Siddi
Country · India
African-descended communities in India for more than seven hundred years — traders, sailors and soldiers as often as the enslaved.
Siddi at a glance
- Country
- India
- Main centres
- Karnataka (Uttara Kannada) · Gujarat · Hyderabad · Janjira
- Region
- South Asia
- How many
- Tens of thousands, in three main regions
- Languages
- Konkani · Gujarati · Urdu · Kannada
- Dialling code
- +91
The African connection
Malik Ambar, born in Ethiopia and sold into slavery, rose to rule the Ahmadnagar sultanate and held off the Mughals for decades. The Siddis of Janjira ran an island fortress the Marathas never took. Siddi Goma drumming survives in Gujarat.
Key dates for Siddi
The dates this community marks — independence, emancipation, and the festivals that fill a hall wherever its people have settled.
Diaspora meets diaspora
AfricAsia began with Africans in Asia. The same story runs through every entry in this section — people of African descent building a life a long way from where their ancestors started.
If you are from Siddi and you are anywhere in Asia — studying, working, playing, passing through — there are people here who will know what you are asking before you finish the question.
Every Asian country →The Siddi channel
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Open the channel →