Pan-Africanism: An Exploration of

Afro-Asian Connections
Abdul Karim Bangura
Introduction
Employing Pan-African Methodologies, this paper explores the African connections of a people of
African descent referred to as Afro-Asians or Blacks/Africoids, with a particular focus on the 45
Asian countries: i.e. Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia,
China, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Iran, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan,
Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey,
Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Yemen.
The concept Afro-Asian or Blasian or Blackenese refers to Asian-born Blacks/Africoids, African
immigrants and people of mixed African and Asian ancestry. Their history on the Asian continent
has been traced back to 2500 BC, allowing them to launch many civilizations in the region. AfroAsians also exist in other parts of the world, notably in the Caribbean, Kenya, South Africa, the
United Kingdom, and the United States.
The Blacks/Africoids are categorized into five groups (http://nubianem.tripod.com/
blackafroasia/):
(1) Oceanic-African Negro typeusually medium to tall in height and with features identical to
Africans including kinky and curly hair.
(2) Indo-Negroid who consist of the Black Indo-Negroid people of India and South Asia.
(3) Negro-Australoid (referred to as Anu in Africa because that group and the Indo-Negroids
are from the same family of Africans who once lived in the Sahara and Eastern Africa and
had a vide variety of hair textures, but had the same Negro face and other Negroid features.
(4) Negritothe Negrito people are of African origins and the first people to migrate to India,
Southeast Asia, China/East Asia, and Siberia. (The Americas, Melanesia and Australia were
Negritos and taller robust Negro Africoids directly from Africa.)
(5) The Andaman Islanders are Negritos who have lived in India for over 60,000 years (see
http://www.andaman.org).
It is estimated that there are 700,000,000 (seven hundred million) Black/Africoid people of Asia.
The Black/Africoid population is directly related to Africans and consists of the same four types
found in Africa today, except the Kong-San, who scientists believe became the modern-day light to
yellow-brown Mongoloid people (http://nubianem.tripod.com/blackafroasia/).
Since this paper is grounded by Pan-African Methodologies (more on this later), the analysis
encompasses four major aspects: (1) descriptions of Afro-Asians, (2) a brief history of Afro-Asians
as a discrete ethnic group, (3) a brief analysis of Afro-Asian movements and organizations, and (4) a

sample of biographies of a few great Afro-Asians who have embraced Pan-Africanism. This essay is
therefore important because in addition to being methodologically grounded, it also provides a
desirable insight into the subject vis--vis the reemergence of Pan-Africanism within the
contemporary socio-economic development of todays global economic order. Thus, it makes sense
to begin with a discussion of Pan-African Methodologies before plunging into an analysis of the
Pan-African connections of Afro-Asians.
Pan-African Methodologies
Clearly, the parameters for Pan-African Methodologies can be drawn and redrawn in so many ways!
There seems to be no consensus even regarding the orthography of the term: Pan-African,
Panafrican, and PanAfrican are three possibilities. Spelling issues apart, some distinctions need to be
made.
About 40 years ago, when Immanuel Geiss published his The Pan-African Movement in German, he
confessed that it is difficult, perhaps even impossible, to provide a clear and precise definition of
Pan-Africanism (1974:3). And he repeats: Pan-Africanism has hardly ever been a clearly defined,
precise or rational concept (1974:5). One can certainly debate the rationality of the conceptis it
any less rational than, say, Pan-Slav, Pan-German, or Panamerica?but now, 40 odd years later, we
are no closer to a clear definition; if anything, the term has acquired additional connotations. The
pragmatism of any of these connotations, particularly the political, seems to have receded into the
distance. Even the July 2007 special meeting of the heads of African states, held in Ghana to discuss
the feasibility of a United States of Africa, did not draft a resolution in favor of the concept. The
perceptions seem to repeat or duplicate the Monrovia/Casablanca dichotomy of an earlier
generation. Yet, we the advocates of Pan-Africanism are not about to give up.
While the term Pan-African implies, etymologically speaking, the continent of Africa taken as a
whole, it can be understood in both a broader and a narrower sense. Some scholars extend the
concept, in space and in time, to include all or parts of the Diaspora; in other words, persons or
groups that can trace their origins to the African continent, whether they have moved once, twice or
more times, may or should be included. Of course, while all of humanity traces its origins to the
African continent, White persons and groups outside Africa are usually not part of any definition
of Pan-Africa.
The term Pan-Africanism is sometimes used in a narrower sense. It may refer to Black Africans,
dismissing White settlers in southern and eastern Africa as intruders. Some would exclude Arabs
who have settled in North Africa as well. They tend to divide Africa along a vaguely designated
latitude, separating the more southern partsusually identified as Sub-Sahara Africafrom the
North, and omitting the North from their discussion. These authors would concede, however, that
while the North is overwhelmingly Muslim, so are half of West Africa and East Africa. Nor is the
distinction between Arab and non-Arab always clear: Are Arabsfor instance, many Sudanese
with a dark complexion primarily Arab or African? Clearly, given the almost infinite variety of
complexions in the human race, any classification based on color is unscientific and invalid.
Some authors focus on Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone Africa, which again may or
may not include the Maghreb countries where Arabic and Shluh (Berber) are the dominant
languages. As Nicodemus Fru Awasom has noted, although the aims and objectives of Anglophone
and Francophone [and I will add Lusophone] historiographies were the same, an iron curtain
developed between the two, which made it difficult for them to recognize each others existence and
contribution to knowledge (Awasom, 2003). In short, we must recognize that while distinctions are

in order in any scholarly discussion, arguments based on ethnicity, religion, or cultural differences
are often artificial.
Pan-Africanism and the related term Africentric (see also, Africancentric, Afrocentric, or
Africa-centered), as well as African Diaspora, give rise to a growing literature that is of rather
recent vintage. Going through the on-line catalogue of the Library of Congress (LOC), I found 52
titles of books containing Pan-African or Pan-Africanism as a keyword. Of these, nine were
published before 1980 (none before 1959), 11 in the 1980s, and 25 since 1990. Africentric and
Afrocentric were encountered 89 times as keywords, although none of these titles date from
before 1990. The term African Diaspora is listed 10,000 times as a keyword, and that number is
not rounded up or downit is supposed to be an exact figure! The term Diaspora, however, is
listed only 2,488 times as a keyword, which may indicate that these library data are not altogether
consistent or reliable.
Let me attempt to reduce the multiplicity of connotations and definitions to a manageable few.
Thus, (a) Pan-African Methodology can be understood as the history of the movement aiming at the
political unification of the African continent and/or of all persons of African descent. (b) The
methodology of Pan-Africanism can be equated with the history of Africa as a geographic unit,
above and beyond the history of discrete African nations, ethnic groups or regions. (c) Pan-African
Methodology is, moreover, the history and analysis of movements and organizations already in
existence, catering to the needs of all Africans, including Africans of the Diaspora. Of course, it
would be equally sensible to break down the concept of Pan-Africanism by discipline; for instance,
in the area of the natural sciencesin geology, biology, medicine, pharmacology, etc.PanAfricanism is not only a desideratum, but an already operative concept, with a number of practical
applications. (d) Furthermore, to paraphrase Thomas Carlyle, who was no Panafricanist, it should be
possible to discuss the methodology of Pan-Africanism as a series of biographies of great
proponents of the idea: W. E. B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Frantz
Fanon, Malcolm X (Al-hajj Malik alShabaz), Walter Rodney, Kwame Tour (aka Stokely
Carmichael), to name only some of the best known. Hence, the concept of Pan-Africanism overlaps
or coincides with the historiography of all people of African descent, on any continent, including
Africa itself.
This paper addresses all four categories, a, b, c, and d, if only because they overlap and are
functions of one another. I do have to draw some boundary lines, however. This essay cannot deal
with all of humanity, even though, strictly and biologically speaking, we are all members of the
African Diaspora; as we know, humans emerged in East Africa in three or more strainsthe
ancestors of all of us lived on the African continent at one time. We can dispense with a discussion
of Africentrism (or Afrocentrism), a concept which is sometimes understood as synonymous with
the humanistic perspective or equivalent to modern humanisma Weltanschauung that includes a
concern for all humanity. I therefore deal only with the four aspects of Panafricanism mentioned
earlier.
It would be easy to argue that Pan-Africanismwhether conceptualized in the geographical,
social, political or cultural sensehas its roots in antiquitythe term used in the Western world to
refer to the age of ancient Greece and Rome. The unity of the African continent was implied by the
nomenclature in usagegeographical terms such as Ethiopia, Libya, or Africa, each of which stood
for Africa as a whole. Although the perspective of Greeks and Romans rarely, if ever, implied
racism, it did imply that the continent was a single province, a single space, a single geographical unit
apparently inhabited by one kind of people. Of course, the Africans they knew best were those
immigrating from, imported from, or still inhabiting the northern regions of the continent.
There is a tendency on the part of some contemporary African politicians to apply the term
African Union to unify people and groups south of the Sahara. They assume, rightly or wrongly,

that there are racist sentiments and discrimination in Islam, in the Arab lands of northern
Africasentiments which in turn may find reinforcement in the ideas and actions of ethnocentric
politicians who view Africa as belonging exclusively to the Black. The question then becomes the
following: Is it possible to refer to the advocates of two or more Africas as Panafrican? (Agozino,
2007:1-3).
In modern times, the political unification of Africa has been an ongoing concern for practically
every African intellectual, including Africans in the Diaspora. There is an ever-growing number of
book-length studies dealing with the history of Pan-Africanism or the Pan-African movement. One
of the earliest was the study of Immanuel Geiss, already mentioned, entitled The Pan-African
Movement, published first in Germany, but eventually translated into English (1974). Geiss begins his
analysis with the transatlantic and triangular trades, applying the term pro Pan-Africanism to
these early manifestations (1974:30). He concedes, however, that the term Pan-African did not come
into usage until the 20th Century.
A detailed, balanced and perhaps more scientific study was published in 1982 by Olisanwuche
EsedebePan-Africanism, the Idea and the Movement, 1776-1983which critiques the
approach of the German scholar. The data uncovered by Esedebes multiarchival research carried
out on both sides of the Atlantic have almost preempted the subject. Nevertheless, other authors
added to the existing body of knowledge. For instance, there is a series of monographs written by
Okpoku Agyeman, beginning in 1985 with an essay entitled the Pan African Worldview. There are
almost countless articles and essays of varying lengths and depths that are not accounted for in the
tally of books in the Library of Congress. One example would be the brief, but cogent, summary by
Manning Marable entitled Pan-Africanism: Yesterday and Today (see afgen.com/pan-afri.html,
1995).
Although 1900 is usually given, partly due to the prominence of W. E. B. DuBois in the
movement, as the date of the first Pan-African meeting, there had been meetings earlier. The
Chicago Congress on Africa of 1893 may be taken as the beginning of Pan-Africanism as a
movement (Esedebe, 1982:45). Indeed, this meeting included persons from the continent, in
addition to African Americans, and the term Pan-African was applied, probably for the first time,
to describe the meeting (Esedebe, 1982:46). There was also a Congress on Africa held in Atlanta, in
1895, voicing anti-colonial sentiments, radical for the time and place. Henry Sylvester Williams, the
attorney from Trinidad and Tobago, is mentioned in connection with a meeting of the African
Association in London in 1897 (Esedebe, 1982:47).
There is a growing literature in the English language on specific Pan-African congresses. Before
writing their book on the protagonists of the movement, the team of Hakim Adi and Marika
Sherwood published in 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress Revisited, which included a contemporary
treatise by the progressive activist George Padmore. Biko Agozino makes the same point in a blog
dated May 31, 2007, part of the same Dialogue, although he provides a more militant title: Peoples
Republic of Africa? Yes. Indeed, Agozinos Africa includes the entire continent, for he rejects the
arguments of those who view it essentially as Africa South of the Sahara, as if the Muslim countries
north of the Sahara were not part of Africa. It is easy enough for him to critique such an approach:
after all, Islam includes at least half of West Africa and almost all of East Africa. Are these regions to
be excluded as well?
In a lecture entitled New Meanings of Panafricanism in the Era of Globalisation, Neville
Alexander of South Africa quotes Frantz Fanon in the masthead to his paper: Great lines, great
channels of communication across the desert. To wear out the desert, to deny it, to bring together
Africa and to create the continent (from an article by Fanon titled Cette Afrique venir).
Alexanders thoughtful lecture insists that Africa is one, meaning that African leaders should ignore
the divisive efforts of those who would exclude the North, or divide Africa into a North and a

South. More alarmingly, according to Alexander, Africa is both globalized and marginalized.
Globalization, he implies, is not a positive process, but rather a force to be overcome (2003:26). He
also points outperhaps from his vantage point as a South Africanthat the dominant, that is
unifying, economic factor on the continent is South Africa, at least as much as the 200 or so
transnational corporations present in Africa. Indeed, the growth of the GDP of Africa as a whole
has been positive of late, mainly thanks to the economy of South Africa, which now represents
about 25% of the continents economy, with a growth rate of around 3.5% since 1999.
In the words of Alexander, It is the writers, poets, musicians, sculptors, architects, in short, the
artists of Africa, those whom Ngugi wa Thiongo calls the keepers of memory, who need to serve as
the bridge between the African past that is in every sense of the word increasingly acknowledged as
the cradle of civilization and the future that is at one and the same time indubitably global as well as
distinctively African (Alexander, 2003:25). Indeed, we must list among the Pan-Africanists great
writers described as African, and whose village or ethnic group is of secondary importance: thus,
Chinua Achebe, Ousmane Sembene, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiongo, as well as the great
musicians such as Miriam Makeba, Fela Ransome Kuti, etc. must be included.
Not surprisingly, few outstanding scholars have attempted to produce a history of the African
continent. Some of the reasons for this omission had currency in the past. For a long time, authors
have taken the cue from Hegel and other 19th Century European thinkers (in any case, scientific
history-writing is a relatively modern undertaking) who regarded Africans as objects unworthy of
study, as lacking history, as lacking culture. Even when endowed with culture in the anthropological
sense of the term, this would often be described as inferior, primitive, backward and savage. Maybe
African historians were not around to respond to these perceptions at the time, but similar opinions
were expressed by Hugh Trevor-Roper and other historians many decades later, even as late as the
middle of the 20th Century.
Today, many major American universities and others around the world offer courses on African
history. Several textbooks cater to the students enrolled in them (and their instructors). Most
textbooks in African history, however, have not adopted a Pan-African approach. They deal with the
subject in geographic terms, acknowledging that Africa is, indeed, a continent with a history, in the
words of Basil Davidson, as rich and as varied (Africa and the Africans) as any other continent.
Given the vested interests of the authors in the sale of these textbooks, the emphasis tends to be on
the varied rather than on the unity of civilization and culture, or on the moral and political
imperative of unification.
It would be a mistake, in my opinion, to divide historians of Africa into groups according to
complexion or race, into Black and White; it makes greater analytical sense to classify historians
according to attitude or ideology. Therefore, let us dismiss 19th Century racist interpretations, and let
us by-pass those historical works focusing on a region or a single country, however scientific and
progressive.
We are left with a short-list of historians, Africans and others, from the first half and mid-20th
Century, the colonial period and the period of so-called independence. Since colonialism and neocolonialism are unequivocally negative concepts, it is not surprising that Africancentric social
scientists tend to emphasize periods of glory, such as ancient Kemet, or the Great West African
Empires. Similarly, scholars writing in the post-colonial (or neocolonial) period, down to the
present, while recognizing that Africans on the whole are often facing a dour fate, find the roots of
the African predicament in the trade of human beings, particularly the Transatlantic trade, the
scramble for Africa, the colonial regimes (however short-lived), and neo-colonialismnegative
factors ascribed, for the most part, to outside forces, that is to European and, to a lesser extent,
Arab intervention.

