Abkhazians of African descent

Afro-Abkhazians

Photo of an Afro-Abkhazian family from Caucasus
Regions with significant populations
Currently Russia and other parts of Abkhazia, formerly Adzyubzha
Languages
Russian, Abkhazian, Turkish, Mingrelian

Abkhazians of African descent or Afro-Abkhazians, also known as African Caucasians, were a small group of people of African descent in Abkhazia, who used to live mainly in the settlement Adzyubzha at the mouth of the Kodori River and the surrounding villages (Chlou, Pokvesh, Agdarra and Merkulov) on the eastern coast of the Black Sea.

Origin

Hypotheses

The ethnic origin of the Afro-Abkhazians—and how Africans arrived in Abkhazia—is still a matter of dispute among experts. Historians agree that the settlement of Africans in a number of villages in the village of Adzyubzha in Abkhazia (then part of the Ottoman Empire) is likely to have happened in the 17th century. According to one version, a few hundred slaves were bought and brought by Shervashidze princes (Chachba) to work on the citrus plantations. This case was a unique, and apparently not entirely successful, instance of mass import of Africans to the Black Sea coast.

Legends

There are a number of folk legends that are based on true events. According to one of them, which is mentioned in the memorandum of Ivan Isakov to Nikita Khrushchev, an Ottoman ship wrecked near the Abkhazian coast during a storm, with slaves who were brought up for sale, and the current Abkhazians of African descent are the descendants of survivors from the ship, who founded the colony in Abkhazia. This legend, however, does not explain how such a ship could have entered the waters of the Black Sea, which is so far from major shipping lanes of the slave trade of that time.

History and present

It is known that by the 19th century, Afro-Abkhazians spoke only Abkhazian. Their total number is estimated by different observers in the range of "several families" to "several villages".

Afro-Abkhazians engaged in growing citrus, grapes, and corn, working in the coal mines of Tkvarchreli and enterprises of Sukhumi, working in knitting factories, etc. Like the Abkhaz people, the Abkhazians of African descent today also speak Russian. Many left Kodor to settle in other parts of Georgia and in neighbouring Russia, as well as other nearby countries.

In other parts of Caucasus

A small number of Africans in the 19th and early 20th centuries also lived in the Adjarian city of Batumi.

The Library of Congress, in George Kennan's collection, has a picture of a Karabakhian African-Caucasian (1870–1886).

In popular culture

Afro-Abkhazians and their relationships with indigenous Abkhaz were featured in prose by Fazil Iskander.

See also

• Afro-Russians
• Afro-Turks
• Black people
• African diaspora
• Abkhaz people
• African admixture in Europe