The Siddi — The 1400 Year History of Africans In South Asia
By dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
The Indian subcontinent is home to over 1.7 billion people or about 22% of the world’s total population. In the ages of antiquity no empire (with the notable exception of China) has been as large, wealthy, and powerful as India for as long a period of time. For the purpose of this diary when I refer to India, I will speaking of the entire Indian subcontinent. As the modern nations of India, Pakistan, later Bangladesh and Sri Lanka were formed out the 1947 political fragmentation of what was historical a united Indian empire. To be more accurate this diary is about the people of African decedent who live in South Asia.
During almost all of recorded history, Indian sailors and traders traveled the relatively warm calm waters of the Indian Ocean from present day Indonesia all the way to Mozambique. India traded extensively with all these area, and vice versa. One of the least recognized historical facts in the West is the presence of people of African descent in India. I may be speculating, but I believe that’s because people from Southern India share the darker skin tones of black Africans. Thus this migration hasn’t been as noticeable to Western eyes. Never the less, Africans have been present in India for fourteen centuries. People of African descent in South Asia are known as the Siddi.
On a personal note, my family is from the Caribbean where there are a large number of people of East Indian decent, with some countries in the Caribbean being as much as 50% East Indian (that’s a whole other example of unrecognized facts). I personally have a number of people with East Indian blood in my family. The Caribbean is one of the world’s great melting pots, as evident in Jamaica’s and Trinidad’s curry dishes, introduced by East Indian indentured workers almost two centuries ago. I have always had a fascination with Indian culture, but it was only as an adult I realized that historically the Indian subcontinent had both a significant presence and contact with ancient Africa. But it was only even more recently that I learned of a significant presence of Africans in India known as the Siddi.
There are various hypotheses on the origin of the name Siddi. One theory is that the word derives from sahibi, an Arabic term of respect in North Africa, similar to the word sahib in modern India and Pakistan. A second theory is that the term Siddi is derived from the title borne by the captains of the Arab vessels that first brought Siddi settlers to India. These captains were known as Sayyid.
Similarly, another term for Siddis, habshi, is held to be derived from the common name for the captains of the Abyssinian (Ethiopian/Eritrean) ships that also first delivered Siddi slaves to the subcontinent. As we get closer to the modern era Siddis are starting to be referred to as Afro-Indians.
The first Siddis are thought to have arrived in India at the port of Bharuch in 628 AD. Several others followed with the first Arab Islamic conquest of the Indian subcontinent in 712 AD. This latter group are believed to have been soldiers in Muhammad bin Qasim's Arab army. This group of enslved Muslim African soldiers were called Zanjis. Some Siddis escaped slavery to establish communities in forested areas, or places Janjira Island as early as the twelfth century. A former alternative name of Janjira was Habshan (i.e., land of the Habshis). One of the greatest stories of Africans in India revolve around the story of Queen Razia Sultan and Jamal-ud-Din Yakut.
Queen Razia was one of India’s most valiant queens and history tells the tale of her suspected liaison with her confidant and ally, Jamal-ud-Din Yakut. Whether or not they were actual lovers is unclear, but the outrage that this alleged dalliance sparked in the 13th century Mamluk Dynasty is well recorded. Much of the resentment against Yakut arose from the fact that he was a slave-turned-nobleman of African origin, and not from the ethnic-Turkish clique that dominated the nobility in the Delhi-based Sultanate. Conferred the title of Amir al-Umara (Amir of Amirs), by Queen Razia, Jamal-ud-Din Yakut was the first African to occupy a prominent position in India.
Yakut is only one of many Africans to have left their mark on Indian history. Many of these Africans proved themselves while in the service of local rulers. They enjoyed a great degree of social mobility, some of them going on to become military commanders, aristocrats, statesmen and even founders their own kingdoms
India’s Siddi population was later swelled via the forced migration of Bantu peoples from Southeast Africa brought to the Indian subcontinent Indian subcontinent as slaves by the Portuguese. Most of these migrants either were or became Muslims. The Nizam of Hyderabad also employed African-origin guards and soldiers.
But even before to the rise of the Islamic Mughals empire in India, several former African slaves rose to high ranks in the military and ruling class. The most prominent of these Africans was the famous Malik Ambar.
