Afghan scots descendents!

[CelticRadio]

I wanted to tell everyone about a wonderful and enlightening story I just received from one of our listeners.

Not sure if many of you have noticed any of the Afghan children, men who appear to have red hair and blue eyes! When I first saw some of these people, particular the children, I was struck by certain features that reminded me very much of Scots/Irish descendents.

Well, as it turns out, a number of Afghans are descedents from a group of Macrae's that were disbanded in India after a mutiny! Seems a good number of these Scots took up residence in the Highlands of Afghanistan, feeling very much at home with the Clan way of life! This all occurred in the 1770's. A number of these mutineers even walked all the way back to France, crossed the english channel, then walked home to Kintailm Scotland. Amazing story!

I am going to ask this listener if we can post the whole account in its entirity here on the message board!

[aklassie]

I hope this listener will let you post the whole stroy it sounds very interesting.  Looking forward to reading it if they do.

[NightHawk]

Just a thought!

From the history of the Vikings it is known that during the time of their raids they even reached faraway places in what is Russia today. It is fact that they even travelled on the river Volga and and also reached the place which is the city of Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea today.
If you look on the map you will see that, having come that far, it won't be too difficult to reach Afghanistan from there. Between the shores of the Caspian See and Afghanistan is only the area left which we know as Turkmenistan today.

I won't challenge the theory about the Macrae's, but isn't it worth a thought that also the Vikings might have left their genes down there?

Has anybody any more precise info on that idea?

Slàinte  

NightHawk

[CelticRadio]

Well, the information comes to me through the email, however, the credibility of the writer I hold in the highest regard. I did try to do some research on the internet and came up with nothing about this Macrae story. So, in respect to historical accuracy – I can not verify it. Your theory is just as plausable. The Vikings had an amazing culture and family system. They also were very good at over running and looting various villages that they came across during their travels. I would definitely agree with you that it is just as likely that they could be descendents of Vikings. In any event, it does make one wonder.

[CelticRadio]

After consulting with the source of my information, he agreed to release the contents of his research on this topic. Here it is!

Regarding the Celtic diaspora - during the Afghanistan fighting, on TV I've
been noticing the odd Afghan child with red hair and blue eyes. (The adult
redheads are harder to pick out because they all wear turbans or head
scarves.)

These red-haired kids are very likely descended from a group of MacRaes
from Kintail who staged a small mutiny against the British Army in the
1770s, when they occupied Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh until promises made to
them about overseas service were kept.

Finally they ended up in India and did a tour of duty. However, when their
tour came to an end, a senior officer decided to punish them for the
original mutiny, and they were discharged locally, without pay, weapons or
a ship to take them home to Scotland.

One of their sergeants, Christopher MacRae, organized them into a group and
they set off to walk back home.

In Afghanistan, it is believed that they ran into trouble with the
Pashtoon/Pathan tribe, the group which provided today's Taliban. By this
time they had acquired weapons from somewhere and - being Highlanders (he
said with arrogant pride! - they beat the crap out of the Afghans.

A local warlord offered to hire them as his bodyguard and it is believed
that most of them took up the offer. As Highlanders and Afghans must have
been remarkably similar culturally, being mountain warriors organized in
clans, etc. as happened in North America with the native Americans, the
Highlanders who stayed must have felt comfortable joining a tribal society
which was so like their own.

(Many North American Indians have Highland ancestors, and even today
several tribes have chiefs who proudly point to their Highland ancestry, in
particular the Cherokee - their chiefs are descended from John Ross of
Wester Ross - and the Creek Indians of Georgia - Dode MacIntosh, their most
famous chief who died a few years ago was a distant cousin of Macintosh of
Moy Hall, chief of Clan Chattan and visited Moy with his daughter, where
The Macintosh welcomed them as family.

I personally have Indian friends whose hair is red and whose ancestors
included Highlanders. I have also met an Apache family whose little
daughter was so Scottish-looking that I initially thought she had been
adopted. A Highland great-great-grandfather - she had blue eyes, red hair,
apple cheeks and a pale skin, lighter than mine - both her parents looked
like Geronimo! Talk about a throwback!

Sgt. MacRae led the rest of his men across Iran and Turkey towards Europe.
They were involved in several local wars on their way and distinguished
themselves with honour, being still remembered in local tales, I am told.
(Who could forget warriors dressed in kilts!

