Voices of the Sidis: The Tradition of Fakirs

 

(28 min; 2016; dvd; English)

Screening of film and talk by Dr. Beheroze Shroff, Department of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine 

Introduction: Dr. Lotika Varadarajan

 

Scholar of the Sidi communities in Gujarat, Beheroze Shroff has made five documentaries on contemporary Sidi culture and spiritual practice, which have been screened at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, the Max Planck Institute in Germany, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York and at the Nairobi and Zanzibar International Arts and Music Festivals, among others. She is currently co-editing a volume on the African presence in South Asia.

 

Sidis in Gujarat discuss their tradition of the fakir or itinerant holy man who goes through neighborhoods chanting, singing and blessing those who give alms. Older Sidis express anxieties about passing on this tradition, especially the playing of the malunga, a sacred musical instrument of Sidis