Afro-Jordanians

Afro-Jordanians are Jordanian citizens of sub-Saharan African descent, most of them farmers of the Jordan Valley (al-Ghor). Two origin accounts are given: Africans brought as slaves to work the sugar-cane plantations and mills of the southern Ghor from the 12th century, where a large medieval sugar mill survives near Ghor al-Safi, and domestic slaves of Bedouin and settled families in the 19th century, many brought through the Red Sea and Hijaz trade. Slavery in Transjordan was abolished in 1929. They form part of the Ghawarna, the people of the Ghor, who include people of every complexion. Afro-Jordanians call themselves Arabs and Jordanians, 'Arabs who happen to be black'; some deny African origin altogether. Polite Arabic calls them samr or asmar ('brown'); the slur abd or abeed ('slave') is still used.

Afro-Jordanians share the culture of the Jordan Valley farming villages: the rural Levantine Arabic of the Ghor, extended patrilineal families, mansaf and valley produce, and Islamic festivals and weddings. Ethnographers found no African folk traditions, music or oral histories of Africa. Marriage is mostly within the group, and intermarriage with highland Jordanians is limited. Women in the Southern Ghor run cooperatives that dye wool with iron-rich mud.

Sunni Muslims who keep Ramadan, mosque prayer and Islamic life-cycle rites like their neighbours, and protect children and property against the evil eye with amulets and rituals. Islam offers a language of equality before God in the face of colour prejudice. No zar or other African-derived spirit rites are reported in Jordan.

There is no separate language: the full Arabic Bible, the JESUS film in Arabic and Arabic Christian radio, television and online media are all accessible. No church, ministry or believers among Black Jordanians are known.

The plains south of the Dead Sea were a centre of sugar-cane cultivation under the Ayyubids and Mamluks, and excavated mills at Ghor al-Safi (Tawahin al-Sukkar) show an industrial scale of production. One account traces part of today's Black population of the Southern Ghor to Africans brought to work these plantations. Others descend from domestic slaves of Bedouin and settled families in the Ottoman period, before slavery was abolished in Transjordan in 1929. Descendants have no memory of Africa and identify fully as Arabs; the colour line survives in slurs, limited intermarriage and job discrimination.