Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World

1230 Pages·2005·344.71 MB·English

by  Gwyn Campbell (auth.)

African Diaspora ni Asia
nywG llebpmaC
NOITCUDORTNI
era (Snowden, 1976), Nubian mercenaries served a num-
ber of east Mediterranean powers. Also, by 500 .E.C (Ali,
This entry examines the origin and development of the 1996), Ethiopians from Aksum, which then dominated
African presence in Asia. An overwhelming assumption is the Red Sea region, were probably establishing maritime
that the African presence in Asia, as in the Americas, merchant communities in ports as far east as Sri Lanka.
resulted from the slave trade. However, there were free From 523 to 575 C.E. Aksum ruled Yemen, where their
African migrations, both prior to and coterminous with the descendants remained, bolstered by fresh arrivals of mer-
slave trade. The current consensus (Klein, 2001; Shen chants and mercenaries from Aksum (Irwin, 1977; Lewis,
te al., 2000; Young & Bettinger, 1995) is that modem 1977). Early Muslim armies also recruited Ethiopians
humankind emerged in Africa about 100,000 years ago, (Ross, 1994). Islamization of large tracts of Africa led
and, some 50,000 to 40,000 years ago, there occurred many African Muslims to observe the hadj and travel
significant migration, possibly first across South Asia, wider in Islamic Asia and beyond. Some settled tem-
through Sundaland and New Guinea to Australia, with later porarily. For instance, Ibn Battuta, from Tangiers, lived
dispersals from Western Asia to Europe, Northern Eurasia, for 81 months (1343 to 1344) performing Islamic offices
dna the Americas. Some authors (Kamat, 2003; Qamar in the Maldives, where he took a number of local wives
te al., 2003; Rashidi, 2003) consider that peoples of (Bhargava, 1990). Some settled for long periods or per-
African origin were the original inhabitants of the Persian manently abroad; for example, there are reports (Mirzai,
Gulf and Makrani littoral, regions on the path of the postu- 2002; Whitehead, 2000) of Afro-Asian communities
lated early migration route out of Africa. Archaeological established by African mariners and fakirs. Certainly by
research (Chami, 2002; Faltovich, 1997) indicates further 1500, the major ports of the Western Indian Ocean con-
Afro-Asian contact from between seven and four million tained African merchant communities, a reflection of the
.E.C.B and in the millennium spanning the .E.C.B to .E.C importance of the latter in Asian maritime trade. One of
changeover there occurred further important human migra- the most famous of these communities was the Karirni
tions out of Africa. One in the first millennium .E.C helped merchants from Egypt (Alexandria), who had agents
found the Malagasy, possibly the largest present-day Afro- established in Arabia, the Persian Gulf, and India
Asian community, but almost completely ignored in the (Serjeant, 1988). Most foreign traders in Aden hailed from
diaspora literature. DNA analyses (Jenkins et al., 1996, Ethiopia and Somalia, some of "Black African" origin.
2000) confirm that all Malagasy carry Austronesian and According to Bouchon (1988), Calicut in India possessed
East African genes, while early Portuguese reports of large communities of "East African" and Maghrebian mer-
Bantu-speaking (probably Swahili) communities in west chants who, unlike the Karirni, remained after the impo-
Madagascar possibly indicate voluntary African migrants, sition of Portuguese domination.
some of whom, according to Kent (1970, 1979), founded There is little to indicate a sharp reduction in free
eht Sakalava kingdoms that dominated the island in the African involvement in the Asian world from 1500. There
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. is, for instance, an intriguing report (Whitehead, 2000) of
Population movement also occurred from North an African trading community near Belgaum, in southern
acirfA into the Near and Middle East. By the Graeco-Roman India. Moreover, the growth of the international economy
4 African Diaspora in Asia
in the nineteenth century was accompanied by a dramatic where a large and durable demand for African slaves
rise in the number of free Africans working on coastal and had emerged by the ninth century. Overall, probably most
ocean-going vessels in the Asian world (Ewald, 2000). slaves in the Middle East originated in Africa (Brunschvig,
There were also flows of largely temporary free African 1999; Campbell, 2004a; Lewis, 1990). Early sources
migrant labor to Asian regions, while African recruits included Nubia, Ethiopia, the Sudan, and Somalia. Under
served in European imperial forces in various parts of Asia the Ummayyad caliphate (661 to 750 ,).E.C West African
from the late nineteenth century (Akyeampong, 2000; slaves were also imported. The conventional view (Allen,
Alpers, 2000). 1993; Morton, 1998) is that large numbers of East Africans
were shipped to the Persian Gulf by the ninth century and
were responsible for a major slave revolt, although some
AFRICAN SLAVES NI ASIA scholars (Fisher, 1989; Hunwick, 1978) argue that the
revolt embraced many "free" men, Persians as well as
It is traditionally assumed that Africa's role in international Bedouin and "marsh" Arabs, and that most African slave
trade was as an exporter of raw materials and slave labor in rebels were from northeast Africa.
