New Directions

Volume 16 | Issue 4 Article 5

10-1-1989 Africa on the Coast of Pakistan Feroz Ahmed

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Africa on The Coast Of Pakistan

Published NEWby Digital DIRECTIONS Howard OCTOBER @ Howard 1989 University, 1 New Directions, Vol. 16 [], Iss. 4, Art. 5

By Feroz Ahmed ries, during which the Arabs might have 23 frica comes alive each year in the brought some soldiers and servants of Islamic month of Rajab1 at the The importation of African African descent who may have stayed Ashrine of the Saint Manghopir, 10 and intermarried with the local popu­ miles from Karachi, Pakistan’s commer­ slaves by the Talpurs coin­ lation.6 The presence of slaves, soldiers, cial capital of eight million people. Here cided with the heyday of commanders and even local rulers of the people of African origin, commonly African descent from the 13th to the 18th known as sheedis,2 participate in a week- the Eastern slave trade, century in different parts of India is well long festival which represents a unique engaged in by the Omani documented.7 The Persian Gulf states, blend of African culture and local reli­ with which Sindh had extensive trade, gious practices. Men and women, young Arabs. had had an African presence since the and old, dance to the fierce beats of the 7th century. Even when the penultimate African call-drums, known to them as native rulers of Sindh, the Kalhoras, mugarman, sing songs in Swahili mixed were overthrown by their troop com­ with local languages, and make a ritual manders, the Talpurs, in the late 18th offering of meat to the head crocodile. If century, they had some African guards.8 the reptile accepts the offering, the year However, it appears quite unlikely that will turn out to be auspicious for the the present-day sheedi community has sheedis3 alities and several linguistic groups within descended from the Africans who may While the African roots of the mu­ the four present provinces. The two have arrived in Sindh prior to the advent garman dance, now a centerpiece of Pa­ coastal provinces of Sindh and Balo- of the Talpur rule; kistan’s dance troupes performing chistan have populations with distinctive Thus, the end of the 18th and the first abroad, are widely recognized, little has African features. Those living along the half of the 19th century seems to be the been written about the history and soci­ Makran coast of Balochistan and extend­ period during which African slaves were ology of the people who have continued ing east into the working-class area of brought in large numbers to Sindh. De­ this and many other African traditions. 4 Lyari in Karachi (Sindh) speak Balochi scribing the slave trade in the port city of When did they come to this region? Did and identify themselves as Baloch. In­ Karachi at the time of the British con­ they all come as slaves? When and how land, in the southern part of Sindh, a quest of that city in 1839, Alexander did the slavery end? How did their cultu­ Sindhi-speaking but socially distinct com­ Baillie writes: ral assimilation and partial intermixing munity of sheedis exists. A small number with other groups take place? What is of them have also settled in the inland Slavery was an institution; as was their present social status? How do they provinces of Punjab and Northwest the slave trade. Not only were many prefer to identify themselves? Do they Frontier. slaves kept in the town, but Kurra- have African consciousness? These and chee was a great depot for supplying many other questions will come to the Sindhi Sheedis the up-country districts. From 600 mind of an Afro-American or an African African features can be noticed in the to 700 were annually imported, of when he or she learns about the exis­ figurines excavated from the ruins of the whom about three-fourths were fe­ tence of people of African descent in an 5,000-year-old Indus Valley civilization. males .... According to Comman­ unlikely place like Pakistan. However, African presence in Sindh is der Car less not less than 1,500 It will take wide-ranging research ef­ clearly documented from the period slaves arrived at Kurrachee from forts to provide definitive answers to the when the Arabs conquered Sindh in 711 Muscat and the African coast in the above questions. However, to piece to­ A. D. and introduced Islam to the Indian year 1837.9 gether a preliminary general account of subcontinent. Mention is made in the Pakistan’s African heritage, it would per­ historical accounts of an African warrior The importation of African slaves by haps be best to look at the two cultural by the name of Shuja Habshi whom the the Talpurs coincided with the heyday of niches within which the people of African conqueror Muhammad bin Qasim pitted the Eastern slave trade, engaged in by origin reside. Pakistan’s ethnolinguistic against the local ruler Dahir. 5 The Arab the Omani Arabs. The Sultan of Oman mosaic consists of four historical nation- rule in Sindh lasted nearly three centu­ ruled over Zanzibar (now part of Tan- http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol16/iss4/5 NEW DIRECTIONS O C TO BER 1989 2 Ahmed: Africa on the Coast of Pakistan zania) and a large part of the African east coast. Raiding parties captured villagers in the interior of the continent and sold them in the world-famous slave market of the island of Zanzibar, where 10,000 to 20,000 slaves were traded each year in the mid-19th century.10 Slaves destined for Sindh first arrived in the Omani port of Muscat, from where they were ship­ ped to Karachi.11 Some may have reached Sindh through owner-to-owner transactions originating from points along the Makran coast of the present-day 24 Pakistani and Irani Balochistans. Accord­ ing to the description given by Richard Burton, these slaves were mainly Swahi­ lis from what are now Kenya and main­ land Tanzania.12 The demand for African slaves in Sindh was probably increased as a result of the granting of vast fiefs to the Baloch warlords and troopers by the Tal- pur rulers, which whetted their appetite for the luxuries of life.

