Shooting the Siddis of Junagadh

Shooting the Siddis of Junagadh, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

I shoot pain in its collective ethos , and shooting the Siddis a tribal race of African ancestry living in the Gir Forests and now in Mumbai to earn their living playing drums performing at the Makhdoom Shah Baba Urus at Mahim, was shooting a pain that lives from one generation to the next.

People of a warrior race reduced to performing beggars ..so I decided to make a set of their pictures at my photo stream at Flickr.

This is my tribute to them , their fighting spirit of survival and they are Muslims mind you. Their Holy Saint is Baba Gor.

I shot the Siddi Dhamal by the Mumbai Siddis at Haji Malang too thanks to Afzal Bhai and Altaf Siddi.

The Siddis are a quiet race , they dont mix and live among themselves they are born dancers , dancing and drums is in their blood stream.

They do Hip Hop Rap and a fusion of African street dance with acrobatic acts.