Incidentally, Pan-African historical works may or may not deal with the entire time-span,
beginning with the beginnings of Kemet. If they do, they face the issue of periodization, of how to
approach the African society and politics chronologically. There are works that purport to be PanAfrican, yet divide time into periods designated as pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial
as if Africa cannot be described or imagined without the presence or absence of the European
factor. Such an approach smacks of Eurocentrism. By resorting to such Eurocentric terminology,
their supposedly Africancentric or Pan-African approach becomes compromised. In other words, it
is important to realize that a genuine Pan-African Methodology and historiography hinge upon an
Africancentric (i.e. Africa-centered) approach and perhaps an Africancentric world-view as well.
The most outstanding classical works on African, or Pan-African history, were written by the
fathers of Africancentrism: W. E. B. DuBois and Cheikh Anta Diop. While the entire opus and the
very life of DuBois can be qualified as Pan-African, it was his The World and Africa that opened the
path to subsequent Pan-African historians. The same may be said of Diops The Cultural Unity of
Negro Africa, and even his Priorit de la civilisation africaine, which argues convincingly that the
population of Kemet (ancient Egypt) was African rather than European or anything else. The
classical work among those which blame the persistent economic difficulties, ethnic conflicts and
other social ailments on the slave-trading and colonial powers is Walter Rodneys How Europe
Underdeveloped Africa. We may add the works of progressive European authors such as Jean SuretCanale, Catherine Vidrovitch, and Endre Sik.
In addition to the approach in most textbooks, several attempts have been made to elaborate a
comprehensive history of Africa without, however, seeking common Pan-African elements. The
best known in the English-speaking world are the Cambridge History of Africa and the multi-author
series produced by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO): i.e. The General History of Africa Series. The Cambridge history, published in eight
volumes between 1975 and 1986, was the first attempt, at least in the United Kingdom, to integrate
and assess the achievements of scholars focused on Africa. The editors of the volumes were British,
as were the overwhelming majority of the contributors. Generally speaking, the volumes fail to
present the continent as an interrelated (i.e. Pan-African) whole.
The UNESCO series sought to overcome the shortcomings of an almost exclusively British
interpretation. The mission of the work, as defined by Bethwell Allan Ogot, president of the
committee in charge of drafting the series, was to consider Africa as a totality, the aim [being] to
show the historical relationships between the various parts of the continent, too frequently
subdivided in works published to date (www.unsesco.org/culture/africa p. 1). The series exists in
an unabridged, clothbound version, and in an abridged paperback version, both in eight volumes.
Each of the volumes consists of about 30 chapters, the authors being mostly African scholars from
the continent. Those who are not African are widely recognized as students of African civilizations.
Thus, each volume is edited by an acknowledged contemporary scholar. The first version was in
English, but several of the volumes have also been published in French and Arabic, and some have
been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese, with further translations
contemplated in Kiswahili and Hausa.
Single authors dealing with Pan-Africanism or the history of the continent as a whole usually
have a point of view that may limit their acceptance by students or scholars. Jean Suret-Canale
approached Africas problems from the point of view of exploitation and abuse by the colonial and
neocolonial masters. His Essais dhistoire africaine: de la traite des noirs au nocolonialisme, dating from
1980, appeared in English translation rather late, in 1988 (Africa World Press). The same ideology
undergirds the opus of Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, including her anthology co-authored with
Alain Forest, Dcolonisations et nouvelles dpendances, from 1986. See also her Histoire Africaine du XXe
sicle: socits, villes, cultures and a number of her publications on the urbanization process throughout

Africa, such as Processus durbanization en Afrique, from 1988. Her studies are usually published by
LHarmattan publishers of Paris, specializing in African topics.
Jan Vansina also began as a francophone author of works on Africa. His classic book on Oral
Tradition was originally issued in French. It was translated into English, or perhaps reissued by the
author in English; it was updated, again in English, under the title Oral Tradition as History. It is not
only a Pan-African work, but also a seminal work in historical methodology, in African folklore,
ethnology and anthropology. This work is emulated by Oral Tradition and Oral History in Africa and the
Diaspora, edited by E. J. Alagoa.
Perhaps the most prolific historian of Africa writing in English has been Basil Davidson. His
titles include A History of Africa, Africa in Modern History, Lost Cities of Africa, The Black Mans Burden,
etc., the contents of which tend to be somewhat repetitive. Davidson is described over the Internet
as a historian with leftist leanings (www.answers.com/topic/basil-davidson), and he has incurred
the wrath of some scholars from the continent, having dismissed their work (without specifying
names) as often superficial and their authors as not particularly competent. Nevertheless, Davidson,
as a White British scholar, deserves consideration for his Africancentric approach and his
unrelenting denunciation of the impact of the slave trade and colonialism
Special mention must be made of Endre Sik, whose The History of Black Africa was published in
1966, in Budapest (with a French version and other versions to follow). At the time of publication,
under Cold War circumstances, the book was described, in the Western press, as dogmatic and
sharply Marxist in tone. Indeed, given the political conditions in East-Central Europe under state
socialism, the critique was not misplaced; nevertheless, the books analyses of imperialism and the
colonial regimes were both path-breaking and hard to refute.
As a reaction against those who blame Africas predicament on outside factors, there are scholars,
mostly political scientists, both African and European, who argue that Africans, particularly African
leaders since independence, must share the blame. They must share the blame principally because of
what is termed corruption. Here, too, we may make distinctions between those authors who feel
much of Africas wealth has ended up in Swiss banks, in the bank accounts of specific leaders,
usually identified as dictators, and those who feel that European and American observers often
overlook similar phenomena in the politics of their own lands. They have failed to understandwe
are toldAfrican traditions, such as the ten percent rule that applies in some countries or regions
constitute part of the culture; hence, they refer to the phenomenon as kickbacks or bribery.
General, albeit not necessarily Pan-African histories of Africa, include the old work of John Paden,
The African Experience, from 1970, Africa & Africans by Bohannan and Curtin, from 1995, and A
History of Africa by Fage and Tordoff (2002).
Descriptions of Afro-Asians
As stated earlier, it is estimated that there are 700,000,000 (seven hundred million) Black/Africoid
people of Asia. The Black/Africoid population is directly related to Africans and consists of the
same four types found in Africa today, except the Kong-San, who scientists believe became the
modern-day light to yellow-brown Mongoloid people (http://nubianem.tripod.com/blackafroasia/).
Population data on contemporary Blacks/Africoids for the various Asian countries are hard to find.
Nonetheless, as shown in Table 1, there is enough evidence to show that Blacks/Africoids and other
Africans exist in every Asian country today.

Table 1: Evidence of African/Black Presence in Asia in 2010

Country
Population
Notes
Azerbaijan
8,303,512 (July 2010 est.)
Afro-Turks were brought to the
Ottoman Empire by the Arab
slave trade to plantations
The migration of the Romanies
through the Middle East and
Northern Africa to Europe
Indo- European-Armenian
Armenia
Yezidi (Kurd) 1.3%
Ottoman empire included
Egyptian-Kurds
Bahrain
3%
Portuguese people from
Northern Africa, Sub Sahara and
Sahara
Bangladesh
90-95% Black Austroloid
Bengali-Paleo-Mongoloid, aka
Northern Indian mongoloid
originated from Africa
Bhutan

Bhote 50%, ethnic Nepalese

35% (includes Lhotsampas one of several Nepalese ethnic
groups), indigenous or migrant
tribes 15%

Burundi and Kenyan refugees

Brunei

Malay 66.3%, Chinese 11.2%,

indigenous 3.4%, other 19.1%
(2004 est.)
395,027 (July 2010 est)

Burma

Other 5%

Negrito- Negritos share some

common physical features with
African pygmy populations
In the out of Africa theory, the
ancestors of the Australoids, the
Proto-Australoids are thought to
have been the first branch off
from the Proto-Capoids to
migrate from Africa about
60,000 BCE, Afro- Asiatic
Recruited teachers and offer
student scholarships in Africa
Blacks
African WW II fighters for
Britain against japan

Cambodia

Khmer 90%; the people of

Cambodia still call themselves
Khmer, meaning Black

Influenced by Indians and Asian

Malayo-Polynesian Black
Malaysians

China

100,000, a number that has

been increasing at annual rate
of 30-40%

Han Chinese from Signapore

with influence of Indian, Arab
and African people

East Timor
India

Iran

Indonesia
Iran
Iraq

1,154,625 Austronesian
(Malayo-Polynesian), Papuan
600,000,000 Indo Negroid;
300,000,000 Black Tribals,
300,000,000 Black
Dalits/Dravidian 25%,
Persian 51%, Azeri 24%,
Gilaki and Mazandarani 8%,
Kurd 7%, Arab 3%, Lur 2%,
Baloch 2%, Turkmen 2%,
other 1%
Javanese 40.6%, Sundanese
15%, other or unspecified
29.9%

Black Malaysians
Blacks, Malays, Portuguese
Have been in India for over
60,000 years
Arab, Turkmen, some Persian
Azeri, and Africans
Semi-dark and very dark, afro
hair, wide nose, plump lips
Half Black/Half Arabs of South
and East African Blacks of
South
Sudan influence and Malay
Hundreds of Somali and other
African students

29,671,605 (July 2010 est.)

Arab 75%-80%, Kurdish 15%20%, Turkoman, Assyrian, or
other 5%

African origin
Assyrian ( Caucasian)

Israel

About 10%

Africa-born Jewish 5.9%,

Japan

Up to 230,000 Brazilians

Africans, Brazilian and

Philippians
Many Africans

Jordan

Circassian 1%

Kazakhstan

Other including Africans 4.9%

Laos

Over 100 minor ethnic groups Indo-African-influence

26%
Other 1%
African influence and people
Many Christian Lebanese do
not identify themselves as Arab
but rather as descendents of
the ancient Canaanites and
prefer to be called Phoenicians

Lebanon

By way of the Mongol Empire

Malaysia

Malay 50.4%, Indian 7.1%,

others 7.8%

Malay-African influence and

origin with Indian influence

Maldives

395,650 South Indians,

Sinhalese, Arabs
3,086,918 Mongol (mostly
Khalkha) 94.9%, Turkic

African and Indo-Aryan and

Asian influence
Turks-Africans and Mongols

Mongolia

Nepal

North Korea
Oman

(mostly Kazakh) 5%, other

(including Chinese and
Russian) 0.1%
Kami 3.9%, other 32.7%,
unspecified 2.8%

Relatively racially
homogeneous
2,967,717
Arab, Baluchi, South Asian
(Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan,
Bangladeshi), African

Mongoloids, Magar-Indian
influence and Asia-Indian and
immigration because of slaves
(Africa-Kami people from
Tanzania)
Some Africans (mixed)
Africans

Pakistan

6.28%

Sheedi Africans/Blacks

Philippines

25.3%

Qatar
Saudi Arabia

Other 14%
Afro-Asian 10%

Negritos share common physical

features with African pygmy
populations
Africans
Africans and Afro-Asian

Singapore

Syria
Taiwan
Tajikistan

Malay 13.9%, Indian 7.9%,

other 1.4%
Relatively homogeneous
(except for about 20,000
Chinese)
Moors 7.2%, other 0.5%,
unspecified 10%
Other 9.7%
Others 2%
2.6%

Thailand
Turkey
Turkmenistan

Other 11%
Other minorities 7-12%
Other 6%

United Arab Emirates

Emirati 19%, other Arab and

Iranian 23%, South Asian 50%,
other expatriates (includes
Westerners and East Asians)
8%
note: less than 20% are UAE
citizens (1982)
Other 2.5%
Indo-influence with some darker

