Exhibit
Africans in India: From Slaves to Generals and Rulers
The exhibition was on display at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 8 February to 30 March 2016. It was created by The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of The New York Public Library. The curators are Dr. Sylviane A. Diouf, Director of the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery at The Schomburg Center, and Dr. Kenneth X. Robbins, collector and expert in Indian art.
The exhibit tells the fascinating history of enslaved East Africans in India, known as Sidis and Habshis, who rose to positions of military and political authority. Through colourful photographs and texts, the exhibit conveys that their success was also a testimony of the open-mindedness of Indian society in which they were a small religious and ethnic minority, originally of low status. It also sheds light on the slave trade in the Indian Ocean and the history of Africa and its Diaspora in India.
The Remember Slavery Programme produced a travelling version of the exhibition in Arabic, Dutch, English, French, Hindi, Portuguese and Spanish, for display by United Nations Information Centres around the world in observance of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
In total, the exhibit was displayed in 19 countries.