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Afro-Arabs

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"African Arabs" redirects here. For Arabs living in North Africa, see North African Arabs.
"Afro-Arab" redirects here. Not to be confused with the Africa-Arabian Peninsula relations of the African Union.
Afro-Arabs
عرب أفارقة
A montage of notable native Afro-Arabs.
Regions with significant populations
Gulf States, Levant, North Africa, Yemen, East African Swahili Coast, West African Sahel
 Sudan30,800,000 (70%)[1]
 Yemen3,500,000 (12%)[2]
 Saudi Arabia3,478,376 (10%)[3]
 Oman750,000 (15%)
 Mauritania1,500,000 (40%)
Languages
Arabic, Teda, Hausa, Fula, Swahili, Nubian, Coptic, Comorian
Religion
Majority Islam
Related ethnic groups
Afro-Saudis, Afro-Palestinians, Afro-Jordanians, Al-Akhdam, Afro-Iraqis, Afro-Syrians, Afro-Omanis

Afro-Arabs are Arabs of full or partial Black African descent. These include populations within mainly the Sudanese, Yemenis, Saudis, Omanis, Sahrawis, Mauritanians, Algerians and Moroccans with considerably long established communities in Arab states such as Palestine, Iraq, Syria and Jordan.[4]

Overview

Afro-Arab man of the Congo (ca. 1942).

South Arabia and Africa have been in contact, starting with the obsidian exchange networks of the 7th millennium BC. These networks were strengthened by the rise of Egyptian dynasties of the 4th millennium BC. Scientists have indicated the likely existence of settlements in Arabia, from the people of the Horn of Africa, as early as 3rd and 2nd millenniums BC.[5]

The Afro-Arabian Tihama culture, which originated in Africa, began in the 2nd millennium. This cultural complex is found within Africa in countries such as Somalia, Ethiopia, and Sudan, as well as in Yemen and the Saudi coastal plains. In the 1st millennium BC, Southern Arabs gained control of the Red Sea trade routes and established the first kingdom, Saba, in Yemen at around 800 BC. As a result, modern-day Ethiopia were gradually incorporated into the area of Arabian influence. In 600 BC the formation of the Ethio-Sabean state of Daamat on the Tigrean plateau arose. “The archaeological evidence suggests that this is likely to have been the result of small-scale colonization by several Arabian groups (including Sabeans) and acculturation of the indigenous population.”[6]

After several centuries of isolation, the Kingdom of Aksum arose in 100 AD. Aksum survived for 800 years and occupied southern Arabia for part of this period. Utilitarian Aksumite pottery has been found in large quantities in deposits from the 5th and 6th centuries in the Yemen Hadramawt, suggesting that there may have been substantial immigration during that period.

Southern Arabia was a client state of the Aksumite kingdom throughout the 6th century. Himyarite inscriptions document an invasion of Mecca by an ambitious Aksumite general named Abraha (Tigrinya: አብርሃ) in the year 570 AD.[7] An early incident in post Islamic Afro-Arab relations was known as the First Hegira was (Arabic: الهجرة إلى الحبشة, al-hijra ʾilā al-habaša), also (Arabic: هِجْرَة, hijrah), was an episode in the early history of Islam, where Prophet Muhammad's first followers (the Sahabah) fled from the persecution of the ruling Quraysh tribe of Mecca. They sought refuge in the Christian Kingdom of Aksum, present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea (formerly referred to as Abyssinia, an ancient name whose origin is debated),[8] In 9 BH (613 AD) or 7 BH (615 AD). The Aksumite monarch who received them is referred to as (Arabic: نجاشي, najāšī) Ashama ibn Abjar or the Negus. Modern historians have alternatively identified him with King Armah and Ella Tsaham.[9] Some of the exiles returned to Mecca and made the hijra to Medina with Muhammad, while others remained in Abyssinia until they came to Medina in 628. The mosque which they established is called the Mosque of the Companions (Arabic: مَسْجِد ٱلصَّحَابَة, romanized: Masjid aṣ-Ṣaḥābah) is a mosque in the city of Massawa, Eritrea. Dating to the early 7th century AD, it is believed to be the first mosque on the African continent.[10] Many companions settled after Islam became established in the Arabian peninsula and the descendants of these companions still reside in the region.