South Korea
Sri Lanka

Uzbekistan

10

Mix of African influence

Some Africans and mixed
people?
Africans due to trade and
migration
Afro-Arabs
Afro-Asians
Indian and Persian with some
darker colored people
Indian, Asian and African
Africans and they are mixed
Some sort of African influence
and Africans because some
Afro-Turks
Africans exist

colored people
Vietnam
Others 4.1%
Indian, Asian Afro-Vietnamese
and darker colored people exist
Yemen
23,495,361 predominantly
But also Afro-Arab and South
Arab
Asians
Sources: More than 100 including books, journals, magazines, news papers, encyclopedias, Internet
entries, and personal interviews
In addition to the data in Table 1, there is additional evidence that has been presented by various
researchers on the presence of Blacks/Africoids in Asia. According to Runoko Rashidi, Indonesia is
made up of more than 13,000 islands stretching from the Asian mainland into the Pacific Ocean,
and a significant number of these islands have Black residents. Of course, many of the Black people
in Indonesia live in the occupied territories, most notably the Papuans of Irian Jaya (the western half
of New Guinea) or what they refer to as West Papua. These Blacks have been brutally treated by
the Indonesian government in a policy that approaches genocide (Rashidi, 2005).
Thailand, like Indonesia, is a country with an extremely ancient but little known Black population.
Thailands Blacks are referred to as the forest dwelling people called Sekai, sometimes identified
by the pejorative term Negritos and probably more accurately known as Mani. These people
live in southern Thailand in the region straddling the border with northern Malaysia. They are forest
dwellers and seem to relish their isolation (Rashidi, 2005).
Furthermore, As Philip Snow (1989) informs us, the term Negrito refers to several ethnic groups
in isolated parts of Southeast Asia. Their current populations include 12 Andamanese ethnic groups
of the Andaman Islands, the Semang, Batek, Jahai, Kensiu, Kintaq, Lanoh and Mendriq of Malaysia,
the Mani of Thailand, and the Aeta, Agta, Ayta, Pygmies, Ita, Baluga, Ati, Dumagat and at least 25
other ethnic groups of the Philippines. Negritos share some common physical features with African
pygmy populations, including short stature, natural afro-hair texture, and dark skin; nonetheless,
their origin and the route of their migration to Asia is still a matter of great speculation. Also, as V.
K. Kashyam and his colleagues (2003) state, Negritos have also been shown to have separated early
from Asians, suggesting that they are either surviving descendants of settlers from an early migration
out of Africa, or that they are descendants of one of the founder populations of modern humans.
In addition to the Mani groups, however, the Black presence in Thai antiquity is perhaps best
manifested and most clearly demonstrated in the numerous Africoid images of the Buddha. Making
the great link between antiquity and the modern era, as far back as 1883 in his brilliantly written
History of the Negro Race in America, African American scholar George Washington Williams pointed
out that In the temples of Siam (Thailand) we find the idols fashioned like unto Negroes .... Traces
of this black race are still to be found along the Himalaya range from the Indus to Indo-China, and
the Malay Peninsula, and in mixed form through the southern states to Ceylon (Rashidi, 2005).
In Malaysia, these Small Blacks have been denoted as Orang Asli (Original Man).
Pejoratively they are known as Semang, with the connotation of savage. They live in the
rainforests of northern Malaysia and are probably the aboriginals of the land. It is tragic that the
contributions of these small Black people to monumental high cultures characterized by
urbanization, metallurgy, agricultural science and scripts remain essentially unexamined (Rashidi,
2005).
According to Rashidi, when someone asked him about African people in Sri Lanka, his response
was the following: It all depends on what you mean by African. He adds that the majority
Sinhalese population of Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) is itself very dark. Then there are the Tamils
from South India residing in Sri Lanka. They, also, are very dark people. They are Dravidians with

11

some of them being quite black. These are the Blacks currently fighting the Sinhalese Sri Lanka
government for independence or at least a greater degree of autonomy (Rashidi, 2005).
Then there is the group of Blacks who arrived more recently from Africa in Sri Lanka called
Kaffirs. They are very similar to the African populations in Iraq, Iran and Kuwait and known in
Pakistan as Sheedis and India as Siddis and Habshis. There seem to be only a few thousand
of these Kaffirs in Sri Lanka, but they represent the descendants of enslaved Africans brought to the
island within the past several hundred years. These Blacks have distinct recollections of Africa
(Rashidi, 2005).
And certainly, for Rashidi, not to be left out of the discussion are the descendants of probably
the original people of Sri Lanka and these people are generally called Veddas or Veddoids and
have a strong resemblance to Aboriginal Australians. In respect to phenotype, all of these
populations are Black (Rashidi, 2005).
Rashida adds that since the first modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) were of African birth, the
African presence globally can be demonstrated through the history of the Black populations that
have inhabited the world within the span of recent humanity. Not only are African people the
aboriginal people of the planet, however; there is abundant evidence to show that Black people
created and sustained many of the world's earliest and most enduring civilizations. Such was the case
in India (Rashidi, 2005).
In Greater India, points out Rashidi, more than a thousand years before the foundations of
Greece and Rome, proud and industrious Black men and women known as Dravidians erected a
powerful civilization. We are referring here to the Indus Valley civilization, Indias earliest high
culture, with major cities spread out along the course of the Indus River. In his African Origin of
Civilization: Myth of Reality, Cheikh Anta Diop pointed out:
There are two well-defined Black races: one has a black skin and woolly hair; the other also
has black skin, often exceptionally black, with straight hair, aquiline nose, thin lips, an acute
cheekbone angle. We find a prototype of this race in India: the Dravidian. It is also known
that certain Nubians likewise belong to the same Negro type ... Thus, it is inexact, antiscientific, to do anthropological research, encounter a Dravidian type, and then conclude that
the Negro type is absent (quoted in Rashidi, 2005).
The term Dravidian itself, according to Rashidi, is apparently an Aryan corruption of Tamil.
In 1288 and again in 1293, the Venetian traveler Marco Polo visited the Tamil (Dravidian) country
of South India and left a vivid description of the land and its people. In his Travels, Polo exclaimed:
The darkest man is here the most highly esteemed and considered better than the others who
are not so dark. Let me add that in very truth these people portray and depict their gods and
their idols black and their devils white as snow. For they say that God and all the saints are
black and the devils are all white. That is why they portray them as I have described (quoted in
Rashidi, 2005).
According to Rashidi, possibly the most substantial percentage of Asias Blacks can be identified
among Indias 250 million Untouchables or Dalits. The Dalits along South Indias coastal
periphery were dramatically affected by the tsunami. The Dalits, brutally crushed underfoot by
Indias Hindu caste system, are demonstrating a rapidly expanding awareness of their lineage and
their relationship to the struggle of African people throughout the world. In April of 1972, for
example, the Dalit Panther Party was formed in Bombay, India. This organization takes its pride and
inspiration directly from the Black Panther Party of the United States (Rashidi, 2005). I provide

12

more detailed information on the Dalit Panther party in the section on Afro-Asian Pan-African
movements and organizations.
Rashidi points out that the formation of the Dalit Panthers with the corresponding ideology that
accompanies it signals a dramatic change in the annals of resistance, and Dalit Panther organizations
have subsequently spread to other parts of India. In August of 1972, the Dalit Panthers announced
that the 25th anniversary of Indian independence would be celebrated as a day of mourning
(Rashidi, 2005).
Rashidi also notes that in the 1987 edition of the African Presence in Early Asia anthology edited by
Rashidi and Van Sertima, and Dravidian journalist V.T. Rajshekar stated: The African-Americans
also must know that their liberation struggle cannot be complete as long as their own blood-brothers
and sisters living in far off Asia are suffering. It is true that African-Americans are also suffering, but
our people here today are where African-Americans were two hundred years ago. African-American
leaders can give our struggle tremendous support by bringing forth knowledge of the existence of
such a huge chunk of Asian Blacks to the notice of both the American Black masses and the Black
masses who dwell within the African continent itself (quoted in Rashidi, 2005).
Furthermore, according to Rashidi, DNA studies published in The New York Times of December
11, 2002, focusing on the inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, a remote archipelago east of India,
state that they are the direct descendants of the first modern humans to have inhabited Asia.
According to the newspaper, Their physical featuresshort stature, dark skin, peppercorn hair and
large buttocksare characteristic of African Pygmies. They look like they belong in Africa, but here
they are sitting in this island chain in the middle of the Indian Ocean, said Dr. Peter Underhill of
Stanford University, a co-author of the new report (Rashidi, 2005).
Notes Rashidi, only four of the dozen or so ethnic groups that once inhabited the island survive,
with a total population of about 500 people. This was before the tsunami. These include the Jarawa,
the largest group, who still live in the forest, the Onge, who have been settled by the Indian
government, the Great Andamanese and the Sentinelese. These studies of the Andamanese suggest
that they are part of what is described as a relict Paleolithic population, descended from the first
modern humans to leave Africa. Dr. Underhill, an expert on the genetic history of the Y
chromosome, said that the Paleolithic population of Asia might well have looked as African as the
Onge and Jarawa do now, and that people with the appearance of present-day Asians might have
emerged only later (Rashidi, 2005).
Initially, concludes Rashidi, there was some fear that the tsunami may have wiped out these
ancient African people. But apparently they have survived largely intact with a resilience, tenacity
and determination that all humanity might look upon with admiration, pride and respect (Rashidi,
2005).
A Brief History of Afro-Asians
In his book titled From Susu Economics: A History of Pan-African Trade, Commerce, Money and Wealth
(2000), Paul Alfred Barton traces the African presence in Asia to Nubia-Kush, which was the
original civilization in the Nile Valley. He believes that it may have been in existence before the
Neolithic Age, as early as 10000 BC. He cites new data based on the work of archeologists to show
that about 8000 BC, Nubia had an advanced culture which became Ta-Seti and contributed both the
manpower, technological knowledge and culture to what became Egypt, when Egypt or Khemet was
the northern section of the vast Nubian-Kushite or Ethiopian Empire. At that time, he notes, much
of the Nile Delta may have been under water and a vast swamp.

13

Nubia-Kush, according to Barton, was the core of Black civilization between 15000 BC and 4241
BC. The core of the ancient Nubian-Kushite Empire was the portion of land between Aswan and
Khartoum. After the Khemites retook northern Khem from alien Asiatics who were settled in the
northern part of the Delta, between 3400 and 3100 BC, and reunited the two lands, the boundaries
of the empire expanded. It began south of Turkey in the north and included Canaan, and the entire
region now made up of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Isreal and Sinai. Its southern extension included
parts of modern Ethiopia and the Lakes Region of East Africa.
For Barton, there is no doubt that the civilization of Nubia-Kush was the original civilization in
the Nile Valley, for the Khemites, who are supposed to be the first civilization in the region, actually
looked to Nubia-Kush (Sudan) as the origin of their civilization and culture, as well as their people.
Nubia-Kush was the source of the Nile Valley culture. The legend of Osirus, who is said to have
brought civilization to Egypt from Nubia-Kush, points to the south of Egypt as the place of his
origins. The Khemites themselves claimed that the area, which later became Khemet (particularly the
Delta area), was still basically swamp, wetlands and ocean during the time the legend of Osirus is
said to have taken place.
According to Barton, trade occurred frequently between the Nubian-Kushites and Khemites. The
trade may have begun during the Paleolithic Age and may have been carried out by boat, animals, or
on foot. The resources of Khem has never been as great as that of its southern neighbors and most
of its gold, ostrich feathers, ivory, ebony, animals, food and other commodities came from NubiaKush. Kush was not only the mother of Khemetic civilization, but Khemet depended greatly on
Kush and the lands further south for its very survival.
Furthermore, Barton demonstrates that Africans represented in Olmec art are represented in all
facets of life. Some of Alexander Von Wuthenaus photographs of Olmec art show Africans and
Blacks in general in all walks of life, particularly in his book, Unexpected Faces in Ancient America. In
Olmec representations of Africans, the Africans are placed in a position of dominance over people
who seem to have Semitic characteristics, such as hooked, aquiline noses, beards, turned up shoes,
and other characteristics. Representations of Semitic-looking people have been found carved on
stalaes and in other media.
Barton cites Bill Macks observation of the African position among the Phoenicians in Fate
Magazine:
For a long time, archeologists have been puzzled by the diversity of physical types portrayed
in Olmec art. The Olmecs, first of ancient Americas true civilizations, were the precursors of
the Mayans. They sculpted figures that are strikingly Negroid in feature. To further confuse
the already murky picture they also portray what archeologists call the Uncle Sam figure, men
with aquiline features and chin wiskers.
Early archeologists concocted theories that these portrayed Phoenicians and the Negroid
featured portraits were either slaves or crew, or both. As is usual in such schorlarly guessing
games, the balance tipped the other way when a number of stalae were found where the
Uncle Sam figure were shown groveling in submission to the Negroid featured men. To add
to the considerable confusion, some Olmec statuary depicts a combination of the
twoNegroid features with chin wiskers! Many of the Mexican state and university museums
have taken the bull by the horns and labled their exhibits as having been introduced or at least
influenced by contacts with Africa. Perhaps the most striking example of why Mexican
officials made their decision is found in the state museum of Jalapa. A terracotta bust
approximately ten inches high is definitely the portrait of an African right down to the

14

cornrow hairstyle. The clincher is that the sculptor, to insure that there was no doubt,
painted the face black.
For Barton, the observations of Bill Mack and that of the Mexican officials throw doubt into the
inaccurate belief that the Blacks portrayed in Olmec art and in the collosal stone heads were slaves
or even servants of the Phoenicians. No enslaved people would be bowed to, nor would their
portraits be carved in gigantic boulders, many times bigger and more massive than portraits of their
so-called masters. Furthermore, one of the collosal heads was used as an oracle or talking God. It
has a hole in one ear, through which a priest may have uttered words to represent the God. This
same technique was used by the Ancient Egyptians and Nubian-Kushites, who made use of talking
Gods.
Thus, Barton argues that we are left with what is the actual truth and the reality: that is, the
Blacks portrayed in the collosal basalt stone heads were both representations of Gods or kings, or
God-Kings similar to those of Egypt and Nubia-Kush. These great Black Olmec kings ruled Mexico
for perhaps 1,000 or more years, beginning about 1100 BC to about 300 AD. In fact, about 22 of
these gigantic stone heads have been found in Mexico, and there may be more.
According to Barton, the so-called Semites portrayed among the African Blacks were probably
Phoenicians or Canaanites, for these were people who were a mixture of Semitic and African, with a
predominance of African features. This type is clearly present in Bill Mack's description. Also, the
similarities between the pure Blacks portrayed in Olmec art and West Africans and the pure Blacks
of Sudan and Nubia-Kush of ancient times is stunning. Thus, a ship under the control of Black
Egyptians and Nubian-Khemites could have hired some Phoenician sailors, as was their custom, and
sailed to West Africa, where African sailors accompanied them in West African boats for a trip that
had been planned. After all, the Nubian-Kushites, Khemites and Phoenicians traded with the West
Africans. Logic says that due to the very ancient relationship that the West Africans had with the
Americas (earlier than 4000 BC), then the Khemites, Nubian-Kushites and Phoenicians would have
heard about lands beyond the Atlantic from the West Africans in the same way that the African
sailors of Cape Verde told Christopher Columbus about the Americas and their trading relationship
with the Native Americans there.
In retrospect, Barton adds, the history of West Africa was as fruitful, rich and glorious as that of
Khemet, Nubia-Kush, Elam, Sumer, Punt (Negau), India, or any of the Black civilizations on the
north-eastern portion of Africa, West and South Asia. All these regions made great
accomplishments. While the Nubian-Kushites and Khemites spread their trade and influence
throughout the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean (called the Ethiopian Sea as late as the 1500s AD),
the Atlantic, Asia, the rest of Africa and Europe, the West Africans spread their trade and influence
to the Americas, the Sahara and North Africa, the Nile Region, Central Africa, the British Isles and
the Iberian Peninsula. There are records which prove an ancient African connection between the
Africans in the area of Cameroon and the ancient Blacks of Mesopotamia as well as ancient China.
Barton cites Wayne Chandlers discussion of this fascinating topic in his essay titled African
Presence in Early Asia in the book, The Principle of Polarity, edited by Ivan Van Sertima.
In his other book that followed From Susu Economics: A History of Pan-African Trade, Commerce,
Money and Wealth and titled A History of the African-Olmecs: Black Civilizations of America from Prehistoric
Times to the Present Era (2001), Barton argues that it is very likely that the very first inhabitants of the
Americas were Negritic Blacks from Africa and Asia who arrived in the Americas earlier than
100,000 years BC. This occurrence would have taken place during a period in human history when
the only Homosapiens were Negritic Blacks and recent migrants from Africa who entered into an
uninhabited North and South America. To understand this possibility, which is becoming more
factual as further evidence is gathered, we must consider the fact that mitochondrial DNA studies

