topics: |  history | india | africa | indian-ocean

	 My opinion is that there are many things we could
	 learn from India and other Asian countries, just as
	 they have much to learn from us.You know, it is
	 thought by some that some Indians are of African
	 descent.I have a theory that the coastline of the
	 Indian Ocean was once a cultural highway with
	 constant migrations and exchange.
	         - Kamıtı, in Ngugı wa Thiong'o's Wizard of the Crow

1 Gwyn Campbell : Slave Trades and the Indian Ocean World

The Indian Ocean World Slave Trade

The essentialist and conventional Western view is that the IOW slave trade was a mirror image, albeit on a smaller scale, of the Atlantic slave trade in which from c.1500 to 1860 some 10–12 million slaves, mostly West African adult males, were shipped to New World mines and plantations, where they constituted the basis of a "slave mode of production." They were a clearly visible Black chattel class of hereditary slave status, uncivilized "outsiders," deprived of civil rights. Violence was a universal and pervasive feature of master- slave relations. Slave own ers controlled the slave's productive and reproductive capacities and could legally punish, sell, or transfer a slave and separate a slave mother from her children or male companion.

However, non-essentialist studies of IOW slavery signal significant divergences from the Atlantic model. They reveal complex trans-IOW slave trades that started well before the Common Era, remained vigorous into the twentieth century, and in some areas are still maintained. In all of these trades, sources, markets, routes, and slave functions varied considerably.

Overall, Black Africans probably formed a minority of slaves traded.  Moreover,
slaves in the IOW were heavily affected by forces of assimilation and
integration that had major repercussions for the identity of slaves and their
descendants and thus on the viability of the concept of an African Diaspora.
This is most apparent in Islamic communities that dominated vast
swathes of the IOW. Recent scholarship has steadily undermined the conventional
Western assumption that there existed a specifically "Islamic"
form of slavery. Rather, there emerged different schools of legal interpretation,
within which individual scholars could differ significantly on the
niceties of Islamic law, while the application of the sharia outside the Middle
East was tempered by local customs. However, all were characterized
by considerable assimilation of slaves into local society.

The Origin of Slaves

The IOW slave trade started at least 4,000 years ago, was multidirectional,
involved overland and maritime routes, changed over time, and involved
many different ethnic groups. In the IOW, "slave" cannot be equated with
"African" (Schottenhammer 2004; Wink 1996: 30–31; Goody 1980: 18).

In the eastern IOW, African slaves, imported chiefly via the Middle
East and Southeast Asia, were a rare luxury. By the second century ce, demand
may have developed in China for skilled African sailors and Alexandrian
slave jugglers (Van Leur 1955: 99). From the fourth century a regular
market existed there for K'un- lun ("Black") slaves (Worden and Ward
1998: 850), but "K'un- lun" could refer specifically to inhabitants of Pemba,
in East Africa, and any dark- skinned person from Africa, Papua New
Guinea and Melanesia (Filesi 1972: 21; Irwin 1977: 169–72). By the late
ninth century, east African slaves were certainly highly esteemed in China
as divers to caulk boat seams with oakum, because of their strength and
ability to keep their eyes open underwater (Duyvendak 1949: 24; Filesi
1972: 22; Irwin 1977: 171; Hermann 1954: 313). They were also imported
as sailors, who possibly helped man the great Chinese navies of the twelfth
to early fifteenth centuries (Lo 1955: 500). However, few were employed
inland, as is demonstrated by the excitement surrounding the arrival in
976 of a Negro slave accompanying an Arab envoy to the imperial Tang
court (Filesi 1972: 4–5; Wallenstein 1998: 177).

However, African slaves in the East were always a strict minority. China
and other centralized states obtained most of their slaves from the military
operations associated with state and empire building (Coedès 1966: 60).
Most slaves came from decentralized hill "tribes" and "maritime" communities
within the region who were easier to locate than Africans, were
cheaper to transport, and suffered fewer losses en route; for instance, in
1684 only 108 of the 278 Malagasy slaves on one ship survived the voyage
to Batavia (Arasaratnam 1995: 200). Indonesians were shipped to markets
across Southeast Asia and to Cape Town, Indochinese and Koreans were
exported to China, and in the nineteenth century, Chinese slaves were
sent to Singapore and San Francisco (Campbell 2004, 2005a).

