Afro-Asian Studies: An Important Understudied Field

A new area of interdisciplinary study I must learn more about is African-Asian encounters and exchange, both historically and in the present. Perhaps growing up with a half-Chinese brother was an influence on my interest in the subject, but taking a course with professor Michael Thornton at UW about mutual perceptions and intergroup relations of people of color in the United States, which focused on African-American relations with Latinos and Asian/Americans, was an even larger influence. Prior to that course, I had already developed a keen interest in African diasporic studies in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States, as well as a special interest to Africa, particularly pre-colonial Africa. Moreover, the field of African-Asian Studies is particularly relevant to our post-colonial (even if neocolonialism obviously perpetuates the older set of relations between the Global South and the North) world as diasporic communities of Africa and Asia mingle in the metropolitan centers of the former hegemonic powers as well as increasing trade, collaboration, and cultural encounters among African, Asian, and Latin American states increases. In addition, within the centers of former (and current) empire, such as the U.S., interactions between and among people of color may alter the white-black binary in upcoming decades (unless you adhere to black exceptionalism in U.S. racism), as one can see in the case of certain cities in the U.S. in California or New York, as well as London (I am thinking of the collective 'blackness' of South Asians and Africans/Afro-Caribbeans in the UK, who at times are both referred to as 'black,' as well as evidence of Japanese-Americans and African-Americans engaging in anti-racist organizing and radical political coalitions through organizations such as the Black Panthers, etc.). 

Besides social, political, and economic ramifications of increased global exchange between and among people of African and Asian descent both at home and in the diaspora from North to South, Afro-Asian studies is useful for academic inquiry into the presence, history, cultural creolization, and bidirectional influence Africa and Asia exchanged before, during, and after formal European colonial rule. These relations, of course, increased exponentially during and after the rise of European hegemony, against the will of some Africans and Asians while, in some cases, with direct participation of others, but, for me, the pre-colonial relationships are more interesting since so little is known or understood. As the above map indicates, Chinese porcelain and other products found their way well into the interior of Eastern Africa, stretching from the Sudan to what is now South Africa. The map also indicates possible locations along the East African coast that Chinese records occasionally alluded to, some dating back as far as the 8th or 9th centuries. To me, this is particularly interesting as it, well, for instance, indicates African agency, long-distance trade, and cultural and material interactions of local communities from the East African coast to the hinterland and deep into the interior or southeastern Africa, several centuries before the establishment of Portuguese and other European traders along the eastern coast of Africa. Furthermore, it contributes to the dismantling of white supremacist, Eurocentric historical narratives which, unfortunately, persist to this day. Evidence of Asian/African encounters also includes the presence of African slaves, pilgrims, traders, and travelers in Asia, such as potential Aksumite-affiliated traders in Sri Lanka and South Asia, enslaved African-descendants in India and Iran, cultural mixing in some Swahili architecture along the East African coast, and, in the case of Christian Ethiopia, influences from Indian Hindu art and religious symbolism in the Churches of Lalibela and triptychs of a religious nature. Naturally, Chinese and Asian silks, innovations, and artistic and religious symbolism likely impacted many parts of North Africa, too.

Image from a post by Eccentric Yoruba, possible depiction of an African "kunlun" slave in China

As I have blogged about here, East Asian regions such as the archipelago of Japan acquired substantial direct contact with Africans, through Portuguese, Dutch, and, eventually, American racist lens. Thus, the colonial period illustrates the spread of Western European racial theories, perceptions of Africa and African-descendants, and a "West is best" outlook of world cultures and civilizations (despite waves of Sinophilia or Japanophilia in places like France, for instance, other other parts of western Europe) spread to parts of Asia where some cultures in East and Southeast Asia had very little to no conception of experience with Africa, the ramifications of which persist through the recycling of Western European and North American-derived stereotypes, racist films and marketing, and old-fashioned, outdated racial pseudoscience. My aforementioned blog post endeavors to illustrate this rather nasty development through images of dark-skinned and African peoples in Japan from the 16th century to the 20th century, which undoubtedly adopt more Western sambo and racist depictions of Africa, Africans, and the African diaspora, which survives in Japanese popular culture's anime and manga, advertizing, and Japanese ethnocentrism. I am confident a similar analysis could be made in the case of China, or other parts of Asia, such as India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea, and other Southeast Asian nations (particularly during and after WWII, where Black soldiers from Africa and the US served). So, one can analyze relations and mutual perceptions between the two regions under the aegis of white supremacist world empire within Africa and Asia, as well as the relationships that existed between the two continents and their peoples in terms of the colonized Americas.