15

done over the years have already fortified the evidence which points to the mono-genetic origins of
all humans present to a source somewhere in Central Africa. Furthermore, all humans came from
this African source and developed into distinct races only about 40,000 years ago. This means that
the Black race (Negritic) existed for more than 1,000 years before all other races came into being.
According to Barton, Glogers Law supports the idea that humans originated in Africa and
migrated to other regions. Those who went to the cold northern lands adapted to the cold climate.
Barton notes that according to Cheikh Antah Diop, Glogers Law states that warm-blooded animals
originating in a hot and humid climate would be pigmented. This fact clearly indicates that the very
first humans to inhabit the Americas and the entire world came out of Africa between 100,000 to
200,000 years ago. Barton cites the Gladwin Thesis (1947) that Blacks were in the Americas as early
as 70000 B.C. These first Blacks may have been the Australoid type as well as diminutive Blacks
such as the Pygmies, Agta, Bushmen and others.
Barton argues that it is unlikely that the prehistoric Blacks whose remains have been discovered
in the Americas evolved from Mongoloids and developed in situ in the Americas into Negritic racial
types. This idea can be refuted due to the fact that if humans entered the Americas between 30000
BC and 15000 BC, they would have had to have been Negroid. Prehistoric Blacks were moving
worldwide; consequently, the prehistoric migrants to the Americas during that period would have
had to have been Negroid and Black. It seems more possible that people who were Negritic changed
into the Mongoloid type in the Americas in order to adapt to the cold climate in the north. In fact,
the Kong and San peoples of Southern Africa, who live in climatic regions similar to that of East
Asia (the cold, windy, high veldt of Southern Africa), possess the so-called Mongoloid
characteristics such as yellowish-brown skin, short stature, and the epicantus eye fold. Yet,
genetically and in most other aspects, they are typical Negroids with features that can be found from
the tip of Southern Africa to North Africa among the various Negritic peoples. These Negritic
peoples are among the earliest examples of the prehistoric Homo sapien types who once settled the
entire world before the development of distinct races in various parts of the planet. Furthermore,
according to Barton, findings based on mitochondrial DNA prove without a doubt that the earliest
ancestors of all Homo sapiens alive today came from Central Africa. The place of origin of the preColumbian Blacks who inhabited the Americas has been placed in a number of geographical regions,
including what is today the United States of America itself. And, based on the close similarities
between cultural assets found in West Africa, particularly during the ancient, pre-Christian Ghana
Empire (3000 BC-400 AD) and those of ancient Mexico, many anthropologists, historians and
scientists such as Ivan Van Sertima (They Came Before Columbus), Alexander Von Wuthenau
(Unexpected Faces in Pre-Columbian America), and Andrezej Wiercinski, the Polish craniologist, have
concluded that there was a significant ancient African presence in ancient Mexico. Studies conducted
by anthropologists, historians and others on the Blacks of Olmec Mexico show cultural similarities
not merely with ancient Ghana, but with West Africa in general. For example, Ivan Van Sertimas
quote of R.A. Jairazbhoys quote from the Quiche Maya book, Titulo Coyoi, clearly points to a West
African origin and influence for some of the cultural contributions to Olmec artistic works which
portray Black African types or Negritic features.
Barton cites Van Sertimas address to the Smithsonian in 1992 when he points out that the Maya
Oral tradition describes artifacts and materials brought to Mexico by people who most likely came
from West Africa. In Sertimas words: These things came from the East (east of the Gulf of
Mexico), from the other side of the water and the sea. They came here, they had their thrones, their
little benches and stools, they had their parasols and their bone flutes. These items, Barton notes,
are still very common in West Africa and are used by chiefs, kings, noblemen and their entourages.
Such items are symbols of power and influence. In fact, golden stools or replicas are still carried by

16

the Ashanti Nation of Ghana, along with large, multi-colored umbrellas, flutes of bone and ivory, as
well as trumpets and horns of the same materials.
According to Barton, the period in which these observations were made by the Maya may have
been anytime between 1800 BC to about 1000 AD. This record may have survived from a very early
period in the history of Mexico, when Africans and Native Americans met somewhere in the Bay of
Campeche. During this period, whether it was as early as 1800 BC, or as late as 1000 AD, Ghana
was in existence first as a prehistoric kingdom in what is today Mauritania about 8000 BC. For
Barton, this very region may have been the home of one of the most ancient civilizations on earth.
He cites the Mobetter News (South Holland, Illinois) which states that a prehistoric empire called
the Zingh Empire existed in the present location of Mauritania about 15,000 years ago. One of its
most famous Emperors was Tirus Afrik who designed the African standard red, black and green
flag.
Barton delineates three periods of the history of Ghana. The first period was a continuation of a
prehistoric civilization which existed in the Sahara during the Wet Phase, when much of the
extensive lake covered areas had given way to dry, fertile, forest covered terrain. A culture which
practiced agriculture and was connected to the Mende Speaking peoples in West Africa. That same
culture developed into a great civilization between 3000 BC and 400 AD, and continued to exist up
to about 1000 AD. It was from this Ghana, during these periods, that most of the ancient Blacks
whose likenesses still exist in Olmec stonework of Mexico sailed from Africa to Mexico.
Furthermore, Barton notes that Ghanas earliest roots began in the region of Mauritania about
15,000 years ago. He cites new information that places a civilization called the Zingh Empire in the
region at this very ancient period. During more recent times (between 10000 BC and 3000 BC), the
Mende agricultural complex and the Niger-Congo language family developed. This development was
followed soon afterwards by the Nok Civilization which placed an emphasis on highly technical and
fine works of terracotta art, iron ware, weapons and utensils, cotton cloth and textiles, gold and gold
ornaments, weapons and currency. Civilization in this region, according to Barton, continued into
the Renaissance phase of the Ghana Civilization, which was perhaps between 400 BC and 1000 AD,
a very long period. He mentions Nigerian officials who have dated some of the ancient terracotta
artwork of the Nok region, which spread its influence all over Western Africa, to about 2700 BC,
cited the UNESCO book, A General History of Africa (vol. II, Paris, 1990).
Nicholas Faraclas in his seminal essay, They Came before the Egyptians: Linguistic Evidence for
the African Roots of Semitic Languages, in the book titled Enduring Western Civilization (1995) and
edited by Sylvia Federici, has provided impeccable linguistic evidence that supports the claims for an
early influence of Africans in Asia. Faraclas traces the origins of Ancient Egyptian, Hebrew,
Babylonian, Assyrian and Arabic languages back to their Central African homeland. The evidence
suggests, according to Faraclas, that many of the speakers from all of these languages may have
participated in a Black civilization that was driven out of Central Africa by the expanding Sahara
desert some 7,000 years ago (Faraclas, 1995:175).
One of the main breakthroughs in this context, Faraclas points out, is the landmark work of
Joseph H. Greeberg (1963) who demonstrated that most of the languages that can be shown to be
related to the Semitic mother languages of Western Civilization are spoken in Africa. In
addition to the classification of the four families of African languages(1) Afroasiatic, (2) NiloSaharan, (3) Niger-Congo, and (4) Khoisan, Faraclas adds a fifth family: i.e. the Austronesian. This
family encompasses hundreds of languages spoken from Easter Island, off the coast of South
America, to Madagascar (Faraclas, 1995:176-178).
Employing several methodological approachesclimatological, ethnographica, and linguistic,
Faraclas finds that the epicenter of Afroasiatic expansion (the area where the boundaries of the
Afroasiatic language groups converge) is the Darfur-Kordofan region along the present border of

17

Chad and The Sudan. He therefore postulates that this is the Afroasiatic homeland and cites lake
level measurements, pollen counts, and other climatological data which indicate that the
Sahara/Sahel region passed through six wet and dry phases over the past 30,000 years (Faraclas,
1995:183):
(1) 28000 BC-1800 BC
Wet spell
(2) 18000 BC-10000 BC
Major dry spell
(3) 10000 BC-5000 BC
Major wet spell
(4) 5000 BC-3000 BC Drier
(5) 3000 BC-1000 BC Wetter
(6) 1000 BC-Present
Drier
Faraclas points out that during the wet phases, the Sahara/Sahel region was lush, green, covered
by grass, swamps, lakes, and creeks; thus, it could support a thriving population. Relating available
linguistic data to archaeological and climatological data, he shows that the wet Sahara/Sahel region
was originally the home of various hunting, herding, and fighting groups (Faraclas, 1995:183).
During the last Major Dry Spell (i.e., 18000-10000 BC), Faraclas forther postulates, Lake Chad
probably disappeared and the Niger River stopped flowing out from the Inland Delta. This means
that the populations living in the Sahara/Sahel would have had to leave the area by going north or
south, or they would have had to retreat to the few well-watered places left in the region. These
areas would have included the Inland Delta of the Niger River to the west, the basin of Lake Chad
in the center, and the swampy lands of the Darfur-Kordofan region on the Chad-Sudan border to
the east. These developments, argues Faraclas, would have given rise to three of the four language
families of languages on the African mainland: (1) Niger-Congo that radiates out of the Niger delta,
(2) Nilo-Saharan whose nucleus is the Lake Chad area, and (3) Afroasiatic which convereges toward
the Darfur-Kordofan region (Faraclas, 1995:185).
For more contemporary evidence on the African presence in Asia, it is no exaggeration to state
that no other scholar has done as much work on the topic as Runoko Rashidi. In his recent work
titled The African Presence in Asia: Introduction and Overview (2010), Rashidi reminds us that
the story of the African presence in Asia is as fascinating as it is obscure, and it began, it would
strongly appear, more than 100,000 years ago. In truth, he says, we now know, based on recent
scientific studies of DNA, that modern humanity originated in Africa, that African people are the
worlds original people, and that all modern humans can ultimately trace their ancestral roots back to
Africa. Were it not for the primordial migrations of early African people, humanity would have
remained physically Africoid, and the rest of the world outside of the African continent absent of
human life. Since the first modern humans in Asia were of African birth, the African presence in
Asia can therefore be demonstrated through the history of the Black populations that have inhabited
the Asian land mass within the span of modern humanity.
Rashidi cites two recent DNA studies that strongly substantiate this. According to the first
report, entitled Chinese Roots Lie in Africa, most of the population of modern Chinaone fifth
of all the people living todayowes its genetic origins to Africa. An international scientific team has
presented research findings that undercut any theory that modern humans may have originated
independently in China. Populations from East Asia derived from a single lineage, indicating the
single origins of those populations. It is now probably safe to conclude that modern humans
originating in Africa constitute the majority of the current gene pool in East Asia.
Although few scholars today dispute the idea that the earliest ancestors of the human species
evolved in Africa, Rashidi notes that there still is considerable debate over how modern humanity
evolved from its more primitive ancestors. Many anthropologists believe that humans may have

18

migrated out of Africa in waves. More than a million years ago, humanitys primitive ancestors,
known as Homo erectus, walked out of Africa to colonize Europe, the Middle East and Asia. On that
everyone agrees. Then several hundred thousand years later, some theorize, a second wave of more
sophisticated tool-using humans migrated out of Africa and overwhelmed those earlier ancestors.
According to that theory, modern humans are descended solely from those especially sophisticated
tool-users.
According to Rashidi, an equally important report titled An Ancient Link to Africa Lives on in
Bay of Bengal focuses on the inhabitants of the Andaman Islands (a remote archipelago east of
India), and the report states that they are the direct descendants of the first modern humans to have
inhabited Asia. Their physical features, short stature, dark skin, peppercorn hair, and large buttocks,
are characteristic of African Pygmies. They look like they belong in Africa, but here they are sitting
in this island chain in the middle of the Indian Ocean, writes Peter Underhill of Stanford University,
a co-author of the report.
Rashidi adds that only four of the dozen or so ethnic groups that once inhabited the island
survive, with a total population of about five hundred people. This was before the December 2004
tsunami. These include the Jarawa (the largest group), who still live in the forest, the Onge, who
have been settled by the Indian government, the Great Andamanese and the Sentinelese.
These studies of the Andamanese suggest that they are part of what is described as a relict
Paleolithic population, descended from the first modern humans to leave Africa. Rashidi cites Dr.
Underhill, an expert on the genetic history of the Y chromosome, who said that the Paleolithic
population of Asia might well have looked as African as the Onge and Jarawa do now, and that
people with the appearance of present-day Asians might have emerged only later.
Rashidi further points out that not only were African people the first inhabitants of Asia, there is
also abundant evidence to show that African people within documented historical periods created,
nurtured or influenced some of ancient Asias most important and enduring classical civilizations.
Sumer, considered the first great civilization of Western Asia, is perhaps the most prominent
example. Flourishing during the third millennium BCE between the mighty Tigris and Euphrates
Rivers, Sumer set the guidelines and established the standards for the kingdoms and empires that
followed it including Babylon and Assyria. Sumer has been acknowledged as an early center for
advanced mathematics, astronomy and calendars, writing and literature, art and architecture, religion
and highly organized urban centers, some of the more notable of which were Kish, Uruk, Ur,
Nippur, Lagash, and Eridu.
While Sumers many achievements are much celebrated, for Rashidi, the important question of
the ethnic composition of its population is frequently either glossed over or left out of the
discussion altogether. As topical as Iraq is today and since the civilization of ancient Sumer has been
claimed by other peoples, it is important to set the record straight and we believe that we can state
without equivocation that Sumerian civilization was but an extension of Nile Valley civilizations of
which Egypt was the noblest-born but not the only child.
In terms of racial classification, Rashidi informs us that for well over a century, Western
historians, ethnologists, anthropologists, archaeologists and other such specialists have generally and
often arbitrarily used such terms as Negroid, Proto-Negroid, Proto-Australoid, Negritic and Negrito
in labeling populations in Asia with Africoid phenotypes and African cultural traits and historical
traditions. This has especially been the case with Black populations in South Asia, Southeast Asia
and Far East Asia. In Southwest Asia, on the other hand, terms like Hamites, Eurafricans,
Mediterraneans and the Brown Race have commonly been employed in denoting clearly discernible
Black populations. In this work, Rashidi rejects such deliberately confusing nomenclature as
obsolete and invalid, unscientific and racially motivated, and insists that we must comprehensively

