Slave Systems in Asia and the Indian Ocean
The workshop entitled Slave Systems in Asia and the Indian Ocean: Their structure and change in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, was co-organized by CERINS, the IIAS, and INALCO. It brought together some 35 scholars from thirteen different countries (South Korea, Australia, India, Mauritius, South Africa, Tanzania, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, the UK, the USA, and Canada) to discuss forms of slavery and unfree labour in regions where European participation in the slave trade and ownership of slaves was far less than in the Atlantic system, and where structures of bondage were far more varied and often more traditional and complex.
By GWYN CAMPBELL
To facilitate the main aim of generating comparative discussion and advance debate, the thirty-two papers presented were submitted beforehand and posted on a workshop web site. This enabled all participants to read relevant papers prior to the workshop, obviating the need for authors to read their own papers publicly. Rather, for each session a discussant presented a thirty-minute comparative critique of groups of papers linked by region and theme.Following a keynote introductory address by Paul Lovejoy (York University, Canada) sessions were held on the following themes: Slavery and Other Forms of Unfree Labour (Rapporteur: Suzanne Miers, Ohio University, USA); East Africa (Rapporteur: Abdul Sheriff, Advisor, Principal Curator, Zanzibar Museums, Tanzania); The Indian Sub-Continent (Rapporteur: Dilip Simeon, Oxfam India); East and Southeast Asia (Rapporteur: Hugh Clark, Ursinus College, PA); South Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands (Rapporteur: Gwyn Campbell, Université d'Avignon); Islam (Rapporteur: William Clarence Smith, SOAS); Females & Children (Rapporteur: Indrani Chatterjee, Brown University, R.I); and The Meaning of Abolition (Rapporteur: Martin Klein, University of Toronto); The Indian Ocean/Asian and Atlantic Systems Compared (Rapporteur: Joseph C. Miller, University of Virginia).
The core concern of the papers and sessions was the transformation of systems of bondage from the pre-Abolition to the post-Abolition era. Amongst the most striking issues to pervade workshop discussions were problems of defining slavery, and of using concepts developed in the debate over the Atlantic system in the Indian Ocean-Asian context. While strict adhesion to the legal concept of nineteenth century slavery has led to an under-valuation of the perpetuation of forms of slavery into the post-Abolition period in the Asia-Indian Ocean region, there was considerable debate as to the boundaries between slavery per se and other forms of bondage. Again, while the workshop aimed in part to generate from regional case studies of slave systems a general overview of structures of slavery in the Asia-Indian Ocean region, participants stressed the need to beware of over-reliance upon concepts used in the Atlantic system, emphasizing the need to analyse Asia-Indian Ocean bondage systems with regard to their own historical context.
Outside sessions, participants had the opportunity to informally pursue the debate whilst visiting Avignon, European city of Culture in the year 2000 and on the workshop outing to caves in the famous Chateauneuf du Pape vineyards.
In overall terms, the workshop constituted a major contribution towards understanding slavery and other systems of servitude in the Asia-Indian Ocean regions. The papers have aroused some interest among publishers and it is envisgaed that a publication will be forthcoming. *
Dr Gwyn Campbell, CERINS,
University of Avignon.
E-mail: gwyn.campbell@univ-avignon.fr