Forced African Migration and East India Company Records: Resistance and Freedom

Key information

Date
Time
5:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Venue
Faber Building
Room
FG01

About this event

Shihan de Silva, Institute of Commonwealth Studies

Global African movement has been propelled by both free and forced migration.  African traders, missionaries and administrators were known in the Indian Ocean World.  Interest in African movement has been aroused by the slave trade and Abolition.  Within this milieu, eastwards movement of Africans is lesser known, because of the nature of assimilation or integration into host societies.  Through ship records, the way that the slave trade was conducted in the Indian Ocean and how slaves resisted captivity will be studied.   East India Company factory records at Sumatra enable us to ascertain the varied origins of the slaves (Madagascar, Mozambique, Angola, Nias and Batta), gender composition of the slaves, the extent to which the identity of the slaves was maintained after displacement, how they were rewarded for their labour, and how they reacted to freedom after emancipation.  In this paper, a part of the easterly slave trade and its consequences will be explored.

Organiser: Dr Marie Rodet

Contact email: mr28@soas.ac.uk