The African Diaspora in Pakistan
Luke Duggleby is an award-winning British freelance photographer who has been based in Bangkok, Thailand, for more than 15 years. He works predominantly in Asia but also in Africa and further afield shooting documentary, portraiture and editorial assignments for media, corporate and NGO clients.
He is the founder of The Sidi Project which documents the African diaspora of the Indian Ocean. He has traveled to Pakistan several times to document the country’s African diaspora communities.
“Pakistan has the largest number of people of African descent in South Asia, living in the present day provinces of Sindh and Baluchistan, and numbering around 50,000.”
Source: NYPL
In the 18th century, Africans from Madagascar and the east coast of Africa were transported to Pakistan's Makran coast to serve South Asian and European elites in northern and eastern parts of the Indian subcontinent. Slaves and traders arrived through the ports of Baluchistan and Sindh where their work ranged from dockworkers, miners, domestic servants, farm workers, concubines to body guards. The largest population of Sheedi live in the Lyari area of Karachi, where street names like Mombassa Street nod to the African heritage of the region.
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