Over the next few months, Ajam Media Collective will host a series that focuses on and describes various elements of the cultural, ethnic and linguistic mosaic that we refer to collectively as Iran. This is Part 2 in that series, focusing on Afro-Iranians. Check out Part 1, “A “Persian” Iran?: Challenging the Aryan Myth and Persian Ethnocentrism,” here.
A friend recently shared two anecdotes from his trip to Iran with me that deal with race and skin color in the Iranian context. In Persepolis, which is located in southern Iran, darker features are more prevalent than in northern Iran. During a trip to the city, he and his Tehrani friends were surrounded by local schoolchildren yelling “hello!” and other basic English phrases. Even the teacher leading the group spoke to my friend in stilted English, asking where the group was from. The children were bewildered to learn that the light-skinned tourists (including one with red hair) were, in fact, Iranians and not Europeans. Conversely, the children had a darker skin tone that in Tehran might be seen as foreign or “Afghan.”
Ruins at Persepolis near the Main Hall, depicting members of the various tribes and nations of the Persian Empire offering tribute.The second anecdote took place in Tehran. While walking down a busy street, my friend and his cousin noticed a man with darker skin. My friend’s cousin insisted that the man was a foreigner of African descent, but finally assented once she overheard him speaking fluent Persian. In both of these anecdotes, Iranians traveling within Iran encountered racial and ethnic others and were forced forced to confront the reality that nationalist myths of ethnic homogeneity are completely artificial.
When talking about the diversity of Iran, most people will recall the various ethno-linguistic groups that are equally native to the Iranian plateau, like Persians, Azeris, Gilakis, Baluchis, and others who have migrated to the region through the centuries. In these discussions, however, Afro-Iranians and those of African descent are often ignored. Perhaps this stems from their limited exposure in mainstream Iranian culture. Or maybe it is because the legacy of African slavery in Iran contradicts the ever-so-pervasive Aryan myth of perfection and civilization. Regardless, most Iranians forget the Afro-Iranians and their rich traditions, despite their prominent cultural influence that persists today.
Many Iranians know and love Haji Firuz, the jovial singing icon that pops up for every Persian New Year, wishing everyone good and happy tidings for the upcoming year. While many regard Haji Firuz as a sort of Santa Claus figure, there is one marked difference between the two: Haji Firuz is black.
A quick Google image search shows that Haji Firuz is still primarily depicted with blackface. Despite this blatant racism, the festive costume is devoid of its problematic implications for many Iranians. In Iran, historians like Mehrdad Bahar have tried to explain away the blackface with references to ancient Iranian symbols, but his theories have little basis in history and are met with much skepticism by academics. Instead, another scholar, Jafar Shahri presented Haji Firuz as a more contemporary addition to the Norooz cheer, an African slave who serves an Iranian master. This version is supported by his Norooz rhyme, in which Haji Firuz addresses his master and encourages him to hold his head up high and be jolly.
Arbābe khodam, khodeto negah kon, My master, look at yourself,
Arbābe khodam, boz boze ghandi, My master, the billy goat!
Arbābe khodam, chera nemikhandi? My master, why don’t you laugh?
The nonsensical rhyme and direct reference to his status as a slave reaffirm his role as a minstrel in Iranian society—a role that, despite the end of slavery in Iran, still persists in Norooz celebrations today. Although many Iranians do not consider Haji Firuz beyond his brief jingle every New Year, his character represents one aspect of Iran’s long history of slavery. Haji Firuz, in fact, hails from the Afro-Iranian community in southern Iran.
Statues of Haji Firuz decorate a Tehran park during the New Year period.
The majority of Afro-Iranians came to Iran via the Indian Ocean slave trade, a trade route between East Africa and the Middle East, which was dominated by Afro-Arabs merchants beginning in the ninth century. Because of the dispersal of slaves throughout the Middle East and subcontinent, virtually every country bordering the Persian Gulf has a legacy of slavery and African population, like the Afro-Iraqis, Afro-Pakistanis, Afro-Kuwaitis, Afro-Omanis, Afro-Saudis and so on.
It is important to note, however, that not all slaves in Iran were African, and not all Africans came to Iran by way of slavery. Iran also had a large number of slaves from Southern Russia and the Caucuses in the north, while some African sailors came for work in the Persian Gulf. Despite this, the “black slave” image is dominant in Iran. By the nineteenth century, African slaves were prized as domestics or concubines in wealthy households.
