Africans in India: From Slaves to Generals and Rulers

Africans in India: From Slaves to Generals ad Rulers highlights and accomplishments of some of the Sidis of yesterday. This new exhibition inscribes their fascinating story in the richly diverse history of the global African Diaspora.

Over the course of nearly 20 centuries, millions of East Africans crossed the Indian Ocean and its several seas and adjoining bodies of water in their journey to distant lands, from Arabia and Iraq to India and Sri Lanka. Called Kaffir, Siddi, Habshi, or Zanji, these men, women and children from Sudan in the north to Mozambique in the south Africanized the Indian Ocean world and helped shape the societies they entered and made their own.

The history of India's Africans, called Siddis, is the best known in the region—largely because of the documentation on those who rose to high positions as military commanders. This exhibition presents a unique facet of the African experience in India, one that has not received the recognition it deserves.

This exhibition was organized by The Schomburg Center For Research In Black Culture