 50,000 in India. It is estimated that 18,000 live in the state of Karnataka, 10,000 in Gujarat and 12,000 in Andhra Pradesh (mostly in Hyderabad). Many Muslim Siddis left after Indian independence in 1947 and settled in Pakistan.

Many Siddis do not know much about their origin, but an elder explained: “A long time ago a Hindu king brought my ancestors here from a place called Africa. The Hindu king wanted to have strong and hardworking men to work his property and women to work in his many houses. So he sent ships beyond the horizon and brought our ancestors. Then the Portuguese came and brought Siddis to Goa to work in their houses. Then the British came with more Siddis from Africa to work in their army and fight against the Indians. When they had a chance our forebears fled from Goa and Bombay and settled here and in other parts of Uttara Kannada.”

[Safferz]

From the Middle East:

 

Bilal al-Habashi - Bilal was among Muhammad’s earliest converts. The son of an enslaved Ethiopian woman, he became a trusted companion of the Prophet. Bilal Al-Habashi (the Ethiopian), as he was also known, was enslaved by Umayyah ibn Khalaf who violently opposed Muhammad and his teachings. When Bilal converted and insisted there was only one God, Ibn Khalaf tortured him. Having heard of Bilal’s tenacity, Abu Bakr (later Sunni Islam’s first caliph) purchased and emancipated him.

In this 16th-century print a “Moor” of Arabia is depicted as a black man with curly hair.

A black man is portrayed, in the middle, as an elegant learned Muslim. 1800s

Slave ship on the Arabian coast, 1873

Slave ship in the Red Sea - During the 19th century, the Ottomans controlled the Red Sea ports, feeding enslaved Africans into the center of their empire in Anatolia (eastern Turkey). By the 1860s, up to 15,000 individuals were carried on Ottoman ships during the annual pilgrimages to Mecca. Africans were sold at Jeddah and Mecca, or were otherwise exchanged for goods, including steel weapons from Damascus, turquoise or carpets from Persia, and silks from China.

People from Africa, Turkey, the northern Caucasus, and some from India were enslaved in Mecca. According to C. Snouck, who visited Arabia in the 1880s, “There is a preference for Abyssinians, who have many good qualities, and abound, of all shades from light yellow to dark brown. Circassians [whites] … are little valued on account of their enormous pretensions. … More important, as workers, are the African slaves. They come mostly from the Soudan, and are set to the heavier tasks of building, quarrying, &c.”

Men in Arabia, 1889 - The black man on the right holding a rifle appears to be a soldier or guard, one of the occupations of Africans in Arabia.

African women at a well - Slavery continued in Muslim lands in the Indian Ocean world well into the 20th century: Saudi Arabia did not abolish slavery until 1962, and Oman did not officially do so until 1970.

Slave market in Yemen, 1200s - In 1021, an enslaved Ethiopian, Najah, seized power in the city of Zabit. This image represents the slave market at Zabi—at the time the capital of Yemen—in 1237. The illustration is part of “Al-Maqamat” (Assemblies), a genre of rhymed prose narrative. Both the author and the illuminator of this work were born in Iraq.

In Yemen and other Gulf ports, Africans often worked as sailors, dockhands and domestic servants. Between 1865 and 1870, the British Navy settled 2,200 Africans liberated from seized slave ships in Aden. Others were sent to Bombay (Mumbai) and Surat (India), to the Seychelles and to Mauritius.

[Safferz]

African women in Oman - In the second decade of the 19th century, three slave markets were held weekly in Oman. Some captives were kept locally while others were transferred to Turkey, Iran, Arabia and India.

Men in Oman

In the 17th century, Oman established garrisons and factories in Kilwa and on the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba (Tanzania), in Mombasa (Kenya) and in Pate. In Oman, the cities of Muscat and Sur became important centers for the redistribution of captives. They arrived from the Swahili Coast and were transported throughout the Persian Gulf. In the 1860s, an estimated 13,000 African captives were taken to the Gulf every year and 4,000 to 5,000 were sent to Sur in Oman.

Sailors in 1237 - As early as the fifth century Arabs brought Africans to southern Iraq to work their date plantations and salt marshes. During the late ninth century Africans took up arms against the Abbassid slaveholders, taking over several cities. They organized their own state, which had its own standing army, and even minted coins. This 1237 illustration is the work of the Iraqi illuminator Yahya ben Mahmud al-Wasiti.

Today an estimated 1.5 to 2 million African descendants live in Iraq, mostly in and around Basra where they represent 15 to 20 percent of the population. Pictured here is a young Iraqi living in the Dhi Qar Province Orphanage, holding a stuffed animal given by the U.S. Army.

Afro-Iraqis represent 5 to 6 percent of the total population. To combat racism, they formed the Movement of Free Iraqis in July 2007. It demands the recognition of blacks as an official minority, an apology for slavery, laws against racial discrimination, and representation in Parliament. Here Salah al-Rekhayis, a candidate for provincial council, campaigns in 2009.

Enslaved woman in Iran, 1714 - People from Ethiopia, Nubia (Northern Sudan/Southern Egypt) and Somalia; and the East Africans having transited through Zanzibar and other ports of the Swahili Coast were brought to Iran, along with captives from Turkey, Georgia, Armenia and the Caucasus (Russia). Ethiopian and Nubian females were mostly employed as concubines and confidantes in harems and could reach key positions. Females from the Swahili Coast often performed domestic work.

