!*"Looking At India Through African Eyes" Runoko Rashidi
natt...@ix.netcom.com
Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 16:23:32 -0500
From: Rrashidi <rras...@swbell.net>
"LOOKING AT INDIA THROUGH AFRICAN EYES"
BY RUNOKO RASHIDI*
On April 13, 1999 I returned from a successful tour of India entitled
"Looking at India through African Eyes." It was a sixteen day
educational tour designed to explore the historical, cultural, social
and anthropological components of ancient and modern India from our own
perspective--an African perspective. The tour was coordinated by Allen
Travel Service--an African-American travel service based in Washington,
D.C. that handled all of our travel needs. It was my first tour and my
third trip to India overall. The tour was of historic
significance--being the first such trip planned and actually carried
out. On the tour, accompanied by numerous local people and sixteen
African-American brothers and sisters (all experienced travelers), we
visited many of the significant temples, tombs, castles, palaces,
museums and assorted great monuments in India, including the Taj Majal
(reputedly built out of grief for an Ethiopian woman) and described as
"poetry in marble," Amber Fort and the Palace of the Winds, the National
Museum in New Delhi, the massive Konarak temple in Orissa, the Buddhist
temple caves at Ajanta and the magnificent colossal rock cut temples at
Ellora. In Patna, in Bihar, we stood on the banks of the Ganges River.
We visited the major cities of Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Patna, Calcutta,
Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Trivandrum, Mumbai, Aurangabad and the abandoned
city of Fatehpur Sikri.
Overall the people of India were kind and considerate towards us. The
Black people of India themselves (the original inhabitants of the land)
were wonderful to us and embraced us as family. Among the Black folk we
interacted with were the Dom, Santals, Mundas, Dravidians, Dalits and
Adivasis (Tribals). We visited them in their homes, offices and
villages, rural communities and urban slums, university and academic
settings. During our travels we encountered a mosaic of Christians,
Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Parsis, Sikhs and Animists. Some of them
engaged in the religious practices of our ancient African foreparents.
Sometimes the sense of oneness and community seemed almost mystical and
magical. Most of the time the spiritual connections between us werr
also tangible. Everywhere we went we reestablished bonds of
brotherhood, sisterhood and familyhood. The individuals in our group
were treated like visiting dignitaries, as ambassadors, and I was
treated like a prince. At times it was overwhelming.
We were guests of honor at numerous receptions, cultural programs and
educational forums, many of whom were sponsored or initiated by the
publication Dalit Voice: The Voice of the Persecuted Nationalities
Denied Human Rights, founded and edited by V.T. Rajshekar. Everywhere
the Ancestors and Great Ones were with us. At a major reception in New
Delhi the keynote speaker, Union Health Minister Dalit Ezhilmalai,
focused on the life of Malcolm X. At a program in Bhubaneswar the
moderator, Dr. Radhakant Nayak, who reminded us of John Henrik Clarke,
closed the afternoon with a stirring recital of Claude McKay's glorious
poem of resistance "If We Must Die!" In Trivandrum I was presented with
three ceremonial Ankhs made of coconut shell and adorned with red, black
and green beads. At an airport reception we were greeted with shouts of
"Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!"
We were hosted by Black youth groups who told of their life stories and
village origins, their hopes, their dreams and aspirations. We were
entertained by scores of singers and drummers and dancers. We met with
Black women's groups who performed skits portraying family life and a
vibrant new spirit of resistance to domestic violence and centuries-old
oppression. We visited some of the most downtrodden communities on
earth, witnessed the miseries of the Black Untouchables of India and
were guests on university campuses. In a program in Chennai we were
hosted by Bishop Ezra Sargunam of the Evangelical Church of India where
I was the guest speaker with Dr. K. Ponmudy, a major Dravidian scholar,
in a program designed to address the Black and Dravidian movements.
In Orissa I saw and photographed the blackest human beings I've ever
seen. In fact, it was my impression that the blackest people were here
the most highly esteemed and considered better than the others who were
not so dark! In one city, at an elaborate and heartfelt public
ceremony, we presented school supplies to the entire student body of an
aspiring educational institution followed by cash contributions for the
continuation of the work. We saw ourselves not merely as tourists but at
visiting family members come to try to make things better.
"Looking at India through African Eyes" was a resounding success and an
incredible high. I came away from India convinced that African people
around the world are on the rise and that there is a revolution going on
in the hearts, souls and minds of Black people everywhere. It was a
great triumph and for me personally clearly only the the first in a
series of tours to India and other sojourns with African people around
the world. Africans Unite!
*Runoko Rashidi is an historian, lecturer, and world traveller engaged
in a love affair with Africa. To schedule lectures, order audio and
video tapes, and get information on upcoming tours contact Rashidi at:
RRas...@swbell.net or call (210) 648-5178.