Login
Login

Afro-Arabs

{{Short description|Ethnic group in the Arab World with African ancestry}}

{{Redirect2|African Arabs|African Arab people|Arabs living in North Africa|North African Arabs}}

{{Redirect-distinguish-text|Afro-Arab|the Africa-Arabian Peninsula relations of the African Union}}

{{Infobox ethnic group

| group = Afro-Arabs

| image =

| caption = A group of folk singers and dancers outside a barasti house in Al Satwa, Dubai.

| native_name = {{lang|ar|عرب أفارقة}}

| popplace = Gulf States{{·}}Levant{{·}}Yemen{{·}}East Africa{{·}}Mauritania{{·}}Sahel{{·}}North Africa

| region1 = {{Flag|Saudi Arabia}}

| pop1 = 3,600,000

| ref1 = {{Cite CIA World Factbook|country=Saudi-Arabia| access-date=25 March 2017 |year=2017}}

| region2 = {{Flag|Yemen}}

| pop2 = 3,500,000

| ref2 = {{Cite web|url=http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-999239|title=Yemen's Al-Akhdam face brutal oppression|access-date=2013-11-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129084527/http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-999239|archive-date=2014-11-29}}

| region3 = {{Flag|Iraq}}

| pop3 = 1,500,000–2,000,000

| ref3 = {{cite web | url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/5a53600d7.html | title=Refworld | World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Iraq : Black Iraqis}}

| region4 = {{Flag|Mauritania}}

| pop4 = 1,500,000

| ref4 = {{Cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/mauritania/ |title=Mauritania |access-date=2024-11-05}}

| region5 = {{Flag|Jordan}}

| pop5 = 60,000

| ref5 = http://www.africanviews.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=105 Jordan

| langs = Majority: Arabic
Minority: Hausa{{·}}Fula{{·}}Swahili{{·}}Comorian{{·}}Wolof

| religions = Majority: Islam
Minority: Traditional

| related = Ethnic groups of Africa
Afro-Saudis{{·}}Afro-Palestinians{{·}}Afro-Jordanians{{·}}Al-Muhamashīn{{·}}Afro-Iraqis{{·}}Afro-Syrians{{·}}Afro-Omanis{{·}}Afro-Emiratis{{•}}Sudanese Arabs

}}

Afro-Arabs, African Arabs, or Black Arabs are Arabs who have predominantly or total Sub-Saharan African ancestry. These include primarily minority groups in the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Libya, Western Sahara, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. The term may also refer to various Arab groups in certain African regions.{{Cite web|title=The multiple roots of Emiratiness: the cosmopolitan history of Emirati society|url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/the-multiple-roots-of-emiratiness/|access-date=2020-08-18|website=openDemocracy|language=en}}

Overview

File:Arab resident of the Belgian Congo.jpg

From the 7th century onward Muslim communities were established along the coast of Eritrea and Somalia, subsequently spreading inland. The Arab slave trades, which began in pre-Islamic times but reached their height between 650 AD and 1900 AD, transported millions of African people from the Nile Valley, the Horn of Africa, and the eastern African coast across the Red Sea to Arabia as part of the Red Sea slave trade. Millions more were taken from West Africa and Central Africa across the Sahara as part of the trans-Saharan slave trade.{{cite journal |last1=Richards |first1=Martin |last2=Rengo |first2=Chiara |last3=Cruciani |first3=Fulvio |last4=Gratrix |first4=Fiona |last5=Wilson |first5=James F. |last6=Scozzari |first6=Rosaria |last7=Macaulay |first7=Vincent |last8=Torroni |first8=Antonio |date=April 2003 |title=Extensive Female-Mediated Gene Flow from Sub-Saharan Africa into Near Eastern Arab Populations |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=72 |issue=4 |pages=1058–1064 |doi=10.1086/374384 |pmc=1180338 |pmid=12629598}}

By around the first millennium AD, Persian traders established trading towns on what is now called the Swahili Coast.{{cite journal |last1=Brielle |first1=Esther |display-authors=etal |date=2023 |title=Entwined African and Asian genetic roots of medieval peoples of the Swahili coast |journal=Nature |volume=615 |issue=7954 |pages=866–873 |doi=10.1038/s41586-023-05754-w |quote=A key finding of this study is genetic evidence of admixture at roughly 1000 CE between people of African and people of Persian ancestry. This admixture is consistent with one strand of the history recorded by the Swahili themselves, the Kilwa Chronicle, which describes the arrival of seven Shirazi (Persian) princes on the Swahili coast. At Kilwa, coin evidence has dated a ruler linked to that Shirazi dynasty, Ali bin al-Hasan, to the mid-11th century. Whether or not this history has a basis in an actual voyage, ancient DNA provides direct evidence for Persian-associated ancestry deriving overwhelmingly from males and arriving on the eastern African coast by about 1000 CE. This timing corresponds with archaeological evidence for a substantial cultural transformation along the coast, including the widespread adoption of Islam.|doi-access=free |pmid=36991187 |pmc=10060156 |bibcode=2023Natur.615..866B}}{{cite web |last1=Rothman |first1=Norman |date=2002 |title=Indian Ocean Trading Links: The Swahili Experience |url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1536&context=ccr}}

