Shrines for African Spirits in Kerala

Built in 1667, the Bastion Bungalow on River Road is an Indo-European building and the only remaining structure of the once extensive Dutch fortifications.

The sculptural installation of Kappiri created by Rigo 23 for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2012. The suspended wooden sculpture narrates the treatment of Africans in Portuguese Cochin.

Devotees leaving after offering their prayers to Khapri.

Portuguese artist Rigo 23's tripartite installation Kochi Tower at an abandoned boat jetty in Fort Kochi. The installation presents the history of fraught African migration towards Kerala during the Portuguese period.

A converted auto rickshaw displayed represent the vessel of Vasco da Gama installed next to the tower that commemorates the Portuguese age of discoveries and expansion.

In the installation, the India popular mode of transportation, the auto rickshaw is transformed by the artist

A hollow structure displayed to represent the Arab vessel Miri that was bombarded of the Calicut coast by the Portuguese to terrorize travelers and gain control of the Arabian Sea.

Seen here is the wooden sculpture that represent the memories of African presence in colonial Cochin (Kochi) and in the background is the tower of discoveries

The Kappiri sculpture displayed in the water mirror along the river Tagus in Lisbon

Visitors to the biennale looking at the titled house like structure

Visitors to the biennale standing in line to enter the dwelling of the Kappiri spirits

The titled installation supported by beams

The drum used in the African marfa performance

Aspinwall was the headquarters of a former British trading company and now this colonial building serves as the venue for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, one of Asia's biggest contemporary art festival.

One of the elderly Kappiri spirit medium who for over forty years have been invoking the African spirits during rituals at the scared groves in Vypin

Oil lamps offered to a digitally rendered representation of an African deity in a Kaavu in Thrissur region Kerala

The priest at the Kappiri temple who offers the daily pujas and also serves as the spirit medium

Devotees waiting in sacred grove to receive from Kappiri and other ancestral deities

Candles burning ablaze in a street side shrine for African spirits in Fort Kochi, Kerala

A street side Kappiri shrine in Panayimpally near Mattancherry

Alcohol and country liquor being offered to appease the African spirits

Food and alcohol offered to appease the African spirits at the home of a devotee in Kochi

A Sidi dance troupe from Ahmedabad performing the dhamal for a cultural festival in Gujarat

Performance stage adjacent to the Khapri temple in Karwar where folk dances and theaters are performed during annual temple festival

Sidi men catching-up with each-other after the afternoon prayers at their village mosque

The tree under which Kamli Shah Baba is believed to have sat inside the dargah complex in Dadar, Mumbai

Amina Ben, the Sidi caretaker of the Kamli Shah dargah in Mumbai

Inside the wooden house placed on a desk was a burning cigar

In Fort Kochi, cigars as often offered to the shrine of the deceased African to appease the afflicted spirit.

Dutch artist Gabriel Lester created this installation for the third edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale to tell the histories of the enslaved Africans in Cochin (Kochi).

The installation Kappiri Spirits (2016) is a large wooden house like structure tilted like a boat swaying in the ocean winds. The window curtains represent sails of a dhow that were used in the Indian Ocean maritime trade

Local artist Hochimin created this abstract sculpture in Kochi to tell the untold histories of African slaves in colonial Cochin.

This public sculpture that represents the histories of the struggles of Africans in the Portuguese and Dutch occupied Kochi (Cochin) is displayed at the Bastion Bungalow Museum at Fort Kochi.

Loban or Frankincense, an aromatic resin with medicinal qualities burned during the Sidi ritual ceremonies. The ash is later collected and distributed to the devotees.

A shrine dedicated to Mai Misra in Jambur inside the Sidi scared complex with the central shrine dedicated to Nagarchi Bava, another prominent Sidi saint.

Seen here are the Sidi caretakers and people serving in the Nagarchi scared complex at Jambur, Gujarat

A newly erected chilla for Mai Misra inside the Kamli Shah dargah at Kurla, Mumbai

Devotees walking to attend the afternoon rituals at the shrine for Bava Habasah after observing the rituals to the central shrine of Bava Gor at Ratanpur in Gujarat

Tomb of an African martyr near the historical Teen Darwaza in Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Another small dargah dedicated to an African martyr in Ahmedabad.

The decorated interiors of the Sidi Sultan dargah at Ahmedabad