return for manufactured goods in an inequitable exchange African slave imports increased from the tenth to
that led to what some have termed a "protocolonial" sys- thirteenth centuries when the Islamic trading empire
tem. This established the basis for the "underdevelopment" peaked, many accompanying African Muslim pilgrims to
of the African continent and the formation of the Afro- Mecca and Medina (and leaving there for other destina-
Asian diaspora (Biermann & Campbell, 1989; Harris, tions). The Islamic trading frontier embraced and stimu-
1971; Sutton, 1972), which like the Jewish and Armenian lated, probably for the first time, significant slave exports
diasporas, constituted a "victim" disapora as opposed to the from East Africa as far south as Sofala (Hunwick, 1978;
other four main types of diaspora--trade, labor, imperial, Vrrin, 1999). By the fourteenth century the hinterland of
and cultural (Basu, 2002). Irwin (1977) described it as "the present-day Tanzania had emerged as a regular if fluctuat-
enforced expatriation over many centuries of millions of ing source (Nurse & Spear, 1985), although the boom
Africans from their homeland." Unlike free migration, the in African slave exports to Asia from the close of the
traffic in slaves was one directional and "in the countries to fifteenth century appears to have centered on "Ethiopian"
which they were taken they constituted for centuries the sources (Badger, 1863; Pires, 1944). Under Ottoman Egypt
most oppressed and exploited element in society." (1517 to 1798), annual African slave imports into the
African slave exports to Asia started in the last mil- Muslim world increased from possibly 8,000 to about
lennia .E.C.B and continued well into the twentieth century, 10,000 or 12,000, most channeled from sub-Saharan
with notable spurts in centuries of commercial expansion Africa via Cairo, but it is unknown what percentage sub-
around the .E.C.B to .E.C changeover, during the Middle sequently entered Asian markets (Aksan, 1998). East
Ages, and with the rise of the international economy in the African slaves in this period included Malagasy, shipped
nineteenth century, when East African slave exports, by locally based Swahili and Indian traders (Campbell,
mostly to "Asian" markets, may have reached 5.1 million. 2004b).
It is probable that the cumulative number of African slaves The African slave trade to the Middle East peaked in
sent to Asian markets over the centuries well exceeded the the nineteenth century. Harris (1971) specifies that this
01 to 21 million landed in the Americas (Austen, 1989; demand concentrated on East Africa because of increas-
Campbell, 2004a, 2004b; Kjekshus, 1977). ing European control of traditional slave markets in
northeast Africa. However, Sheriff (1987, 2004) argues
Middle Eastern demand for African slaves was limited, as
STEKRAM few sectors there experienced economic development.
Rather, East African slave exports were stimulated by the
emerging Omani plantation economy on the offshore
Middle East
islands of Zanzibar and Pemba. Higher estimates
Probably the earliest and certainly the greatest overall (Kjekshus, 1977) put at over two million the number of
Asian market for African slaves was the Middle East, slaves exported by sea between 1830 and 1873, when
Markets 5
slave shipments from Zanzibar were banned. Austen Mozambique slave imports into India peaked in the
(1989) estimates some 800,000 slaves were exported seventeenth century and then declined, to recover from
from East Africa to Islamic countries to the north in the the late eighteenth to the mid nineteenth century
nineteenth century, 300,000 across the Red Sea and Gulf (Machado, 2003; Rea, 1976), a pattern probably applica-
of Aden, the remainder from the Swahili coast. ble throughout West India. Chakravarti (1997) asserts that
The British Navy augmented the African presence in in late eighteenth-century Bombay, British families
eht Middle East by landing 2,200 "Prize Negroes," liber- employed mostly East African slaves imported by Arab
ated from Arab slavers, at Aden between 1865 and 1870 and Portuguese traders. In 1811, .T Smee, a Bombay gov-
(Ewald, 2000). Moreover, slave imports persisted until ernment agent, estimated that 6,000 to 10,000 slaves were
eht 1950s, sometimes with British collusion (Miers, shipped annually to Muscat, India, and the Mascarenes
2004). Qatar formally abolished slavery only in 1952, from Zanzibar alone (Harris, 1971). Abolition of slavery
Saudi Arabia in 1962, and the Trucial States in 1963 in the British Empire in 1834 did not extend to India,
(Clarence-Smith, 2004; Klein, 2004; Mirzai, 2004). The under East India Company rule, until 1843 and then only
trade in eunuch and female slaves from Central Africa to partially. Not until 1860 was slave holding banned in
eht Middle East continued, via Djibouti, until recent India (Chatterjee, 2004), but the colonial authorities
times (Pellat, 1999). proved reluctant to enforce rapid abolition on an indige-
nous elite on whose cooperation they relied.