A National Hero The slaves in Sindh were not used in pro­ ductive activities, such as farming. The Talpurs employed them mainly as their palace guards and domestic servants. Many big landlords and rich merchants also owned African slaves for personal service. Young African girls were partic­ ularly in great demand as servants of the ladies of the elite households. More ma­ ture women were preferred as concu­ bines. According to Burton, the slaves were also employed as “horse-keepers, grass cutters, day laborers, and appren­ tices to the different trades, as carpen­ ters, blacksmiths, and others.” 13 All available accounts indicate that the slaves were generally not subjected to physical cruelties. Their condition and treatment were similar to that of the slaves of the other Muslim lands, where the hardships of the slave status were mitigated by Islamic guidelines for treating slaves.14 A few of the slaves, because of their intelligence, loyalty and bravery, became favorites of their masters and rose to eminence. Hosh Muhammad, alias Hoshu Sheedi, was one of them. Accord­ ing to some accounts, his father was in the service of Mir Fateh Ali Khan Talpur, ruler of Hyderabad, and Hosh Muham­ mad was a khanazad, i.e., bom and raised in the royal household. To accord respect to such slaves, the Talpurs gave them the family name of Qambrani, de­ rived from Qambar, the freed favorite slave of Ali, son-in-law and cousin of Young girl at the Manghopir Festival. PublishedNEW by DigitalDIRECTIONS Howard OCTOBER @ Howard 1989 University, 3 New Directions, Vol. 16 [], Iss. 4, Art. 5 Prophet Muhammad. Hoshu was closely burial.17 Hoshu’s name is usually ap­ In a quasi-hierarchical system of en- attached to the Mir’s son Sobdar Khan pended with the appellative shaheed, dogamous zaats (occupational castes/ who, having been passed over in succes­ meaning martyr, and the title “General” clans/kinship groups) the sheedis neatly sion to the throne, collaborated with the is also prefixed to his name. fitted at the bottom of the ladder of Mus­ British against his cousin Nasir Khan. Ironically, it was the defeat of the Tal­ lim zaats. Only the untouchable Hindus Hoshu was said to have been dismayed pur dynasty that paved the way for the were below them. The indigenous slave at the Talpurs’ lack of will to resist the emancipation of the sheedi people of or quasi-slave groups did not have mark­ British. The Talpur confederacy was in Sindh. The British, who had captured edly better social status than the sheedis. disarray. The rulers of Khairpur had al­ Karachi four years before their final vic­ Reeling under centuries of feudal oppres­ ready capitulated, and the ruler of Hy­ tory at Dubo in 1843, banned slave sion and foreign invasions, the entire Sin­ derabad, Mir Nasir Khan, was defeated trade18 and slavery in Sindh.19 They also dhi population faced the problem of eco­ in the battle of Miani in February 1843. wreaked hardships upon Sindhi nobles, nomic rehabilitation and restoration of Failing to persuade his master to resist which made it impossible for many to self-esteem. The sheedis had a some­ the British, Hoshu jumped into the fray continue owning slaves. what harder task. Although there was no and joined the defiant Mir Sher Muham­ ideology of racism, and Islam frowned mad Khan of Mirpur Khas in the battle of upon racial discrimination, in a society Dubo. Hoshu is believed to have played a Most individuals who are characterized by zaat particularism it was leading role in that battle.15 The native onerous to try to rise when one’s low forces were defeated and Hoshu died regarded as sheedis today status was advertised by one’s skin color fighting bravely on March 26. Poet are racially-mixed. Pure and physical features. But the sheedis did Ehsan Ali Shah pays tribute to Hoshu in a remarkable job of establishing stable the following words: Africans are to be found communities. Little is known about how only in the households of these communities of freed slaves were Hoshu his life sacrificed established. The process might have With love he laid it down the descendants of the started before the arrival of the British, With a hundred brave companions Talpur rulers, such as the and aided by selective manumission and He fought like a giant interbreeding. As in other slave-owning And like a hero died. family of Mir-Aijaz Ali Tal­ societies, there were two ways of racial On him no blame, pur in the Tando Muham­ intermixing: a) men of other groups tak­ All is from God. ing African women as their wives or con­ Victory in his hands lies, mad Khan area. cubines; b)offspring of such unions mar­ To whomsoever He may grant. rying pure Africans of both sexes. Not Our heroes not an inch they budged An American Analogy only did the nobles and other rich men Our heroes them we praise. The conditions of the freed Sindhi shee­ have children from African women, but (Translation by G. Allana) dis, as described by the prominent Sindhi other Black women and raciallymixed writer Muhammad Siddiq Mussafar, men