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explore the full impact and extent of the African presence in the human cultures and classical
civilizations of early Asia.
Citing Cheikh Anta Diop, whose work has in so many ways formed a model for much of our
research efforts, Rashidi states that it expressed a keen understanding of the nature and ramifications
of the phenomena. Rashidi also cites a November 1985 interview with the Journal of African
Civilizations during which Charles S. Finch pointed out that there seems to be a growing consensus
or idea in the literature of anthropology that there is no such thing as race. Continuing, Rashidi adds
that Finch noted that one consequence of this thinking is the idea that Black people in India, Asia
and the Pacific Islands who have almost the identical physical characteristics as Africansthat is,
black skins, kinky hair, full lips, broad noses, etc.are said to be totally unrelated to Africans. In his
response, Rashidi notes that Diop, speaking deliberately and uncompromisingly, pointed out that a
racial classification is given to a group of individuals who share a certain number of anthropological
traits, which is necessary so that they not be confused with others. There are two aspects which
must be distinguished: (1) the phenotypical and (2) the genotypical. Rashidi has frequently elaborated
on these two aspects.
If we speak only of the genotype, says Rashidi, we can find a Black who, at the level of his
chromosomes, is closer to a Swede than Peter Botha is. But what counts in reality is the phenotype.
It is the physical appearance which counts. A Black person, even if on the level of his cells he is
closer than Peter Botha when he is in South Africa, he will live in Soweto. Rashidi insists that
throughout history, it has always been the phenotype which has been at issue; thus, we must not lose
sight of this fact. The phenotype is a reality, physical appearance is a reality.
Now, every time these relationships are not favorable to the Western cultures, argues Rashidi, an
effort is made to undermine the cultural consciousness of Africans by telling them: We dont even
know what a race is. For Rashidi, it is the phenotype which has given us so much difficulty
throughout history, so it is this which must be considered in these relations. It exists, it is a reality, it
and cannot be repudiated.
According to Jide Uwechia (2010), for the Asian region that is today considered the Middle East,
for thousands of years, the Black Arabs of Basra lived and prospered in Basra as rulers,
administrators, musicians, and scholars. Their origins are varied, although they obviously share one
common genetic ancestor in some distance past on the shores of Africa. Many of them are from the
district of Zubair, descendants of the people who came to Iraq either from Central Arabia, or from
East Africa. Some came as sailors, whereas others came as traders or immigrants or religious
scholars over the course of many centuries.
Uwechia points out that Arab myths agree that the Cushitic King Nimrod crossed from beyond
the waters of Ethiopia in the earliest times with a fine crop of soldiers and established what was to
become the worlds oldest civilization. Many existing sites in Iraq are still named after Nimrod. And,
Hebrew myths recount the tale of King Nimrod as well. It is stated in the book of Genesis that
Nimrod was a mighty hunter of renown and the first to begin building cities over the face of the
world. He ruled in Mesopotamia, in the area covering Iraq, Iran, and Turkey. All the ancient
traditions agree that Nimrod was a Black man, and that his soldiers were Ethiopians and Azanians,
from what is now called East Africa. Their descendants live in the region to this day. He was said to
have built Erech, Elam, parts of Sumeria, Akkadia and Babylon. The Mesopotamian kingdoms of
Sumeria, Babylon, Erech and Elam which thrived in the regions where modern Iraq covers today
were thus Black civilizations.
Uwechia cites Runoko Rashidi who demonstrated that the civilization of Sumer was founded by
Nile valley migrants from Africa. The Sumerians called themselves the black-headed people and
spoke a derivate of Semitic language, a language branch which rose initially from Ethiopia.
Innumerable evidence from various cranial, skeletal, archaeological, sculptural and textual sources

20

has confirmed the racial origins of the Sumerians as Nile valley Africans that migrated to
Mesopotamia. Uwechia also cites Martin Bernal who showed that the ancient Greeks designated two
populations of black people with the name Ethiopia, one approximated Elam, and one pertained to
a group which lived south of Egypt. Elam was a Kushite colony and its heartland was Susa the
capital of Elam. Present day descendants of the ancient Elamites still live in southern Iranian
province of Khuzestan, and they are very dark in skin color. Between then and the rise of Islam,
different population demography drifted in and out of the Mesopotamia region wherein lies Basra.
Some of those population shifts had political and demographic consequences which bore different
fortunes for the Black Iraqis, and Iranians of Basra and Khuzestan respectively.
Furthermore, Uwechia notes that by the 9th Century, spurred by the zeal of Islam, a segment of
the Afro-Arabian tribe of Kaab, including Kaab bin Rabia, a son of Beni Amir bin Zazaah, and
Kaabs sons and brothers Uqayl bin Kaab, Muntafiq bin Uqayl bin Kaab (also known as the tribe
Khuzail), Jadaah bin Kaab and Kulaib and other clans of Rabia left the southwest of Yemamah
(north of the Rub al Khali) and migrated to Iraq and Syria to support other Arabian Muslims who
had settled in those domains. These groups of Afro-Arabians had so consolidated their power that
by the 16th Century, the clans of Kaab son of Rabia of the Banu Amir bin Zazaa began moving to
Iran from Iraq and settled in the Khuzestan region of Southern Iran close to Iraq.
Uwechia further notes that George Rawlinson, a 19th Century European traveler, who passed
through the region, described the Chab (also called in recent times Chub, Kaab, Kub) and
Montefik bin Uqayl Arabs in Iraq and Khuzestan as nearly black and having the dark copper
complexion of the Galla Ethiopians and other Abyssinians. Thus, according to Uwechia, we can
see that in the late 19th Century, groups of Afro-Arabians were well established and living in the
region of Khuzestan, Iran and around the Persian Gulf as well as Basra and the Shott al Arab in
Iraq. They were known variously as Kaab, (Chaab or Chub), Kuleib, Al Muntafik (or Afek),
Khuzail, Khafajah, Uqayl or Aqil, and Jada. Many of these men are the clearly documented
descendants of the Beni Amir bin Sasaa of the Hawazin bin Mansour. They were described until
the 20th Century as near black in color, tall and strongly built. In Iran, they are called the Tsiab.
Many of their descendants who live there even today are still black in complexion. This group of
Black Iraqis is therefore the remaining elements of the pure and original house of Arabia, which rose
in ancient times from the Mountains of Ethiopia and migrated onto Iraqi and Khuzestan.
According to Uwechia, there was another smaller group of Black people, non-Muslims in outlook
and practice, who settled in Iraq as victims of forced labour otherwise known as slavery. They were
known as the Zenji, from the land of Zanjnia (close to modern Tanzania). However, it must be
emphasized that there were also a great multitude of free Zenjis who had voluntarily settled in the
Gulf. The Zenji concentrated around Basra and lived co-harmoniously with their Arabian hosts.
Some Zenjis worked on the plantations around Basra, doing the hard labor, while others were free
traders and landowners. The Zenji took over Basra following an insurrection which took place in the
mid-800s. The Zenji then ruled Basra for about 15 years, until the Islamic caliph sent troops. Many
of the rebels were massacred, and others were sold to the Arab tribes. Some under currents of
racism that one finds in present day Islamic societies, adds Uwechia, developed from the fear and
post-traumatic stress of the reign of the Zenji in Iraq.
In addition, Uwechia informs us, many other Black people in Iraqi came as sailors, traders,
immigrants or pilgrims who decided to remain in Iraq. They came especially during the era of the
Moorish Islamic Caliphate of Cordoba, Granada, and Egypt (i.e. the Fatimids). Moors were Africans
and Muslims of the Maghrib (also known as the western Sudan) who dominated Islam between the
9th and the 14th Century and established a global empire reaching from Senegal to the shores of
China. Many of the Moors sailed in an ancient African ship called the dhow (or Arab dhow by Western
historians) which traditionally traveled the Mediterranean and Red sea coast of Africa on to Arabia,

21

India and China. Today, according to Uwechia, altogether, there are more than two million Black
people in Iraq.
As it pertains to the area referred to today as Israel, Paul Hamilton (2009) informs us that after
the fall of the Kingdom of Israel (Northern Kingdom) in 720 BC and the Kingdom of Judea
(Southern Kingdom) 6th Century BC, there have been several groups that have either fled the land
of Israel, or who were captured and removed as slaves, which in turn commenced a Diaspora that
formed out of ancient Israeli ethnic groups. Throughout most of modern history, there were only
two groups that had been officially recognized and sanctioned by the State of Israel as having
descended directly from these ancient people. Those groups include the modern-day Jews who
reside in Israel and Palestine and the Samaritans. Thus, Hamilton raises several important questions:
What does it mean to be officially sanctioned? Is it possible for new groups to join this so-called
officially sanctioned club? And if so, what would that entail?
According to Hamilton, it is now known that not all Jews live in Israel and that various groups
from all over the globe have made numerous claims of affiliation. In this literary exploration, the
claims of some Black people to include the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews), the Lemba Tribe of South
Africa, and the Hebrew Israelites (Chicago Branch), and the so-called officially sanctioned Jews must
be explored.
It is interesting to note that, according to the Memorial Gates Trust (2010), during the Second
World War, some 375,000 men and women from African countries served in the Allied forces. They
took part in campaigns in the Middle East, North Africa and East Africa, Italy, and the Far East.
Men of the 81st and 82nd West African Divisions served with great distinction against the Japanese
in Burma, as part of the famous Forgotten 14th Army. The 81st was composed of units from the
Gambia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast (now Ghana), while the 82nd comprised further
reinforcements from Nigeria and the Gold Coast. Both Divisions formed part of the RWAFF
(Royal West African Frontier Force).
The Trust adds that the Kings African Rifles (KAR) was composed of units from Kenya,
Uganda, Nyasaland (now Malawi), Somaliland (now Somalia) and Tanganyika (now Tanzania). The
KAR fought in Somalia and Abyssinia against the Italians, in Madagascar against the Vichy French,
and in Burma against the Japanese. Also, non-White South African participants included Cape
Coloured and Indian members of the Cape Corps (CC), and Black South Africans who served in the
Native Military Corps (NMC). Although both the CC and the NMC made extremely valuable
contributions to the Allied cause in auxiliary roles, neither was used for combat, to the displeasure of
many of their members. Out of a population of 42 million in the African colonies of the British
Commonwealth, 372,000 served in the Allied cause during the Second World War. Of these, 3,387
were killed or reported missing; 5,549 were wounded.
In November of 2004, as Jules Quartly notes, the Saisiyat of Hsinchu and Miaoli performed a
solemn rite to commemorate a race of people that they exterminated. Drinking, singing and dancing
took place deep in the mountains of Miaoli and Hsinchu when the Ritual of the Little Black
People was performed by the Saisiyat. For the past 100 years or so, adds Quartly, the Saisiyat have
performed the songs and rites of the festival to bring good harvests, ward off bad luck, and keep
alive the spirit of their race of people who are said to have preceded all others in Taiwan. In fact, the
short, Black men the festival celebrates are one of the most ancient types of modern humans on this
planet and their kin still survive in Asia today. They are said to be diminutive Africoids and are
variously called Pygmies, Negritos and Aeta. They are found in the Philippines, northern Malaysia,
Thailand, Sumatra in Indonesia and other places.
Chinese historians, according to Quartly, called them black dwarfs in the Three Kingdoms
period (AD 220 to AD 280) and they were still to be found in China during the Qing dynasty (1644

