Identifying Africans in Asia: What’S in a Name?

AAS 5,3-4_f3_274-303I 11/14/06 8:46 AM Page 275

Identifying Africans in Asia: What’s in a Name?

SHIHAN DE SILVA JAYASURIYA*

ABSTRACT In Asia, Africans have been referred to by various names over time and space. Many Africans who migrated to Asia were assimilated to the host societies making identification prob- lematic. The different labels given to Africans in Asia accen- tuate the problem. Moreover, Africans were not perceived to have come from a unified entity. This paper draws attention to the different terms used for Africans in Asia and consid- ers the rationale for the existence of numerous terms. The problems of identification have to be overcome before a comprehensive study of African migration to Asia is conducted.

Introduction I have taken into account the various names by which Africans in Asia have been referred to in historical documents, and other literature, and also the local terms by which Africans were known in Asia. I have drawn on my fieldwork in Asia, expertise in historical linguistics and history in analysing the numerous terms, which have been used for Africans at different times in various parts of Asia. The variety of ethnonyms makes any comprehensive study of African migration to Asia a difficult task to undertake. It is therefore necessary to identify the African presence masked under different terms in Asia and in the scholarly works avail- able worldwide. African migration to Asia, both forced and voluntary, has continued for almost two millennia. Afro-Asian communities, however, remain ‘invisible’

* Department of Portuguese & Brazilian Studies, King’s College London, University of London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, England. E-mail: [email protected].

276 • Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya

or as forgotten minorities. Africans in Asia and their descendants have been called by many terms and ethnonyms throughout the centuries. This tends to blur the African presence in Asia but it also raises ques- tions about its origins. An ethnonym is a proper name by which a people or ethnic group is known, and especially one which it calls itself. The etymon of Africa is Afri, a Berber tribe who were living in North Africa around Carthage (Tunis). The Romans called this province Africa (‘the land of the Afri’). This term became the name for the entire Continent and replaced the previous term called Ethiopia. The Arabic word is Afrikaya. Therefore the older literature does not refer to people from Africa as Africans because the Continent was known by other names. Enslavement of Africans can be traced back to the Pharaonic times, as is illustrated in Egyptian Art. Black slaves were also found in the Hellenistic and Roman worlds. The geographical proximity of Africa to the Middle East and the maritime links across the Red Sea meant that Africans migrated to the Arabian Peninsula. For instance, Ethiopians, Somalis and Nubians, who were mostly enslaved, migrated to Arabia. Ethiopian warriors who came to Arabia must have remained in South Arabia and elsewhere and later have been absorbed into the indigenous population. Arabic literary sources indicate that Africans were in Arabia before the advent of Islam (Talib and Samir 1988). Today, Africans in Asia are small ethnic minorities (de Silva Jayasuriya 2004). From a political point of view, an ethnic group is distinguished from a nation-state by its lack of sovereignty. Ethnic minorities are con- nected to another nation-state, outside the one in which they are situ- ated, giving them an alternative history. For people to belong to a particular ethnic group, they should ascribe themselves as such and oth- ers must also see them as such. An ethnic group shares a common genealogy or ancestry and has perceived common cultural, linguistic and religious practices.

Sudan, Habasha, Zandj, Nuba

In medieval times, Africans were referred to by the region from which they originated. According to medieval Arabic sources, the inhabitants of tropical Africa belonged to the Sudan, the Habasha, the Zandj or the Nuba (Pelliot 1959; Hasan 1967; Desanges 1962). The term as-sudan (the plural of the Arabic word al-aswad ‘black’) generally referred to all people who are black in colour irrespective of the place of origins. Sometimes, even Indians and Chinese were included in this category. Sudan or Bilad al-Sudan (‘the land of the Blacks’) gradually came to mean the Black Africans living to the south of the Maghrib.