Enslaved man in Iran, 1714 - African males were employed as soldiers, field hands, laborers, guards and eunuchs in harems. Eunuchs could wield significant authority and reach high political positions, as well as accumulate economic wealth, since they were paid.

[Wadani]

Enslaved woman in Iran, 1714 - People from Ethiopia, Nubia (Northern Sudan/Southern Egypt) and Somalia; and the East Africans having transited through Zanzibar and other ports of the Swahili Coast were brought to Iran, along with captives from Turkey, Georgia, Armenia and the Caucasus (Russia). Ethiopian and Nubian females were mostly employed as concubines and confidantes in harems and could reach key positions. Females from the Swahili Coast often performed domestic work.

 

Do u believe Somalis were enslaved?

[Safferz]

Wadani;945513 wrote:

Do u believe Somalis were enslaved?

Of course Somalis were. No one escaped it.

[Wadani]

Safferz;945516 wrote:

Of course Somalis were. No one escaped it.

Lol. Show me the proof.

[Safferz]

Don't be naive Wadani, the political economy of the East African slave trade affected the entire coast, not only the Swahili coast (which includes southern Somalia) but the Red Sea which were important ports for the export of slaves. Very little research has been done on slavery and the slave trade in Somalia, and the issue is further clouded by Somali mythology of being "above" enslavement (which btw is the speech of anyone who hasn't been exported, including societies that lost huge numbers to the slave trade) and the fact the Barre government banned talking and writing about slavery in Somalia. As I mentioned above, "Ethiopian" and "Habshi/Habash" had a wider meaning then and included much more than the contemporary Ethiopian state, so assume anywhere you see that reference, they are often referring to Somalis.

[Safferz]

Here's a 1931 article on British anti-slavery missions in the region, which says 500 slaves a year from Somaliland and Abyssinia are exported through the Red Sea slave trade, and that's in 1931 when the trade was coming to an end, certainly not the numbers during its peak.

 

Edit -- I also don't want to be part of the homogenization if what a Somali is, so I'll also add that slavery was huge in the south and historians like Lee Cassanelli argue that cities like Mogadishu, Merca and Brava had an enslaved population of upwards of 1/3 in the 19th century.

[Wadani]

I disagree completely. Nothing you wrote above even comes close to proving your claim, which I believe is nothing but ahistorical speculation. I don't know what your motivations are; maybe it's to authenticate our Africanness to other Africans through a narrative of shared historical experiences. Yes, Somaliland and southern Somalia were integral parts of the East African slave trade, so much so that the decline of the ancient port city of zeila is largely attributed to it's demise. But whether in Somaliland or in Somalia it was the enthic Somalis, along with Arabs, enslaving their habashi/oromo/bantu neighbours. This is historical fact. So im still waiting on u to show me unequivocal proof, beyond a flimsy and intellectually lazy assertion that we can confidently assume that Somali captives were subsumed under the broad classification of 'Abyssinian slaves'.

[Safferz]

Okie. Let's suspend all logic and knowledge of political economies of slaving/slavery and its historiography to say Somalis were the one ethnic group untouched by the Red Sea and Indian Ocean slave trades.

[oba hiloowlow]

Ethnic somalis where never enslaved those in that text are orommos, infact our ancestors had their own slaves

[Wadani]

Safferz;945670 wrote:

Okie. Let's suspend all logic and knowledge of political economies of slaving/slavery and its historiography to say Somalis were the one ethnic group untouched by the Red Sea and Indian Ocean slave trades.

Loool, walaalo it may seem highly unlikely to u but at the end of the day it's upon the claimant to bring proof, which u haven't done yet. It's intellectually dishonest to assume that we must have been slaves just because those around us were.

[Safferz]

Wadani;945672 wrote:

Loool, walaalo it may seem highly unlikley to u but at the end of the day it's upon the claimant to bring proof, which u haven't done yet. It's intellectually dishonest to assume that we must have been slaves just because those around us were.

I never said it was widespread (ethnic groups were affected differently and in varying degrees), and Somalis certainly were more involved as slavers and merchants in both slave trades, but to say no Somalis were enslaved is a disingenuous, knee-jerk response. Like I said, slavery in northeast Africa and Somalia in particular is an understudied field and a lot of work needs to be done in that area, but you can draw some conclusions based on other studies and knowledge of what was going on in the area as a whole. The fact is that slavery in East Africa touched EVERYONE. And don't dismiss the Habashi/Ethiopian point, the ambiguity in those terms prior to the 1930s (Ethiopia changed its name for that reason, to associate the modern nation-state with historical "Ethiopia" as a broad concept) is how Ethiopianist scholarship has absorbed much of Somali/coastal history to claim it as their own. This exhibit is full of that BS. Ethiopians do not have a maritime culture, and it was not Ethiopian sailors and merchants who traveled to the Middle East and South Asia.

[Haatu]

Safferz, don't refute the irrefutable girl. We are nasab and thus, above slavery.

 

And lol at the Ethiopians claiming they had a maritime history.

[Safferz]

Haatu;945693 wrote:

Safferz, don't refute the irrefutable girl. We are nasab and thus, above slavery.

As soon as I saw Wadani's initial comment I knew the thread would spiral downwards into this, so I'm not going to respond to that. I'm interested in history, not myth-making and ideology.