The Caribbean's post-emancipation societies in Trinidad, Guyana, and other parts of the Americas sought to exploit "coolie" labor to ensure the survival of the plantation system and/or cheap labor (the U.S. and the exploitation of Chinese workers for the continental railroad expansion, for instance, stands out, especially since the history of relations between the Chinese and African-Americans in the 19th century is mostly ignored and understudied (except for a great essay on the Chinese-American community in Mississippi that worked so hard to assimilate itself into the White, Anglo-Southern identity of the state). Interactions between Afro-Caribbean and Indian indentured labor in the Caribbean are also of interest for Afro-Asian studies, particularly regarding politics, anti-colonial movements in Trinidad and Guyana, race, and music, such as Trinidadian soca, which blends Indian and Afro-Caribbean influences such as calypso. Or perhaps in Peru and Brazil, where some small Japanese groups settled, provide another case study in Afro-Peruvian and Afro-Brazilian interactions with Japanese and other Asian-descended communities, another area of Afro-Asian exchange understudied. Of course, their movements around solidarity, racial justice, and cultural métissage
in other 'former' imperial centers, such as Desi hip-hop in Chicago or New York, or Trinidadian and Guyanese dougla and other "Blasian" peoples of the world, such as Malagasy, some South African coloureds (at least half of all slaves from the Cape were from Indonesia, India, and Sri Lanka, the other half mostly from Mozambique, East Africa, Madagascar, the latter a zone of Afro-Austronesia/Asian interactions throughout it's human history).

As for the present, China's increasing economic exchanges with Africa is of note, as well as relations between various African regions and India, or the current experiences and struggles of India's Siddis and Sri Lanka's "Kaffirs," minority populations descended from Africans over the last several centuries, mostly slaves. One can also look at the influence of Bollywood in Africa, such as the Senegalese groups of Indophiles or the depiction of Africa and African-descended peoples in Indian film and popular culture. Alternatively, one could focus on youth culture and identities, particularly in the case of "Blasians" in prominent positions or well-known (Tiger Woods, that's you!) or Asian rappers from India, Japan, or anywhere across the globe. Indeed, one could focus on a multitude of various cultural, musical, political, economic, religious, social, and linguistic encounters and mixing that have impacted Afro-Asian relations from ancient history to the unequally 'globalized' 21st century. That's why I love Afro-Asian studies as an academic field, because it challenges the Eurocentric mainstream narratives of world history and race, as well as troubling the narrowly focused lens of African Studies, Chinese Studies, etc. It reveals the intersectional framework's suitability for integrating area studies while illustrating the need for interdisciplinary collaboration and revision of established schools of thought on intergroup relations, race and critical race theory and studies, sociology, ethnomusicology, hip-hop and jazz, slavery studies, and economic and political theory.

Good suggestions for reading are the following:
1. India in Africa, Africa in India: Indian Ocean Cosmopolitanisms
2. Vijay Prashad has written extensively on the subject
3. A book entitled Bengali Harlem tells the unknown story of South Asian immigrants in early 20th century urban American communities who married African-American and Puerto Rican women.
4. This link is quite useful and includes images on Africans in the Indian Ocean world
5. Julie Wilensky wrote a brilliant essay on the subject, "The Magical Kunlun and “Devil Slaves”:
Chinese Perceptions of Dark-skinned People and Africa before 1500."
6. Various articles by sociologists, Asian-American studies academics and researchers, Africanists, African-American Studies specialists, and historians focusing on Africans and African-Americans in the imperial wars of Europe and the US, particularly those who analyze the mixed-race children of African-American soldiers and local Asian women in Korea, Vietnam, or Japan, for instance.
7. John Russell has written a lot on Japanese perceptions of blackness, I highly recommend him!
8. Wagatsuma, a Japanese sociologist, has written about Japanese perceptions of blackness, too, as well as Michael Thornton.
9. Learn more about the Swahili coast of East Africa, perhaps starting with my post on it, here!
10. A potentially useful starter for South Asian/American relations with people of African descent in the US can be found here, in a collaborative effort I wrote with an Indian-American colleague.
11. Literature also offers several interesting directions for Afro-Asian studies. Zadie Smith's White Teeth fuses the families of Bengali-Londoners with those of a mixed-race, Jamaican and white English family, with some useful insights on race relations between and among people of color and whites in the UK. Likewise, V.S. Naipaul, an Indo-Trinidadian-Briton, has written extensively on the Caribbean, Africa, and India, and some reviews of two of his novels by me may be of interest, particularly A Bend in the River. Check out A House for Mr. Biswas, too, if you want to read an epic about an Indian-Trinidadian male in the colonial British West Indies.
12. Keep looking for more, I have come across various academic articles on depictions of Asian/Americans and African-Americans in 'mainstream' (you know, white) films, including Rush Hour, and various blogs, such as "The Blasian Narrative."