also married into the indigenous Other writers, however, claim that were similar in many ways to those of slave or near-slave zaats, such as the Hoshu did not fight in the battle of Dubo, the freed slaves in the U.S. South.20 Khaskhelis. The mixed race individuals in but was commander of the palace guards Some stayed with their masters as ser­ Sindh are generally known as gado at the Fort of Hyderabad, where he was vants or laborers; others went out into an (meaning mixed), while those mixed killed while fighting bravely against the unfamiliar world to start a new life as free specifically with the sheedis are called British.16 Many legends have nonethe­ citizens, without the security of feudal bisar (two heads). Over a period of less developed around the name of patronage. However, they managed to nearly a century and a half there has Hoshu Sheedi. He is regarded as a clever establish their own residential communi­ been considerable degree of inter­ strategist and a brave patriot, a genuine ties in villages and towns, and developed marriage. hero who rose from his humble origins to their own social organization. Mutual lead Sindh’s last struggle for maintaining help and solidarity were the key to their Sheedis Today its independence. He is viewed as the survival. The freed slaves worked as There are no records to indicate the patron saint of modem Sindhi nation­ field laborers, domestic servants and number of individuals who are regarded alism, whose battle cry today is the same craftsmen. The sheedis maintained many as sheedis, or who otherwise are of Afri­ which Hoshu is said to have raised at of their African customs and traditions, can descent. Viewed from the size of the Dubo: the chief among which was the beating of sheedi communities, it may be surmised the call-drum (shaped like a kettle-drum) that their numbers may, at most, be in My head you may surely take; called mugarman or maseendo, and sing­ tens of thousands rather than in hun­ But my Sindh I will not forsake. ing songs and hymns in a language pecu­ dreds of thousands. Most individuals liar to them, possibly an admixture of who are regarded as sheedis today are ra­ Numerous articles, stories and poems Arabic and Swahili. According to Mussa­ cially-mixed. Pure Africans are to be have been written to pay homage to far, “The maseendo for the sheedis is not found only in the households of the de­ Hoshu. A complete family tree of his de­ simply an instrument for jumping and scendants of the Talpur rulers, such as scendants has been compiled, and a dancing; it is the instrument of their the family of Mir Aijaz Ali Talpur in the lively debate goes on about his place of soul.”21 Tando Muhammad Khan area. There http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol16/iss4/5 NEW DIRECTIONS OCTOBER 1989 4 Ahmed: Africa on the Coast of Pakistan they work as domestic servants, receiv­ the writer Muhammad Siddiq Mussafar, ization.” The dilemma of working for the ing only the bare necessities of life, but who is quoted in this article. Mussafar benefit of a specific group, which is iden­ no wages. Beside the Talpur households, was bom in 1879 in Tando Bago where tifiable by its racial features, while not the sayeds (supposed descendants of his father, Gulab Khan, had been brought promoting racial separation in society, is Prophet Muhammad) and other pirs as a slave from Zanzibar via Muscat. reflected in the stated aims and objec­ (spiritual leaders) retain sheedi servants. Mussafar first became an elementary tives of this organization. While the In these conservative families, the sheedi schoolteacher and then taught at a teach­ specific objectives clearly indicate that women play a crucial role as companions er’s training school. He excelled as an the purpose of the organization is to help and windows to the outside world for the educator, writer, poet and editor. Before the sheedi braderi (community), the pre­ secluded ladies. Subservience and his death in 1961, he authored more than amble urges that “this organization loyalty in these households is rewarded 100 books, pamphlets and articles and should by no means be considered a ra­ by protection and paternalism. played a leading role in literary activi­ cialist organization.”25 Unlike the overwhelming majority of the Sindhis, the sheedis have traditionally The Black Balochs not been harts (peasants). However, The people of African descent in Karachi many are engaged in modem agriculture and along the coast of Balochistan do not as tractor drivers and mechanics. They seem to face the problem of social iden­ also work as bus and van drivers, repair­ tity in quite the same way as some of men, artisans and casual laborers. Their their Sindhi counterparts do. The exi­ proclivity toward dancing and music has gencies of the rising Baloch nationalism led many to adopt it as a profession. The are such that, at political and intellectual sheedis are stereotyped as “bom levels, all “racially” Baloch people are ex­ dancers,” and it is often said that their