This study locates the scholarship on the Siddis of India and the Kaffirs of Sri Lanka—two Africana communities in the Indian Ocean. Using Afrocentric theories and concepts, this study interrogates the limitations of extant scholarship on the Siddis and Kaffirs using a content analysis of select scholarly texts. Through this content analysis, the discursive decentralization of the history, culture, perspectives, and experiences of the Siddis and Kaffirs submerged in Eurocentric and multicultural narratives of African presence in India and Sri Lanka is revealed. This study establishes typologies of the dominant discursive approaches that scholars are using to study the Siddis and Kaffirs. In uncovering these typologies, this study emphasizes the importance of a culturally grounded worldview, methodological framework, and scholarly location for the accurate and complete study and theorization about Africana people in the Indian Ocean region.
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