CFP: SLAVE TRADE, SLAVERY AND TRANSITION TO INDENTURE IN MAURITIUS AND THE MASCARENES 1715-1840

From: "Thomas G. Vernet"
Université Paris

Date: Sat, November 27, 2010 4:42 am
CALL FOR PAPERS

SLAVE TRADE, SLAVERY AND TRANSITION TO INDENTURE IN MAURITIUS AND THE
MASCARENES 1715-1840

11 April – 13 April 2011

An international conference hosted by the Truth and Justice Commission
and the University of Mauritius, in collaboration with the Centre
d’Études des Mondes Africains (CNRS - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

Location: University of Mauritius, Reduit, Mauritius.

This international conference has been initiated by the Truth and
Justice Commission, Mauritius, with the aim of bringing together
scholars who have undertaken recent research on slave trade and slavery
related to Mauritius and the Mascarenes, as well as members of the Truth
and Justice Commission who have been undertaking an evaluation of the
historiography of slavery and slave trade, in light of the mandate of
the Commission. The United Nations has also declared the year 2011 as
the “International Year for People of African Descent”.

The Conference is particularly interested in papers which shed new light
on the impact of slavery and slave trade on these societies, as well as
papers that use new sources or review the existing historiography. The
Conference would like to promote reflection that emphasizes the place of
the Mascarene in the wider Indian Ocean basin, through links with
Africa, Madagascar, India, South-East Asia, or the Atlantic economy.
Activists and community based organizations based in Mauritius are also
welcome.

The conference will also reflect on memorial aspects and how the slave
trade should be remembered. The focus of research having been on
neglected aspects of the French slave trade and slavery in Isle de
France/Mauritius, participants whose focus of interest is Mauritius will
be particularly welcome.

Some of the questions we would like papers to discuss include:
Slave Trade: Given that the bulk of our evidences on the French slave
trade are in France and have yet to be fully researched by scholars,
many questions about the slave trade have remained unanswered, the most
important of which is how many slaves actually came to Mauritius? What
was the volume of the slave trade to Mauritius, Réunion and the
Seychelles? What connections existed between slave trading companies and
individual armateurs and relations in Mauritius and the other islands of
the Mascarenes? How far did the profits of the slave trade serve to
boost the economic development of Mauritius (as well as Bourbon and the
Seychelles)? What networks were created in the Indian Ocean as a result
of the slave trade?

Slavery: What was the contribution of slaves to the economic, political
and social life of Mauritius in the French period? Where did slaves
actually come from? What part did ethnicity play in allocation of tasks
in the work place? What were the material, moral and psychological
condition of slaves in Mauritius, Réunion, and Seychelles, during the
French period? What was the legacy of slavery? How should slavery be
remembered today?

Forced labour, unfree labour and indenture What was the situation of
ex-slaves after abolition? Did it bring freedom? How were the new
systems of labour put in place? How did the transition from slave to
‘free’ labour take place? How did the institutions created under slavery
evolve after abolition?

Main themes of the conference

1. Slavery in Ile de France, new directions
2. Converging historiographies: the cases of Bourbon/Réunion and the
Seychelles
3. Slave Trade connections: the Mascarenes at the heart of Indian
Ocean networks
4. Agents and capital in the slave trade
5. From slavery to indentured labour
6. The Legacy of Slavery
Proposals
Contributors may submit their proposals to be presented in a maximum of
20 minutes. These will be combined into sessions of four papers.
Titles and abstracts are due by 15 December 2010.
To apply, please send the following:
- Title
- Abstract (maximum of 200 words)
- Short, one-page, curriculum vitae.
Conference languages are English and French.
All proposals will be reviewed and decisions will be made by 15 January
2011.
According to contributors’ specific situations, travel expenses may
partly be funded.

Please send your participation and abstract as an attached Word file to
both the Conveners:
Vijaya Teelock: vijteelock@yahoo.com and Thomas Vernet:
thomas.vernet@univ-paris1.fr
and/or to the
Research Coordinator, Truth and Justice Commission, at tjc@mail.gov.mu

Conference Coordinators:
Truth and Justice Commission
Vijaya Teelock (Associate Professor, University of Mauritius and
Vice-Chairperson, Truth and Justice Commission)
Thomas Vernet (Associate Professor, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
/ CEMAf)

***********
APPEL A CONTRIBUTIONS
Colloque international

Traite, esclavage et transition vers l’engagisme à l’Île Maurice et aux
Mascareignes,
1715-1840

11 Avril – 13 Avril 2011
Commission Vérité et Justice / Truth and Justice Commission
University of Mauritius
Centre d’Études des Mondes Africains (CNRS – Université Paris 1
Panthéon-Sorbonne)

Lieu : Université de Maurice, Réduit, Île Maurice.