They did, however, attempt to suppress the maritime
slave trade, although slavers reacted by adopting indirect
South Asia
routes and passing slaves off as nonslave porters, sailors,
From at least the third century ,.E.C African slaves were domestics, and even children or other kin (Campbell,
osla shipped via the Middle East to South Asia, where, as 2004a). "Prize Negroes" were landed at Surat and
India was from early times also an exporter of slaves, they Bombay from the 1830s to 1875 (Shroff, 2002). Indeed,
demrof a restricted luxury. The commercial expansion British authorities were possibly the first to identify and
associated with Islam increased South Asian demand for segregate these and others of "African" descent as a dist-
imported slaves. Most were Turks, but there were also inct ethnicity (Mampilly, 2001). Most "Prize Negroes"
Berbers, Ethiopians, sub-Saharan Africans, and Slavs. (Shroff, 2002) probably became domestic servants of
There was a significant African slave presence in medie- local elites, although some served in the British military
lav Bengal, Gujarat, Deccan (central India), and south or police force. A proportion settled in and around
India (Harris, 1971; Kidwai, 1990). Bombay, where in 1864 more than half the reported
Mathew (1963) considered most originated from 2,000-strong African community were engaged in mar-
Tanzania, while Campbell (2004b) indicated some itime labor as sailors, coal trimmers, firemen, or dock
Malagasy slaves were shipped via the Swahili coast to workers (Ewald, 2000). Others migrated to Hyderabad,
northwest India. However, eyewitnesses from Ibn-Battuta where, in 1863, the nizam established an African Cavalry
2431( ot 1349) to Tom6 Pires (1512 to 1515) tended to Guard for which he recruited Africans locally and in
emphasise the prominence of Abyssinians (Pires, 1944; Arabia (Harris, 1971). Many Makrani men, like other for-
Reinaud, 1848; Varthema, 1863). Indeed, East African mer slaves of African origin, also served aboard European
evals exports to India probably became regular only with steamers, chiefly as stokers and firemen (Baluchistan,
eht establishment of the Portuguese Asian empire, centred 1911). Such maritime workers were termed "Seedies" by
ni India (Goa, Dui, and Daman), and direct maritime links the British (Ewald, 2000).
ot Portuguese Mozambique (Jackson, 1967; Machado,
.)3002 Some slaves were transferred to Portuguese posts
Southeast and Far East Asia
ni irS Lanka (Alpers, 1997), where the Dutch and British
subsequently imported Malagasy and East African slaves The ancient civilizations of Southeast Asia and China, like
(Armstrong, 2000): In the late seventeenth century, the those of the Middle East and South Asia, probably
Dutch there possessed a 4,000-strong African slave force obtained most of their slaves regionally, those imported
(Jayasuriya, 2002). from the West constituting a rare luxury (Coed,s, 1966). In
6 African Diaspora in Asia
the second century C.E., slave jugglers from Alexandria Madagascar from the 1820s. Indeed, demand from the
were possibly imported into China, while "Black" slaves, French islands and Madagascar may have promoted
known as 'K'un-lun, were imported reputedly (Worden & nineteenth-century East African slave exports more than
Ward, 1998) from the fourth to the eighteenth centuries .E.C Middle Eastern and Swahili island markets (Campbell,
Hermann (1954) asserts that by the late ninth century, East 2004c). Many slaves to Mauritius were Malagasy, geneti-
African slaves were among the most important imports. If cally "Afro-Asian," who ensured that the population of
so, these must have been restricted to ports, as the arrival at the islands became steadily more "Asian," a process
the Tang court in 976 of a "Negro" slave accompanying an accelerated by the mass immigration of Indians (notably
Arab envoy (Filesi, 1972) caused a sensation. 450,000 contract workers) and Chinese during the nine-
From the tenth century, Chinese imports of African teenth and early twentieth centuries (Toussaint, 1971).
slaves increased. Some shipments were considerable: In East African slaves to Madagascar and the Mascarenes
1382, the Javanese court sent 101 "Negro" slaves as trib- were from traditional Swahili coast sources, and from
ute to the Chinese emperor (Irwin, 1977). The conven- hinterland Mozambiquemnotably the Makua in the
tional view is that most African slaves reaching Southeast Malawi region (Campbell, 2004c). Not only did this tap
and East Asia were shipped via the Middle East and new markets and greatly expand a traditionally small
Indonesia, where, in the 1400s, Malagasy and East slave export trade from Mozambique, there is evidence
African slaves were imported into Aceh (northwest that from 1873 a considerable portion of the slave traffic
Sumatra) and Melaka (from the Maldives) by Bengali and formerly channeled through Zanzibar to Muslim markets
Banten merchants, respectively (Hunwick, 1978; Vrrin, in the north was diverted into this "Southern" trade.
