In 1998, Pashinton Obeng, who teaches Africana studies at Wellesley and at Harvard traveled to India to spend time in a monastery at the Syrian Orthodox Church in Cochin, Kerala . At the monastery, he was told that there were people in the hills who resembled him closely. Intrigued, Obeng who is an African American embarked on a trail of discovery – finding out possible descendant of Africans in India. For two months he traveled to various places in Southern India from Trichy to Madurai and into the hilly regions of Karnataka. It was here that he came across a tribal population who resembled people from Africa and in his constant interaction with them was able to trace their origins to the original inhabitants.
In his most recent book titled Shaping Membership, Defining Nation: The Cultural Politics of African Indians in South Asia (Lexington Books, 2007) Obeng explores the history, faith and cultural practices of the Karnataka African Indians, also known as the Siddis or Habshis.
Your recent book, Shaping Membership, Defining Nation: Could you elaborate on how it took shape?
Some time back, Dr Omaha Halideer from MIT sent me a picture of tribal people in India who had distinct African features. In 1998 I went to India on a sabbatical and met people who said they have seen others whose hair resembled my own. I decided to explore and find out more about them. I have since made numerous visits to India and the book is a result of my research. The Africans from Karnataka are called Siddhis or Habshis, possibly from the word Sayeed, the leader of the Omani Arabs who brought slaves from East Africa to India.
What did you discover during your visits?
Despite the fact that African Indians have been in India for almost five hundred years, they are a marginalized group of people and are struggling to create their own identity. They are barely educated and are mostly found in the tribal regions and have no access to urban resources and amenities. There are more than 40,000 of such Africans Indians who can be found in Gujarat , Hyderabad and Karnataka, but I have visited only those who live in Karnataka, a state in South India. In recent times they have shown their presence through the creativity of street theater, music, and drama, to assert themselves and demand land rights.
How have they been shaped by their identities and the environment?
As forest dwellers and agricultural laborers, the African Indians have intimate knowledge of their environment. Their vast and useful knowledge of the forest and with the local environment has finally been recognized and in January of 2003, the Government of India has accorded them the status of "scheduled tribes," a status that would entitle them to legal claim to their habitat, the forest area. Besides this, the united church of Christ and the Jesuits have been extremely supportive of their issues. In 2006 there was a conference in Goa where issues relating to their status and their problems were discussed. I think it is a good start and hopefully scholars and active African Indians will be able to shape their identity and have their voice heard through such discussions.
You wrote that the Princeton seminary sharpened your awareness of cultures of the rich and famous as well as those of the marginalized. Can you explain that?
When I came to study theology at the Princeton Seminary, I was not fully prepared to appreciate my African roots. It was here that I was sensitized to understand and appreciate people who are marginalized from society and it sharpened my awareness of cultures including my own that have gone through such experiences. My trips to India are an example of this awareness. They have not only been a source of intellectual curiosity for me but a way of self discovery.
Pashinton Obeng is a graduate of the University of Ghana and of Trinity College and earned a Ph.D. at Boston University, specializing in religion and cultural communication. He is also a graduate of Princeton Seminary in New Jersey, where he studied for his master's in theological anthropology and communication. Obeng has done postdoctoral studies at the Center for the Study of World Religions and the Afro-American Studies Department, both at Harvard University, and at St. Antony's College, Oxford University, England. He is the author of Asante Catholicism: Religions and Cultural Reproduction among the Akan of Ghana and numerous articles on religion, culture and African Diaspora studies.
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