Malik Ambar was the regent of the Nizamshahi dynasty of Ahmednagar from 1607 to 1627. During this period he increased the strength and power of Murtaza Nizam Shah II and raised a large army. He raised a cavalry which grew from 150 to 7000 in a short period of time and revitalized the Ahmadnagar sultanate and repelling Mughal attacks from the North. By 1610, his army grew to include 10,000 Habshis and 40,000 Deccanis. Over the course of the next decade, Malik Ambar would fight and defeat Mughal emperor Jahangir's attempts to take over the kingdom.
As I wrote earlier most people in the West are unaware of the eastward African slave trade from Southeastern Africa to places like India. But the Siddis in South India are a significant social portion of the African Diaspora whose histories, experiences, cultures, and expressions are integral part of Indian history.
Although the Siddis have always been a numerical minority, their fourteen hundred year historic presence in India, their own self identity, and how the broader Indian society relates to them, marks them as distinctly Afro-Indian. Historically the Siddis have existed in a sort of ethnic limbo. Siddis maintained their own culture and did not succumb to the structures of imperial forces, but also they didn’t rebel against imperial rule. But a group of Siddi near the modern Indian tech capital of Hyderabad have had an outside influence on India culture.
In the 18th century, a Siddi community was established in Hyderabad by a group of the Siddi diaspora, who had served as cavalry and guards to the Asif Jahi Nizam of Hyderabad's army. The Asif Jahi rulers patronized them with rewards and the traditional Marfa music gained popularity and would be performed during official celebrations and ceremonies. The Siddis of Hyderabad by tradition began to reside in the A.C. Guards (African Cavalry Guards) area near Masjid Rahmania, known locally as Siddi Risala in the city Hyderabad.
Another group of Siddi that that became to influence India music were originally sold as slaves by the Portuguese to the local Prince, Nawab of Junagadh about 300 years ago. This group of Siddis live around Gir Forest National Park and Wildlife sanctuary. Today, they follow very few of their original customs, with a few exceptions like the traditional Dhamal dance.
Although Gujarati Siddis have generally adopted the language and customs of the surrounding general populations, some of their Bantu traditions have been preserved. These include the Goma music and dance form, which is sometimes called Dhamaal (fun). The term is believed to be derived from the Ngoma drumming and traditional dance forms of the Bantu people inhabiting Central, East and Southern Africa. The Goma also has a spiritual significance and, at the climax of the dance, some dancers are believed to be vehicles for the presence of Siddi saints of the past.
Goma music comes from the Swahili word "ngoma", which means drums. It also denotes any dancing occasion where principally traditional drums are used. The majority of the Siddis in Gujarat are Muslims.
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Today the city of Bangalore, India’s Silicon Valley, symbolizes the success story of modern India. There Indians keep the books of major American enterprises and work the call centers for corporations around the world. But directly to the North of Bangalore, in the same state of Karnataka, Sidis battle to keep access to their lands in the forests. Hundreds of years ago, their ancestors fled from slavery in Portuguese-ruled Indian city enclave of Goa to the mostly inaccessible forests of the interior.
The Siddi near Bangalore built villages, similar to the maroons in the Caribbean. They subsist on forest produce and tilling small plots of cleared land. It is widely shared belief by these Siddis believe that President Barack Obama share their genealogy, as Obama’s father was originally from Mombasa (in modern day Kenya) where traditions say their ancestors hail from. These Siddi widely celebrated his visit to India in 2010.
The Siddis near Bangalore have preserved elements of their African heritage, expressed by their music, songs, stories and uniquely African musical instruments. These performances are closely linked to Sufi sects, a mystical version of Islam that allows for culturally heterodox practices. These black Sufi practitioners venerate a black saint known as Gori Pir (Pir Mangho). Local oral tradition has it that Gori Pir came to Gujarat in the 15th century as a merchant from Africa, accompanied by his sister and several brothers.