1999; Worden & Ward, 1998). The Chinese from the My estimates (Campbell, 1988b, 1989, 2004c) give
twelfth to early fifteenth centuries made great naviga- possible maximum slave imports into Imerina from East
tional advances, built up vast navies, and experimented Africa of around 300,000 slaves from 1821 to 1895 and
with paddle-wheel boats, galleys, and rams that were pos- slave exports from Madagascar to the Mascarenes from
sibly manned by slaves (Lo, 1955). Certainly 'K'un-lun 1801 to 1820 of 35,800mroughly half the figure reached
were employed in Chinese ports as divers (Duyvendak, by Larson (2000). I also estimate that more than 400,000
1949; Filesi, 1972; Irwin, 1977) to caulk the seams of East Africans entered the French islands, many via
boats with oakum because of their strength and ability to Madagascar, over the period 1801 to 1895, most under
keep their eyes open underwater. the guise of contract labor, of whom some 145,500 were
The export of Malagasy and East African slaves to landed in the period 1801 to 1830. Allen (2003) considers
Southeast and East Asia increased from the sixteenth cen- that some 165,000 to 173,000 slaves, mostly East African
tury due to demand from European enclaves, notably and Malagasy, were imported into the Mascarenes alone
Portuguese settlements in Macao and Japan, and Dutch between 1800 and 1848.
forts in Indonesia; in 1694 there were about 25,000
slavesmof many different originsmin Batavia alone
TNERRUC AFRO-ASIAN SEITINUMMOC
(Chakravarti, 1997; Goor, 1998). However, the import of
African slaves was limited due to the availability of slaves
within the region (the hill "tribes" of Southeast Asia and There is general consensus that in comparison to Afro-
the islands) and slave mortality on long-distance routes. American communities, the Afro-Asian presence is
For instance, of the 278 Malagasy slaves shipped to difficult to identify. The most visible Afro-Asians are
Batavia on one ship in 1684, only 108 survived the voyage descendants of "recent," nineteenth- and twentieth-
(Arasaratnam, 1995). century slave imports. It is often assumed that slaves,
following abolition, acceded to full citizenship. However,
Madagascar dna the Mascarenes they were the exception. Legal "freedom" rarely if ever
conferred full and equal citizenship. In exceptional cases,
Significant numbers of African slaves were imported into local society turned against them. It would appear
the Mascarenes from the mid eighteenth century and into (Jayasuriya, 2002) that following abolition in Sri Lanka,
Current Afro-Asian Communities 7
Kandyans killed 6,000 "Kaffirs"mthe term used in Sri retained in positions of hereditary servitude. This was in
Lanka for those of African origin/ancestry (for this and part due to their weak economic position. Unlike many
similar terms see Table 1). Most former slaves were former slave holders, few received compensation when
incorporated as inferior members of the host society or slavery was dismantled or assistance in adjusting to a
Table .1 Local Terms in Asiatic Societies for Communities of African Origin
lairepmI Masombika Generic term for African slaves indicating place of shipment [nineteenth century]
racsagadaM
Makoa Term used widely in west Madagascar for African slaves, indicating the majority ethnic group of
origin [nineteenth century]
Zazamanga Literally "blue child," term used to describe those of [nineteenth-century] African slave descent.
suitiruaM Creole Genetic term applied to ex-slaves (of generally East African and Malagasy origin)
elddiM East jd_naZ / Zanj Term used until the late Middle Ages for the land and people of what is today termed the
Swahili Coast of East Africa---often taken to be the "uninhabitable" portion of sub-Saharan Africa.
