Siddi Dhamaal African Indian Music Gir Somnath Gujarat

The Siddi are descendants of Bantu-speaking Africans who came to India as slaves, soldiers, and servants of Arab and Portuguese traders between the 9th and 19th centuries and settled in Gujarat, Karnataka, and Hyderabad. The Siddis of Gir Somnath and Junagadh districts in Gujarat number approximately 10,000 and have preserved a living tradition of ritual African drum music and trance dance called Dhamaal (also spelled Dhammal or Goma), performed at the shrine of their saint Bava Gor. The Dhamaal performance involves large goatskin double-headed drums called mugarman or nagarit carried on the shoulder and played with a curved stick producing deep resonant beats in polyrhythmic patterns similar to East African ngoma. A lead singer calls and the community responds in the Siddi dialect that retains Swahili and Bantu vocabulary words. The Dhamaal induces a trance state in participants who spin, stamp, and sway until possessed by the spirit of Bava Gor. Anthropologists have documented Siddi music as a living link between Indian Ocean African diaspora culture and Indian folk religion. The Siddis have maintained endogamous marriage within their community for 500 years. Their music has been recorded by ethnomusicologist scholars and was featured at the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings project. The Gujarat government supports a Siddi Cultural Welfare Society that organizes annual Dhamaal festivals.