Slavery persisted as a legal practice in Iran until 1928, when parliament introduced a bill that granted slaves freedom and declared them equal to all other Iranians. Although African slaves were dispersed across Iran, many Afro-Iranians settled in southern regions bordering the Persian Gulf after their emancipation. Since then, census records have not adequately reported the numbers of Afro-Iranians, and statistical information on these communities is largely unavailable.
Depending on where they settled, however, Afro-Iranians have assimilated with varying degrees of success. For example, Afro-Iranian communities in the Sistan-Baluchestan province function separately from the rest of society and perpetuate a rigid caste system within their community that offers little opportunities for social mobility.
The highest social class in the community are the Durzadehs, Africans who came to Iran for maritime work. The name Durzadeh comes from “dor” meaning pearl, a nod to their occupations in the Persian Gulf. Because of their notable status, the Durzadehs regard themselves as higher than the Ghulams and Nukars, who came to Iran as slaves. The caste system is so rigid that the marriage between the Durzadehs and the Ghulams or Nukars is strictly forbidden. In Bandar Abbas, however, the Afro-Iranian communities have assimilated to a much larger degree, and interracial marriages are not uncommon.
A street music performance in Bandar Abbas, a southern city with a high concentration of Afro-Iranians.
Religiously, most Afro-Iranians identify with Shi’ism, a symbol of their assimilation into greater Iranian society, but folk traditions and mystic beliefs permeate their communities as well. In Behnaz Mirzai’s documentary Afro-Iranian Lives, she interviewed different members of the Afro-Iranian community in Qeshm, an island in the Persian Gulf, to better understand the practice of zar, a belief that people can be possessed by up to seventy-two different kinds of winds. The belief in zar can also be found amongst indigenous populations in Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia.
Related to zar is gowati, the belief that dancing has healing properties. Bandari music and dancing have its roots in gowati, which has been largely eclipsed by the shiny costumes and Los Angeles Iranian music industry.
Bashu finds himself in the entirely foreign Mazandaran province in Northern Iran, where his adoptive mother buys extra bars of soap to wash his skin clean from its darkness, children bully him for his complexion, and villagers call him a bad omen. Baizai addresses racism and ignorance directly, taboo topics in mainstream Iranian culture.
The neglect of Afro-Iranians by most Iranians stems from a number of factors, most of which stem from the Aryan myth. The Aryan myth effectively whitewashed Iran’s history, leading many to believe that true Iranians are only light-skinned and that Iran never engaged in slavery. Beyond this, the lack of Afro-Iranian presence in media further reinforces any preconceived notions that exist about Africans in Iran: that they simply do not exist.
Regardless of the reasons for the neglect, it is important to acknowledge the presence and history of the Afro-Iranian communities, not only for their sake, but with the intention of better confronting racist narratives, like the Aryan myth, that exclude so much of Iran’s population.
Standing in the middle of a crowd, the man in this video relates his experiences with lighter-skinned Iranians in Tehran pestering him questions about his blackness. Because many are unfamiliar with Afro-Iranians, especially in more northern areas of Iran like Tehran, many quickly assume that people with darker skin are foreigners. These assumptions lead to much confusion with the so-called “foreigner” begins speaking Persian. In this man’s experience, people in Tehran stupefied by his Persian approached him and asked,
“Excuse me, sir? Excuse me? But why are you Black? Why are you Black?”
Perhaps if, as Iranians, we educate ourselves, fewer Afro-Iranians will be perceived as foreigners or as “less Iranian” than the rest of us.
Sources:
More from the Ajam Media Collective
Music and Race Politics in the Iranian Persian Gulf: Shanbehzadeh and “Bandari”
Re-imagining Eurasia with Slavs and Tatars: Critical Practices of Geography and Museum Exhibition
Ferdowsi’s Legacy: Examining Persian Nationalist Myths of the Shahnameh
Persian Rugs & the Iranian Everyday: Photographer Jalal Sepehr in Yazd
Reconstructing a Persian Past: Contemporary Uses and Misuses of the Cyrus Cylinder in Iranian Nationalist Discourse
Do you Ajam? Call for Editors
http://jadidonline.com/story/22052009/frnk/zaar_ritual
Posted by Maria | June 25, 2012, 06:27http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2254527877109.2124691.1065676271&type=3
Book on Zar ritual and African presence and slavery in Iran
Posted by Maria | June 25, 2012, 06:28THANK YOU, AND A—H BLESS YOU FOR THIS MOST ENLIGHTENING INFORMATION. I TOOK TO VERY PERSONALLY SINCE I AM BLACK AND MY BIRTHDAY IS MARCH 20TH.
