Decendants of East Africans in India - Sidi Goma -1

The members of Sidi Goma are from the Indian Sidi people. One Sidi village is jambur , several kilometers inland from the gujarat coastline which is home to a tribal sufi community of East African origion

Sidi Goma's songs are mostly zikrs (prayers). The group's lyrics praise Allah (God) and the prophet Mohammed (pbuh) and recount Islamic history, fusing Sidi Goma's African Muslim and Indian Sufi background. Sufism is the mystical dimension of Islam.

Experts believe that their Sheikh, Bava Gor, to have travelled to India some time in or before the 15th century from either Ethiopia, Nubia, Zanzibar or somewhere in East Africa, via the Middle East.

The group begin their ritualistic performance with a sedate a cappella azan (Muslim call to prayer), followed by hypnotic percussive workouts, with most of them sitting down as they play. Smouldering incense sends plumes of smoke billowing into the air. Rousing chants charge the atmosphere, and as tempos build and the cross-rhythms start to kick, one by one the drummers rise with ecstatic cries and gestures. Shoulders swivel and heads roll as they circle the stage in their long white kurta robes with small trance-like moves.

The First Muezzin to be requested by the Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) to recite the call to prayer was Ethiopian Bilal (RA) . He is regarded by the Sidis as a symbolic ancestor who gave to them their ability as muezzins.

They have integrated their African rhythms, melodic shapes and styles and instruments with the local Gujarat influences.

Recorded in London, October 2007 By NurMedia, Dedicated to beloved Abret Sheikoch : Sheikh Seyid Budela (Yerahmak Allah) , and to Seyid Mezid, Seyid Nikbas (With Respect from the family of your Mureed and thanks for the wonderful Ethiopian Sufi experience I grew up with), Also dedicated to Yekatbare Sheik, Sheik Alkeso, Sheik Abadr, Sheik Hussein And all Other Great Ethiopian Sheikhs who nurtured and continue to nurture Ethiopian muslims.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Menzuma
• Zikr
• Ethiopia
• Africa