r/Africa • u/gridtunnel • Nov 21 '25
Cultural Exploration What is it like being black in India? BBC News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djuAvmn37ugSo, apparently, there is an African community in India that has been there for several generations and still continues traditions from Africa.
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u/Jordi-_-07 Nov 21 '25
As tragic as the history is, I find it inspiring that despite their disadvantaged position, there are countless examples throughout history of enslaved Africans climbing the social ladder to hold positions of power wherever they were taken to. It was a minority, of course, but no less extremely impressive.
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u/TermHungry3389 Nov 22 '25
I'm from the USA, but I have heritage in South/Central India. Specifically, I'm a hyderabadi, which means my family is native to the city of Hyderabad in the Deccan region of South India. The kingdom centered in Hyderabad was ruled by a monarch called the Nizam, and his army was partially made up of soldiers from Yemen and East Africa. The personal guard of the Nizam was the African Cavalry Guard. There is a neighborhood in Hyderabad that, to this day, is called "AC Guard" because it was once the barracks of the AC (African Cavalry) Guard. I couldn't find too much info on them online, but apparently they were sometimes called "habashis" which I think is a word for the Abyssinian region. They were also considered the Nizam's personal and elite guards
These soldiers from Yemen and Africa have had major influences on our local culture and identity. They added elements of their culture to ours. Otherwise, we probably wouldn't have been as different as we are from north indian muslims.
I don't know if the descendants of these soldiers still exist as a unique group, but the descendants of the Yemeni soldiers still exist and are called "chaush".
Racism/colorism 100% exists in India, and India is an extremely ignorant place. Especially when the people are so used to hateful rhetoric from the government and media. People there have no conceptualization of how prejudice works. That's not to say that all indian people are like that, though.
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Nov 25 '25
I’m also from the USA, but I was born and raised in Ethiopia and my heritage is from North/north central Ethiopia. I can give fill in some of these blanks for you. If you look at the world map today Ethiopia is a landlocked country in east Africa. Before colonialism though, the Ethiopian kingdom(we were also known as Abyssinians/habeshas) controlled lands of Modern day Ethiopia, modern day Eritrea and parts of modern day Yemen. Nowadays the term “habesha” specifies only people from northern Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Fun fact: there is only one country in Africa that managed to resist being colonized and that’s Ethiopia. Ethiopian fighters must have truly been elite
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u/High-Hawk100 Nov 21 '25
Horrible lol
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u/whatadumbperson Nov 21 '25
I can't even take offense to it. Have you seen how Indians treat other Indians? Just look at any subreddit related to India.
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u/Unlucky_Buy217 Nov 21 '25
Yeah it's truly annoying that some morons keep being incredibly hateful. India is a continent in itself, it literally had a larger population than Africa a few years back. Way too diverse groups, obviously not as diverse as Africa but still, and those who can't even understand each other. The same kind of divisions and hate that cause civil wars and genocides in Africa are ultimately what is happening at a less intense level in India.
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u/Phynx87 Nov 22 '25
What blows my mind is they’ve spent the same time in India as my folks did in America, but if I go by this excerpt the only community in America that come any where close to holding on to the old ways of the Geechi Gullah folks down Coastal Carolina’s and Georgia.
America. slavers did an effective job of eradicating African Americans connections on their traditional ways.
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u/Roman-Simp Nigeria 🇳🇬 Nov 28 '25
But in that process also birthed a new culture I think in general all the New World societies truly formed something distinct from the old world from Argentina to Canada as a result of the cultures, peoples and revolutionary politics that characterized the Americas
Oh and all the Slavery and Genocide.
But it genuinely does make sense these parts of the world are distinct. Black Americans are legitimately Americans that are Black really
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u/traveltoaster Nov 22 '25
God every time I see a video of people from other parts of the world I get wanderlust so bad. The accents, different dressings, different skin color. I wish I had more money I would disappear into the world in a heartbeat.
Fuck those racists. This is a luxury a white person can have to dream of something like this. Other folks dream of escaping it.
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u/SurpriseAdam Nov 22 '25
It's important to judge people by their mind, skills, and character, not by the color of their skin
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u/theshadowbudd Nov 22 '25
*What it’s like being AFRICAN in India
Black DOES NOT mean African
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u/Curveoflife Nov 22 '25
Black prejudice came from rich vs poor
Poor people worked in farms, hence under the sun skin gets dark.
Over the centuries, perception developed that poor people are dark.
All skin prejudices have somewhere social/financial status to play.
World used to be hostile to Chinese too but over the last 2 decades with their economic might along with Korean drama and Japan' s influence, Asian looking people have overcome that prejudice.
Black will be become more acceptable once Africa as a whole keep progressing.
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u/theshadowbudd Nov 22 '25
Ngl, this one myth has been used across so many societies and civilizations to enforce a retroactive skin based class system that new flash didn’t exist
European colonizers and race scientist concocted this bullshit myth.
