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The African Presence in Early Asia

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This book is a treasure for anyone researching African history. There is a wealth of information included that is hard to find in other books. Ancient African civilizations across Asia, from The Middle East to Japan? Who would have known? This book includes many references on each topic that the serious student can research for himself. Japans first Shogun, Great civilizations in Southeast Asia that have been long forgotten and totally excluded from history books for some reason. All real practitioners of Martial Arts will find interesting information that will surprise and make you want to know more. There are also many interesting photographs of historical artifacts and native peoples that help support the facts.

THIS BOOK IS AMAZING IT PROVIDES INFORMATION THAT IS BOTH TRUE AND OF EXTREME VALUE. THE AFRICAN PRESENCE IN EARLY ASIA COVERS MIGRATION FROM AFRICA TO ASIA DATING BACK FROM OVER 100,000 YEARS AGO. IT ALSO COVERS THE REVOLT OF THE ZANJ, WERE EAST AFRICAN SLAVES REVOLTED IN IRAQ AND IRAN. CAUSING NUMEROUS DEFEATS UPON THEIR OPPRESSORS AND SERIOUS ECONOMIC DAMAGE TO THE EMPIRE OF THEIR OPPESSORS. IT ALSO COVERS NUMEROUS AMOUNTS OF AFRICAN PERSONALITIES AND PEOPLE IN ASIA. SUCH AS UTHMAN IBN BAHR AL-JAHIZ, MALIK AMBAR, LOKMAN, BILAL, ANTARA: THE LION AND MANY OTHERS. THE AFRICAN DIASPORA IN ASIA WAS MAINLY BY MIGRATION, BUT SLAVERY WAS ALSO AN EXAMPLE OF THESE MASSIVE AFRICAN POPULATIONS THROUGHOUT SOUTHERN ARABIA, YEMEN, SOUTHERN IRAQ, KUWATI, SOUTHERN IRAN, AND SOME PARTS OF INDIA. HISTORICAL MIGRATIONS INCLUDED SAUDI ARABIA AND YEMEN ALSO. AS WELL AS INDIA HAS AN EXTREMLY LARGE AFRICOID POPULATION KNOWN AS THE "THE BLACK UNTOUCHABLES OF INDIA" WHO ARE THE INDIGENOUS INHABITERS OF INDIA AND THE CREATORS OF THE INDUS RIVER VALLEY CIVILIZATION. THERE ARE ALSO AFRICAN POPULATIONS IN MALAYSIA, SOUTHERN CHINA, ANDAMEN ISLANDS, SRI LANKA AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC ISLANDS. THIS BOOK IS OF GREAT SIGNIFIGANCE ON THE UNEXPLORED HISTORY OF AFRICAN PEOPLE IN ASIA. OTHER BOOKS RECOMENDED IS AFRICANS AT THE CROSSROAD: NOTES ON AN AFRICAN WORLD REVOLUTION, INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS, THE DESTRUCTION OF A BLACK CIVILIZATION, AND THE AFRICAN ORIGIN OF CIVILIZATION

This is nothing but pure excellence. Refuting common misconceptions about Buddha, the origin of Martial Arts and the amazing (yet, barely revealed) role of Afrikans, this book IS AN ABSOLUTE REQUIREMENT for the student of Afrikan history. This book deserves an infinite number of stars. Five stars just doesn't cut it...

Rashidi and Van Sertima are shaping the world of future scholarship with this book. To realize that the Sumerians, Elamites, Dravidians, Harrapans, and the Sabaeans were all black, adds more honor to the "misplaced" History of the African people. This affects those rascist who try and make the beggining dates of Egypt, closer to those of the Tigres, and the Euphrates. Still even by doing so, the beggining of each were "Christmas Coal Black". This book provides much evidence of this fact! Also interesting, and something most unknown, is the images of Buddah, and Krishna, at first had African features. For those who haven't read Kersey Graves "16 Crucified Saviors" the myths of Buddah, Krishna, Christ, as well many others is almost exactly the same. What is even more interesting is Buddah , Krishna, and Christ, all have a 600 year split between their virgin births, and all there first graven images had African features, before they were tampered with. In the end this is a book that should be read by all, scholars, and common people a like, because it helps you to understand, and appreciate the role of the African people throughout history. This book has intense evidence, regardless if you choose to accept it or not.