Else where in South Asia, in Pakistan locals of African Bantu descent are called "Sheedi". The estimated population of the Sheedi in Pakistan is over 250,000. In the city of Karachi, the main Sheedi center is the area of Lyari and other nearby coastal areas. The Sheedi consider themselves a brotherhood or a subdivision of the Siddi. The Sheedi are divided into four clans, or houses: Kharadar Makan, Hyderabad Makan, Lassi Makan and Belaro Makan.
The Sufi saint Pir Mangho (Gori Pir in India) is regarded by many as the patron saint of the Sheedi, and the annual Sheedi Mela festival, is the key event in the Sheedi community's cultural calendar. Some glimpses of the rituals at Sidi/Sheedi Festival include visit to sacred alligators at Mangho pir , dancing and playing music. The instrument, songs, and dances are clearly derived from Africa.
The Sheedi are very active in cultural activities and organize many annual festivals, such as the Habash Festival. In the local Sheedi culture, dancing is not performed only by a select few and watched idly by onlookers. Sheedi dancing is participated by all the people present, with little difference between the performers and the audience.
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Famous Sheedi include the historic Sindhi army leader Hoshu Sheedi and Urdu poet Noon Meem Danish. Sheedis are well known for their excellence in sports, especially in soccer and boxing. Qasim Umer is a famous cricketer who played for Pakistan in 80s. The musical anthem of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, "Bija Teer", is a Balochi song in the musical style of the Sheedi with Black African style rhythm and drums. Younis Jani is a popular Sheedi singer famous for singing an Urdu version of the reggaeton song "Papi chulo... (te traigo el mmmm...)."
The Sheedi in Sindh proudly also refer to themselves the Qambranis, in reverence to Qambar, the freed slave of Ali. A politician from this area Tanzeela Qambrani became the first Sheedi woman to be elected as the member of Provincial Assembly in Pakistan’s 2018 general election.
Finally on the South Asian island of Sri Lanka , the self described Sri Lankan Kaffirs are an ethnic group who are partially descended from Bantu slaves who were brought by 16th century Portuguese traders to work as laborers and soldiers in wars against the Sinhala Kings. The term Kaffir is an obsolete term once used to designate natives from the African Great Lakes and Southern Africa coasts. Although in modern South Africa it has became a racial slur. "The Kaffirs speak a distinctive creole partially based on Portuguese. Their cultural heritage includes the dance styles Kaffringna and Manja and their popular form of dance music Baila.
Although most Westerner may be unaware of the eastward African slave trade from Southeastern Africa that gave rise to the Siddi. But the Siddi in South Asian a part of the African Diaspora that had a significant impact on Indian history and cultures. Although the Siddis have always been a minority in South Asia, their over five hundred years historic presence, and their own self identity, marks them as distinctly Afro-Indian. Today the contribution of the Siddi are an integral part of modern South Asian culture.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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Now Fakorede was mad, walking briskly into his office, dialing friends on speaker phone, pacing around his conference room. He’d been raised in Nigeria, moved to New Jersey as a teenager and had come to practice in Mississippi five years earlier. He’d grown obsessed with legs, infuriated by the toll of amputations on African Americans. His billboards on Highway 61, running up the Delta, announced his ambitions: “Amputation Prevention Institute.”
Nobody knew it in January, but within months, the new coronavirus would sweep the United States, killing tens of thousands of people, a disproportionately high number of them black and diabetic. They were at a disadvantage, put at risk by an array of factors, from unequal health care access to racist biases to cuts in public health funding. These elements have long driven disparities, particularly across the South. One of the clearest ways to see them is by tracking who suffers diabetic amputations, which are, by one measure, the most preventable surgery in the country.
Look closely enough, and those seemingly intractable barriers are made up of crucial decisions, which layer onto one another: A panel of experts decides not to endorse screening for vascular disease in the legs; so the law allows insurance providers not to cover the tests. The federal government forgives the student loans of some doctors in underserved areas, but not certain specialists; so the physicians most critical to treating diabetic complications are in short supply. Policies written by hospitals, insurers and the government don’t require surgeons to consider limb-saving options before applying a blade; amputations increase, particularly among the poor.
Despite the great scientific strides in diabetes care, the rate of amputations across the country grew by 50% between 2009 and 2015. Diabetics undergo 130,000 amputations each year, often in low-income and underinsured neighborhoods. Black patients lose limbs at a rate triple that of others. It is the cardinal sin of the American health system in a single surgery: save on preventive care, pay big on the backend, and let the chronically sick and underprivileged feel the extreme consequences.