Habasha Term of allegedly South Arabian origin applied by Arabs to the land and peoples of Ethiopia
and adjoining areas of the horn of Africa, and sometimes to the habitable part of sub-Saharan Africa
Ahab~sh/ Plural form derived from Habash, meaning Abyssinians
Mawalid Group of mixed Arab and African (slave) descent
~rarkaT (pl) Arabic for West African [slave]
Siddee African slave soldiers [nineteenth century]
aibarA Takruni Africans
Ababish Plural form derived from h_h_sabaH applied to Abyssinian slave soldiers in the early centuries of Islam
Askir (plural) Abyssinian slave soldiers in the early centuries of Islam
tacsuM Hubshees Term (meaning Ethiopian) for slaves from northeast Africa [1842]
rafohD Sambo People with recent or obvious connections with East Africa [ 1966]
nrehtuos( Oman)
rataQ 'abid Literally "slave"ma generic term for black-skinned people of African descent
narI Habashis Literally "black people"~a generic term for people of African origin
natsikaP Gadaras, Afro-Pakistanis
nrehtuos( Shidi, Shidi,
)natsihculaB Baluchi, Shidi,
Sindri, Sidi,
Makrani
natsikaP (Sind) Bambasi A term for an African slave in Sind
Shidhts A term for an East African slave in Sind
G~dros Slave of mixed Sidi-Sindi parentage
Kambranfs A person of paternal Sindi and maternal Gfidros parentage
Zangibari Slave of [East] African origin in Sind
aidnI Bandhis A Hindu African slave
Chaus Descendants of African slaves in Hyderabad
Namdari A Hindu of African origin
Shamal Marathi term for Africans (meaning "black faced")
Sidi (variants: Term used in Portuguese- and English-language
Scidee, Scidy, documents for community of East African
Seede, Sedee, slave origin in India (and elsewhere in the
Seedie, Seydee, western Indian Ocean World); Siddi is derived from Sayyid,
Shidis, Siddie, meaning one descended from the Prophet
Siddee, Siddy,
Siddi, Sidy)
Habshi/, Habshis, From the Arabic El Habshis meaning Abyssiniamapplied to Ethiopians of slave
8 African Diaspora in Asia
elbaT .1 Continued
Habshfs, origin
Hupsi,
Hubshee
Budavant Siddi headman
Cafres, ,erffaC Generic terms (of Persian origin) used in European languages for community of African
,eerffaC Kafra, origin in India
Kafrai, Kafri,
Kaphir
Habshi Kafirs Abyssinian slaves on west coast of India
Former Kafira Landa
Portuguese
India
Sri Lanka Abisi Seventeenth-century Sinhalese term for "Abyssinians"
Kaffir Conventional term for Africans of slave descent
Portuguese Mulatto Descendant of European father and African mother (or vice versa)
Asia
Abeixis, Ethiopians (of slave origin)
Abeixin,
Abeixm
Indonesia Belanda Hitam
(Java)
China 'K' un-lun Term for dark-skinned (including African) slaves [Tang, Qing]
postslave economy. Of the few offered passage to their descendants often lived in a form of clientship to the former
region of origin, most found reintegration difficult slave owners (Brunschvig, 1999). In such cases, it is diffi-
(Warren, 2003). The few trusted khanazah advisers of the cult to ascertain the precise changes that occurred in the
nizam of Hyderabad, for whom he provided a trust fund, relationship with the former master, or in the circum-
formed an exception. Other Hyderabad Africans, like stances of the former slave's life. Local religious beliefs
many former slaves elsewhere in Asia, are characterised sometimes assisted integration, as is illustrated by the his-
by geographically separate housing, low social status, tory of popular Islamic movements in East Africa (Bang,
and menial if not servile occupations. Emancipation 2000; Penrad, 1998). However, religious ideology could
released large numbers of former slaves onto the local also obstruct integration. For example, Evers (1995,
labor market, which favored the employer. Subject to the 1996) revealed in highland Madagascar the perpetuation
harsh laws of supply and demand, many failed to secure of unpaid labor by former slaves and their descendants
wage labor. Some, like the Afro-Iranians of Sirik and the for the former slave-holding families due largely to local
Sidis of the Gir forest in Gujarat and the western Ghat systems of ancestral belief and practice. Again, former
forests, or the former slave Creoles of Mauritius (for current slaves recruited into the nizam of Hyderabad's African
"Afro-Asian" communities see Table 2), became thor- Cavalry force were resented by local Indians for their
oughly marginalized, eking out a precarious existence, privileged position, which, as Muslims, they lost during
highly vulnerable to economic downturns and to human the postindependence religious disputes of 1947 to 1948
and natural disasters. Indeed, for many, "liberty" under when, with most of their coreligionists, they fled the state
modem capitalism granted less material security than (Harris, 1971).
"slavery" (Campbell, 2004a). In almost all cases, former slaves continued to be
However, probably the majority of former slaves stigmatized. In practice, the relative absence of color
remained attached to their former owner's household, prejudice characteristic of the early Islamic era changed
where they were at least guaranteed the basics of life. In radically with Arab expansion, notably from the late
Islamic societies, the freed male slave and his male seventh and early eighth centuries~although Hunwick
Current Afro-Asian Communities 9
Table .2 Current Afro-Asian Communities Kopytoff and Miers (1977) stress that large complex
societies were more likely to institutionalize intergenera-
emaN noigeR
tional slave status and slave stigma than simpler decen-
Masombika or Makoa Sakalavaland, Madagascar tralized polities. In imperial Madagascar, India, and south
ysagalaM Madagascar China, the outsider status of former slaves was institu-
seloerC Mauritius tionalized in structures that, in theory at least, ensured
skruT-orfA Turkey
them a permanent and hereditary "outcaste" status. The
nainitselaP-orfA Israel and occupied territories
essence of this was not occupation but a ritual distinction
Ethiopian Jews Israel
naciremA-orfA Israel between "purity" and "pollution" that was maintained
"Black Hebrews" into the postabolition era (Harris, 1971; Eno, 2004; Evers,
"Swahilis of Oman" Oman 1995, 1996; Watson, 1980). Frequently the former slave-
"'abid" Qatar
holding group continued to use traditional terms
snaiuqarI-orfA Basra, Iraq
for "slave" when referring to former slaves, whom they
snainarI-orfA Kerman province, Iran
ihdniS-idihS Pakistan considered "impure" and "polluting."