pected to shun their tribal identities, and women have “springs” in their heels. all Balochi-speaking people who had Sheedi women are in much demand as been marginal to the traditional social dancers at mral weddings and other cer­ structure are accepted as Baloch. Even emonies. Groups of sheedi male and fe­ though most of the Black people identify male dancers have been organized to themselves as Baloch, in some parts of perform professionally throughout the Balochistan, people of mixed African province. The sheedis are known for their ancestry, known as naqib and darzadag sense of humor, and are popular as ties.22 He is remembered by every Sin­ (outcast), are still regarded as low-caste. jesters at weddings and other functions. dhi for having written the Sindhi equiva­ Neither has the term sheedi, nor its Balo- The sheedis also excel in malh wrestling lent of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”23 chi equivalent siah kardag (black skin), and other sports, but there is little With the rise in political consciousness disappeared. opportunity to develop this talent into a in the society as a whole, and an increase Africans came to the Makran coast as profession. in literacy among the sheedis, a new part of the same slave trade from East The religious practices of the Sindhi awareness has taken place among sheedis Africa to Oman and the Persian Gulf as sheedis are based on a combination of about their social status. The paternalis­ did the Sindhi sheedis. Their passage was Shiite and Sunni Muslim beliefs. They tic epithet dada (literal meaning grand­ probably more complicated. The rulers take the mourning for the martyrdom of father) is no longer appreciated by the of Oman had recruited Baloch mercena­ Imam Hussain, grandson of Prophet Mu­ educated. While “sheedi” is still con­ ries for their army since the early 18th hammad, quite seriously. During the sidered a neutral term, an increasing century.26 They also had African slave Muslim month of muharam, they wear number of Sindhis of African descent are soldiers, in addition to African slaves on black clothes and engage in wailing and shunning this word, much as African date farms.27 This may have provided a beating their chests. There is a prepon­ Americans have discarded the word point of contact between the Makran Ba­ derance of religious themes in their “Negro.” Instead, Qambrani has become lochs and the Africans. In 1782 the ruler singing. a popular surname among the educated of Kalat, who exercised sovereignty over sheedis.2* Others who do not wish to be Makran, gave control of Gwadar and ad­ Beyond Stereotypes identified with the freed slave of Ali call joining coastal territory to Oman.28 By The vast majority of Sindhi sheedis are themselves Bilali, or the descendants of the end of the 18th century, the Sultan of neither domestic servants nor dancers. Bilal, the Black muezzin and companion Oman, who already controlled many Most of them do what others do. Many of Prophet Muhammad. In their quest for ports and islands along the Iranian coast, among them have acquired higher educa­ social advancement, the sheedis are iden­ acquired lease to the port of Bandar Ab­ tion and have become professors, law­ tifying themselves with all the positive bas.29 The African slaves, who were yers, doctors, engineers and writers. symbols they can find. A few years ago a used in maritime activities in the Persian However, they recognize that like some number of Sindhi intellectuals and sheedi Gulf, most likely sailed to Gwadar and other zaats they are also regarded as reformers got together to form an organ­ other ports in what is now Pakistan. Be­ “socially backward.” Very few among the ization for the welfare of the sheedis. It sides, Makrani landlords acquired slaves sheedis have emerged as prominent per­ was appropriately named the “Shaheed from the traders who brought their sonalities. One who can be singled out is Hosh Muhammad Sheedi Welfare Organ­ cargoes from the port of Muscat across

PublishedNEW by DIRECTIONSDigital Howard OCTOBER @ Howard 1989 University, 5 New Directions, Vol. 16 [], Iss. 4, Art. 5 the Gulf of Oman.30 Slave trade is be­ stitutions for the development of the Ba­ of African origin, have all but monopo­ lieved to have continued on the coast lochi language were established, Balochi lized the sport of soccer in Pakistan. All after the abolition of slavery in Sindh, script was developed, the first primer for the major soccer teams in the Indian sub­ despite the various treaties and agree­ teaching Balochi was prepared, dramas continent had players from Lyari, and ments signed between the British on one were written and staged, collections of the winners of prestigious cups were hand and the Sultan of Zanzibar and the Balochi poetry were published, music usually Black. Muhammad Umer was Shah of Persia on the other.31 groups were formed, and political per­ one such idolized professional player in In the late 19th and early 20th century, sonalities emerged. The political and cul­ the 1950s