The Ameena Gafoor Institute for the Study of Indentureship and its Legacies

www.ameenagafoorinstitute.org

The Pluto Educational Trust is pleased to announce THE establishment of the  Ameena Gafoor Institute for the Study of Indentureship and its Legacies.

An indenture, as a temporary contract or agreement between an employer and an engaging labourer has existed in myriad cultures and incarnations for centuries.  However, from the 16th century onwards, the European desire to exploit the agricultural possibilities of their new colonies meant the system took on a vaster nature. Workers were contracted to work for an employer for a period of
years, embarking on international voyages from which few would return, frequently enticed by the promise that completion of the indenture contract could sometimes include a portion of land to settle on in lieu of a voyage home.

In relation to the British Empire, the largest and most concerted expression of indenture occurred between 1834 and 1917, when two million Indians, and thousands of Africans, Chinese and Portuguese were exploited under a system intended to replace enslaved African labour in the Caribbean and Mauritius. Other destinations for indentured labourers included Fiji, Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the USA. Often recruited with false promises and misinformation, workers had little recourse to justice from a colonial project that was entirely dependent on their labour for its capital. Wherever it has occurred, indenture has almost universally included forms of abuse and exploitation. In the very worst cases, such as blackbirding in Australia, ‘recruits’ could be kidnapped, enslaved and compelled to work on the plantations.

It is testament to the resilience of indentured communities that resistance to colonialism and to indenture, were always a feature of plantation life. Whether they were protesting through physical uprisings on estates or legal challenges and testimonies, the indentured did not experience the system passively and their determination to preserve their identity has paid dividends for their descendants. Through cuisine, language, music, dance, religion, and cultural practices, the descendants of indentured labourers are able to connect themselves to the traditions of their ancestors, and, despite colonial obstacles, discrimination and other injustices, many thrived in their new countries of abode, becoming entrepreneurs, businessmen/women, lawyers, doctors, engineers, sportsmen/women, politicians, writers and artists. In Guyana and elsewhere, the economy and culture of the society was shaped by the efforts of indentured labourers and their descendants.

Purpose of  Ameena Gafoor Institute for the Study of Indentureship and its Legacies

Universities in the Western Hemisphere pay little or no little attention to the history , lives and efforts of indentured labourers and their descendants. The study of the Caribbean, for instance, is overwhelmingly a study of slavery and its aftermath. The Gafoor Institute will supplement such scholarship by the following means:

1. Organising, in London (to begin with) an annual International Conference on Indentureship and its Legacies, bringing together established and new scholars to make presentations on their work. Proceedings will be filmed and made available on the internet.

2. Publishing a Journal of Indentureship and its Legacies (two issues per year), the purpose of which  is to create a unique and unprecedented academic space where the study of indentureship, as a distinct form of unfree labour, can be analysed in all its forms. No such Journal currently exists anywhere in the world, in spite of the critical importance of Indentureship to world history. It will be led, initially,  by academics Prof. David Dabydeen (University of Warwick), Dr. Maria del Pilar Kaladeen (University of London), Dr Amar
   Wahab( University of Toronto)and Dr Tao Goffe (Cornell University). The editors wish to publish both academic essays on and creative responses (fiction or poetry) to the study of indentureship.

3. Creating institutional links with Universities and educational organisations in the various countries affected by Indentureship(Fiji, the Caribbean, East and South Africa, North America, Mauritius, India, China, Madeira, and elsewhere). This will take the form, for example, of
   jointly organised Conferences. Advisory Boards for the Gafoor Institute as well as the Journal of Indentureship will consist of scholars worldwide.

4. Making such global links effective by setting up a website on Indentureship and its Legacies. This enables sharing of scholarship, notices of events worldwide, information about any injustices still being endured by the descendants of Indentureship (e.g. hostility
   to Indian communities in Fiji). The website will also facilitate the creation of emailing lists, so that individuals and institutions can be fed news about events, Conferences, publications. The website will also be a vehicle for fundraising for particular activities.

5. Creating an annual Visiting Gafoor Professorship to enable young, early-career scholars to study for a period of time in the British National Archive at Kew.

6. Creating a scholarship fund to enable students to undertake postgraduate/postdoctoral research in UK archives.

To donate more than £1,000 or USD$1,500 or €1,200, please visit our donations page. Thank you for your support.

Photographs sourced from DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University and The National Archives UK