Afro - Indian Siddhi tribes from Gujarat having fun in music

Siddhis are a tribe of Sudanese natives who had come to Gujarat in Western India hundreds of years ago as salt workers. Siddi Tribes of Gujarat is one of those tribes who came to the state with the Arab merchants. Siddi Tribe in Gujarat is also reckoned as the Lost Tribe of Africa.The people stayed on in India and are still found in Gir in Gujarat as a distict tribe who are as African today as the day when they landed on Indian soil. <br /><br />Siddhi tribe is also known by the names of Siddi, Sheedi and Habshi. This tribal community has occupied a considerable portion of the state of Gujarat. Apart from Gujarat, the Siddi tribal community resides in some parts of Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra. The word Siddi is a derivation of the Arabic word `sayyid` or `saydi`. It means captive, or slave. Due to the rich heritage of the origin of the Siddi tribes, the anthropologists are being rightly attracted towards this Siddi tribal community and thus carried on several surveys on them over the years. Especially in Junagadh district of Gujarat, these Siddi tribes have got a major concentration. <br /><br />Although Siddi tribes have adopted the native customs of the region, some African traditions and practices have also been preserved. The tribal community of Siddi is one of the primitive tribes, which have got the heritage of almost three hundred years. However, with the passage of time their ancient tradition and culture have also got a modernised shade. Various cultural forms, namely dance, music, folklores, etc are quite exquisite. Dhamal dance is one such dance form. However, today under the influence of the modern day trend and customs, maximum of these Siddi tribes have forgotten their original customs, thus nicely imbibing new things and beliefs.<br /><br />This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast 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 XDCAM. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... Reach us at wfi @ vsnl.com and admin@wildfilmsindia.com