Siddis

Black Sufis Of Gujarat (India)

If you think you’ve seen it all, think again: this is a rare opportunity to discover the joyful and exuberant devotional music and dance of the hidden community of Sidi African-Indians from Gujarat, India.

The Sidis of Gujarat are a Sufi community of East African origin which came to India eight centuries ago and made Gujarat their home. They carried with them their exceptionally rich musical tradition and kept it alive and flourishing through the generations, unknown to the rest of the world.

A traditional occupation of African-Indian Sufis in Gujarat has been to perform sacred music and dance as wandering faqirs, singing songs to their black Sufi saint, Bava Gor. Sidi men and women perform sacred music and dance during rituals in the shrines to Bava Gor, and have lived on accepting alms for touring these devotional genres from villages to shrines  for centuries. Their native African music styles, melodic and rhythmic structures, lyrics and musical instruments have mingled with local influences to form this final symbolic representation of African-Indian ness.