An amalgamation of African and Gujarati music! The United states of India? Note the peacock feathers on their heads - truly a cross-cultural experience. There are no peafowl in Africa!

The Siddi, Siddhi, or Sheedi, also known as Habshi, are an Indian and Pakistani ethnic group of Afro-Arab and/or Black African descent. The Siddi population is currently estimated to be 20,000--55,000, with Gujarat in India the main population centre.
The village Sirvan is inhabited entirely by Siddis, a tribe of African people. They were brought 300 years ago from Africa, by the Portuguese for the Nawab of Junagadh. Today, they follow very few of their original customs, with a few exceptions like the traditional Dhamal dance. Some of the African traditions have been preserved by the Siddhis which includes the Goma music and dance form, which is sometimes called Dhamaal. The term is believed to be derived from the Ngoma drumming and dance forms of Bantu East Africa.

This footage is part of the professionally-shot stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM 1080i High Definition, HDV and Digital Betacam. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... wfi @ vsnl.com and [email protected].