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CHAIRPERSON

Prof Brenda Yeoh, Asia Research Institute and Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

The paper addresses with the Indian Ocean slave trade and its relationship to Asia an issue that merges an important phenomenon of colonial exercise of power with severe modifications in postcolonial places. Following O. Patterson the Indian Ocean or East African slave trade is both probably the oldest slave trade in the world and “largely neglected” in current debates on slavery and its implications. Though, Indian Ocean coastal cities were deeply shaped by the trade, a holistic quantitative assessment of the phenomenon is missing until today due to various reasons like unsecure political situations, which prevent access to the archives over long times, inaccuracies of the stats, or inaccessibility of the handwritten manuscripts.

The aim of the presentation is twofold. First, the paper gives a summary of the different systems of slavery that can be found in East Africa and the Indian Ocean. The paper outlines the East African or Indian Ocean slave trade and existing differences compared to other slavery systems and emphasises especially the connections to Asia that could be found in the literature. It combines the published statistical figures of the East African or Indian Ocean slave trade and gives a meta-analytical assessment of the trade. Second, basing on the meta-analytical results the paper discusses possible motives and ideologies underlying the mostly Northern writings on the trade that could be found in the analysis. The empirical aim of the paper is, thus, scrutinising existing colonial figures of thought in seemingly objective quantitative research on a historic topic. As representing work in progress the paper ends with only a few speculative remarks on possible impacts of the trade on the production of places in colonial and postcolonial cities.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Peter Dirksmeier’s research combines social geography with the insights from wider urban studies. He has published or co-published papers in this area of research in journals like Urban Studies, Urban Affairs Review, Visual Studies, City, or Geografisker Annaler B. With Ilse Helbrecht he co-edited the anthology New Urbanism: Life, Work and Space in the New Downtown published by Ashgate. His current research focusses on social aspects of urban cohabitation like encounters, prejudices, tourism, or affects. Recently, he developed a second research focus on social and geographical aspects in writings on the East African Slave Trade and his many-faceted remnants in European as well African and Asian (post) colonial discourses. Before joining the Geography Department at Humboldt-University, his current University, he worked at Bremen University. Dirksmeier holds a Diploma in Geography from University of Cologne, a doctoral degree from University of Bremen, and a postdoctoral qualification (habilitation) from Humboldt-University.

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