and 1960s. He earned an in­ severe famines and slave rebellions in tural products of this Baloch renaissance ternational reputation while representing the coastal areas of Iran resulted in the were constantly fed to Balochistan, Pakistan 13 times, including five years as freeing of many slaves and the fleeing of which was struggling to find its identity in captain of the team. Ghulam Abbas and a large slave and non-slave population to­ the post-colonial era. Ustad Sheedoo were among other fa­ ward the East.32 Some of them settled in mous “makrani” soccer players. Today, eastern Makran. Most went on to Kara­ even though they receive no support chi and inhabited the Lyari Quarters of from the government, there are 370 reg­ the old town, where former slaves of Sin- istered soccer teams of Balochs in dhi merchants already lived. The Bagh­ Karachi.35 dadi sector of Lyari, in particular, re­ ceived a heavy concentration of Black Political Role people.33 Lyari became a melting pot of During the British rule, many eminent peoples and cultures. Those who had leaders emerged as a result of the exper­ come from Makran were called Mak- iment in local self-government. Among ranis, those who came from the state of them was Allah Bukhsh Gabole, who be­ Lasbella were called Lasis, and those came mayor of Karachi. His mother was who immigrated from Kutch as a result of African descent, and he himself mar­ of famines were called Kutchis. ried a Black woman. His lawyer son, However, for many outsiders the word Abdul Sattar, was elected to the National makrani became synonymous with the Assembly from Lyari in 1970 and again in people of African origin. Both Sindhi and 1977 and was a minister in the cabinet of Balochi were spoken in Lyari, but most The late Bilawal Belgium, a popular musician. the late Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali of the Black people considered Balochi to It did not matter what the skin color of Bhutto. The people of Lyari remained be their first language. A small group of the leaders and participants of this among the staunchest supporters of Blacks from Lasbella spoke primarily the movement was. They were all Baloch Bhutto and were in the vanguard of the Lasi dialect of the Sindhi language. Black and were treated as equals. And many of struggle against the military dictatorship people spread to other parts of Karachi the past and present leaders of this of General Zia-ul-Huq. For this they too, especially in the outlying farms of movement are of African descent. were brutally suppressed and often Malir where they worked as agricultural A few of the Black Baloch artists ac­ taunted for being “Negro” by officials laborers of other Baloch or Khoja quired national and international fame. from outside the province.36 In 1986 farmers. Bilawal Belgium (real name Muhammad there was an uprising in the Baghdadi Bilal) mastered an unlikely instrument — sector which reminded one of the Watts A Baloch Harlem the banjo — on which he made tre­ and Miami riots in the United States. Under the British, Karachi emerged as mendous innovations in Sindhi and Balo­ Most of the popular slogans and cam­ an important port and trading center in chi music. Born into a working-class fam­ paign songs of Bhutto’s People’s Party the late 19th and early 20th centuries. ily in 1929, Belgium started his career at have emerged from Lyari, from where The dock workers, porters and donkey Radio Pakistan, and then performed on Benazir Bhutto, the present prime cart drivers, as well as the fishermen and television and stage. He travelled to minister, was also elected to the National boat crews, came from Lyari. When a many countries as a member of Pakis­ Assembly. small manufacturing sector developed tan’s official music groups. He received In Karachi, today, there are an esti­ gradually, Lyari provided the work force early encouragement from his mother mated 350,000 Balochs, out of which for it. Roughly by the 1930s, Lyari began Mahgi, who was a singer of note, and his probably no less than one-half have Afri­ to acquire the role of a Baloch “Harlem.” father Jhuk, who was a master of the in­ can ancestry. An overwhelming majority In this huge conglomerate of irregularly- strument kuzank. Belgium died a few of the inhabitants of Lyari are poor and built houses of poor and working-class years ago, leaving behind a glorious leg­ live in squalid conditions. The darker people, with no civic amenities, pursuits acy as a creative artist.34 Because of Be­ among them are worse off, for the purity not conducive to the tribal society of Ba- lgium’s dark skin, hair and full lips, his of their skin is directly correlated with lochistan found a fertile breeding ground. African origin could not be denied. But the failure to climb up socially. Poverty Here the ideas of anti-imperialism, there are a number of prominent artists and unemployment have bred alienation, nationalism and Marxism flourished of mixed ancestry who deny their African resentment and crime in much the same among the budding Baloch intelligentsia. heritage. way as among the Black underclass in Balochi literary movements started, in­ The people of Lyari, especially those the United States. This, in turn, led to