There's a wealth of knowledge in this book. What illustrates the effectiveness of the book are the pictures, as well as the words. It's one thing to say that there are black people in India, who were the founders of civilization, there. It's another thing to actually show the descendents of those people, clearly black people, living in India. The book is impressive.

Dr. Rashidi and Dr. Van Sertima are esteemed scholars who have changed my life for the better. They have given me a wealth of knowledge about my Afrikan heritage, which spans worldwide.

Runoko Rashida, Wayne Chandler and Co. put together a fine work illustrating the Asiatic hereditary connections with so called "black" people, especially the Shang Dynasty. They also touch on the influence of the mysterious order of the Hashimiyyah & the Knights Templar. As always the text is accompanied by top rated images supporting the text itself. This book continues a standard of excellence, in the field of knowledge of Self.

This is best book for true information of early "African Presence" Lots of reserches and essays are included.

Book is Seventh Printing, 2009, evolved and expanded to 401 pages, 9" x 6"

Dr. Adams Bodomo is a Coordinator of the University of Honk Kong's African Studies Programme and comments as follows:

It is now almost a quarter of a Century ago since Runoko Rashidi's startling book titled The African Presence in Early Asia appeared. Within it James Brunson's article "The African presence in early China" details possible African contributions to the Chinese race, history and early civilization.

Little did Runoko Rashidi and the other authors in that volume's collection of articles know that 25 years later we would be dealing with empirically incontrovertible cases of real and concurrent African migrations to contemporary China and Chinese migrations to contemporary Africa.

While much more is known about the Chinese presence in contemporary Africa, little is known of the reverse of the coin. This short article seeks to outline the African presence in China. How many Africans are in China? Which African countries and regions are mostly represented among these migrants? Where in China are they found? Why do they come to China and how are they received? These are some of the questions we seek to answer.

While it has been estimated that some one million Chinese are living in Africa, there are only about a quarter of that number of Africans in China, with some 100, 000 in Guangzhou alone, and the rest distributed in cities such as Hong Kong and Macau in southern coastal cities and Yiwu, Shanghai, Beijing and other mid- and northern Chinese cities.

Africans in China may be arranged into several categories: diplomats and other official representations from Africa in China; African students, studying both on short and long term basis in China; African professionals from continental Africa and from the African diaspora living and working in China; and finally, African traders, both on short and long term residence in China.

The last group is by far the largest. As part of the golden era of Chinese-African relations, many African traders began to move to China in search of cheap manufactured goods which they could buy and ship back home to Africa to sell for profit. While this process began with Africans who studied in China and remained there to do business, an obstacle appeared during the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Many African traders in neighbouring Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia that were more hard-hit by the crisis simply moved into China to continue their trade between Africa and Asia.

Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, is the richest province in China, also known as the world's factory. Here, more Africans can be found than in any other part of China. Indeed a whole section of the city has been designated "Chocolate City" because of the large Africans presence there whose skins are seen to look like chocolate by the Chinese. In my paper titled "The African trading community in Guangzhou: An emerging bridge for Africa - China relations," presented at the China Quarterly Workshop, School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London, September 25 - 28, 2008, which is based on field research I did among this African population, 77% of respondents were from Nigeria, and further sizeable numbers of respondents were from countries such as Guinea, Mali, Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. On the whole more West Africans are found in the African population in Guangzhou.

