African Villages in Iran

An Afro-Iranian woman

Some relate Africans of Iran to the Thonga-Bantu cultures of southeastern Africa and it is said that these blacks were brought to the Persian Gulf by Portuguese slave traders as early as the sixteenth century, they are called Ahl-i Hava (Followers of the winds), they worship the Winds and drink the fresh blood because they believe that the drinking of fresh blood will bring down the Wind! However they are very poor people and may look uncivilized but native Iranians of southern Iran have been greatly influenced by African culture of these peoples, for example popular music of Bandari which is considered to be an Iranian or Arabic music, is in fact an African music. (a sample of Bandari Music)

There are two types of African villages in Iran:

1.Toup-Neshin:

Entrance to a "toup", house of palm branches. Walls of these houses are covered with a mixture of straw and mud and their ceiling is covered by "daz" (fan palm) leaves.

An African village in Lashar

2.Kapar-Neshin:

A "kapar", I think it can not be called a house but just a large wooden tent.

An African village in Chabahar

Edited by Cyrus Shahmiri

Iraq has even more, they even had a massive slave rebellion and its own dynasty back int eh day, the Zenj rebellion I think.

These types of African villages can be just found in Baluchistan of Iran and Pakistan (In Pakistan they are called Sidi ->Pakistan's Sidi keep heritage alive)

You can see the influence of African architecture in this huge castle in the Baluchistan of Iran:

Saba Castle in Saravan

Hmm IIRC this was in Pakistan, Karachi to be precise, they are relativly Indianised, but still retain a sprinking of some African traditions.

Originally posted by chessrook1 That�s interesting. There was a BBC article awhile back about black people in India who are of African origin. Their ancestors were sold as slaves I think by European or Muslim merchants to serve as bodyguards or workers to India�s rulers (I forgot their title). I don�t have the article link at the moment but their descendents are now completely "Indianized" now.

I don't know if the situation has changed now but there was a big controversy surrounding them some time back. While they were no-longer slaves since the 19th century Pakistan still had inherited debt laws and these people were bonded labour for life, generation after generation on debt of there ancestors since the abolishion of slavery.

yes, in Iraq it was.

Everyday I learn something new. I never knew that black african slaves were sold to the Middle East and India; I only knew of their presence in North Africa and America.

I have seen darker people (Really black not brown) in Bandar Abbas, and they spoke arabic not Iranian or african language. I think they came with Arabs and settled on very southern Iran. Arabs were famous for having African slaves and selling slave back then.