The history of botanical exchanges between Africa and the Indian
subcontinent reaches back in time over 5000 years. Recent advances in
archaeobotany have revealed these connections through evidence of food
crops of African origin found at various archaeological sites in the
subcontinent. However, little is known about the people that brought the
crops to these places and other parts of the Indian Ocean world. This is
also the case with other plants from Africa such as the charismatic
baobab tree (Adansonia digitata L.) that appears to have had a
longstanding presence in South Asia. Most scholarly accounts assume that
'Arab traders' were responsible for introducing baobabs to this region
but do not offer any reasons for their doing so. Few scholars, if any,
have sought to relate the dispersal of baobabs with the history of
African migrations to the region. This presentation reveals the elusive
traces of their entwined environmental histories by linking baobab
genetics with historical accounts and cultural evidence of the presence
of African diasporic communities in South Asia.