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As some states move to reopen against the advice of public health professionals, these numbers are likely to get even worse. As we prepare for this, we should also begin asking another, interrelated question: What impact will this growing death toll have on black health care providers, particularly black doctors and nurses?
As a sociologist who studies the experiences of black health care workers, I fear that one unanticipated consequence of the coronavirus might be a setback of the modest advances the medical industry has made towards improving racial diversity among practitioners. Currently, despite being approximately 13% of the U.S. population, blacks constitute only 5% of all doctors and 10% of nurses. Both professions have come to realize that more racial and gender diversity is essential for providing care for a multiracial society — especially given data indicating black patients’ health outcomes improve when matched with a same-race provider. But conversations with black health care workers about their daily experiences exposes the possibility that Covid-19 could be a breaking point, both physically and mentally.
In a recent study, I investigated the choices that black practitioners made about where they wanted to work and what specialty of medicine they wanted to pursue. The 60 respondents in my study hailed from a range of specialties including ob-gyns, geneticists, and anesthesiologists. Across specialties, I found that many were motivated to go into health care by a desire to help those who were least likely to access high-quality, compassionate care. For instance, Annette, a geneticist, told me that she wanted to use her skills and training to help black populations who might not otherwise have access to genetic testing. Jackson, a physician assistant, described being motivated early on to pursue a career in health care so that he could give back to poor black communities like the one in which he was raised. Specifically, they wanted to provide respectful, effective health care to black populations for whom this is rarely the norm. (All names used here are pseudonyms.)
This commitment led many of my respondents to seek out employment at facilities in urban areas where most patients were black, Latinx, and often low income and/or uninsured. As Mindy, a nurse I spoke with for my research, told me, “Blacks are culturally a higher percentage of the poor, and so I just feel I take personal responsibility in making a difference. I’m really focusing on the culture who needs it the most and figuring out ways to reach them.” For health care workers like Mindy, this choice means being on the front lines for patients who can’t afford primary care physicians, use the emergency room for medical care, and often have extensive pre-existing conditions.
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The coronavirus pandemic has brought disproportionate suffering to Black communities, but it doesn’t have to continue that way. Slate: It’s Not Too Late to Save Black Lives
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Maria has not kissed or hugged her children since March 28. It was around then that she started to develop shortness of breath, chest pressure, and a scratchy throat. Maybe, she thought, it was strep, so she ventured to a local urgent care to get tested.
It came back negative.
Maria went home, where her chest pressure persisted into the night. It was too much, and she went to the emergency room at the hospital in metro Detroit where she works in nursing. There, she was told to assume that she had contracted SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and to go home. She burst into tears. “I told [the doctor] I have a young baby at home,” she said. “I need to know what my status is, if I should be quarantining. I need to know what I need to do. So they swabbed me, just to be nice, I guess.” (Maria asked that her name be changed because of fear of employer retaliation.)
The swab grazed the inside of Maria’s nose. She told the clinician administering the test that she’d heard this procedure was painful. This didn’t hurt. She questioned if she was being tested properly. But the clinician reassured Maria that everything was fine.
Four days later, her results came back negative, which was enough for her employer to insist she come back to work. Within two weeks, Maria’s shortness of breath had disappeared, but she started to experience diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and chills in its place. Soon, she lost her ability to smell. But, still, no fever. So her employer wasn’t hearing her out when she asked for time off.
Six days after the loss of smell presented itself, a friend of Maria’s encouraged her to visit her local health department for a test. It was a completely different experience. The test used to identify the presence of the coronavirus is unpleasant at best. A six-inch swab is inserted deep into the cavity between the nose and mouth where it is rotated several times for about 15 seconds. This time, Maria said, it was distressing.
On April 18, her test came back positive.
Maria’s situation—facing resistance and uncertainty about access to care and testing, even while working an essential and risky job—is a study in how the Black community is being pummeled by the coronavirus. Data from across the country show that Black Americans are more likely to contract COVID-19 and are disproportionately dying, often younger, from complications of the virus.