inarkaM-idihS Pakistan Nevertheless, current Afro-Asian communities are
ihculaB-idihS Pakistan less visible than might be expected. Historical records
itarajuG-ihddiS Saurashtra and Kacch, Gujarat, India
sometimes give indications of African settlement. Thus
adnaL-arifaK Diu, India
from 1616 to about 1760, African Sidi seamen maintained
itarajuG-ilihawS Bharuch, Gujarat, India
ilagneB-ihddiS Bangladesh and West Bengal, India control over the west Indian coast from the island of
ihtaraM-ihddiS Maharashtra, India Janjira (45 miles south of Bombay), where in the 1872
inaknoK-ihddiS Karnataka, India census 15% of the population of 1,700 were registered as
udrU-ihddiS Andhra Pradesh, India
Sidis (Harris, 1971). Afro-Asian communities, past and
Siddhi-Malayalam Kerala, India
present, may sometimes be detected from geographical
nolyeC Kaffir Sri Lanka
naccalaM-orfA Malaysia place names. Thus in Iran in 1898, the chief living areas
esenihC-orfA Macao and Hwangchou, China for Africans in Bandar 'Abb~s--which in the nineteenth
esenapaJ-orfA Nagasaki, Japan century took approximately 25% of African slave
adnaleB Hitam or Java, Indonesia
imports--were called the "Blacks' Quarter" (Manbar-i
kcalB Dutchmen
Srydhdn, "Blacks' pulpit", and Pusht-i Shahr, "Behind
sesneromiT-orfA Dili, East Timer
the city"), while originally African settlements (Harris,
1971; Mirzai, 2002) are indicated by the names
(1978) claims that a more tolerant attitude spread from Zanjiabad ("village built by Africans"), Deh-Zanjian
eht start of the second millennium when the issue of Arab ("village of Africans"), and, in Baluchistan, Gala-
supremacy was no longer in doubt. Harris (1971) consid- Zanjian ("castle of Africans"). Similarly, Kapiri Gama
sre that color prejudice is ingrained in Hindu traditions, ("Kaffir village") in Puttalama, Sri Lanka, still houses an
dna was reinforced by the "racial" attitudes of Europeans Afro-Sinhalese community (Jayasuriya, 2002).
dna by the association of African and slave. In European The area of Hyderabad known as Siddi Risala
colonies, the "racial" and cultural codes of the colonizers ("African Regiment") indicates the late nineteenth-century
often accentuated the social distance between former quarters of the nizam of Hyderabad's African Cavalry
slaves and others. The Dutch and British, in particular, Guard (Harris, 1991). Their descendants, 2,000 strong in
formed a ruling light-skinned "caste." While colonizers the early 1970s, still live there. Earlier African communi-
were to some degree willing to mix with local elites, they ties in the region are indicated by the place names
generally shrank from social contact with former slaves, Siddipet ("African market") and Habshi Guda ("African
ohw often possessed a noticeably darker skin color and village"). Kaniz (Persian for "slave girl") is a small town
whom they categorized as poorly educated and culturally near Anand, in northern Gujarat, once a major slave bar-
impoverished (Reid, 1983). However, in general, "racial" racoon (Bhattacharya, 1970). Ethnic names can also be
tolerance in Asia was higher than in the Americas. indicative. Thus the terms Sidd/Sidii dna Hubshi reveal
01 nacirfA aropsaiD ni Asia
(Vijayakumar et al., 1987) groups of African descent in links with and contribute to the betterment of life in the
India. Similarly, Kaffir in Sri Lanka reveals the only homeland; and a desire to ultimately return to resettle in
extant Afro-Sinhalese community, the Sirambiadiya, that homeland.
comprising about 50 families, who live near Puttalama in Critical to the entire process is the development of a
North-Western Province (Jayasuriya, 2002). diasporic "consciousness," which itself entails a geo-
The presence of Afro-Asian communities in the post- graphically concentrated group of inferior status, sharing
abolition era can sometimes be detected by physiognomic common living and working conditions markedly differ-
differences. On Mauritius, the overwhelming majority of ent from the dominant group, and whose interests,
ex-slaves diffused into scattered communities distinct from defined in opposition to the interests of the dominant
Indian, Chinese, and European segments of the population group, are articulated by a diasporic leadership. It is clear
(Benoit, 2001). Similarly, there exist some visually identi- from an examination of the history of Africans and their
fiable former slave communities of African origin in descendants in Asia that the preconditions for an Afro-
Madagascar and in the coastal arc from Aden to Sri Lanka. Asian diasporic consciousness have rarely if ever existed.