The Western IOW: South Asia

Arab merchants in the third century ce possibly shipped the first African
slaves to India, to the Sopara, Kalyan, Chaul, and Pal forts in Konkan
(Ricks 1998a: 70, 1998b: 833; Vérin 1999; Kidwai 1990; Trimingham 1964:
2–3; Shirodkar 1985: 28). With the commercial expansion of Islam, demand
for African slaves increased, and from the tenth century significant
numbers of Berbers, Ethiopians, and sub- Saharan Africans — eyewitnesses
from Ibn- Batuta (1342–49) to Tomé Pires (1512–15) emphasize "Abyssinians"
(Reinaud 1848: cdxvii; Pires 1944: 51)—were shipped to South Asia.
Michel Boivin claims that the majority of slaves in Sind (present- day Pakistan)
were Sidi, of east African origin (Boivin 2000), although Salim Kidwai
argues that while African slaves predominated in Bengal and South
India, Turks and Slavs comprised the majority of slave imports into medieval
South Asia (Kidwai 1990: 80–81, 86–88).

The Portuguese settlements of Goa, Dui, Daman, and Sri Lanka augmented
Indian demand for African slaves, notably from the Mozambique
coast. Portuguese and Indian traders initially shared this trade, but it
became progressively concentrated in the hands of Indians. Dutch and
British posts in Sri Lanka subsequently imported Malagasy and east African
slaves directly and indirectly, via Cape Town, Bombay, and Goa. All the
while, the traditional African slave import trade via Zebid, Aden, and the
Persian Gulf continued to grow.  The literature focuses on imported African
slaves, but most slaves in South Asia were probably of local origin (Kidwai
1990: 86–88; Miller 2004), while Indian slaves were also shipped to Macao,
Japan, Indonesia, Mauritius, and Cape Town.

most slaves traded in the IOW were female, notably girls and young women
who generally commanded higher prices than male and older female
slaves. The exceptions were eunuchs ("males made female"), who were
universally highly prized, and boys in China — where patriarchal ideology
restricted the supply of boy slaves, whose prices were often four to five
times that of girl slaves (Miers 2005; Watson 1980c: 235). p.9

BLACK DEATH (Pasteurella pestis):
Eurocentric historiography has focused on the devastation wrought in Europe
by the Black Death, but its impact was greater in Asia. The plague first
erupted in epidemic form in China in 1331, spreading along the main
commercial caravan routes of Asia before reaching the Crimea and Europe in
1346. An estimated 90 per cent of those infected died. While it killed
probably one third of Eu ro pe ans in 1346–50, it halved the population of
China (to 65 million) and Egypt (to an estimated 2 million). The impact was
probably as devastating in centers of population in India and the Middle East
(McNeill 1976: 144–49; Ponting 1991: 228–29; Chaudhuri 1992: 381–82).

Assimilation and Integration

There also existed strong forces promoting the integration of slaves into
the dominant society in many IOW regions where, in contrast to the Atlantic
system, most slaves were subject to forces promoting assimilation
into local society rather than separation and alienation from it (Campbell
2004: vii–xxxii). In large part, this stemmed from Islamic influence which
by the fourteenth century dominated much of the region, from East Africa
to Indonesia. The sharia taught that manumission of slave converts
was meritorious, slaves could redeem themselves, and children resulting
from the sexual union of slave masters and concubines inherited a nonslave
status, as did a concubine mother upon the death of her own er. The
rate of manumission could theoretically be high; whereas a rich Muslim
was legally restricted to four wives, the number of concubines he might
possess was unlimited (see Sheriff 2005; Clarence- Smith 2005; Brunschwig
1999; Lewis 1990). Manumission, relatively common where close owner-slave
relationships existed, was accorded more readily to domestic slaves
than to those employed in activities and areas that separated them from
the slave-owning household. Thus under most Islamic slave regimes, the
number of manumitted slaves was considerable.

Because wealthy and powerful Muslims had more concubines than others,
significant numbers of their progeny by slave women became part of the
local elite. Many of Mecca's Qurayshī elite were the progeny of Arab males
and African concubines, and the three greatest early Arab poets, "Antara bin
Shaddād al- Kalbī, Khafāf bin Nudba al- Sulakhī, and Sulayk bin al- Sulaka
were known as the "Crows of the Arabs" because they possessed Black
mothers (Hassad, Mufuta, and Mutunda) (Ross 1994: 18–19). Similarly, Atā
ibn Abī Rabāh, born in Saudi Arabia of Nubian parents, became a celebrated
Muslim teacher and jurist at Mecca in the early eighth century (Irwin
1977: 66), while a century later Abū Al- Djāhiz, of probably Ethiopian
slave origin, achieved fame and influence in Basra and Baghdad as author of
so cio log i cal commentaries, theology, and politico- religious polemics (Pellat
1999a). Again, some Muslim monarchs had African mothers who were publicly
revered.