Ce colloque a été initié par la Commission Vérité et Justice (Île
Maurice), afin de réunir les chercheurs ayant entrepris des travaux
récents sur la traite négrière et l’esclavage liés à l’Île Maurice et
aux Mascareignes, ainsi que les membres de la Commission Vérité et
Justice ayant entrepris une réévaluation de l’historiographie de
l’esclavage et de la traite, en accord avec le mandat de la Commission.
Les Nations-Unies ont aussi déclaré l’année 2011 « Année Internationale
des Personnes d’Ascendance Africaine ».
L’intérêt de cette conférence porte particulièrement sur les
communications offrant un éclairage nouveau sur l’impact de l’esclavage
et de la traite négrière sur ces sociétés, ainsi que sur les
communications reposant sur une documentation nouvelle ou revisitant
l’historiographie existante. Le colloque souhaite également promouvoir
une réflexion soulignant la place des Mascareignes dans le bassin de
l’océan Indien, par le truchement des liens avec l’Afrique, Madagascar,
l’Inde, l’Asie du Sud-Est ou l’économie atlantique. Les Forces Vives ou
les organisations communautaires de Maurice sont également invitées.
En outre, le colloque abordera les questions liées à la mémoire et la
manière dont la traite négrière devrait être remémorée. Les recherches
opérées par la Commission Justice et Vérité s’étant focalisées sur des
aspects négligés de la traite négrière et de l’esclavage à l’Isle de
France/Maurice, toute participation ayant comme centre d’intérêt l’Île
Maurice est particulièrement bienvenue.
Les communications porteront principalement (mais non exclusivement) sur
les problématiques suivantes :
Traite négrière : Étant donné que l’essentiel de la documentation sur la
traite négrière française dans l’océan Indien se trouve en France et
qu’elle demeure encore peu étudiée, de nombreuses zones d’ombre
persistent ; la plus importante étant : combien d’esclaves arrivèrent à
l’Île Maurice ? Quel fut le volume de la traite vers Maurice, la
Réunion/Bourbon et les Seychelles ? Quels liens existèrent entre d’une
part les compagnies engagées dans le trafic d’esclaves et, d’autre part,
les armateurs individuels et les familles établis à l’Isle de France et
dans les autres îles de l’archipel des Mascareignes ? Jusqu'à quel point
les profits émanant de la traite contribuèrent-ils au développement
économique de l’Isle de France (de même qu’à la Réunion/Bourbon et aux
Seychelles) ? Quels réseaux furent créés dans l’océan Indien du fait de
la traite négrière ?
Esclavage : Quelle fut la contribution des esclaves dans la vie
économique, politique et sociale de l’Île Maurice pendant la période
française ? D’où vinrent vraiment les esclaves ? Quel fut le rôle de
l’ethnicité dans l’attribution du travail ? Quelles furent les
conditions matérielles, morales, et psychologiques des esclaves à
Maurice, la Réunion et aux Seychelles durant la période française?
Comment remémorer l’esclavage aujourd’hui ?
Travail forcé, travail non-libre, et engagisme : Quelle fut la situation
des ex-esclaves après l’abolition ? Apporta-t-elle la liberté ? Comment
les nouveaux systèmes de travail furent-ils mis en place ? Comment prit
place la transition entre l’esclavage et le travail « libre » ? Après
l’abolition, comment évoluèrent les institutions mises en place sous
l’esclavage ?

Principaux axes de la conférence
L’esclavage à l’Isle de France : nouvelles directions
Des historiographies convergentes : les cas de Bourbon/La Réunion et des
Seychelles
Les connexions de la traite négrière : les Mascareignes au cœur des
réseaux de l’océan Indien
La traite négrière : agents et capitaux du négoce français
De l’esclavage à l’engagisme
L’héritage de l’esclavage

Procédure de sélection des projets de communications :
Les communications (présentées en 20 mn) seront regroupées en sessions
comportant quatre communications chacune.
Les titres et les résumés sont attendus au plus tard le 15 Décembre 2010.
Merci de bien vouloir envoyer les documents suivants :
- Titre de l’exposé
- Résumé (200 mots maximum)
- Bref Curriculum Vitae (une page maximum).
Les langues utilisées pour la conférence sont l’anglais et le français.
Toutes les propositions seront examinées et les réponses seront envoyées
au plus tard le 15 Janvier 2011.
Une aide au transport et/ou à l’hébergement pourra être accordée en
fonction de la situation personnelle des participants.