Finally they reached Europe and when they got to the English Channel, Sgt.
MacRae managed to persuade a ship to transport them free to Dover. From
there they walked across Britain, back to Kintail. What is additionally
astonishing about this is that the only language they knew was Gaelic, yet
they managed to feed themselves and look after themselves through a dozen
countries.

The entire journey took them about two years and they covered approximately
10,000 miles. The only record left today, apart from fragments of stories
about it, is a poem which Sgt. MacRae wrote to commemorate what has to be
one of the great epic stories of the Highland warrior!

It's a great story, isn't it? I related this to a policewoman in Washington
State, a MacRae, whom I met when she gave me a ticket for speeding and I
saw her name on the ticket and got talking to her. She stood by my car
listening, and when I finished, she was in tears! She cancelled the ticket;
we've been friends ever since, and in fact I just got an email from her
about 20 minutes ago!

Another man once wrote to me about the MacRaes' adventure and here's his
version:

--------------------------------------------------------------
My father took a Company of Royal Scots Fusiliers into the
mountains/Highlands of Afghanistan in the 1920's. He said often in the
remotest of places one would come across tribesmen with red beards and blue
eyes of a distinctly Scottish appearance (but no tartan). Not sure what
they were shouting to his men, could have been "Daddy, Daddy"!

This could be one explanation of what happened to Seaforth's 78th
Highlanders and the Macraes,  MacKenzie's (of Kintail of the Cows) Coat of
Shining mail, his personal bodyguard. Abandoned in India, ten thousand
miles from home, (after six years service) at the behest of Lord Amherst
and James Oughton in punishment for the Edinburgh mutiny 1778, having been
promised disbandment in Ross-shire.

To quote Sgt Christopher Macrae:

When we got the order
from the Consul we were not pleased.
Our discharge put in our hands,
free to go where we wished but without a bounty.
And told everywhere
that there was no ship, no boat nor sail.

It could well be that on the way home they fetched up the Highlands of
Afghanistan, because hardly any got back to the Scottish Highlands and Loch
Duich, barring Sgt Chris Macrae and those few who marched with him.

Sgt Christopher Macrae's regiment was disbanded in India, he brought the
remainder home. More than 10000 miles by sea and land, without money and
speaking only Gaelic. This poem was his only complaint.

'S truagh nach robh mi cho
aotrom ris an t-seabhaig theid
caol anns á speur...

It is a pity that I am not as light
as the hawk, slim flying in the sky.
I would take the desert road
and I would not rest in the tree-tops.
In spite of the violence of Turkey
I would pass it by like a lark in the sun.
And I would make a complaint in London
that would bring us all home.
--------------------------------------------------------------

[kylassie]

I love this story! The fact that it is a true story makes it even better !!!!  

I guess someone should tell this tale to CNN and set them straight - they were reporting that the red hair was an indication of "malnutrition!" The reporter was at an aid station of Afghan refugees several weeks ago, and some children were there - yes they were clearly malnourished - but the reporter pointed to their "normally black hair, which was now turned red" as a symptom of severe malnutrition.

Just tell them that is the result of the MacRae Mutiny!

Slainte,

Janet
aka Kentucky Lassie

[Falachaidh]

This is quite a bit delayed from the last posting in this group, but it reminded me of what I saw on the Discovery channel several months ago.
Archeologists were digging up the silk road to China because they believed they could find European artifacts buried.
Not only did they find European artifacts, they found mummies! When they pulled out these mummies, they were dated several thousands of years old. These were not the typically thought travelers of the silk road, but were in excess of 6 feet tall, reminents of red hair still clung to their arms and head. The type of burial these mummies had were in stone santuaries below the desert. because the weather is so dry, that is why they preserved so well.
They traced these mummies back to the Vikings AND the Celts.. notably Scottish travelers.
The one particular grave they found they learned were actually living in the desert. They were outcasts of the culture they were so trying to be a part of. No one is sure if that was due to theft, or just because they were so much taller than the eastern Asian culture.
The bodies they found were of the oldest in the world. Which, this of course, they had to go and rethink the ways of the Viking tavels and Celt travels throughout the world.
The one that in particular interested me was the blonde woman that stood almost 6 feet tall. She was in a grave of all taller men with red hair.