by Prahelika Deka

‘The Present is the key to the Past’. The Indian diaspora in Africa, consisting of about and above 3 million people in the present times, is symbolic of how the globally emergent nation’s people, ideas, and trades are moving and settling abroad in phases. Analysing the flow of the Indian diaspora particularly in Africa, the colonial Indians moved under three main capacities: (i) the indentured worker in sugar colonies of the Caribbean, Oceania, and Africa, (ii) Under Kangani / maistry system to Malaysia and Ceylon, and (iii) free or passenger Indians primarily in East Africa (Dubey, 2010).

A deeper dig into the history would reveal that the Indians were first sent/brought to Africa as slaves who were subsequently considered as agricultural help as the economy started to flourish. However, ever since Gandhi, the father of India, migrated to South Africa for educational and legal pursuits, the concentration of the Indian Gujarati communities, especially, has been extremely prominent in the nineteenth-century South African landscape. In fact, Gandhi’s stay in South Africa is so monumental in the history of apartheid that Nelson Mandela stated “India gave us M.K. Gandhi, we gave you back Mahatma Gandhi after two decades. Mahatma Gandhi was an apostle of Non-Violence.”

Gujaratis (from different regions of Kutch, Ahmedabad, Surat, etc) have followed the Indian trading routes and are making a name for themselves in trade and mercantilism particularly in East and Southern Africa. Fast forward to the twenty-first century, Indian car manufacturing companies, for instance, are winning in the African automobile industry. Topped by ‘Mahindra and Mahindra’ and Tata Motors, these Indian companies provide relatively affordable cars as compared to the luxurious Italian counterparts like Ferrari or Pagani. In fact, by 2016, the total turnover of the Indian automobile industry in Africa grew 3.6 times to $122 from $34 Billion in 2006.

The migration dynamics do not just confine to business and retailing but also to a plethora of other purposes: religious, political, cultural, or educational for that matter. For instance, among 160 countries that come to India for educational purposes, the highest chunk is occupied by African nationals. One acquaintance of mine, from Malawi, who had taken admission last year amid the pandemic in one of the leading institutions of India and is now attending classes online, admits how highly he thinks of India as a nation. And that many Africans he knows of, including his relatives too, looked up to the India model for tackling the pandemic (of course, this was before the second wave hit India). Whereas, countries like Tanzania have had already stopped reporting Covid statistics given the fact that its President Magufuli does not believe in the existence of this novel coronavirus disease.

Again, multiple reports have been found on how Yoga, which is predominantly associated with the Indian subcontinent since the bygone age, has been infused into the African way of life. Yoga is now promoted and embraced, especially in the developed nations like that of South Africa, since it is seen as a response to challenges like theft, substance abuse, violence or poverty. Today, African Yoga gurus have earned global acceptance and are influential in the USA too.

Classic Bollywood stars and movies have been figuratively eminent in African households. Oxford Research Encyclopaedias for African History states that the presence of Bollywood in Africa should be studied under the broader cultural and commodity exchanges between the nation and the continent and is based on colonial connections, Indian diasporic networks, regional trading linkages, and audience tastes. As such, it was as early as the 1920s that Mombasa in Kenya (East Africa) first saw the arrival of silent Bollywood movies when one textile trader, Mohanlal Savani imported a projector to show Indian films in a rented warehouse there. However, it is necessary to mention that recent times have seen a swift decline of Bollywood because piracy of these movies has become rampant. This partially, though, explains that Indian movies were actually so in demand in Africa that they were pirated on a humongous scale (not that I am not endorsing piracy here)!

Today, the Indian communities in Africa are rightfully regarded for their skills, contributions, adoption as well as adaptation to the African culture. Having migrated for a diverse range of reasons years ago, be it religious, economic, or ethnic, the acceptance that the migrants received in Africa however were sundry. The newly decolonised Indian Africans were met with humiliation from the natives, at times expelled from jobs, and discriminated on social grounds as well which led to their emigration to countries like Suriname, Mauritius, and Fiji. However, they also had positions of power in governance, law, and/or finance, especially in South Africa. In the present times, neither is the Indian government ignorant about both the contributions of Africans in India and Indians in Africa. Lastly, I cannot help but ponder if perhaps it is this realisation about how potential African diaspora is in India, Indian diaspora in Africa has also come to be well acknowledged.

About the Author:

Prahelika Deka is currently pursuing her Masters from University of Delhi. She has a keen interest in academic research. She has also volunteered for various social and environmental causes. She is a  travel enthusiast and an environmental pragmatist.