NEW DIRECTIONS OCTOBER 1989 http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol16/iss4/5 6 Ahmed: Africa on the Coast of Pakistan the stereotyping of the so-called mak- ranis as a “criminal class” by the police — a stereotype which is still entertained by many Pakistanis, especially those who are not Sindhi or Baloch. The people of Lyari serve as a link be­ tween Sindh and Balochistan, and re­ present the militant soul of both nation­ alities. Many of them have relatives in the interior of Sindh, as well as in Balo­ chistan, particularly in the Makran dis­ trict. Stretching west from Karachi to the border of Iran 300 miles away along the 28 Makran coast, there are many fishing vil­ lages, such as Gwadar, Pasni, Ormara and Jiwani. There, anywhere from 10 to 20 percent of the population has clear African features, while even a larger number with lighter skin have an African admixture. The Makran coast enjoys a kind of special status in Balochistan in the sense that it is a civic rather than tribal society. The Black people mainly work as fishermen, sailors and hamal (porters). They are lower than other Balochs on the socioeconomic scale. Many enlisted in the armed forces of Oman during the Feast at Manghopir Festival. 1970s. Since the early 1970s there has also been a trend, spurred on by the oil boom, for the Baloch workers to work in the Persian Gulf states. This has changed the economic conditions of many lower-class families, including those of African descent. In the interior of the Makran district, as well as in the adjoining parts of Balo­ chistan, where Africans were used as slave laborers on date farms, many con­ tinue to work today as bonded laborers. The workers performing the poorly paid but back-breaking task of husking fava beans are also Black. Even though the ruler of Kalat, under the pressure of the government of British India, had legally abolished slavery in 1914, owning of do­ mestic slaves was not uncommon until the late 1950s. Even today some land­ lords and mullahs have Black servants who can be defined as slaves, for they do not have the freedom to leave their mas­ ters and they are given only the barest of food, shelter and clothing while they re­ main at the beck and call of their masters for 24 hours a day. On the other hand, a number of mixed-race individuals have acquired considerable social influence and political power. One of these became a minister in the Balochistan provincial government. The Black Balochs are either Sunni Muslims, or belong to the unique zikri sect. PublishedNEW by DigitalDIRECTIONS Howard OCTOBER @ Howard 1989 University, 7 New Directions, Vol. 16 [], Iss. 4, Art. 5 African Culture In the absence of a systematic study, it is difficult to list the elements of African culture which still survive among the people of African descent in Pakistan. The sheedi dance, with or without the mugarman drum, is the best known rem­ nant of African culture in Pakistan. It is not only performed at the festival of the crocodile, but at numerous shrines in Karachi and Makran, as well as at wed­ dings of Baloch people in these areas. More recently, it has, with some vari­ ations, been incorporated as a “folk 29 dance” of Pakistan and is widely per­ formed on television and stage. The sheedis in the interior of Sindh still light up fire and dance around it to the rapid beats of the mugarman. Little known to outsiders, but a widely practiced ritual of African origin is the gwati exorcism and healing. Individuals, mainly women, supposedly possessed by jin or evil spirits or suffering from physi­ cal or mental illnesses, are taken to the exorcists who are usually women of Afri­ can descent. Increasingly, other Balochs, including men, are also practicing the trade as “Gwati’s mother.” The ritual can last several days, during which dances are performed to drum beats and the spirits are called in a language which is believed to be African. The ritual in­ cludes sacrifice of chicken or goat, whose blood is rubbed on the forehead or other body parts of the patient. An elab­ orate special meal is also served as part of the ritual. The Black women of Lyari are perhaps the most “liberated” women of Pakistan, and have little inhibition to be seen out in the streets. Nowhere else in Pakistan can one find women dancing in the streets to express their joy at an election victory. The propensity of Black people toward dancing and playing music is viewed as an indication of the continuity of African culture. This, plus their famed wit, has led to the stereotype of sheedi badshah (the literal meaning of badshah being king), having the same connotation as the “happy-go-lucky Negro.”*' In the everyday speech of many Blacks there are many words of African origin. There is a Mombasa street in Lyari, and Blacks there often jokingly call each other “Bombasas.”