Basu (2002) considers Afro-Indians to total 64,000 (30,000 Slaves in Asia enjoyed (Boomgaard, 2004; Worden,
in Sind, 10,000 in Gujarat, 12,000 in Hyderabad, and 2004) an array of traditional and prescribed fights and
12,000 in Karanataka). Population estimates for the most protection unknown on the American plantations. Even in
visible, the Sidis, range from 14,000 to 30,000, concen- Korea and China (Kim, 2004; Schottenhammer, 2004),
trated in Gujarat (with numerical predominance in the Gir where the most extreme systems of hereditary slavery
forest villages of Jambar, Sirwan, Moruka, and Akolbadi), were practiced, slaves possessed a legal status and fights:
Maharashtra, Kamataka (notably the western Ghat forests They were immune from state corvfes, could be punished
of North Kanara), Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and Diu. but not killed by their owners, and their marriages were in
Fieldwork carded out in 1965 also revealed (Mirzai, 2002) general respected. Such fights, it could be argued, meant
that most of the population of Dashtyari and Turshab in that they were not true outsiders, as they had entered into
Baluchistan were Afro-Iranians, of East African origin. the dominant society's system of reciprocity.
Overall, conditions for slaves in Asia were rarely
universally harsh. Some depended for sustenance on their
owners, others were given land for subsistence cultiva-
DIASPORA CONSCIOUSNESS tion, and yet others were rented out or left free to seek
livelihoods" Although generally remitting from 50% to
Current scholarly interest in the Afro-Asian diaspora is 75 % of their earnings to their owner, they were often able
largely a result of the expanding frontier of research and to accumulate funds (Reid, 1983; Warren, 2004). Slaves
literature on the Afro-American diaspora. However, of the rich and powerful sometimes held important posi-
rarely do scholars of Afro-Asian communities define tions as household stewards, traders, and officials that
what they mean by an Afro-Asian diaspora. The literature could bring them considerable wealth and prestige.
on the Afro-American experience highlights key charac- Indeed nonslave commoners were frequently described
teristics in the making of a diaspora. These include dis- as poorer and less content than domestic slaves, despite
placement from an original homeland to two or more the inferior legal status of the latter. In wet-rice eco-
peripheral or foreign regions where a "relatively stable nomies (Reid, 1983) owners were often expected to pro-
community in exile" (Wilson, 1997) is formed; an unwill- vide their male slaves with a bride, whereas peasants were
ingness of the locally dominant society to accept and frequently incapable of raising a bride price, or to do so
assimilate such "migrants" or their descendants; a conse- became indebted. The particularly good treatment of
quent alienation and insulation from the dominant soci- skilled slaves contrasts sharply with the position in some
ety; an awareness among the "migrant" community of a regions of nonslave artisans subject to state-imposed
common homeland and heritage, backed by a memory, forced labor (Campbell, 1988a, 2004c).
real or imagined, of that homeland and of the injustice The essential difference between the Atlantic and
of their removal from it; a conscious effort to maintain Asian slave systems was that most slaves in Asia were
Diaspora Consciousness 11
subject to forces promoting assimilation into local society Sri Lankan women to such a degree that this depleted the
rather than separateness and alienation from it. In part, Afro-Sinhalese community (Jayasuriya, 2002) despite the
this stemmed from the religious values of Islamic soci- nominal ruling that all children of such unions assumed
eties, which dominated much of the region from the the father's "ethnicity," and continued intermarriage
Middle East to Indonesia. Assimilation was particularly threatens to lead to its disappearance. In Southeast Asia,
high for slave women and their offspring. The sharia also which possessed many "open" systems of slavery, even
taught that manumission of slave converts was meritori- adult male slaves found it relatively easy to fit into their
ous. Slaves could redeem themselves, while children "host" society (Reid, 1983). While not necessarily effac-
resulting from the sexual union of slave masters and con- ing the "outsider" status of slaves, it certainly facilitated
cubines inherited a nonslave status, as did a concubine the erosion of that status.
mother on the death of her owner. The rate of manumis- All this meant that the slave impact in Asia, eco-
sion could theoretically be high; whereas a rich Muslim nomic and cultural, was much more varied and much
saw legally restricted to four wives, the number of concu- more difficult to evaluate than in the virtually monoethnic
bines he might possess was unlimited (Brunschvig, 1999; plantation and mining slavery of the Americas. Even
Clarence-Smith, 2004; Lewis, 1990; Sheriff, 2004). where a slave impact can be identified and analyzed, it is
Assimilation of former slaves was assisted by a extremely difficult to ascertain which aspect of that
"racial" tolerance considerably higher in Asian countries impact was the result of specifically "African" slaves.