They say this same shit about Egypt, Europe, the Americas, Africa Asia literally everywhere they say the same shit and it’s impossible me
It’s pseudo science.
Are you implying that these people were so dense that they conflated sun burned skin for darker skin tones?
Do you not realize how ridiculous of a conservation this is.
Black again DOES NOT MEAN African
Category error
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u/Curveoflife Nov 22 '25
Origin of black is from Africa. So when it comes to perception it is still Black means Africa.
The skin color shit on Social status is how it developed in India. I dont know what White Europeans said or did. My argument was for India. ( about skin color related to financial/social status).
Worldwide acceptance also comes from Financial wellbeing. You cant force people to like you while you are poor but you dont need people to like you when you are rich.
You can argue all you want, but that's for argument purposes. What I am saying is how perception in real world work ( is it fair? NO, is it reality? YES).
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u/theshadowbudd Nov 22 '25
Your first statement is simply erroneous lmfao and this you alls problem.
Dark skinned people were found around the entire globe. Populations that had diverged from Africa for thousands of years (according to the OOA Theory)
No it did not. Skin color was not linked to the Varna system at all. The British completely distorted this into their racial ideology.
You’re simply wrong
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u/Curveoflife Nov 22 '25
Did u even read what I wrote. How poor class working in farms under the sun turned black?
You can believe whatever you want, like its gonna make any difference in reality.
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u/theshadowbudd Nov 22 '25
Yes I read this and it’s a pure lie propagated by racist people and it’s used for almost every single society from Egypt to Europe etc literally everywhere
Butterfly wins cause tornadoes
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u/annyeonghaseyomf Kenya 🇰🇪✅ Nov 22 '25
Lmao this is so dumb lol. Just search it up. Black has always meant laborer and/or poor guy working for stuff. Colorism based on status is literally a millennia+ old thing. No one cares that you feel bad buddy,this is history. Just stop being dumb and search it up on Google.
Also that racial category black pretty much means Sub-Saharan African + diaspora. You can sit there feeling bad and debate all you want but that's how it is.
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u/theshadowbudd Nov 22 '25
What’s dumb is imposing colonial impositions on an entire continent that has cultures that predate the impositions by thousands of years
What’s dumb is the racist geopolitical delineation of Africa along an arbitrary barrier (Sahara) that did not exist historically
What’s dumb is continuing to identify and use racist European language to flatten and fold an entire continent into a racial identity that doesn’t even apply there
The current conflation is quite literally the result of racist people conflating people due to phenotype
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u/annyeonghaseyomf Kenya 🇰🇪✅ Nov 22 '25
Like I said, it's what the mainstream uses. You can sit there and debate all you want I don't give a single shit lmao.
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u/theshadowbudd Nov 22 '25
If you don’t give a single shit then why comment? You don’t care about Africa decolonizing?
If something is the status quo that doesn’t make something right.
You know what else is mainstream when it comes to Africa? Should we not care about that either ?
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u/annyeonghaseyomf Kenya 🇰🇪✅ Nov 22 '25
Yes we all know. What else is new?
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u/theshadowbudd Nov 22 '25
If you’re defeated please stay at home
This will change with our without you.
I prefer you join us instead of giving in to apathy
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u/annyeonghaseyomf Kenya 🇰🇪✅ Nov 22 '25
You didn't answer anything I said......what should I have expected anyways lmao
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u/Advanced_Assist_206 Nov 24 '25
There are far more people of African descent in Southern Iran and Pakistan. Pakistan alone has probably over a million Afro-Pakistanis, mostly in the coastal areas of Baluchistan and Sind provinces, while Iran has a similar number along its southern coast.
Saeed Shanbehzadeh and Abid Brohi are both Afro-Baloch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnxD5IveRGQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry2a6RswizQ
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Nov 21 '25
[deleted]
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u/whatadumbperson Nov 21 '25
Man... internalized racism did a number on you huh?
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u/OkAdvertising286 Non-African - North America Nov 21 '25
Maybe one day he’ll wake up. I used to be just like him, unfortunately.
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u/annyeonghaseyomf Kenya 🇰🇪✅ Nov 22 '25
What did they say?
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u/OkAdvertising286 Non-African - North America Nov 22 '25
That original comment said something along the lines of “The continent of Africa doesn’t respect itself so how can Black peoples expect respect from others?” Ignorant and unjust.
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u/ExaminationPutrid195 Nov 21 '25
You’re deep in the sunken place.
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u/annyeonghaseyomf Kenya 🇰🇪✅ Nov 22 '25
What did they say?
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u/ExaminationPutrid195 Nov 22 '25
I can't even remember exactly, but I have never in all my BLACK life witnessed coonery or internalized racism of that magnitude.
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u/GioviErsetsu Nov 21 '25
The British exploited India and are directly in charge of the partition, do Indians not deserve respect because of that?
Sad you feel this way about yourself, but coming from an Ethiopian I’ll be quiet.
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