22

to 1911). In Taiwan, they were called the Little Black People and, apart from being diminutive,
they were also said to be broad-nosed and dark-skinned with curly hair.
It was only quite fitting that on January 8, 2005, the African Students Convention (ASC), the first
official gathering of African government delegates and African students in Malaysia, was convened
by African Students in Diaspora (ASD) and INTI International University College in that country to
discuss issues pertinent to the future of African youths. The event attracted over 800 Students from
around Malaysia plus visiting delegations from Nigeria, Namibia, Libya, China, Australia, Indonesia,
and some other African countries. It was one of the biggest events ever organized by the African
Students in Malaysia (Maloh, 2005). The theme of the event was Effect of Skilled Migration on
Economic DevelopmentA global Perspective, and the discussion centered upon issues pertinent
to Africa and a vision of the future of the youth and the harmonization of the economic, political
and educational strata in Africa (INTI College Sarawak, 2005).
Afro-Asian Pan-African Movements and Organizations
As Bangladeshi-Santhal Pan-Africanist Horen Tudu (2002) recounts, the early stages of human
civilization in South Asia marked a glorious era in which African people practiced sustainable
development, lived in peaceful, close-knit kinship societies virtually without conflict. As the barbaric
Indo-European rose from the depths of his shallow burrows, he knew only those actions that were
innate to his cold environment in the Caucasus, namely murder, war, rape, torture, genocide, conflict
and destruction, the proceedings having been documented in the celebrated Hindu text, the Rig
Veda. However, laments Tudu, history has taught us that this is not a unique circumstance of South
Asia, wherever the Aryan has encountered African human beings, the end result has been tragedy
beyond the comprehension of the human mind.
Tudu points out that India has maintained the stability of its social order through race-based
fascism. Literally meaning skin color, the Varna system of racial apartheid was imposed upon the
native Africoid inhabitants with the utmost brutality centuries ago in Northwestern India. Most
characteristic of Modern Hinduism is the sheer hatred and contempt for Black African people. As
clearly stated in widely read Hindu scriptures such as the Rig Veda Section II.12.4, Black Skin is
Impious and Lowly. Citing section I.130.8, Indra protected in battle the Aryan worshipper, he
subdued the lawless for Manu, and he conquered the black skin. In section IX.73.5, The black
skin, the hated of Indra, were swept out of heaven. Moreover, along with the disdain for Blacks,
Indo-Aryan white supremacy is endorsed, as section I.100.18 states: The thunderer bestowed on his
white friends the fields, bestowed the sun, and bestowed the waters.
The invading Aryans, notes Tudu, enforced the caste system on the Black population with a
merciless and bigoted spiritual philosophy, having whites occupy the top echelons of society, mixed
races in the middle and the mass of the conquered Blacks at the bottom, today known as Dalits and
Dravidians. The physical differences between the black-skinned Dravidian races of southern and
eastern India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka and the Caucasoid Aryan races mainly comprising of upper
caste Hindus and Sikhs is not the mere design of European colonialist historians, but a fact of
human existence in the apartheid state of India. The indigenous people of the Indian Sub-continent
are the descendents of the Dravidians that founded the celebrated Indus Valley civilization. Recent
genetic evidence has confirmed what anthropologists have known all along, that the Dravidians,
tribals and lower caste Hindus belong to the greater African Diaspora. As affirmed in the
pioneering mitochondria DNA studies published in Human Biology (68, 1996:1): The caste
populations of Andhra Pradesh cluster more often with Africans than with Asians and Europeans.
Additionally, according to Tudu, another study done by the Department of Medical Genetics in

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Umea University, Sweden discovered that significant ethnic differences in single polymorphisms
were found between all groups except for African BlacksDravidian Indians, who differed only in
their MspI7-16-bp duplication haplotype distribution.
According to Tudu, the early stages of Pan-Africanism in the Western hemisphere focused on the
principles and rhetoric of the great Jamaican born leader, Marcus Garvey. In recent times, global
Negroland movements have sprouted all over the Indian Sub-Continent and are undergoing
exponential growth in support. These movements comprise of all constituents of the Asiatic Black
race (Sudroids), from the Santhal insurgents of Bangladesh to the tribal Gond militants of Madhya
Pradesh and the Dalit Panthers of Bombay, Chennai, and Kerala. Furthermore, adds Tudu, it must
be made abundantly clear that these populations are by no means marginal; the total over 350
million people, exceeding the combined populations of several western European countries.
Apparently, Tudu argues, the foundation and direct inspiration for these political and social
movements come from the literature of great African American intellectuals such as Booker T.
Washington, W. E. B. DuBois, Frederick Douglass and many others. In search for their true identity
and history, the Dalits and Dravidians are making great efforts to expand on their African ancestry,
making connections with their Black brothers and sisters around the globe. Tudu quotes Runoko
Rashidi who states that They (Dalits) seem particularly enamored with African-Americans. AfricanAmericans, in general, seem almost idolized by the Dalit, and the Black Panther Party, in particular,
is virtually revered. Tudu recounts that in 1972, taking inspiration from the Black Panther Party, the
Dalit Panther party was fashioned with circulating myths of actual Black Panthers being transplanted
to India to fight Aryan fascist regimes such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the
Ranvir Sena. Particularly in South India, several universities and political establishments have made
African American literature required reading and continue to promote a Black is Beautiful type
philosophy that empowers the next generation of Dravidians.
Tudu posits that in the spirit of Marcus Garvey and John Henrik Clarke, Pan-Africanism has
become the need of the hour in South Asia. Based on genetic, cultural, and historical relatedness it
was only natural for Dravidians and Africans to tie up struggles. For Tudu, history is in the making,
and many prominent Dravidian intellectuals as we speak are exploring the call for an independent
black Dravidistan nation. That day is heavily anticipated.
Let us take a closer look at the philosophy and activities of one of these Pan-African movements,
the Dalit Black Panther Movement in India. According to Janelle Oswald (2009), the catchphrase
Black Is Beautiful coined in the 1960s during the American civil right movement by members of
the Black Panthers has been revived and has now become a popular slogan by the Indian
marginalized ethnic group known as Dalits or Untouchables living in India. This growing
phenomenon of Black power in India may come as a surprise to many due to the fact that very few
people realize that outside of Africa, India holds the second largest Black population in the world.
Formally known as Eastern Ethiopia, India has had a Black past since 2200 BC and beyond which
was inhabited by the Dravidians who erected a powerful civilization known as the Indus Valley.
The term Dravidian, notes Oswald, encompasses both an ethnic group and a linguistic group.
The ethnic group is characterized by straight to wavy hair textures, combined with Africoid physical
features. In reference to this, Oswald quotes Cheikh Anta Diop when he stated that There are two
well-defined Black races: one has a black skin and woolly hair; the other also has black skin, often
exceptionally black, with straight hair, aquiline nose, thin lips, an acute cheekbone angle. We find a
prototype of this race in India: the Dravidian. It is also known that certain Nubians likewise belong
to the same Negro type.
According to Oswald, the decline and fall of the Indus Valley civilization has been linked to
several factors, but the most important were the increasingly frequent incursions of White people
known in history as Aryansviolent Indo-European tribes initially from central Eurasia and later

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Iran. The Aryans were not necessarily superior warriors to the Blacks, but they were aggressive,
developed sophisticated military technologies and glorified military virtues. After hundreds of years
of intense martial conflict, the Aryans succeeded in conquering most of northern India and, as a
result, created a rigid, caste-segmented social order with the masses of conquered blacks reduced to
slaves by their White conquerors throughout the vanquished territories.
The masses of conquered Blacks living in India, notes Oswald, were regarded as untruth by
their White invaders and this stigma still prevails today. The Aryans claimed to have emerged from
the mouth of God while the blacks, on the other hand, were said to have emerged from the feet of
God. Oswald adds that servitude to Whites became the basis of the lives of all Blacks for generation
after generation and this legacy is still alive and kicking today. With the passage of time, this brutally
harsh, color-oriented, racially-based caste system became the foundation of the religion that is now
practiced throughout all India. This is the religion known as Hinduism. Oswald points out that to be
born a Hindu in India is to enter one of the worlds longest surviving forms of social
stratificationthe caste system.
Oswald asserts that branded as impure from the moment of birth, one out of six Indians lives
and suffers at the bottom of the Hindu caste system with the greatest victims of Hinduism being the
Untouchables and the most substantial percentage of all the Black people of Asia can be identified
among Indias 160 million UntouchablesDalits number more than the combined populations of
England, France, Belgium and Spain. Nonetheless, as Oswald observes, the basic status of
Untouchables has changed little since ancient time due to the belief of Karma and rebirth. Indians
believe that a person is born Untouchable because of the accumulation of sins in his/her previous
life. Hindu texts describe these people as foul and loathsome, and any physical contact with them
was regarded as polluting. Untouchables are forced to live in slum settlements on the outskirts of
Hindu communities. During certain periods in Indian history, Untouchables were only allowed to
enter the adjoining Hindu communities at night. Even the Untouchables shadows were considered
polluting, and they were required to beat drums and make loud noises to announce their approach.
Customarily, adds Oswald, Untouchables had to attach brooms to their backs to erase any
evidence of their presence. Cups were tied around their necks to capture any spittle that might
escape their lips and contaminate roads and streets. Their meals were taken from broken dishes.
Their clothing was taking from corpses. They were forbidden to learn to read and write, and were
prohibited from listening to any of the traditional Hindu texts.
Still in 2009, states Oswald, Untouchables are denied access to public wells. They cannot use
ornaments and are not allowed to enter Hindu temples. The primary work of Untouchables included
scavenging and street sweeping, emptying toilets, the public execution of criminals, the disposal of
dead animals and human corpses, and the clean-up of cremation grounds. The daily life of the
Untouchable is filled with degradation, deprivation and humiliation. They are consistently shunned,
insulted, made to eat and drink from separate utensils in public places, and, in extreme but not
uncommon cases, are raped, burned, lynched, and gunned down. Untouchables are not allowed to
wear shoes, ride bicycles, use umbrellas or hold their heads up while walking in the street.
But, as Oswald notes, no longer willing to accept the racist treatment carried out by caste Hindus,
the Untouchables are demonstrating a rapidly expanding awareness of their African ancestry and
their relationship to the struggle of Black people throughout the world. Studying the civil rights
movement in America, the Untouchables have now formed their own constitutional rights group. In
April of 1972, the Dalit Panther Party was formed in Bombay, India, which takes its pride and
inspiration directly from the Black Panther Party of America and is a vibrant positive movement for
all Dalits. With Black power spreading across India and the slogan Black Is Beautiful being
chanted across the land, the Untouchables are now rebuking Indias racist past and Aryan identity
viewing Independence Day as a day of mourning rather than an anniversary of celebration.

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In addition, according to Oswald, mirroring the Black Panthers of America that were well known
for creating their own press, the Untouchables have formed their own publication known as the
Dalit Voice, the major English journal of the Black Untouchables. Oswald quotes V. T. Rajshekar, a
Dalit journalist who penned an article entitled the African Presence in Early Asia, stating the
following:
The African-Americans also must know that their liberation struggle cannot be complete as
long as their own blood-brothers and sisters living in far off Asia are suffering. It is true that
African-Americans are also suffering, but our people here today are where African-Americans
were two hundred years ago. African-American leaders can give our struggle tremendous
support by bringing forth knowledge of the existence of such a huge chunk of Asian Blacks to
the notice of both the American Black masses and the Black masses who dwell within the
African continent itself.
Like all things born out of oppression, states Oswald, the Dalit Voice challenges the mainstream
Indian press that ignores the plight of the original inhabitants and also aims to represent the entire
deprived dehumanized castes of India. Learning that they are not alone in their struggle for political
and social justice, the Dalits are uniting across India educating their fellow brothas and sistas
not only that Black Is Beautiful but, most importantly, letting one another know that they had a
powerful past and without their existence India would not be what it is today.
The Dalit Panthers of India (DPI) or Viduthalai Siruthaigal is a peoples movement and political
party mainly based in Tamil Nadu. It advocates for the rights and welfare of Dalits. Its leader is
Thol. Thirumavalavan (more on him in the next section). It won two seats in the 2006 state
assembly elections on its own. Now it is in the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) front
(Ilagovan, 2005).
Brief Biographies of a Few Great Pan-Africanist Afro-Asians
That there are numerous great Afro-Asian Pan-Africanists is hardly a matter of debate. For the sake
of brevity, however, I examine here three of these great men and women: (1) Ben Tanggahma, (2)
Baby Naznin, and (3) Thol. Thirumavalavan.
The following excerpts from an interview done with Papua New Guineas Foreign Minister Ben
Tanggahma by Shawna Maglangbayan and Carlos Moore in Dakar on February 16, 1976 and
published by Runuko Rashidi capture the Pan-African spirit of Tanggahma. The Foreign Ministers
frequently cited statement is the following:
Africa is our motherland. All of the Black populations which settled in Asia over the hundreds
of thousands of years came undoubtedly from the African continent. In fact, the entire world
was populated from Africa. Hence, we the Blacks in Asia and the Pacific today descend from
proto-African peoples. We were linked to Africa in the Past. We are linked to Africa in the
future. We are what you might call the Black Asian Diaspora.
Asked about how the major worlds news media have reported the large-scale fighting that was
going on in the Southeast Asia-Pacific region between the Republic of Indonesia on the one hand,
and on the other, the guerilla forces of the Democratic Government of West Papua New Guinea,
Tanggahmas answer was that the press fails to inform people about the fact that these are struggles

26

in which poor, disinherited Black populationsboth in East Timor and West Papua New
Guineaare fighting against a yellow supremacist, racist, expansionist, colonialist and fascist empire:
i.e. the Republic of Indonesia.
About the ignorance of Blacks in other parts of the world, especially in the United States, where
people are supposedly in possession of the greatest amount of information about what is going on in
the world, there is great ignorance about his peoples struggles, Tanggahmas response was that it is
true. He adds that nevertheless, Black peoples have been inhabiting all regions of Asia for many
thousands of years. In fact, the aboriginal populations of Southern China and the entire Southeast
Asia (the Philippines, Kampuchea, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Burma, Thailand and Indonesia) were
Black. Black populations are still in the jungle areas of those nations even today, although living as
marginal peoples and facing many hardships in most cases.
Concerning the Black peoples of the islands of New Guinea and Timor, who also were fighting
the Indonesians, and whether they were therefore part of that great belt of aboriginal Black
populations that settled in Asia, Tanggahma responded that they are on the island of New Guinea
and on the island of Timor which belong to what is known as Melanesia, or Black Islands, if we
translate it literally.
Asked about his and his peoples relationship with Africa and Africans, Tanggahma made it very
clear that Africa is their motherland. He added that all of the Black populations which settled in Asia
over the hundreds of thousands of years came undoubtedly from the African continent. In fact, the
entire world was populated from Africa. Hence, they, the Blacks in Asia and the Pacific today,
descend from proto-African peoples. They were linked to Africa in the Past. They are linked to
Africa in the future. They are what one might call the Black Asian Diaspora.
On the history of when Black populations arrived on the islands of New Guinea, Tanggahma
stated that he can only go by what modern anthropologists say, since he and his people themselves
have never conducted any scientific research on the subject because of the conditions imposed by
the Dutch colonization, British colonization, German colonization, Australian colonization,
Japanese colonization, and now Indonesian colonization. But according to anthropologists, he adds,
different types of Blacks began arriving on the island of New Guinea and Australia at a date
variously situated between 30,000 and 60,000 years ago.
Pertaining to the six colonial nations that had colonized the island of New Guinea, Tanggahma
recounted that just a glance at contemporary history will show that the island of New Guinea and its
peoples have been the most colonized territory on the planet. He gave the following facts: In 1512,
Portuguese adventurers began circling the island like vultures. Soon after they seized the island of
Timor and colonized it until 1975. The Spanish joined a few years later, in 1528, and eventually
seized the Philippines, then inhabited by Blacks. In 1545, Spain made a claim over the island and
called it Nueva Guinea (New Guinea) because the peoples they met there bore a striking
resemblance to the Blacks they were then coming into contact with on the Guinea Coast in West
Africa. In 1600 the Dutch entered the area and started pushing out both Portuguese and Spanish. In
1688 the British got in there and began rivaling with Holland. In 1788, the French jumped in too
and laid claim to the Bouganville Islands. In 1834, Holland and Britain agreed to split the island
amongst themselves in two equal halves and to oppose the intrusion of any third party. In 1883, the
first massive deportation of Papuan slaves took place towards the sugar plantations of Queensland,
Australia, then a British colony. (In fact, the deportation of Black slaves, or blackbirding, had begun
in 1845.) In 1871, the Russian Empire of the Czar got into the picture and was sending warships to
New Guinea trying to secure part of the island for itself. Britain and Holland thwarted the Russian
attempt. The same was true for Italy, which tried to gain a foothold on the Island in 1876. Italy and
Czarist Russia were left out of the picture, since neither was strong enough to face the British and
Dutch navies together. Only Germany was then in a position to do so. The French were pushed