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As Leonard Wantchekon was having breakfast with his wife, Catherine Kossou, in 2007, she recalled how one friend could not trust anyone. Even as a child her friend would say: “That person is going to sell you,” or “He will make you disappear.”
The words struck a chord with Mr Wantchekon. Now a professor at Princeton University, he was born in Zagnanado in central Benin. Some of the music he listened to in his youth—such as that of Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou—had songs that warned against trusting those close to you.
He wondered: “Does this have something to do with slavery?” Benin was a hub of the slave trade. More than 1 million people were trafficked from the interior to the port of Ouidah, and then to America, Brazil or the Caribbean. Alongside Nathan Nunn of Harvard University, Mr Wantchekon looked for a relationship between the intensity of the slave trade and low levels of trust (and thus commerce). He found one. The resulting article is in the top 1% of most-cited economics papers.
The story of the paper has broader relevance, explains Mr Wantchekon (pictured). It was his data-mining skills that helped him find the answer. But it was his Beninese background that raised the question.
Mr Wantchekon is one of just a few African economists at elite Western universities. Most scholarship about Africa is done by academics who are neither African-born nor based in Africa. Influential development journals have few African scholars on their boards. Most major conferences about Africa do not take place there.
The imbalance is partly a result of bias in overseas universities. But it is also because of conditions at African ones. Higher education is not a priority for politicians, who often send their children abroad, or donors, who prefer to fund schools. The result is underfunded and overcrowded universities that do not equip enough African graduates with the skills required to get into world-class doctoral programmes.
The consequence is a profound loss, argues Mr Wantchekon. Countless young African intellectuals do not get a fair chance. The world gets a skewed picture of African countries because many of the best researchers come from elsewhere.
That may be changing. In 2014 Mr Wantchekon founded the African School of Economics in Abomey-Calavi, Benin. Its aim is to offer African students the highest standards of mathematics and economics teaching, ensuring they can compete with graduates overseas.
It is refreshingly drab, with no splurging on a flashy campus or needless technology. The 100 or so students pay $2,400 per year, about the same as at a public university. “This is not about doing something grandiose,” says Mr Wantchekon. It is a model that can be replicated. Another campus was opened this year in Ivory Coast.
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China, Africa’s largest bilateral creditor, is likely to agree to delay but not forgive its $152 billion of loans, an approach at odds with prior forbearance plans from groups including the Paris Club, according to a top Johns Hopkins University researcher.
“The Chinese have always done their lending on the idea that individual projects contribute to structural transformation and economic development,” said Deborah Brautigam, who heads the China Africa Research Initiative at JHU’s School of Advanced International Studies. The thinking is, “those projects might be good projects and viable projects to get countries to a new stage where they might be in a position to repay the loans,” she said.
Brautigam’s figures include loans made between 2000 and 2018. While many have been repaid on schedule, it shows just how much China’s lending has grown in Africa amid a push for political and economic clout through an overseas infrastructure investment plan begun by President Xi Jinping in 2013. China will also provide $2 billion over two years to support the fight against the pandemic, especially in developing countries, Xi said in a speech to the World Health Assembly.
The good news is that China is typically willing to negotiate payment extensions. “Usually, it’s not that difficult to lengthen the payment period or lengthen the maturity of loans,” Brautigam said.
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The lawsuit filed in St. Louis County Circuit Court names the city and four police officers. It seeks unspecified damages.
Derek Gray lives in Virginia and works in security. His mother is in frail health with osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, glaucoma and other ailments, Stroth said, so Derek Gray took leave from his job to care for her at her home in Creve Coeur, Missouri, another St. Louis suburb.
At the Sam’s Club, Derek Gray purchased a 65-inch Sony Bravia flat-screen TV for his mother, along with other items, Stroth said. When they got to his SUV they realized everything wouldn’t fit, so Derek Gray asked the store to hold the TV until he could return later and pick it up.
The trouble began when he went back to the store. At first, the lawsuit said, someone at the store expressed suspicion that Gray was trying to steal the TV. A store employee interceded and confirmed that Gray had paid for the TV and was there to pick it up.
