Replug: The Baluch of East Africa

 

Baluch settlements on Makadara Road, Mombasa, 1920

This article was first published on the blog  NOORMOHAMED in August 24, 2008

By A. I. Noormohamed

They journeyed in the fabled dhows; white crescent sails blown by ocean winds, three hundred years ago, as soldiers of fortune, to the east coast of Africa; to build an empire for the Sultan Of Oman who had conquered their homeland on south coastal fringes of the Persian empire, and to whom they now owed allegiance. It was a long fateful voyage undertaken by most for monetary gain, and thought to be a temporary mission, without quite realizing the impact that undertaking down the Indian Ocean would have on their future. And how lasting it would turn out to be.

Balochistan on the brink

Landscapes of Balochistan

“I have seen the poverty. My arms are not a sign of terrorism, because my arms are bound totally by a political ideology, that ideology is to help for freedom and to seek it not only for Balochistan but for the rest of the world,” Dr Allah Nazar, BLF.

by Joshua Virasami

Entering Balochistan

“Come here, listen to this”, Ali slowly leafed through the pages of the local newspaper, “look, you see this small paragraph? This is an account from a fighter in the villages.” I asked him if he could translate. “Today we lost several fighters but we killed three Pakistani soldiers and shot down their helicopter”. I asked him whether he had visited the fighters in the Bolan Pass. “Yes, I’ve been there in my role as a government official but also as a Baloch, I negotiated with them on the release of a hostage, but I respect their fight”. We had just come down from Ali’s small mountain, he inherited it from his parents and we were now on his 7 acre farm which he had also inherited. He closed the newspaper and looked over to the mountain face, “People mark out their mountains by spelling their surname over it”, and he proceeded to point out where he had spelled out his surname, ‘Kurd’. Ali is however an ethnic Baloch.