than in the Americas (Irwin, 1977). Rules governing slave Moreover, Afro-Asian communities display little if
castes were sometimes openly ignored, while unofficially any intrinsic awareness of a common African homeland
sexual liaisons frequently occurred across the slave-free and heritage. The only case of Africans in Asia returning
line, sa is confirmed by genetic studies (Jenkins et al., to the "motherland" of Africa as such to promote its
;6991 Ramana et al., 2001; Singh et al., 2003) revealing development was the result of Western pressure: From
considerable gene flow between groups of "African" 1874, Church Missionary Society missionaries to India
dna other local groups. In rare cases, as Sheriff (2004) sent Africans placed in a special asylum at Nail 100 miles
notes for Bahrain, "free" women married slave men. In from Bombay, to establish a mission at Freretown in
Imperial Madagascar (Poirier, 1942-1943) some female Mombasa, the activities of which continued to the 1930s
slave owners broke caste rules with impunity and took (Akyeampong, 2000; Basu, 2002). Otherwise, attempted
male slaves as their sexual partners. In Islamic societies returns were sporadic, generally the result of escape bids
dna European territories in Asia (Basu, 2002, Lewis, by freshly captured young adult male slaves, like certain
)0991 slave soldiers were usually freed after a period of Malagasy shipped to the Mascarenes (Alpers, 2004;
service, married local women, and were assimilated. In Mampilly, 2001). Such attempts in no way represented an
Hyderbad (Harris, 1971) the nizam encouraged his African diasporic consciousness. Indeed, when offered
African soldiers to marry Arab gifts; in the Makran and passages back to Africa, many African or Afro-Asian
Gujarat some African males formed liaisons with local slaves in Asia refused (Miers, 2004). Currently identifi-
members of low castes and with tribal peoples (Alpers, able Afro-Asian communities, while mostly the product
2003b). The Sidi Hindus of Kamataka (Ali, 1996) have of the nineteenth-century slave trade, and generally
intermarried to a great degree with local Hindus and dis- impoverished and of low status, are equally undergoing
play less physiologically African characteristics than assimilation. Vestiges of cultural origin, such as the Zar
Christian or Muslim Sidis. For some, this has resulted in healing ceremony practiced by former slaves in the Gulf,
positions of high office and wealth. Thus the Sidi elite of were insufficient basis (Sheriff, 2004) for a separate con-
Janjira merged through intermarriage with the Ismaili sciousness to be maintained. Indeed, they were used
,ijbayT who in the nineteenth century emerged as leading rather to establish for their Afro-Asian practitioners a
entrepreneurs and bankers (Basu, 2002). power base within local society. This strategy has to an
Under British-administrated Ceylon in the early extent succeeded. Some existing Afro-Asian communi-
nineteenth century, "Kaffir" soldiers (from Africa, ties have empowered themselves through assuming a
notably Mozambique and Madagascar) intermarried with particular niche in local society.
21 African Diaspora ni Asia
Indeed, an overwhelming tendency throughout Asia, Armstrong, J. C. (2000). Ceylon and the slave trade during the Dutch
from the Middle East and Persian Gulf to India and East India Company period. Paper presented at the Conference on
Slave Systems in Asia and the Indian Ocean: Their Structure and
Madagascar, is for those Afro-Asians of both free and
Change in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Universit6
slave descent to deny any African connection and to
d'Avignon, Avignon, France.
emphatically claim a local identity (Basu, 2002; Cooper, Austen, R. (1989). The 19th Century Islamic slave trade from East
1999; Mampilly, 2001; Mirzai, 2002). For many, Africa is Africa (Swahili and Red Sea coasts): A tentative census. In
seen as an undeveloped region with which they do not .W G. Clarence-Smith (Ed.), The economics of the Indian Ocean
slave trade (pp. 21-44). London: Frank Cass.
wish to identify (Montigny, 2002).
Badger, G. .P (1863). Notes. In Lodovico di Varthema, Travels in Egypt,
In sum, in contrast to the Americas, where it is
Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, in Persia, India and
asserted that local communities of African descent either Ethiopia AD 1503 to 1508 .p( 81). Trans. J. .W Jones. London:
underwent creolization or developed a consciousness as a Hakluyt Society.
distinct part of the African diaspora, the overwhelming Baluchistan. (1911). In The 1191 Edition Encyclopedia. LoveToKnow Free
Online Encyclopedia. Available :ta http://82.1911encyclopedia.org/
majority of people of African descent in Asia quickly, and
B/BA/BALUCHISTAN.htm
often deliberately, shed consciousness of their African
Bang, A. K. (2000). Sufis and scholars of the sea. The Sufi and family
origins and largely became assimilated into the locally networks of Ahmad ibn Sumayt and the taKqa 'Alawiyya in East
dominant society, albeit in some cases at or near the Africa c.1860-1925. Unpublished dissertation, University of
bottom of the social hierarchy. Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
Basu, H. (2002). Indian sidimAfrican diaspora: A query. Paper presented
at the Conference on Cultural Exchange and Transformation in the
Indian Ocean World, UCLA, Los Angeles.
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