This article in The Washington Post about Iraqis of African descent is fascinating. Recently I’ve been reading books about the Brazilian “racial democracy,” and some of the quotes from Afro-Iraqis are exactly the same as Afro-Brazilians, they often de-emphasize their blackness and look to their commonalities with the general society, all the while being victims of racism from the lighter majority.
Though the presence of blacks in the Arab world is well known, their existence in India is not. The Muslim rulers of India brought black slaves to rule over the subcontinent, though several times they rebelled and took power into their own hands, and black military leaders become de facto rulers. The Siddi people of India are the descendents of black Africans in India.
Posted by razib at 10:00 PM Comments