5. Indophilie in Senegal : Gwenda Vander Steene p. 117

	"Hindu" Dance Groups and Indophilie in Senegal: The Imagination of
	the Exotic Other

Not long after I started my quest for dance indou in Dakar, I learned there
was a national federation (UNAIS, Union Nationale des Indouphiles au
Senega1), grouping over twenty associations of India-lovers throughout
Senegal, organizing activities, soirées indous ("Hindu evenings"), and
rehearsals.

When turning on the radio, one is likely to come across one of the many
Hindu programs broadcast almost every day on different radio stations.
There is no Indian expatriate community in Senegal which can account for
this Indophilie, as is the case in eastern Africa or the Caribbean.
Moreover, being a francophone country, one would presume Senegal lies out
of the English influence sphere which is much stronger in Anglophone
Africa.

By analyzing this Senegalese Indophilie we can learn it has its origin in
the massive import and immense success of Bollywood films.

Bollywood Films and African Audiences

In his article "Itineraries of Indian Cinema," Brian Larkin tries to answer
the question why Indian films travel. He explains the popularity of
this genre throughout the world (in "Third World" countries, with or without
an Indian expatriate community, as well as in socialist countries such
as Eastern Europe) because it offers a way of being modern that does not
necessarily mean being Western (Larkin 2003: 172; 1997: 407). In northern
Nigeria, where his own research is focused, it is also a way of distinguishing
themselves from the south, which is much more oriented toward
the West. Thus these transnational cultural flows become "a foil against
which postcolonial identity can be fashioned, critiqued, and debated.
They allow an alterity to Hollywood domination" (2003: 178). Following
Larkin, this is not to say the story of Africans turning toward Bollywood
films is a discourse of "local" resistance to "dominant" Western culture
(1997: 408, 433).

Arabic and Bollywood films were first imported by Lebanese cinema
owners in the 1950s, who thought Arabic films would become very popular
in African Islamic countries (Larkin 2003: 181; 1997: 411).8  Bollywood,
however, turned out to have a much bigger success. Lots of Hausa state
"Indian culture" (at least how it is presented in the films) is "just like"
Hausa culture (Larkin 2003: 183; 1997: 411, 433). In Senegal, the same
explanation
is heard. According to Larkin, the popularity of Indian films
among Hausa rests, in part, on this dialectic of sameness ("just like" and
difference (2003: 183; 1997: 414). Characters in Indian films struggle over
whether they should speak Hindi or borrow from English, whether they
should marry the person they love or wed the person their parents choose,
elements which are very relevant for Hausa viewers (1997: 410).

Senegal:

Many elements pointed out for Nigeria by Larkin also hold true for
Senegal. According to my research participants, the first Bollywood films
appeared in Senegalese cinemas around the 1950s and were an immense
success. They soon became much more popular than Arabic films and
were shown daily in most of the urban cinemas.  Some research participants
said this is because Arabic film is too "Western" or has fewer song-and-
dance sequences which are typical for Bollywood. But why do Indian
movies appeal to a Senegalese audience?  Most Bollywood films are in
Hindi, sometimes En glish, thus unintelligible for the Senegalese.  Why
would people watch films about a culture so different from their own?
Why do they identify with Indians in particular?

from interview of an older Senegalese filmmaker (Seydou) living in
Paris:

   Seydou:but what is also interesting is that the women from our
     country, many of them have never attended school, they managed to
     understand [emphasis] those films, but really in an unbelievable
     [emphasis] manner. ... they will tell you the story from A to Z,
   Gwenda:and why?
   S: yes and why, this brings us again, this brings us ... to the question
     of approach (rapprochements culturels) of the two cultures, Those
     films talk to them as if they were in their own language, and in their
     own culture. To the contrary, if you bring them a French or American
     you...
     film, they will leave [the cinema], they won’t even know what to tell

11. African Indians in Bollywood : Kamal Amrohi’s Razia Sultan

Jaspal Singh

Constructions of otherness vary in colonialist texts. In his essay “The
Economy of Manichean Allegory,” for example, Abdul JanMohamed discusses
two categories of colonialist, literary otherness: imaginary (emotive)
literature and symbolic (reflexive) literature. In the imaginary construction,
reality is defi ned by colonialists who ignore the perspective of the
very people being observed. In short, reality is not what is real to both the
observer and the observed, but only what is real to the former, who defi nes
materiality solely from his or her perspective: (p.275)

	    The “imaginary” representation of indigenous people tends to
	    coalesce the signifier and the signified. In describing the
	    attributes or actions of the native, issues such as intention,
	    causality, extenuating circumstances, and so forth, are
	    completely ignored; in the “imaginary” colonialist realm, to say
	    “native” is to say “evil” and to evoke immediately the economy of
	    the Manichean allegory. (JanMohamed 1995: 18)