In nations like Sudan, Egypt, and in the Swahili Coast, one can immediately note the vast diversity within the borders of each individual state. There is one (or many) particular group(s) of people that can be classified under an understudied group known as "Afro-Arabs."
The term was originally used to label people that were the offspring of Arab men and their native Pemba/Zanzibar partners and those involved in the Arab slave trade. Now it is also used to label those in Sudan and other surrounding nations and those that aren't actually genetically linked to the Arab people, but speak Arabic and express that culture.
This is something that is important for people to understand because many people of this identity are active, flourishing, in modern day society, especially in the west. Some, unfortunately, simplify their identity in order to avoid its complexity.
One TEDx-Talk that I have seen which does a great job addressing this was done by Isra Ibrahim, a student at FIU.