Still, a Des Peres officer who was in the store followed Gray to the SUV and accused him of theft before being told by an employee that Gray had bought the TV, the lawsuit said.
Gray returned to his mother’s home and told her about the false accusations. They decided, based on how he was treated, to return the TV and get their money back.
The lawsuit said that while the Grays were at the store seeking a refund, four officers “violently and physically seized Marvia Gray and Derek Gray, throwing them to the floor, beating them, handcuffing them, then arresting them.”
The lawsuit said the officers acted without cause or adequate provocation, but provides no other details. Police Capt. Sean Quinn declined comment, citing the pending litigation.
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Donald Sterling, who had spent decades oscillating between openly discriminating against black and brown tenants and being universally reviled as the worst owner in professional sports, had been caught on tape saying some incredibly vile, racist ass shit about NBA great Magic Johnson—and the timing couldn’t have been any worse.
The Clippers had just narrowly escaped the Golden State Warriors with an impressive 98-96 victory during the first round of the NBA playoffs, and instead of preparing for whatever onslaught that Steph Curry would inevitably unleash in response, the team had far more important matters at hand.
“People want to know the response to an evil action almost as much as they care about the evil action,” Clippers head coach Doc Rivers says during the opening sequence of Blackballed. “The people who are persecuted shouldn’t have to answer, but that’s not the way it is.”
To that end, Blackballed, which premiered on Quibi, Monday, chronicles this debacle and its standing as one of the biggest scandals in the history of professional sports. Sterling would eventually receive a lifetime ban from the NBA and be forced to sell the Clippers for $2 billion—a far cry from the $12.5 million he spent to purchase the team in 1981—but it’s the outrage and uncertainty that occurred in between the tape’s revelation and Sterling’s exile that this documentary captures masterfully.
“It’s like the most Clippers thing ever,” producer Will Packer told The Root. “They finally have the opportunity [to compete for an NBA championship] and some crazy shit like this pops off. It was interesting even for me behind the scenes. It was really enlightening.”
Packer’s insistence that this was “the most Clippers thing ever” can’t be understated. In his 33 years as an NBA owner, Sterling’s Clippers only produced two winning seasons, trotted out an endless parade of failed lottery picks and were marred by ugly accusation after ugly accusation. This context is important because as Blackballed notes, with the players facing immense public pressure to stand up against the same guy who wrote their checks, they had to choose between continuing their pursuit of an ever-elusive NBA title or refusing to play and walking away from the opportunity entirely.
“[Chris Paul] and the guys were stuck in a situation that had nothing to do with them,” Packer explained. “All they wanted to do was go out and play the Golden State Warriors. And now everybody’s looking at them like, ‘What are you going to do?’”
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Romance Writers of America is attempting to turn the page on a damaging racism row, abolishing its top literary prizes and replacing them with awards in a new format it hopes will show “happily ever afters are for everyone” and not just white protagonists.
The association of more than 9,000 romance writers is developing proposals to encourage more diverse winners, including training for its judges, an award for unpublished authors and processes to ensure books are judged by people familiar with each subgenre.
The RWA has been at the centre of an acrimonious debate about diversity, criticised for the paucity of writers of colour shortlisted for its major awards, the Ritas, as well as its treatment of Courtney Milan after she called a fellow author’s book a “racist mess” because of its depictions of Chinese women. Milan has been a prominent advocate for diversity in romance publishing, and her suspension prompted a widespread backlash, with the bestselling novelist Nora Roberts slamming the RWA for “a long-standing and systemic marginalisation of authors of colour, [and] of LGBTQ authors, by the organisation”.
The RWA acknowledged in 2018 that no black author had won a Rita since the awards were founded in 1982. Kennedy Ryan became the first black author to take one of the prizes in 2019, saying at the time that her win “kicks down a door that should have been flung open long ago”.
In January, the RWA cancelled this year’s Ritas after hundreds of authors pulled out in protest over Milan’s suspension. The entire board resigned in February, with a new board issuing an apology last month to Milan and to members “from marginalised communities” for a “deeply painful and upsetting” few months. Now the association has announced that the Ritas will be permanently retired and replaced with a new award, the Vivian, in an attempt to move on from the controversy.
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