27

further to the East into New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Wallis Island, where they are still today. But
Germany imposed its will during the Berlin Conference (1884-1885) at which time the African
continent was dismembered, and along with Togo, Cameroons, Namibia and Tanzania, the Kaiser
got a piece of the island of New Guinea. Hence, in 1834, the German flag was raised over
Northeastern New Guinea. By 1888, therefore, the eastern half of our island was called northern
German New Guinea and southern British New Guinea, while the entire western half was
called western Dutch New Guinea. Italy, France, Spain, Russia and Portugal simply licked their
wounds and took whatever they were given in Africa.
Tanggahma continued: By the end of the 1880s, the natural and human resources of the island
were being exploited mercilessly; the slave trade to the sugar plantations of Queensland, Australia,
the extraction of gold, the exportation of coconut oil; and from 1808 onwards, copper and rubber
were being exported. Meanwhile, White migrants from Germany, Australia and Holland had seized
and carved up amongst themselves the best and richest lands of the island pushing back deeper and
deeper into the jungles the original occupiers of these lands. This brought about an interminable
cycle of war, raids, counter-raids, so-called punitive expeditions and so on. No historian has yet
attempted a detailed account of the number of Blacks killed or taken into slavery on the island from
the 16th Century onwards. By the end of the 19th Century, compulsory labor, that is practically slave
labor, was in force throughout the island. Then, in 1902, Australia became independent of Britain
and concluded an agreement with London whereby British Papua New Guinea was ceded to
Canberra. The British pulled out of Northeastern New Guinea and it became Australian Papua
New Guinea in 1906. At about the same period the Boers of South Africa proclaimed their
Independence, too, and took over the British colonies which today make up South Africa. But in
1919, generalized warfare broke out amongst the different European nations against Germany.
Australia, which had declared war on Germany alongside Britain, invaded German New Guinea to
the north and took it over. That was during World War I. Less than 30 years later, World War II
broke out with Japan fighting alongside Germany. In 1942, Japan invaded the island of New Guinea
kicking out both the Australians, who held the eastern half, and the Dutch, who held the western
half. Imperial Japan occupied the island until 1945, exploiting the resources, imposing another form
of forced labor and continuing the colonial policies of the Europeans. In 1945, the United States got
into the picture. American troops, a lot of them Blacks, invaded the islands and fought some of the
bloodiest battles in the Pacific area against the Japanese. After giving back the West to the Dutch
and the East to the Australians, American troops pulled out in 1948. In 1962, the Indonesians
invaded Dutch New Guinea, kicked out the Dutch, and annexed the western half where we are
presently fighting. Australia held on to Eastern Papua New Guinea until September 18, 1975, when
the eastern half of the island became independent under Prime Minister Michael Somare.
On the question of when exactly and how the armed struggle began in the western half of the
island, or West Papua New Guinea, Tanggahma said that first of all, when the Indonesians invaded
in January of 1962, his people were caught unawares. They were on the road to Independence then.
The Dutch had already accepted the idea of independence and had agreed to open discussions
around a target date. The date proposed was 1970. Their first elected parliament, or National
Council, had just been elected and half-a-dozen nationalist political parties were campaigning for
Independence. That is why Indonesia, then ruled by Ahmed Sukarno, decided not to waste the time
and launched a military invasion. In fact, Indonesia had been claiming West Papua New Guinea as
part of its territory since it had become Independent of the Dutch in 1949. The United States
stepped in to stop the fighting between Indonesian and Dutch troops, and an agreement was signed
between both nations, totally behind the backs of his people, which handed over West Papua New
Guinea to Indonesia with the proviso that a referendum be effected in 1969 to determine whether
his people wanted to be part of Indonesia or independent. That was called The New York

28

Agreement, and it was signed at the United Nations in August of 1962. Holland pulled out its
civilian administration, thereby ending 140 years of colonial rule. Indonesias colonial reign of terror
began.
Asked about when exactly the Blacks of West Papua New Guinea reacted to Indonesian
occupation and how the Indonesians reacted to the launching of the armed struggle, Tanggahma
sated that it was practically immediately after the Dutch pulled out in 1969. The struggle was
launched the same year a coup detat took place in Indonesia, in which one million Indonesian
communists were killed. Hence, at the same time that Sukarno was being eased out of power, the
Blacks were battling Sukarnos troops in West Papua New Guinea. Large-scale repression had
begun, and in a matter of months after the first attacks against Indonesian barracks and police posts
in February of 1976, a total of 35,000 West Papuans had been killed by air strikes, bombings or the
assaults of Indonesian troops against rebelling ethnic groups and villages. So it made no difference
for the Blacks, in terms of repression, whether Sukarno was in power or not.
Concerning the leadership that launched the resistance movement in February of 1965,
Tanggahma asserted that there can be no doubt that the leadership was effective. This is proven by
the fact that although Johan Ariks, the initiator of the struggle, was captured and killed in prison by
the Indonesians; or that Lodewik Mandatjan and Col. Freddy Awon were to be eventually captured
and killed by the Indonesians, the struggle not only continued, but widened to cover areas where
there had been no military activity.
On the issue of the existence of a slave trade from New Guinea to Australia and Malay and Arab
slave traders, Tanggahma answered that these are facts relatively unknown to any but themselves
and certain historians. But the existence of a widespread slave trade of Papuans in the Middle and
Far East, and as far as Turkey and Russia, is attested to by medieval chronicles. From the 12th and
13th Centuries onwards, the expanding Arab Empire had spread its influence to the islands which
now make up Indonesia: mainly to Malacca, Sumatra and Java. By the 16th Century, Muslim
Sultanates were in existence in Java, Malacca and the Moluccas. The latter, inhabited by Black
populations, was ruled by an Indonesian military theocracy by the 15th Century and called itself the
Sultanate of Temate-Tidore. By the 16th Century, the entire Indonesian archipelago had been
Islamized and the influence of Islam had spread to the westernmost area of West Papua New
Guinea. Tanggahma added that between 15% and 20% of his people are Muslims, and that at any
rate, an important Arab-Malay trade route was in existence in the 14th and 15th Centuries, linking
West Papua New Guinea to the rest of Indonesia, the Middle and Near East and right up to Turkey.
Malay and Arab traders raided the coasts of West Papua New Guinea for slaves throughout those
centuries and right up till the 19th Century. The offshore island of Biak acted as a slave-trade
outpost, very much like Zanzibar was at the same period. Hence, from the 13th to the 14th Century
onwards, Blacks were being captured and carted away to the chief slave markets in the Middle East
and Turkey. In another direction, Papuan slaves were being carried massively to satisfy the demand
of the medieval Chinese Empire. From Iraq, enslaved Papuans were resold to Turkey, and from
Turkey many of them were resold to Russia. These are historical facts.
Tanggahma continued, then, of course, during the 19th Century, Papuans were being taken into
slavery to work on the sugar plantations of the state of Queensland, in Australia, when not reduced
to slavery on the spot by the Dutch, the Germans, the British and Australians. Maybe historians will
one day be in the position to tell how many hundreds of thousands, or millions, of his people were
taken into slavery from the 13th and 14th Centuries up to the end of the 19th Century. At any rate,
he stated, he had read reports of aboriginal Black Fillipinos having been taken as slaves into Mexico
by Spanish slave dealers during the heyday of the Atlantic slave trade. He added that it would not
surprise him if some of his people had also been taken to the Americas during the period!

29

In terms of the parallel between the history of Blacks in New Guinea and that of Blacks in Africa,
and whether he finds that Africans are aware of this. Tanggahma was not sure whether they were
familiar with the historical connections, but certainly in terms of recognizing that they are part and
parcel of the African family and that as such they, the Blacks in Melanesia, and their brethren on the
African continent have a common past and a single destiny. He therefore believes that between the
past and the future, there is room for a present-day active solidarity.
Asked about whether the Revolutionary Provisional Government of West Papua New Guinea
had enjoyed much of that solidarity to date, Tanggahma answered yes and no. Yes, if solidarity is
meant sympathy with their struggle by their brothers in Africa and the Caribbean. No, if by solidarity
is meant concrete material and humanitarian aid. At the time, only the Republic of Senegal had
granted them limited aid and allowed them to open an Information Mission in Senegal. It began
operating at the end of 1976. But things were changing fast in their favor and that more than a
dozen Black nations of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific had made known to our government,
in one way or another, that they support their national liberation struggle.
Concerning their ideology, Tanggahma quoted their President, who said: We are not going to
get involved in ideological blocks. We have our ideology already: Melanesian nationalism! He added
that they are Melanesian nationalists, no less, no more. They believe that the Black peoples of
Melanesia must determine their own future, work together with their brethren in the rest of the
Black world to redeem Black peoples from their present position of servitude at the hands of other
races, and rescue them from their present state of illiteracy, technological and economic
backwardness, rampant diseases and general chaos. They believe that Black peoples, the Black race,
have the right to aspire to something much, much, much better that what they have now.
Baby Naznin, adorably called The Black Diamond, is one of the few major modern Bangladeshi
women to embrace Pan-Africanism in South Asia (Tudu, 1998). She is blessed with a mesmerizing
and melodious voice, and she uses her fame and voice to push for Pan-African ideas not only in South Asia
but in other parts of the world as well. Her career started in 1987 and since then she remains to be one
of the most popular artists of Bangladesh. The late President Ziaur Rahman was charmed by
Naznins voice during one of his tour in 1987 and immediately brought her family to Dhaka. Baby
Naznin has started in more than 100 films. Her all time favorites include Lata Mangeshkar, Asha
Bhosle, Noorjehan, Ghulam Ali Khan and Rashid Khan. She also loves instrumentals and piano
(http://www.bangladeshshowbiz.com/celebrities/baby-naznin.html).
Asked about her immense popularity, Naznin says: I love it when my fans call me Black
Diamond or song-bird or angel. I take that as a huge compliment to my talent and beauty. I also
enjoy it when the critics compare me to myself. All the love showered on me by my fans has been
really amazing. And, I thank Allah (SWT) for that. Philosophically talking about her regrets in life,
Baby Annan exclaims: The world has so much to offer in terms of knowledge and culture. I wish I
had more time to delve into lifes intricate aspects. If you have the knowledge and honesty
everything becomes simpler. Thats the best way to earn respect. One has to maintain these good
practices which are rarely found today. No one is perfect but I try my best to be sincere and
honest. This versatile singer has other interests besides singing/performing as well. Baby Naznin
used to be an avid volleyball player when she was younger and represented her division (Rajshahi)
against other divisions. She has also taken part in many art competitions. Making sculptures is also
one of her favorite pastimes, she says. Naznin is the eldest daughter of the noted flutist Mansur
Sarkar. Her first audio cassette featuring 12 modern songs came out in 1987. She has been a
successful playback singer singing for over 100 movies. Baby Naznin comes from the small town of
Sayedpur, in Rangpur. She loves the struggle behind her achievement. As she puts it, If everything
is laid out on a silver platter there is nothing left for you to achieve. I admire it when people achieve
things on their own, fighting the odds of society. There is a sense of fulfillment in that. Some of

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Babys all time favorite singers are Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Noorjehan, Ghulam Ali Khan
and Rashid Khan. She loves instrumentals and piano recitals as well. Recently when French Algerian
football sensation Zinedine Zidane visited Bangladesh, Baby was one of the ones to perform at the
Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre. She rendered Shurjo uthey purbo dikey, Oki garial
bhai and Amar ghum bhangaiya gelo. While performing the last number, Zidane took the stage,
much to the delight of the audience. Recalls an elated Baby: I have performed in many countries
and in front of some very important personalities but the experience of performing in front of
Zidane was simply great (Mybanglaspace, 2009).
In July of 2010, Baby Naznin returned back to Dhaka after four months of a long tour in
America and Europe. Throughout her tour, she made the case for her peoples rights. She started
her tour from America and performed in the program titled Dhallywood Award. Later, she
attended the Bangla Mela and Forana Sommelon. She also performed in England, Canada,
Belgium, and many more. After going back home, Baby Naznin made a national tour to share with
her people her music and news about the support for their cause in the different places she visited.
Her next country tour is scheduled to start from Chitagong. She will be performing the concert titled
Live in Chitagong (The Famous Zone, 2010).
Thirumavalavan or Thol. Thirumavalavan, born on August 17, 1962, is a Dalit activist, Member
of Parliament in 15th Lok Sabha and the current President of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi
(Liberation Panthers Party), a Dalit political party in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. He rose to
prominence in the 1990s as a Dalit leader and entered politics in 1999. His political platform centers
around ending the caste-based oppression of the Dalits which he argues can best be achieved
through reviving and reorienting Tamil nationalism. He has also expressed support for Tamil
nationalist movements and groups elsewhere, including Sri Lanka (Wikipedia, 2010).
Thirumavalavan was the second child of Tholkappian (Ramasamy) and Periyammal, and was
born in the village of Anganur in Ariyalur District in Tamil Nadu, India. His father had studied up to
the eighth grade, while his mother remained uneducated. He has a sister and three brothers, but he
was the only member of his family who went on to higher education after completion of his
schooling. He initially studied Chemistry, and went on to do a masters degree in Criminology,
before studying Law at Madras Law College. He then began working in the governments Forensic
Department as an assistant scientist (Wikipedia, 2010).
He began growing interested in politics in 1982, when he was still a student, in reaction to reports
from refugees of Sri Lankan military atrocities against Tamils in Sri Lanka. He began holding rallies
and organized boycotts and conferences to support the Sri Lankan cause. He ran around Madras
Law College, but failed. This, he alleged, was due to his being a Dalit. The incident led to his
meeting and becoming acquainted with politicians from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a
major political party in Tamil Nadu (Wikipedia, 2010).
In 1988, when working for the governments Forensic Department in the southern city of
Madurai, he met Malaichamy, the Tamil Nadu state convenor of the Dalit Panthers of India (DPI),
an organization that fight for the rights of Dalits. The next year, following Malaichamys death,
Thirumalavan was elected the leader of the DPI. He designed a new flag for the organisation in
1990. As part of his work, he also began visiting Dalit villages in the Madurai region and began
learning about the problems faced by Dalits. The killing of two Dalits in 1992, he says, made him
more militant. Against the background of increasing Dalit assertiveness, he emerged as one of two
major Dalit leaders in Tamil Nadu, with a large base of grassroots support, particularly in the
southern districts of Tamil Nadu (Wikipedia, 2010).
The DPI boycotted elections until the 1999 general elections. Thirumavalavan allied with G. K.
Moopanars Tamil Maanila Congress and represented the Third Front. The party contested in the