Posted by Haji Yusuf Ali Muhammad | June 25, 2012, 11:19great article, do Black Iranians have an online social presence?
Posted by ch4wordpress | June 29, 2012, 17:57I am black Iranian except that this is because I am mixed with an African father and Iranian mother. I grew up in Tehran hence never saw Afro-Iranians, next trip to Iran will include the South and exclusively meeting the people I resemble. This article is wonderful, thank you SO SO SO much.
Posted by PriscilliaK | July 1, 2012, 05:33I am Nigerian but have Iranian relatives… I thankfully haven’t had any issues with race but have been warned they do exist and not to be shocked if it occurs. Would love to meet more African-Iranians both of mixed heritage and those from the south. (AA)
Posted by AfricanAsianBusinessAndCulturalExchange | March 7, 2013, 12:39Thank you so much for this article. I’m Iranian and love reading about all the different ethnicities in Iran. Afro-Iranian culture and history is important , we need more education about this topic.
Posted by Iranian and proud | July 2, 2012, 04:31Thank you so much for this article… I am an African Persian, my father is from Abadan and Ive spend so many years since i was 14 trying to gather information about my African Persian history… I am 40 years old now and there is still very little information out there and it doesnt help that the country is constantly going through wars and sanctions. i came across this through one of my desperate searches online for keyword, African persian. it warmed my heart and made me so happy… thank you.
Peace and love to all beings….
Posted by zangi | August 8, 2012, 16:19It is quite nice! happy to see someone from the region here on this post.
Posted by AfricanAsianBusinessAndCulturalExchange | March 7, 2013, 12:40Blackface is deemed racist in the context of the US experience with slavery. Since Iran has an entirely different social/historical context, blackface doesn’t mean the same thing there as it does here.
Posted by hassani1387 | January 19, 2013, 09:04Hi Hassan, I would agree with you that slavery in Iran and the US were different, but I also disagree with you. Of course blackface in Iran and the US are not synonymous, but I believe that depicting Haji Firuz in blackface is a majorly influence by the East African slave trade in Iran during the 19th century. Blackface is not the only slave marker when it comes to Haji Firuz. Other markers include:
1) his title as “haji” –a derisive label given to many slaves in Southern Iran for being trafficked along the same routes between Arabia and Iran as Muslim pilgrims,
2) his name as “Firuz” –African male slaves were often named old Persian names (likewise, African female slaves were given the names of flowers),
3) his role as a minstrel and his famous rhyme, which I wrote and translated in the article.
Although individuals from East Africa were not the only ones brought to Iran as slaves–we know that the Caucasus were also an important source of slavery for Iran prior to the 19th century, the truth remains that slaves, such as Haji Firuz, are traditionally presented in blackface to further his “othering” in Iranian gatherings. This othering–and thus, dehumanization–is what I have deemed here as racist.
Explanations of the blackface as soot from the fire, etc, serve to only prevent a critical dialogue about the use of blackface in Iranian society.
Posted by Beeta Baghoolizadeh | January 21, 2013, 23:54Is this the only article you have written? I wish you’d write a book. Many of us would buy it… great info and great responses!
Posted by AfricanAsianBusinessAndCulturalExchange | March 7, 2013, 12:42BANDAR ABAS WAS POSITIVE EDUCATIONAL INFORMATION FOR MANY WHO ARE UNAWARE OF ITS EXISTENCE; BUT IT SEEMS TO ME THAT HAJI FIRUZ, IS A “CLOWN” AND THERE IS NO MENTION OF ANY OF THE IMAMS WIVES BEING BLACK, THAT WOULD APPEAR TO ME AS A MORE BALANCED REPRESENTATION OF NUBIAN PEOPLE.