By around the 1st millennium AD Bantu fishermen established trading towns on what is now called Swahili Coast which between the tenth and twelfth century become Arabized.[11] 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 reseized these market towns, especially 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.[12] The Niger-Congo Swahili language and culture largely evolved through these contacts between Arabs and the native Bantu population.[13]

Afro-Arab communities were similarly founded in the Nile Valley, as Arabs intermarried with indigenous tribes of Sudan.[14] However, many other Afro-Arabs in the Sudans had little biological connection to Arab peoples, but were instead essentially of Nilotic origins, albeit influenced by the old Arabian civilization in language and culture.[15] Similarly, in North Africa, Arabs had close connections to the native Africans, however, racial discrimination still plays a major role on segregating Afro-Arabs from mainstream Arab population, as found in Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and Morocco.[16][17][18][19]

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.[20] The mizmar is also performed by Afro-Arabs in the Tihamah and Hejaz.[citation needed] The ancestors of these Africans were originally brought to the Persian Gulf as slaves. But today they are fully recognised citizens of the Persian Gulf States, despite the fact that they do not have any Arab ancestry.

In addition, Stambali of Tunisia and Gnawa music of Morocco are both ritual music and dances, which in part trace their origins to West African musical styles.

List of Afro-Arabs

See also

Citations

  1. ^ "Are Sudanese Arabs?". 4 December 2020.
  2. ^ "Yemen's Al-Akhdam face brutal oppression". Archived from the original on 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2013-11-29.
  3. ^ "Saudi Arabia - The World Factbook". www.cia.gov. Retrieved 2021-07-17.
  4. ^ "The multiple roots of Emiratiness: the cosmopolitan history of Emirati society". openDemocracy. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  5. ^ Richards, Martin; Rengo, Chiara; Cruciani, Fulvio; Gratrix, Fiona; Wilson, James F.; Scozzari, Rosaria; Macaulay, Vincent; Torroni, Antonio (April 2003). "Extensive Female-Mediated Gene Flow from Sub-Saharan Africa into Near Eastern Arab Populations". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 72 (4): 1058–1064. doi:10.1086/374384. PMC 1180338. PMID 12629598.
  6. ^ Fattovich R (1997) The Near East and eastern Africa: their interaction. In: Vogel JO (ed) Encyclopedia of precolonial Africa. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, pp 479–484
  7. ^ Iwona Gajda: Le royaume de Ḥimyar à l’époque monothéiste. L’histoire de l’Arabie ancienne de la fin du ive siècle de l’ère chrétienne jusqu’à l’avènement de l’Islam. Paris 2009, pp. 142–146.
  8. ^ E. A. Wallis Budge (Aug 1, 2014). A History of Ethiopia: Volume I: Nubia and Abyssinia. Routledge. pp. vii.
  9. ^ M. Elfasi, Ivan Hrbek (1988). Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century. UNESCO. p. 560.
  10. ^ "Liste des premières mosquées au monde prophètique, rashidun et omeyyade selon les écris historique et les traces archéologiques". Histoire Islamique (in French). 2014-06-15. Retrieved 2017-09-24.
  11. ^ Spear, Thomas (2000). "Early Swahili History Reconsidered". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 33 (2): 257–290. doi:10.2307/220649. JSTOR 220649.
  12. ^ Hinde 1897, p. 2.
  13. ^ Tarikh, Volumes 1-2. Longman. 1966. p. 68. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  14. ^ Mazrui 2014, p. 77
  15. ^ Guarak 2011, pp. 7, 401.
  16. ^ "Tunisia's Dirty Secret". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  17. ^ "No. 900: Arab's race denial".
  18. ^ "'Libyans don't like people with dark skin, but some are innocent'". The Independent. 2011-10-23. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  19. ^ "Miss Algeria beauty queen Khadija Ben Hamou hits back at racist abuse". BBC News. 2019-01-09. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  20. ^ Olsen, Poul Rovsing (1967). "La Musique Africaine dans le Golfe Persique" [African Music in the Persian Gulf]. Journal of the International Folk Music Council (in French). 19: 28–36. doi:10.2307/942182. JSTOR 942182.

References

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