February 2024 | BIPS Research Grant

Religious Persianate in Africa: Trading Religions meeting in the Global South (ZORAFRIKA)

Summary of topic

In the colonial period, African communities lived alongside Parsis, Zoroastrians who migrated from India. Parsis living in Africa during the second half of the 20^th century moved to the UK after political unrest. By means of archival research and a workshop with first-generation Parsi migrants from Africa who still live in London, this project explored areas of exchange between Zoroastrians and African religious communities. It furthered our understanding of Zoroastrianism across Africa and the social and political use of religious categories across time.

Report:

This international collaborative project has been conducted by Dr Mariano Errichiello, Shapoorji Pallonji Lecturer in Zoroastrianism at SOAS University of London, and Dr Conerly Casey, Professor of Anthropology at Rochester Institute of Technology, in collaboration with the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe, the largest association that gathers the Zoroastrian community in London. It explored the possible influences of Zoroastrianism and/or Parsis on the Maguzawa (from the Arabic majus ‘magi’) community in pre-colonial through postcolonial Nigeria. We identified several beliefs and practices deemed ‘anomalous’ in the context of the customary Islamic milieu of the region (i.e. the use of dogs in rituals; worship of fire; the construction of walled sites of worship; oral narratives that placed Persia as the source of ancient wisdom) through archival research and the study of secondary sources. However, the insights gathered in the workshop conducted in London in June 2024 confirmed that it is unlikely that exchanges between Maguzawa and Parsis in the 19^th and 20^th centuries took place. In particular, the presence of Parsis in Nigeria consisted of a few families and it was characterised by short stays rather than settlements. While some of them have arrived through the construction and administration of the railway that connected East to Central Africa in the colonial times, more recent presence is triggered by the professional participation of Parsis in the oil industry. Further, the few Parsis from Nigeria who joined the workshop have never heard of Maguzawa nor their parents have ever recounted stories depicting this community. Analysing these findings, we identified trade networks developing through the Arabian Peninsula as well as maritime routes as the potential sources of ‘travelling’ beliefs and practices associated with Zoroastrianism. Furthermore, we reflected on the contours of Zoroastrian/Magi as a label bestowed on Maguzawa by Muslim traders in contrast with the Parsis’ self-identification as Zoroastrian, shedding light on the instability of ‘Zoroastrianism’ as a universal category and the necessity of its historicization.

This collaborative project also explored the possibility of extending the category ‘Persianate world’ to the study of experiences and mediations of Zoroastrianism, African religions and Islam among communities living in Africa. While the boundaries of this heuristic classification do not usually include Africa, the findings of the archival research brought to light evidence of constant contacts and exchanges between Persian and African territories over the centuries. Accounts of Persian communities led by the king Khosrow coming from Egypt are widespread in oral histories and chronicles of Central and West Africa. Furthermore, the Kilwa chronicle encapsulates the narrative of the Persian princes who founded what scholars identify as the Swahili civilization. While historians have long considered the latter to be an unsupported claim, recent archaeological research by Esther Brielle and others (2023) confirmed that Swahili coast, populated by early adopters of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa, enjoyed an extensive trade across the Indian Ocean and hosted Persian settlements. In fact, DNA analysis conducted on 80 individuals revealed that most coastal residents had African mothers but significant Asian ancestry, primarily from Persian men, dating back to around 1000 AD, coinciding with Islam’s spread. Persian settlements were most probably triggered by the environmental conditions that impeded maritime traders to travel back to Persia until monsoon winds were favourable. What is more, the scrutiny of archaeological literature examining pottery confirmed the dominant trading position of Persians in East Africa in the Sasanian and post-Sasanian period. These findings set the basis for exploring further the formation of Afro-Persianate identities across the African continent.

This project culminated with the submission of an expression of interest for a collaborative AHRC grant that includes a workstream on Zoroastrianism in East Africa.

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Mariano Errichiello is Shapoorji Pallonji Lecturer in Zoroastrianism at SOAS University of London.