Posted by Al Hajj Yusuf Ali Muhammad | January 20, 2013, 16:08As Salaam A’laykom
While this article is interesting, I don’t find it factual. To say most of the Afro Iranians came from slavery is disingenuous and I would ask anyone to show definitive proof, which supports such claims. Yes, you can see these sorts of claims on even UNESCO webpages, but does it make it factual? I can say the sky is purple and be the president of the United States, but it would still be a untruth.
Now how do I sustain my claim that these people probably are the oldest populations in Iran? Well, what did eye witnesses say about the Persian population in earlier times? We know the people of Elam were called “ethiopians” which just meant someone who has burnt skin in Greek. It was the Greek term for “negro” in their time. THey also said the Persian army was at least 50% “ethiopian” according to Herodotus, who saw these people with his own eyes.
The blacks in India called Sidis are also not slaves. First, the word “sidi” means lord. Why would you call a slave a “lord”, it doesn’t make sense. Those people were part of the Axumite empire and they went there as rulers, not as slaves. There is a book written on it called “African Elites in India” by Kenneth X. Robbins. You can watch the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJLGBvjqzlY&list=PLE45ED7A49A1CF636 <— While he does acknowledge that many came as conquerers, he slips into Eurocentric diatribe by claiming that some were slaves. I call such claims into question, as he makes the claim, yet shows no documentation that proves these people were slaves, other than him saying so. However, there is clear proof, documented that these people came as conquerers. Also if you read the book "Kebra Nagast" which is a book that chronicles the dynasties of the Axumite empire, it says their empire stretched to India.
So here we have black populations being in mesopotamia (Elam/modern day Iraq) and Persia (according to Herodotus' book The Histories, written in 500s B.C.) from antiquity, far earlier than the supposed importation of slaves in the 1500s A.D. If I remember right, Strabo (another historian) also said the Persian population was partly Ethiop (black) in his day (he was around 64 B.C.). Which means eurocentric claims that Africans only showed up in large numbers outside of Africa as slaves is moot! Africans are the first people on this planet earth and as such they would have wondered out and settled down. Where they had large concentrations and less interaction with outside peoples, the populations remained fairly dark, which is what you see in Iran today.
Posted by Tunka Manin | February 21, 2013, 20:06I totally agree with your post Tunka Manin. These articles, while educational, are also dangerous because they brainwash people to associate slavery with black people and to assume that black people outside of africa have to be descendants of slaves. African history in the Middle East is very ancient. Reducing that history to blacks being nothing but slaves, is not only insulting but very racist.
Posted by gem | May 29, 2013, 15:41OMG good to hear we have brothers and sisters in iran am from the source of nile ganda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganda_people) come visit us bro/sister
Posted by mansoor | March 1, 2013, 02:25As an African-American whose religion comes from Iran (Baha’i Faith), I found this article to be interesting and Iinformative. Virtually all of the Iranian (they prefer ‘Persian’) Bahai’s I have met in the U.S.A. can pass for ‘white’. I was stopped on the New Haven Green (CT) years ago by an Iranian. He gave me some inf. & we talked for awhile. He had medium to tight afro type hair and dark olive brown skin. I ‘knew’ he was an Iranian of ‘black’ or ‘African’ heritage, instinctly & obviously! About 15 yrs. ago, a book was published by the Baha’i publishing trust about the life of the ‘African’ descendant ‘servants’ that worked for Abdul-Baha (son of Baha’u'llah) and Baha’u'llah (Manifestation of God). It is called, ‘Black Pearls.’
Posted by robin | March 20, 2013, 09:57I’m african american married to an iraninan man. He didn’t know about black iranians either. I’m not quite comfortable with the explanations I’ve heard on Haji Firuz and probably will never accept that there is no racism involved with this caricature. I would say that that mostly has to do with my experiences as a a black person living in the US. At any rate, I hope that blacks in Iran will enjoy all the rights of white iranians and that they should play a role in bringing positive political change to Iran.
Posted by Edit | April 7, 2013, 09:06Informative article, but Bandar Abbas is a native Sunni city. MOST NATIVE Bandaris are majority Sunni, those of Afro, Arab or Persian origin, all of them except the non-native from Tehran, Isfahan etc. who were moved to the south. http://www.sonsofsunnah.com
Posted by Sons of Sunnah | June 17, 2013, 03:15