Veuillez envoyer votre projet de communication en fichier attaché Word
aux deux responsables :
Vijaya Teelock : vijteelock@yahoo.com et Thomas Vernet :
thomas.vernet@univ-paris1.fr
et/ou à la
Coordinatrice des Recherches, Commission Vérité et Justice :
tjc@mail.gov.mu

Coordinateurs de la conférence
Commission Vérité et Justice
Vijaya Teelock (professeur associé, Université de Maurice et
Vice-Présidente, Commission Vérité et Justice)
Thomas Vernet (maître de conférences, Université Paris 1
Panthéon-Sorbonne / CEMAf)

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Paris: Secularism Unveiled

I was in a false position everywhere, except within myself, where I was convinced I was telling the truth.
--A House At The Edge of Tears, Venus Khoury Ghata.

I was pretty excited to head to Paris after my Oman trip. I was invited by my friend Dinah, who was TA-ing a class on Immigration and Multiculturalism in Paris for the University of Illinois. The course was taught by a retired professor of French, Evelyne Accad, a Lebanese woman who has written about international women's issues.

The class did not disappoint. From discussing polygamy and the French state to civil war in Lebanon to the issue of female genital mutiliation, I learned a lot and was able to make some interesting observations about French culture and society at the same time.

Disclaimer: I do not speak French. Therefore everything I learned (with the exception of the bits of French I picked up) was through English translation or talks in English. That said, I don't think it made a difference in some of the observations I am about to make.

Its wierd because I had the impression that the French were more progressive than Americans on the whole, but I have to say this is both a stereotype in which Americans associate everything French with being 'cultured' and a factor that depends on the particular French community one is referring to. For instance, it is true that students tend to be more activist, more politically aware, more cosmopolitian (Most students learn at least three languages) than their American counterparts. Having visited several French schools I feel I am on safe ground saying that.

However France illustrates some of the strange contradictions of secular society-- its particular blind spots that are often intimately linked to a strong sense of national and even racial identity (the so-called Gaullic exceptionalism). Nowhere is this contradiction more aptly symbolized than the banning of headscarves in the classroom of public schools. (ironically Turkey, a majority Muslim country, is facing its own version of this secular quandary). Here is where the rubber of religion's removal from the 'public sphere' meets the road of individual freedom. French efforts to promote the growth of the French state and to reify 'Frenchness' is not a project that can tolerate a multiplicity of identities, and is thus at odds with French notions of 'pluralism'. And that explains why not only are headscarves banned, but the call to prayer (اذان) as well.

Obama notwithstanding (I have a feeling a lot of my sentences are going to begin with that from here on out), America has never really resolved this conflict in practice either. For example, witness the powerful pull of the ignorant and racist 'English-only' educational movement. I guess my philosophy would be that, social movements that emphasize a particular aspect of identity are inevitable, especially enlight of forming social movements against powerfully entrenched interests of global corporations, powerful nation-states, and the like. Nevertheless, the insistence on one's single identity inevitably falsifys the richness of everyone's historical reality.

My own observation is that France has a stronger tradition of anthropologizing the 'other', in the sense of making outside cultures a subject of study for consumption by exotic-o-philes. Walking through an exhibit on matriarchy in Africa I had this feeling, and it was accentuated gazing at the innumerable artifacts stolen from the tombs of Pharaonic Egypt in the Louvre. It was a feeling similar to the one I had walking through the Indian Museum in Washington DC a couple years ago: like an eerie sense of displacement and invasion. I felt as if I walking through someone's most intimate personal belongings that had been put out at a common garage sale.

One highlight of the trip (other than my birthday :)) was reading a trio of great books by Lebanese Christian women and getting to meet two of the authors. We read Evelyne Accad's The Excised, Etel Adnan's Sitt Marie Rose, and Venus Khoury-Ghata's A House At The Edge of Tears. All three are very lyrical meditations on religion and growing up, war, beauty, violence, and sexuality. From Khoury-Ghata's book, I learned that apparently some Arabs of the Levant, Swahili is a derisive term for nonsense or baby talk. For me Dr. Accad's book was the most personally evocative, while Sitt Marie Rose is the most innovative in terms of narrative structure and voice. I will end with a meditation from that book, a tribute and affirmation of life in the midst of war-torn Beirut:

"Morality is violence. An invisible violence at first. Love is a supreme violence, hidden deep in the darkness of our atoms. When a stream flows into a river, it's love and its violence. When a cloud loses itself in the sky, it's a marriage. When the roots of a tree split open a rock it's the movement of life. When the sea rises and falls back only to rise again, it's the process of history. When a man and a woman find each other in the silence of the night, it's the beginning of the end of the tribe's power, and death itself becomes a challenge to the ascendancy of the group."

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