Racial Consciousness The people of African origin in Pakistan, A local drummer at the Manghopir Festival. by and large, do not seem to be aware of http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol16/iss4/5 NEW DIRECTIONS OCTOBER 1989 8 Ahmed: Africa on the Coast of Pakistan

A crowd at a political rally in Lyari Quarters in Karachi. Note several men whose faces reflect African ancestry in the front row.

their African ancestry. The educated lity that it completely ignores maternal ple in the world, have not failed to forge among them know about it, but most— heritage. Thus, an individual possessing spiritual links with Africa and the African especially the Baloch—deny that they clear-cut African features may believe diaspora. Muhammad Siddiq Mussafar are descendants of slaves. Those who quite sincerely that he is nothing but has devoted 44 out of 138 pages of his are at the bottom of the social ladder pure Baloch. Because of their cultural in­ pocket-size book in Sindhi, The Eye­ understand that it is a class rather than a tegration in a society which is legally, opening Accounts of Slavery and racial difference, for many other groups ideologically and, to a large extent, prac­ Freedom, to the conditions of “American or individuals of other groups also face tically non-racialist, the people of African sheedis.” While describing the oppres­ the same predicament. Neither slave descent do not like to be reminded that sion of slaves in Sindh, he says, “it can background nor dark skin is peculiar to they are racially different. However, this be said with certainty that the kind of the people of African origin. There were society is quite color conscious, espe­ cruelty, hatred and contempt which was Turkish, Georgian and indigenous slaves; cially in matters such as selecting a wife shown to the African slaves of America and individuals from other groups can be for a man. Therefore, in a society where was not meted out to the slaves in as dark as, or even darker than, those of fair complexion is preferred there is all Sindh.” There are repeated expressions African origin. This is not a society polar­ the more reason for an individual not to of solidarity with African Americans, and ized between a white master race and a emphasize his African heritage. an exhortation to the Sindhi sheedis to fol­ Black race of former slaves. Further­ However, a few Black intellectuals low their example of social advancement. more, the Balochs, in particular, seem to who have pondered over their own plight Tributes are paid to Frederick Douglass have a reverse “single-drop” theory, but­ or the conditions of their group, or have and Booker T. Washington.38 Mussafar’s tressed by a belief so strong in patrilinea- read about the oppression of Black peo­ rudimentary Pan-Africanism can be dis-

Published byNEW Digital DIRECTIONS Howard OCTOBER @ Howard 1989 University, 9 New Directions, Vol. 16 [], Iss. 4, Art. 5 cerned in his book, as well as in a poem 5 Fatehnama-i-Sindh urf Chachnama (in originally published in the 1950s, and re­ entitled “Africa’s Gift.” Urdu), Hyderabad (Sindh): Sindhi Adabi printed in Hoshu Pichar, March 1987. Contemporary Balochi literature, Board, 1963, pp. 249-250. The Sindhi 16 Kadir Bux Nizamani, personal com­ which is characterized by its radical con­ and Urdu editions were prepared from a munication, September 1985. tent, is remarkably devoid of “negri- 13th century Persian translation of the 17 Hoshu Pichar, March 1987. tude.” Even Black Baloch writers and 8th century Arabic manuscript, describ­ 18 Baillie, p. 36. poets emphasize foreign, class and ing the conquest of Sindh. The date of 19 Muhammad Siddiq Mussafar, Ghu- nationality oppression. More recently, Shuja Habshi’s martyrdom is given as lami ain Azadi Ja Ibratnak Nazara [Eye­ however, a young Baloch poet of African Thursday the 10th of Ramadan, 93 opening Accounts of Slavery and descent, N.M. Daanish, has written Hijrah. Freedom (in Sindhi), Hyderabad poems in Urdu about the universal humil­ 6 Remnants of African features, particu­ (Sindh)]: R.H. Ahmed & Brothers, iation of Black people.39 larly curly hair, can be observed among a 1951. International exchanges, foreign travel wide variety of subgroups of the Sindhi 20 Mussafar, pp. 103-106. and airing of foreign, especially Amer­ population, including the high-status 21 Mussafar, p. 122. ican, television programs are bringing an sayeds, the supposed