India and the Dynamics of World Politics

Chapter 8

India-Africa Relations

The historicity and robustness of India—Africa relations can be gauged from the legends of Yakut Khan (an Abyssinian slave, said to be the lover of Rajia Sultan) and Abdul Majid (a Gujarati sailor, who guided Vasco-da-Gama from the African coast to Calicut). This bond was further strengthened, when India and Africa, both struggled against the European colonisers and learned from each other’s experience. In fact, Gandhiji started his campaign against racial exploitation in South Africa and pioneered the concept of non-violent satyagraha there. The aspirations of Indian and African people are to strive for a just and equitable world order where developing countries would get their due share. The same was the agenda ...