## Introduction  
Historically, culturally and climatically, Asia falls into five distinct regions: East Asia, Indochina, Central Asia, the Indian Ocean and West Asia, which are all integrated by the Silk Route (Wickremesinghe, 2010). The present-day continent of Africa was not known by that name throughout the period of African migration. This paper concerns the sub-Saharan African diasporas which emerged from migration streams to Asia. The African diaspora tends to be posited in the frame of the Atlantic world and the slave trade. In the Atlantic, African movement was linked to major economic activities. Income from the Indian Ocean slave trade did not dominate the economy (Piketty, 2014, pp. 158-163). Eastward movement was both by land and sea, but no slave ships were built to transport captives across the Indian Ocean. A new conceptual framework is needed for the Indian Ocean. The key features of such a framework should be the nature of demand, the patronage of migrants, the contributions of migrants and processes of assimilation.  
Dispersed communities of Africans in Asia are both historic and contemporary. How do we conceptualize the African diaspora in Asia? The concept of the African diaspora is built on the triadic relationship between Africa as homeland, Africans and their descendants and an adopted residence