Afro-Saudis

Afro-Saudis are Saudi citizens of Black African descent. They have two main histories. The Takarna (from Takrur, an old Arabic name for West Africa) descend from West African Muslims, Hausa, Fulani, Kanuri and others, who came on pilgrimage or fled colonial rule in the 18th to 20th centuries and stayed in Mecca, Medina and Jeddah; their family names say where they came from: Hawsawi (Hausa), Fallatah (Fulani), Bernawi (Borno), Takruni. Others descend from Africans enslaved and brought across the Red Sea, mostly from the Horn of Africa and East Africa; slavery was abolished only in 1962, and many freed families took their former masters' tribal names or none. Smaller numbers descend from Sudanese, Ethiopian and Somali settlers. All speak Arabic as their mother tongue; a few older Takarna still understand Hausa or Fulfulde. What sets them apart is colour and descent: in a society organised by tribe, a Black Saudi is assumed to have no tribe or to descend from slaves, and the slur 'abd' (slave) is still used. Discrimination in jobs, education and above all marriage is documented by interviews (Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, 2014) and by Black Saudis themselves (Tareq Al-Haydar, 2009; Nawal al-Hawsawi, 2014-2016; the novelist Mahmoud Trawri, 2020). No source counts them: figures from 3% to 15% of Saudis circulate without a basis. Whether the Takarna and the descendants of the enslaved see themselves as one people is not known.

Afro-Saudi families live mostly in the old quarters and newer districts of Mecca, Jeddah and Medina, where West African pilgrims once settled near the Haram and the port; Jeddah's Karantina, on the old quarantine ground by the port, is remembered as the city's oldest Black neighbourhood. Takarna families kept West African crafts and trades (tailoring, prayer caps, Qur'an teaching) and some dishes, and the Hejaz's drum-and-stick dances such as the mizmar carry African rhythms. Younger people see themselves first as Saudi and Arab; elders keep stories of the journey from Kano, Borno or Futa. Marriage is the hardest line: tribal families rarely accept a Black son-in-law, so most marry within Black Saudi or other non-tribal Hejazi families. Football has been the most visible way up; many of Saudi Arabia's national team stars are Black Saudis.

Afro-Saudis are Sunni Muslims. Takarna families brought the Maliki law and Sufi orders of West Africa (Tijaniyya, Qadiriyya) and produced well-known teachers in Mecca's mosques in the 20th century; today Sufi practice is private, and children learn the state's Hanbali-Salafi Islam at school. Many families trace their presence in Arabia to the pilgrimage itself, so faith and identity are bound together. Sheikh Adil al-Kalbani, a Black Saudi, led prayers at the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 2008-2009. Belief in jinn and the evil eye and healing by Qur'an recitation are common, as across the Hejaz.

No known believers or Christian outreach among Afro-Saudis. Arabic Scripture, the JESUS film and audio are available, and some Hausa and Fulfulde resources exist for older Takarna, but none are directed to this community. Saudi law forbids evangelism and leaving Islam, and for families whose presence in Arabia began with the pilgrimage, Islam is part of who they are.

Saudi Arabia was among the last countries to abolish slavery, doing so in 1962 under international pressure. The abolition freed an estimated 10,000-30,000 enslaved individuals, many of African descent. Freed slaves often lacked tribal affiliations, family names, or social networks, leaving them at the bottom of Saudi society's tribal hierarchy. Their descendants, now third and fourth generation, continue to bear the social stigma of slave ancestry. Some families adopted the surnames of former masters; others were simply categorized by their African appearance. The legacy of slavery intersects with the Hajj-pilgrim community: both groups are Black, both are Saudi citizens, but their social standing and self-perception differ significantly. The Hajj-descended community (Hawsawi, Fallatah, Bernawi) can trace free ancestry and sometimes claim connection to scholarly or religious lineages, while slave-descended Afro-Saudis lack this social capital.

Three histories meet in this group. The Takarna descend from free West African pilgrims and scholars, some of whom taught in Mecca's Grand Mosque, and they can name the towns their families came from. Descendants of the enslaved, freed in 1962 or earlier, often carry a former master's tribal name or a name marking servile origin, and face the sharpest stigma in marriage. A third strand descends from Sudanese, Ethiopian, Somali and Swahili-coast settlers of the Red Sea ports; IMB's 554,000 'Swahili Arabized Africans' in Saudi Arabia are counted in this group, though no source documents a Swahili-speaking community among Saudi citizens today. Many West Africans born in the kingdom never obtained citizenship and hold Chadian, Malian, Nigerien or Nigerian papers (census 2022: 46,193 Chadians, 38,360 Malians, 33,579 Nigeriens, 79,547 Nigerians, not all of them of this origin); they live in the same quarters but are counted in their nationality groups, since citizenship draws the line. None of these strands is counted separately, and whether they form one people or several is open.