Lunch seminar ASC/IIAS: Chinese labour on the French Congo-Océan railway in 1929
The Congo-Océan railway from Brazzaville was built from 1921 to 1934. Thousands of Africans lost their lives during its construction. Less known is that 800 Chinese men from Guangzhouwan were imported to work on the railway. Chinese authorities disapproved, arguing that the days of the "coolie" trade were over. Antonetti, Governor-General of AEF (L’Afrique-Équatoriale française), had to guarantee safe working conditions for the Chinese.
This seminar examines the Chinese experience in the Congo and the controversy over French colonial labour conditions.
You are all very welcome! Please bring your own lunch.
Speaker
Julia Martinez is an Associate Professor and Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the University of Wollongong, Australia. As a historian of labour and migration, she undertakes a four-year project on the history of Asian and indigenous women's mobility in Australia and Southeast Asia.
Her research project for this IIAS and ASC fellowship is a historical study of Chinese indentured labour in French Congo during the late colonial period. By the 1920s the employment of Asian indentured labour was already under coming under considerable international criticism from the ILO, and yet the French colonial government was still actively transporting workers to their various colonies. This project explores how the Chinese workers and government responded to the French proposal to send Chinese to Africa.
Date, time and location
03 June 2015
13.00 - 14.00
Pieter de la Courtgebouw / Faculty of Social Sciences, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden
Room 3A06 (third floor)
Registration
Posted on 19 May 2015, last modified on 1 June 2015