The Portuguese conquered these trading centers after the discovery of the Cape Road. From the 1700s to the early 1800s, Muslim forces of the Omani empire re-seized these market towns, mainly on the islands of Pemba and Zanzibar. In these territories, Arabs from Yemen and Oman settled alongside the local "African" populations, thereby spreading Islam and establishing Afro-Arab communities.{{sfn|Hinde|1897|p=2}} The Niger-Congo Swahili language and culture largely evolved through these contacts between Arabs and the native Bantu population.{{cite book|title=Tarikh, Volumes 1-2|date=1966|publisher=Longman|page=68|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qVvjAAAAMAAJ|access-date=6 December 2016}}

In the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, descendants of people from the Swahili Coast perform traditional Liwa and Fann at-Tanbura music and dance,{{cite journal |last1=Olsen |first1=Poul Rovsing |title=La Musique Africaine dans le Golfe Persique |trans-title=African Music in the Persian Gulf |language=French |journal=Journal of the International Folk Music Council |date=1967 |volume=19 |pages=28–36 |doi=10.2307/942182 |jstor=942182}} and the mizmar is also played by Afro-Arabs in the Tihamah and Hejaz.{{citation needed|date=June 2015}}

In addition, Stambali of Tunisia{{cite journal|url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/20174467 |title=Black Spirits, White Saints: Music, Spirit Possession, and Sub-Saharans in Tunisia |author=Jankowsky, Richard C. |journal=Ethnomusicology |pages=373–410|date=Fall 2006|volume=50 |issue=3 |publisher=The University of Illinois Press/Ethnomusicology|doi=10.2307/20174467 |jstor=20174467 |s2cid=191924116|url-access=subscription }}

and Gnawa music of Morocco{{cite web|url=https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/gnawa-01170 |title=Gnawa Intangible Cultural Heritage |website=UNESCO |quote=…ceremonies combining ancestral African practices, Arab-Muslim influences and native Berber cultural performances.}} are both ritual music and dances that in part trace their origins to West African musical styles.

Notable Afro-Arabs

File:Omar_Hawsawi.jpg, a Saudi footballer at the 2018 World Cup.]]

See also

{{Portal|Africa}}

Citations

{{Reflist}}

Bibliography

  • {{cite book| last = Hinde | first = Sidney Langford| title = The Fall of the Congo Arabs| publisher = Methuen & Co. | date = 1897| location = London| url = https://archive.org/details/fallofcongoarabs00hind}}
  • {{cite book| editor-last = Mazrui| editor-first = Alamin M.| editor2-last = Mutunga| editor2-first = Willy| title = Debating the African Condition: Race, gender, and culture conflict| publisher = Africa World Press| edition = illustrated| date = 2004| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=3YW5BRT0N9cC| isbn = 9781592211456}}

External links

  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20110427012626/http://arabslavetrade.com/ Arab Slave Trade] Afo-Arab relations and the Arab Slave Trade
  • [http://www.colorq.org/MeltingPot/article.aspx?d=Asia&x=BlackWestAsians "Black Africans in (Arab) West Asia"] - a cited [http://www.ColorQ.org ColorQ.org] essay
  • Prof. Helmi Sharawy, [http://www.ipoaa.com/arab_culture_african_culture.htm Arab Culture and African Culture: ambiguous relations] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724052552/http://www.ipoaa.com/arab_culture_african_culture.htm |date=2021-07-24}}, paper extracted from the book The Dialogue between the Arab culture and other cultures', Arab League, Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation (ALECSO), Tunis, 1999.
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20071030154919/http://www.africa-union.org/root/au/Documents/Decisions/com/28CoM_1987a.pdf Resolution on Afro-arab Co-operation] of The Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity, 23, February 23–28, 1987.
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20081002094307/http://www.iss.co.za/AF/RegOrg/unity_to_union/pdfs/arab/aulasrepmay05.pdf African Union/league of Arab States Inter-secretariat Consultative Meeting On Afro-arab Cooperation], Addis Ababa: 10–12 May 2005.
  • Maho M. Sebiane, « Le statut socio-économique de la pratique musicale aux Émirats arabes unis : la tradition du leiwah à Dubai », Chroniques yéménites, 14, 2007.[http://cy.revues.org/docannexe1500.html] {{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}.
  • [http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/afro-arabian-origins-of-the-early-yemenites-and-their-conquest-and-settlement-of-spain-dana-marniche/ Afro-Arabian origins of the Early Yemenites and their Conquest and Settlement of Spain]

{{Arab diaspora}}

{{African diaspora}}

{{Immigration from Africa}}

Category:Arab ethnic groups

Category:Afro-Asians

Category:Multiracial affairs

Category:Arab world-related lists

Category:Ethnic groups in the Middle East

Category:African diaspora in the Middle East