Asian is African

I sparked quite a conversation on Tiktok recently when I said that Asians have always been African. Upon making this statement, I quickly realized that this was a revelation that challenge basically everything we have been taught and conditioned to believe, especially in America. We’ve been taught that Asian people are separate from African people, yet there are so many unsettling details and things that link the two seemingly separate groups.

Paco Taylor, a writer from Chicago has an article revealing photographic evidence of Black Chinese as well as the Orang Asli, the “first people” of Southeast Asia. It definitely gets you thinking that if this was 150 years ago than there must have been more black “Asians” before then, especially since the Orang Asli people have African facial features, brown skin and curly hair.

The Orang Asli are referred to as “negritos”. The Chinese word equivalent for negrito is kunlun, which is mentioned in early Chinese literature and mythology. Most notably Kulun Nu, a wuxia romance written in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) is about a “negrito” slave, who uses his supernatural abilities to save his beloved from certain circumstances. Ancient Chinese believed Kunlun Mountain to be a paradise and dwelling place of gods, goddess, sacred plants & animals as well where Chinese civilization originated from.

Robin Lofton, an independent historian, dives into the history of Africans in China in her article with BlackPast, which correlates perfectly as Kulun Nu was written during the Tang dynasty, which was the peak of slavery trade between Africa and China.

John H Brandt wrote a mission report/manuscript called “The Negrito of Peninsular Thailand” that’s worth at least skimming over.

Dr Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya, a London based researcher speaks about the community of Afro Sri Lankan people in South East Asia of African origin in her article. She spoke with the indigenous people of Sirambiyadiya, who told her that their ancestors, soldiers were brought there by European colonist long ago.

An honorable mention is the artifacts of the ancient Cham(pa) dynasty. The kingdom ruled from the 2nd to 17th century AD and extended along the eastern coast of Vietnam, from central to southern present day Vietnam. They were master temple and sculptures builders with evidence of their extraordinary work still present in Vietnam and Cambodia.

From a scientific approach, a study from 2001 by Li Jin from the University of Texas found that modern East Asians are indeed genetically linked to East Africa. Jin and his colleagues found 3 SAPs within the Y chromosomes: M89, M130 and YAP. These are mutations of another DNA molecule M168, which originated only in East Africa. Read more on this study here and here.

G. Philip Rightmire of the University of New York’s facial morphology found similarities as well as no “consistent patterns in facial morphology which set the African hominids apart from Asian H. erectus. Asian and African”, this was in 1998.

The Deep Roots of Afro-Asia is an interesting read as it takes a look into African and Asian relations and exchanges in history as well as modern day.

With just the information right here, it’s very clear to see that Asian people are of African descent and that upon deeper research, that many Black Asians were eventually assimilated into the current Asian populations, most notably the Han Chinese in both modern day China and throughout Southeast Asia.

The misinformation in media portrayal of both African Americans and Asians/Asian Americans have caused a divide between the community that is still apparent to this day. It’s classic Social Darwinism, smaller groups are easier to maintain control over than the whole. If we don’t know our power, that’s not their issue, it’s ours. If we choose to fight each other instead of the system, the system prevails. I say it all the time, we did not come back to live our human experiences during this time in history by accident or merely coincidence, we came back for a reason! Together, learning and understanding our history, coming together in communication and unity; community is how we lead and raise the collective consciousness as the new ancestors!