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- Looking At India
Through African Eyes
An Educational Tour Of India
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- Santal Woman
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- by Runoko Rashidi
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- On April 13, 1999 I returned from a successful
tour of India entitled "Looking at India through African
Eyes." It was a sixteen day educational tour designed to
explore the historical, cultural, social and anthropological
components of ancient and modern India from our own perspective--an
African perspective.
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- The tour was coordinated by Allen Travel
Service--an African American travel service based in Washington,
D.C. that handled all of our travel needs. It was my first tour
and my third trip to India overall. The tour was of historic
significance--being the first such trip planned and actually
carried out.
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- On the tour, accompanied by numerous local
people and sixteen African American brothers and sisters (all
experienced travelers), we visited many of the significant temples,
tombs, castles, palaces, museums and assorted great monuments
in India, including the Taj Majal (reputedly built out of grief
for an Ethiopian woman) and described as "poetry in marble,"
Amber Fort and the Palace of the Winds, the National Museum in
New Delhi, the massive Konarak temple in Orissa, the Buddhist
temple caves at Ajanta and the magnificent colossal rock cut
temples at Ellora.
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- Women of Orissa,
India
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- In Patna, in Bihar, we stood on the banks
of the Ganges River. We visited the major cities of Delhi, Agra,
Jaipur, Patna, Calcutta, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Trivandrum, Mumbai,
Aurangabad and the abandoned city of Fatehpur Sikri. Overall
the people of India were kind and considerate towards us. The
Black people of India themselves (the original inhabitants of
the land) were wonderful to us and embraced us as family. Among
the Black folk we interacted with were the Dom, Santals, Mundas,
Dravidians, Dalits and Adivasis (Tribals).
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- We visited them in their homes, offices
and villages, rural communities and urban slums, university and
academic settings. During our travels we encountered a mosaic
of Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Parsis, Sikhs and
Animists. Some of them engaged in the religious practices of
our ancient African foreparents.
Sometimes the sense of oneness and community seemed almost mystical
and magical. Most of the time the spiritual connections between
us were also tangible. Everywhere we went we re-established bonds
of
brotherhood, sisterhood and familyhood. The individuals in our
group were treated like visiting dignitaries, as ambassadors,
and I was treated like a prince. At times it was overwhelming.
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- We were guests of honor at numerous receptions,
cultural programs and educational forums, many of whom were sponsored
or initiated by the publication Dalit Voice: The Voice of the
Persecuted Nationalities Denied Human Rights, founded and edited
by V.T. Rajshekar.
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- Everywhere the Ancestors and Great Ones
were with us. At a major reception
in New Delhi the keynote speaker, Union Health Minister Dalit
Ezhilmalai, focused on the life of Malcolm X. At a program in
Bhubaneswar the moderator, Dr. Radhakant Nayak, who reminded
us of John Henrik Clarke, closed the afternoon with a stirring
recital of Claude McKay's glorious poem of resistance "If
We Must Die!" In Trivandrum I was presented with three ceremonial
Ankhs made of coconut shell and adorned with red, black and green
beads.
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- At an airport reception we were greeted
with shouts of "Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!"
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- We were hosted by Black youth groups who
told of their life stories and village origins, their hopes,
their dreams and aspirations. We were entertained by scores of
singers and drummers and dancers. We met with Black women's groups
who performed skits portraying family life and a vibrant new
spirit of resistance to domestic violence and centuries-old oppression.
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- We visited some of the most downtrodden
communities on earth, witnessed the miseries of the Black Untouchables
of India and were guests on university campuses. In a program
in Chennai we were hosted by Bishop Ezra Sargunam of the Evangelical
Church of India where I was the guest speaker with Dr. K. Ponmudy,
a major Dravidian scholar, in a program designed to address the
Black and Dravidian movements.
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- In Orissa I saw and photographed the blackest
human beings I've ever seen. In fact, it was my impression that
the blackest people were here the most highly esteemed and considered
better than the others who were not so dark! In one city, at
an elaborate and heartfelt public ceremony, we presented school
supplies to the entire student body of an aspiring educational
institution followed by cash contributions for the continuation
of the work.
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- We saw ourselves not merely as tourists
but at visiting family members come to try to make things better.
- "Looking at India through African
Eyes" was a resounding success and an incredible high.
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- Woodabi Woman of
Mali, West Africa
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- I came away from India convinced that
African people around the world are on the rise and that there
is a revolution going on in the hearts, souls and minds of Black
people everywhere. It was a great triumph and for me personally
clearly only the the first in a series of tours to India and
other sojourns with African people around the world. Africans
Unite!
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- Beyond Words Village
- Give us your
thoughts and opinions!
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- Runoko Rashidi is an historian, public
lecturer and writer engaged in a love affair with Africa. He
is currently organizing educational tours to Kenya and Tanzania
in April 2001 and Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand
in November 2001. For information contact Rashidi at RRashidi@swbell.net.
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- This article was
published courtesy of Mr. Runoko Rashidi
- Copyright ©
2000 Runoko Rashidi. All rights reserved.
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