31

parliamentary constituencies of Chidambaram and Perambalur. Thirumavalavan contested in

Chidambaram, and managed to poll 2.25 lakh votes in his debut election (Wikipedia, 2010).
In the 2001 state elections, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal allied with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
(DMK) and contested eight seats. Thirumaa was elected from Mangalore Constituency to State
Legislative Assembly. Thirumavalavan contested once again from Chidambaram in the 2004 general
elections, this time with Janata Dal (United) and polled 2.57 lakh votes and lost by a small margin
(Wikipedia, 2010).
He joined the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) alliance in the 2006
elections to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. His party was recognized by the Election
Commission of India as a registered political party on March 2, 2006. Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi
contested in nine seats in Tamil Nadu and two seats in Puducherry. The party won two of them:
Durai Ravikumar won from Kattumannarkoil, and Selvaperunthagai from Mangalore constituency.
In the 2009 general election, Thirumavalavan was elected to Parliament from the Chidhambaram
Lok Sabha constituency (Wikipedia, 2010).
Thirumalavans politics are grounded in Tamil Nationalism, which seeks to turn it into a force for
the elimination of the caste system.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirumavalavan - cite_note-hindutvareview-6 Oppression of Dalits, he says, is institutionalized in India, including Tamil Nadu. Although
the Dravidian parties which dominate the politics of Tamil Nadu are ideologically committed to the
eradication of the caste system, Thirumavalavan argues that they have in practice drifted away from
the original ideals of the Dravidian movement. Their policies, he says, have mainly benefitted the
middle castes, and had actually led to an increase in the oppression of Dalits, with the middle castes
replacing the Brahmins as the oppressor. Dalits cannot and should not expect much help from the
Dravidian parties (Wikipedia, 2010).
The solution, according to Thirumavalavan, lies in Tamil Nationalism. Caste oppression, he says,
can only be ended by building resistance from below, through appealing to Tamil sentiments, as
happened in the early days of the Dravidian movement under Periyar E. V. Ramasamy. If a properly
Tamil government is formed in Tamil Nadu, he says, caste oppression will immediately disappear.
Thirumalavan is also a staunch critic of Hindu Nationalism and, in particular, Hindutva, which, to
Thirumavalavan, is the essence of the oppressive Indian state. Hindutva, he argues, has through
religion worked to homogenize Tamil society with that of northern India. This, he says, has led to
Tamil losing its identity. Ethnic Tamil Nationalism, in his view, is essential to combat Hindutva.
Thirumavalavans views on the importance of Tamil identity have also led him to strongly support
Tamil secessionist groups in Sri Lanka, including the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a
militant secessionist group that is formally banned as a terrorist organization in India. He has
criticized India for assisting the Sri Lankan army during the Sri Lankan military operations against
the LTTE in 2008 and 2009, and has called upon the government of Tamil Nadu to take steps to
safeguard the Tamils of Sri Lanka. On January 15, 2009, he started a hunger fast near Chennai
(Maraimalai Adigal Nagar) for the cause of Sri Lankan Tamils. After four days, on January 19, he
called off the fast, saying that it had had no effect on the Indian government, and calling for a hartal
in its place (Wikipedia, 2010).
His books in Tamil include Aththumeeru (Trangress), Tamizhargal Hindukkala? (Are the Tamils,
Hindus?), Eelam Enral Puligal, Puligal Enral Eelam (Eelam means Tigers, Tigers means Eelam),
Hindutuvathai Veraruppom (We Shall Uproot Hindutva), Saadhiya Sandharpavaadha Aniyai Veezhtuvom
(We Shall Defeat the Casteist Opportunist Alliance). Two of his books have been published in
English by Stree-Samya Books, Kolkata: Talisman: Extreme Emotions of Dalit Liberation (comprising
political essays written for 34 weeks in the India Today magazines Tamil edition) and Uproot Hindutva:
The Fiery Voice of the Liberation Panthers (containing 12 of his speeches) (Wikipedia, 2010).

32

He was a guest at the Maanudathin Tamizh Koodal (Humanitys Tamil Meet) in Jaffna, Sri Lanka
organized by the Arts and Literature Association and organizations like Nitharsanam. In his first
film, Anbu Thozhi (Lady Love), directed by L. G. Ravichandran, Thirumavalavan had a guest
appearance as a Tamil militant leader in Sri Lanka. Thirumavalavan has since been cast in the leading
role of a film titled Kalaham (Mutiny). He plays the character of Balasingham, a law college professor,
which is being directed by Mu Kalanchiyam. This will be his second film. He also made a cameo
appearance in Mansoor Ali Khans Ennai Paar Yogam Varum (Wikipedia, 2010).
Conclusion
It should be clear from what I have presented in the preceding pages, and from what I have omitted
(whether deliberately or through ignorance), that Pan-Africanism is a vast concept without welldefined boundary lines. It is vast in terms of subject-matter, and it is vast in terms of implications for
the future, in terms of policy implications, in terms of ideology.
Pan-Africanism is a set of progressive concepts, almost by definition. I use the term set, for it
coincides or at least overlaps with Africancentric, with the Diaspora, and with what used to be
called African Socialism. It is no coincidence that the most prominent advocates of African
SocialismKwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Amilcar Cabral, and a few otherswere also the
most prominent Pan-Africanists.
Pan-Africa is still little more than an ideal. It is now evident that it will take a while to reach the
goal, set by Nkrumah, when all Africans can feel at home in any part of the continent, when visas
and passports can be dispensed with, along with other bureaucratic trappings of European and
imperial intrusion. It would seem that either we achieve that goal, and sooner better than later, or
the African continent, along with the Diaspora, is in danger of sinking back, of becoming mentally
re-colonized or neo-colonized and, paradoxically, globalized as well. In order to put a stop to the
atrocities against them, could you imagine what power the 30 million Blacks (Papuans, Melanesians,
Australian Aborigines, ect.) in Melanesia and the region would have if they unite with Blacks in the
Americas (there are 300 million Blacks throughout the Americas), Africa (with 800 million), Europe
(about five million), India (300 million Black Dalits/Untouchables and 300 million Black Tribals.)?
(For details on the statistics, see Numbian, 2001.)
Indeed, as J. D. Jackson/Hawk (2006) states, contrary to popular belief, African (Black) people
are not a minority; they are the majority on the world scene. Totaling over one billion people worldwide, they are arguably, to paraphrase the late world-renown Black scholar-activist and historian
John Henrik Clarke, the most widely-dispersed people on the face of the globe. Geographically, that
means that there are over 250 million African (Black) people in the Western Hemisphere (40-50
million plus in North America, roughly 160 million plus in South America, with over 60 million of
them alone residing in Brazil, not to mention the other million or so Africans or Blacks who live
within and around the Caribbean area); nearly 800 million or more Africans (Blacks) in Africa; in
excess of 250 million Black people in India known as the Black Untouchables; countless millions of
Blacks throughout Europe (Spain and Portugal, France and Germany, among other countries there),
the so-called Middle East (especially Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq), the rest of Asia (Russia and
China, Cambodia and Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines, and, say some experts, even Japan), and
the Pacific Islands, most especially Melanesia (the Black Islands), which include the Fiji and the
Solomon Islands. Another 100,000 plus Blacks, commonly known as the aboriginal (the original)
Australians, still live in their native land of Australia, although under many horrible conditions. Of
course, the above numbers do not include by any means the untold millions of Blacks globally who
have are passing for either European (White) or Asian (Yellow) or Hispanic (Brown and which is

33

not a race but which describes, in general, a Spanish-speaking person or someone who comes from a
Spanish-speaking country) or anything other than African (Black).
And, as Ali A. Mazurui (1986) points out, geographically speaking, three definitions have
dominated the discourse on where Africa is. He then offers a fourth definition that captures the
natural geographical boundaries of Africa based on sound empirical evidencerecent findings by
geneticists and paleontologists are in line with Mazruis definition (see, for example, the report by
Gray, 2009). The first definition of Africa is the racial one that restricted identity to the Black
populated parts of the continent. The second definition of Africa is the continental one and is the
principle upon which the Organization of African Unity (OAU) was and now its successor, the
African Union (AU), is based: i.e. Africa is a continent as a whole. The third definition is the power
one that excluded those parts of Africa that were under non-African controla definition that is
now obsolete. The fourth definition Mazrui offers pushes Africas boundaries not only across the
Sahara but even across the Red Sea. Restating the details provided by Mazrui for his definition will
take many pages; thus, the interested reader is urged to consult his book. Two other good books on
this topic are Alan B. Mountjoy and David Hillings Africa: Geography and Development (1988) and
Samuel Kasules The History Atlas of Africa: From the First Humans to the Emergence of a New South Africa
(1998). But as Mazrui himself concedes, although decidedly under protest, we are stuck with the
geopolitical definition of Africa being mainly west of the Red Sea and both north and south of the
Sahara: i.e. the continental one.
So, continentally defined, Africa is indeed a very large area. It is the worlds second largest
continent after Asia. Its land area is 11.6 million square miles stretching nearly 5,000 miles from
Cape Town, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt and more than 3,000 miles from Dakar, Senegal to
Mogadishu, Somalia. The African continent is nearly three and one-half times the size of the
continental United States. Africas political geography consists of more than 50 modern nations,
including island republics off its coasts. Details on the richness of the African continents location,
rivers, lakes, seas, surrounding oceans, valleys, mountains, hills, swamps, waterfalls, weather, etc. can
be found in Vincent B. Khapoyas The African Experience: An Introduction, 2nd ed. (1998:2-8), among
numerous other sources, of course.
A United States of Africa will be geopolitically very well endowed. A geographical cluster that
coordinates the various geopolitical facets will make it possible for Africa to benefit from its
strategic geographical location and endowments, particularly from major powers seeking such
access. Nonetheless, Africans must not give up on the idea of pushing Africas boundaries not only
across the Sahara but even across the Red Sea because, as Mazrui correctly states, we live in an age
when a peoples perception of themselves can be deeply influenced by which continent or region
they associate themselves. What is the basis for such hope? Mazruis observation is instructive:
Until the 1950s the official policy of the government of Emperor Haile Selassie was to
emphasise that Ethiopia was part of the Middle East rather than part of Africa. Yet it was the
Emperor himself who initiated the policy of re-Africanising Ethiopia as the rest of Africa
approached independence, fearing to be outflanked by the radicalism of (Gamal Abdel)
Nasser of Egypt and (Kwame) Nkrumah of Ghana. In particular, Nassers strong support for
continental Pan-Africanism and active support for anti-colonial liberation struggles both north
and south of the Sahara encouraged Haile Selassie to emphasise that Ethiopia, too, was part of
Africa. Yet cultural similarities between Ethiopia and the rest of Black Africa are not any
greater than cultural similarities between north Africa and the Arabian peninsula.
Nevertheless, a European decision to make Africa end at the Red Sea has decisively disAfricanised the Arabian peninsula, and made the natives there see themselves as West Asians
rather than as north Africans (1986:37-38).

34

Mazrui continues:
The most difficult people to convince of a greater territorial Africa may well turn out to be the
inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula. They have grown to be proud of being the Arabs of
Asia rather than the Arabs of Africa.Yet if Emperor Haile Selassie could initiate the reAfricanisation of Ethiopia, and Gamal Abdel Nasser could inaugurate the re-Africanisation of
Egypt, prospects for reconsideration of the identity of the Arabian peninsula may not be
entirely bleak. At the moment the re-Africanisation of the Arabian peninsula is only an idea in
the head of a scholar. It may never become a cause in the hearts of men. But its advocacy may
help to keep alive the issue of where Africa ends and Asia begins, and encourage other
individuals on either side of the Red Sea to re-examine the validity of Africas north-eastern
boundaries and question the arbitrariness of this boundary (1986:38).
Without a doubt, earlier Western prejudices against Arabs exacerbated by the backlash after the
terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, DC
on September 11, 2001 has prompted many Arabs to reexamine their cultural connections. The
appointment of Sheikh Adil Kalbani as the first Black Imam at the Grand Mosque in Mecca (Worth,
2009), Islams holiest city whose guardian is the Saudi Arabian King, is a hopeful sign.
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Web Sites
http://www.andaman.org
http://nubianem.tripod.com/blackafroasia/
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http://thefamouszone.blogspot.com/2010/07/baby-naznin-returned-back-to-dhaka.html
About the Author
Abdul Karim Bangura is Professor of Research Methodology and Political Science at Howard
University and Researcher-In-Residence of Abrahamic Connections and Peace Studies at the Center
for Global Peace at American University. He holds a PhD in Political Science, a PhD in
Development Economics, a PhD in Linguistics, a PhD in Computer Science, and a PhD in
Mathematics. He is the author and editor/contributor of 62 books and more than 500 scholarly

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articles. He was the President and United Nations Ambassador of the Association of Third World
Studies and a member of many other scholarly and civic organizations. The winner of many teaching
and other scholarly and community service awards, he is fluent in about a dozen African and six
European languages, and studying to strengthen his proficiency in Arabic, Hebrew and
Hieroglyphics.

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