Afro-Syrians

Afro-Syrians are citizens of Syria who have any ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. There are at least four major groups of Black Syrians: The Yarmouk people, a group of Afro-Iraqi origin, the Shia group in Damascus, and the Sudanese-Syrians. The Black people of Yarmouk Basin are living in southwestern Daraa Governorate.

History

There are many different origins of Afro-Syrians, the most common ones are the Arab slave trade, African Muslims settling in Syria during the Islamic Golden Age, African refugees that received Syrian citizenship, Syrian refugees in Africa who mixed with the local Africans, Syrian refugees in Brazil who mixed with Afro-Brazilians, and interracial marriages between Syrians and black people. Sudan is listed as the most common place of ancestry for Afro-Syrians, with Sudan and Syria having connections since the spread of Islam and the rapidly-growing number of Syrian refugees in Sudan and Sudanese refugees in Syria. Most Afro-Syrians fell under ISIS rule during the Syrian Civil War. A community of Shia Afro-Syrians exists in Damascus. A lot of Afro-Palestinians also reside in refugee camps in Syria.

Though their exact origin is unknown, some local stories report Sudan as ancestral homeland of the Yarmouk Basin's black people; in any case, they have lived in the area for a long time, and are culturally and linguistically assimilated into the local Arab population. While the number of black people in the basin is considered relatively large by locals, their existence is little known throughout wider Syria.