South Arabian Migration Movements in the Indian Ocean:

The Hadhrami Case, c. 1750-1967

By William Clarence-Smith and Ulrike Freitag

The themes and discussants were the following:

Dr Farid Alatas (NUS Singapore):The Economic Origins of Emigration from and the Economic Impact on the Diaspora. After clarifying the term diaspora, Dr Alatas commented particulary on the role of remittances for (subsistence, state-building, potential modernization). However, the increased access to funds also led to a decline in stability and mediation in favour of armed conflict (abundant armed supplies). The impact on their host societies was presented as declining, particularly in the second half of the twentieth century with the development of states. The most important thematic gap, to Dr Alatas related to the legal framework and commercial techniques used by the in order to build their commercial empire.
The discussion focused on cultural aspects of emigration and the question on how far trade, family, and religious networks overlapped or supplemented one another.

Dr Omar Khalidi (MIT, Cambridge, Mass): The political origins of Emigration from and the Political Impact on the Diaspora. Dr Khalidi placed much emphasis on the question of whether, in a situation where about one-third of the population was living overseas, one could still regard the Hadhramaut as the centre from which to look at the topic. His answer was that the centre of Hadhrami gravity should be regarded as shifting, depending on political and economic developments. While somewhat neglecting -- due to lack of available resource -- the 'push' factors, he saw, as the main impact on Hadhramaut, the contribution to state-building since the late nineteenth century.

D. Abdallah Bujra (DPMN, Addis Abeba): Social Divisions within Hadhrami Society. D Bujra discussed the social divisions under the following rubrics: the stratification system; relations between and muwallads (Hadhramis born abroad); the Irshadi- Alawi conflict; class divisions; and political and ideological lines of division. In the discussion, the importance of the more general relevance of the Alawi-Irshadi conflict was questioned, as this conflict was limited basically to Southeast Asia and Hadhramaut and its influence on social divisions is evaluated very differently even in that context.

Professor (em.) William Roff (Columbia University, New York): Religious Divisions between Hadhramis. Prof. Roff once more emphasized the fluidity of such categories as 'religious' and 'political' in the light of overlapping discourses. He stressed the necessity to focus attention on the question of the phenomenon of religious authority and its relocation in the light of socio-economic developments. He then proceeded to place the Alawi-Irshadi debate, as well as the discussion about Shi'i influences, in this context. This raised in the discussion the question of dominant influences, not least by Sudanese and Wahhabi religious leaders on the social and religious reform debate and its importance in more general terms.

Dr Françoise Le Guennec-Coppens (CNRS, Paris): Hadhrami Social Identity in Relation to Host Societies in the Diaspora. One of the most important desiderata, according to Dr Le Guennec-Coppens, in future scholarship should be to investigate the host societies and relate scholarship on Hadhramis to this in order to create a fuller picture. Another main question, in her eyes, relates to the question of choice of particular host societies. Why did the Hadhramis migrate to Indonesia, but not to the Philippines and Thailand? What do we know about the social origins of the migrants? One of the main problems is that of 'visibility', of clearly recognizable social groups and origins, a phenomenon most clearly found amongst Sayyids. But does this mean that other groups did not emigrate -- or did they simply integrate much more easily into the host societies? The discussion focused, among other things, on the extent of polygamy found amongst Hadhramis, and its function in creating links with the host societies, especially in matrilineal ones.

Dr Huub de Jonge (University of Nijmegen, Netherlands): Hadhrami Roles in the Internal Politics of Host Societies. De Jonge distinguished between three phases with regard to Hadhrami involvement in host societies: the precolonial period of often strong involvement, a much more difficult colonial period, in which the Hadhramis were often regarded with suspicion by the colonial powers and the local population alike, and the post- colonial period in which their involvement has been related to integration into or exclusion from nation states. However, in the discussion, this periodization was questioned, pointing to longer term patterns of developments and contradictory patterns. Overall, it seems extremely difficult to discern clear pattern in this area.

Dr Gwyn Campbell (University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg): Economic Niches Occupied by the Hadhramis in Host Societies. Instead of a political periodization, Dr Campbell preferred one according to economic periods which, for the Indian Ocean, he characterized as marked by the expansion of the (industrial) international economy by the end of the nineteenth century. As main characteristics, he noted the end of slave, opium, and illegal arms trade, the loosening of protectionism and a technological revolution in terms of transport and communications, military technology, and medicine. This stimulated a discussion about the validity of such a distinction, using as arguments with regard to Hadhrami trade, the increase in sailing boats and the development of new coastal trade. Also, the question of premodern networks and their coherence and vulnerability came up once more.

Dr William Clarence-Smith (SOAS, London): Relations of the Hadhramis with other Diaspora. Clarence-Smith outlined the two types of relations between Hadhramis and other diaspora, one of competition and hostility and one of friendship and cooperation. While the first, as the more spectacular, seems to be emphasized in much of the existing literature, the second type seems actually to have prevailed, not only in East Africa but also in Java. The discussion was dominated by comments regarding potential structural reasons for the generally successful integration of Hadhramis, such as economic and class links which might not be found in other diaspora.

Dr Ulrike Freitag (SOAS, London): The Hadhramis and Colonial Rule. During this session the advantages and disadvantages of colonial rule for Hadhramis were outlined, as the relations between Hadhramis and colonial rule abroad seemed to be -- at least very often -- quite smooth, while colonial rule in Hadhramaut itself could point to a number of Hadhrami requests for its establishment. The obvious benefits, such as economic opportunities, security and protection, infrastructure and the hope of outside support were at least partly balanced by the disadvantage of having to play by somebody else's rules.

Black holes
The workshop formula proves to be very successful in focusing the discussion on particular theme, rather than listening to and discussing each individual paper. Since there had been no comprehensive study of the Hadhrami diaspora so far, this method, for the first time, helped not only to bring the results of various regional specialists together but also facilitated immediate exchanges and comparisons. One of the most striking results of the workshop was the disparity of the research done hitherto. Southeast Asia and, to a lesser degree India, have been very much the focus of scholarship on Hadhramis particularly in terms of economy and religious movements. In comparison, much less has been done on Hadhramaut itself, the Red Sea area and East Africa, where questions of social identity have been more in the forefront of scholarly interest.
In view of such 'black holes', the conference at times turned into an outline of desideratum for future research, as much reporting on the current state of the art. Interestingly enough however, there is quite a lot of work at PhD level in progress, much of which was introduced at the workshop The workshop also provided the first opportunity for the community of Hadhrimaut researchers to meet and thus inspired a wide range of new contacts and future research projects.
In terms of practical results, we are currently negotiating with a number of publishers to publish an edited volume of selected contributions to the conference.