The situation is different in Yiwu, a city in Zhejiang province, where there is a preponderance of people from the Maghreb region, particularly from countries such as Mauritania, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, and Algeria. Yiwu, termed the world's largest commodities city, is a new metropolis created purposely by the Chinese authorities as a centre for sourcing commodities. Arab Africans from the Maghreb, especially those who studied in China, and speak the Chinese language fluently, having remained after their study programmes, control this business, however a growing population of black Africans are beginning to populate Yiwu, as I found out during a preliminary field survey there in December 2008 during which time I conducted a participant-observation at a large mosque frequented by African moslems among others.

In Hong Kong, there are more Africans of southern African origins, especially white Africans. The Southern African community in Hong Kong, comprising mostly white South Africans, boasts about 200 members. But this group of Africans is not easy to discern in the city, except on their Rugby Sevens weekend once a year when many South African whites wear their South African Springboks T-shirts. There is a sizeable population of black Africans in- and around the Chung King Mansions situated in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, which is a busy shopping area for tourists in Hong Kong. This population is further described in my 2008 article "An Emerging African-Chinese Community in Hong Kong: The Case of Tsim Sha Tsui's Chungking Mansions."

Macau, a former Portuguese colony at the mouth of the Pearl River, also has a sizeable African population of about 300, mostly from former Portuguese colonies such as Angola and Mozambique. Northern Chinese cities host a mixed bag of Africans. In Beijing, the capital of China, there is a preponderance of Africans who officially represent their countries within embassies and other international organizations. A sizeable number of African students live in the capital but also at African Studies Centres like that in Zhejian Normal University, Hangzhou. In Shanghai, being the most cosmopolitan city in China, all these categories of Africans can be found.

How are these Africans received in China? Fellow Africans I have interacted with, especially in the course of my field research for my forthcoming book, "Africans in China" (by Adams Bodomo, 2010), report cases of racism and other kinds of discrimination, which may stem from linguistic and cultural misunderstanding. But this is not an entrenched systematic practice. On the contrary, the African in China can sometimes be the object of positive curiosity as there are still many Chinese who have not come into close contact with Africans, even if they have seen them on news media.

African migration in contemporary China represents an important dimension in the burgeoning relationship between Africa and China, as is the case with Chinese migration to contemporary Africa. Both the Chinese government, on the one hand, and African governments, on the other, ought thus to encourage and facilitate the peaceful mingling of Africans and Chinese, as Africans in China and Chinese in Africa can serve as cultural and economic bridges to the further development of Africa-China relations.

Professor Bodomo predicts that in two or three decades, we'll start to see the growth of a diverse, multicultural Chinese society as result of foreign communities. "Instead of Chinese-Americans, you'll have Korean Chinese, African Chinese, European Chinese and American Chinese," he says. "The lesson is that China is an attractive place. It's a success story and people want to be part of it. It's a lesson in globalization."

In January 2009, Dr Martyn J. Davies, Executive Director, Centre for Chinese Studies, University of Stellenbosch, reported that a new body of research is being written on China's engagement and growing presence in Africa, but so little is known of the presence and role of Africans living in China. The Centre for Chinese Studies sought to tackle this subject in greater depth in 2009.

Dr Davies adds that booming trade between China and Africa is also being driven by African traders resident in China who have set up businesses in China's major manufacturing and procurements centres - in particular in the cities of Guangzhou and Yiwu. China's expanding exports to Africa are often assumed to be driven by tied purchasing of Chinese equipment by way of government-to-government investment deals or through the growing Chinese diaspora network in Africa. This is clearly not entirely the case.

Dr Davies says most Africans in China are from either West Africa or the Maghreb region. The Chinese government's training programs for African civil servants are also boosting the numbers - the African community in China may now even amount to a quarter of a million. These are indeed sizeable and even surprising numbers. African private entrepreneurs are perhaps playing a greater role in China-Africa commerce than previously known. China-Africa relations are not solely the domain of politicians after all!

This book has made it clear that the inhabitant of this earth is GOD in all forms. There is nothing else to be said on this subject. This book and others like it, has opened the door for many to become what they truly are...GOD.