If you measure these things by number of people affected over quantity of time, then the slave trade out of Africa must be one of the cruellest things ever visited on a continent. Plenty of countries were guilty of slavery and so plenty of countries have descendants of slaves in their countries today.
One ethnic group we don't hear much about are the Sheedis. Victims of the Muslim trade in slaves, they are people of African descent who now live in southern Pakistan. Because of predjudice, poverty and lack of education, the Sheedis hang on to their history by a shoestring, but little threads of evidence trace them back to slaves taken from Zimbabwe, Tanzania and/or Mali. As author Alice Albinia explored Pakistan researching her book,
Empires of the Indus , she visited the impoverished village of Tando Bago where she met some Sheedis keen to preserve their historical connection to Africa:-
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...Khuda Ganj played me the music of Ali Farka Touré, which has recently become popular with Sheedis because its rhythms are considered similar to those played by Pakistan's famous Sheedi musicians such as the late Bilawal Beljium.
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Now you know as much as me about Bilawal Beljium and can judge his music for yourself:-
My Opinion: This is a pretty good track which I'd listen to again. I like the way the instruments compliment each other by sounding like opposites: the high-pitch complexity of the strings and the low, almost random thud of the drum. Youtube has other tracks from the same album: the 10-min
Rag Malkauns, in which Bilawal really plays up a storm, is excellent, but the short
Dance Tune of Sheedis was disappointing imo.
Search tip: Bilawal Beljium may turn up as Ustad Bilawal Belgium as well.