descendants of 22 Ghulam Ali Allana, Larh Ji Adabi ain increased awareness about Africa and Prophet Muhammad. Saqafati Tarikh [The Literary and Cultu­ the African diaspora among the people of 7 See, for example, Joseph E. Harris, ral History of Larh (in Sindhi)], Sindh African origin in Pakistan. Recently a The African Presence in Asia, Evanston: University [Dadu District, Sindh]: Insti­ “back to the roots” story appeared in the Northwestern University Press, 1971, tute of Sindhology, 1977, pp. 235-238. Pakistani press when a young sheedi pp. 74-114; Graham W. Irwin, Africans 23. Hoshu Pichar, March 1987. woman from Sindh married a Ghanaian Abroad: A Documentary History of the 24. Qambrani Associations have been student and “returned” to Africa with Black Diaspora in Asia, Latin America organized in many towns in Sindh. him. and the Caribbean During the Age of 25 Hoshu Pichar, March 1988. While the social disadvantage suffered Slavery, New York: Columbia University 26 Patricia Risso, Oman & Muscat: An by the people of African origin in Pakis­ Press, 1977, pp. 137-167; J.O. Early Modem History, New York: St. tan is traceable to their arrival in the re­ Hunwick, “Black Africans in the Islamic Martin’s Press, 1986, p. 96. gion as slaves, the facts of their exist­ World: An Understudied Dimension of 27 Sheriff, pp. 20, 35; Risso, pp. 170- ence have determined that their quest the Black Diaspora,” Tarikh, Vol. 5 No. 4 171. for equality be posited in the struggles (1978). 28 Risso, p. 106. for social justice and for parity among the 8 Ghulam Rasul Mehr, Tarikh-i-Sindh: 29 Risso, p. 106. nationalities. As they look towards the Ehd-i-Kalhora [History of Sindh: The 30 Beachey (1976a), p. 50. 21st century, their hopes are for a demo­ Kalhora Period (in Urdu)], Karachi: Sin­ 31 See Beachey (1976b), pp. 109-113. cratic and just society in which people of dhi Adabi Board, 1958, Vol. II, p. 874. 32 Inayat A. Baloch, “Slavery in Balo- all ethnic groups can progress and live in 9 Alexander F. Baillie, Kurrachee, Kara­ chistan” (manuscript under preparation). dignity. Assertion of a separate Black chi: Oxford University Press, 1975, pp. 33 Ahmar Mustikhan, “City Limits: Bag­ identity seems to be far from the 35-36 [original: Calcutta, 1890], hdadi,” The Star (Karachi), January 12, thoughts of this part of the African 10 For accounts of slave trade in Zanzi­ 1989. diaspora. □ bar, the east coast of Africa and the Per­ 34 Biographical sketch of Bilawal Bel­ sian Gulf, see Reginald Coupland, East gium, prepared by Rahim Bakhsh Azad Africa and its Invaders, Oxford: Claren­ by interviewing his heirs, January 1989. References don Press, 1938; R.W. Beachey, The 35 Interview with Haji Jan Muhammad, 1 In 1989 the lunar month of Rajab fell in Slave Trade of Eastern Africa, London: soccer promoter and coach, Karachi, February-March. Rex Collins, 1976a; R.W. Beachey, A January 1989. 2 “Sheedi” is believed to be the mispro­ Collection of Documents on the Slave 36 The Times (London), August 18, nunciation by the African slaves of the Trade of Eastern Africa, London: Collins, 1986. Arabic word “sayedi,” meaning master. It 1976b; Abdul Sheriff, Slaves, Spices & 37 Mussafar, p. 105. then got attached to them as a group Ivory in Zanzibar, Athens (Ohio): Ohio 38 Mussafar, pp. 40-102. label. Instead of being honorific, it actu­ University Press, 1987. 39 AwamiAdab, March 1986. ally represents mockery of the Black 11 Sheriff, p. 38; Baillie, p. 35. slaves. 12 Richard F. Burton, Sindh and the 3 Some newspapers in Karachi have, in Races that Inhabit the Valley of the Indus, Feroz Ahmed, Ph.D., is senior research recent years, been publishing articles Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1973, associate with the university’s Institute for about this festival each year to time with pp. 253-257, 372-374 [original: London, Urban Affairs and Research. He is a the occasion. See, for example, Zafar 1851]. native of Pakistan. Abass, “Manghopir’s ‘Mor Sahib’,” The 13 Burton, p. 255. Star, March 26, 1987. 14 See Beachey (1976b), pp. 33-40; 4 Khurshid Kaimkhani, a free-lance Hunwick, pp. 20-40. writer, has written a few short features 15 This account about Hoshu Sheedi is in the Pakistani newspapers about some based on an article, “Hosh Mahomed aspects of this subject. Qambrani: 1801-1843,” by G. Allana, http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol16/iss4/5 NEW DIRECTIONS OCTOBER 1989 10