Southern African port towns and the shaping of Indian Ocean cosmopolitanisms in the early 19th century. SCOLMA Seminar series 11/2/15, 1 – 2 pm. Senate House Library, London

By dsw|January 14, 2015|Africa, Archival collections|0 comments

A seminar by Dr Heloise Finch-Boyer, National Maritime Museum

How did three Southern African port towns in the Indian Ocean (Cape Town, Delagoa and Sainte Marie) shape African mobility and cosmopolitanism? By drawing from evidence
collected by a British Naval survey of Eastern Africa 1822 -1825, and using
published accounts, unseen crew watercolours, remark books and logbooks from
the voyage, this paper:

• uses ‘cosmopolitanism’ to analyse continental and maritime African migration and creolisation in the same framework
• demonstrates how cosmopolitan cultural and regional dynamics of African port
  towns in the Indian Ocean determined British visual representations of the
  region, and the nature of British science conducted there and
• links French Portuguese and British controlled Indian Ocean port towns, usually studied separately, in one study.

The paper principally draws from manuscript material at the UK National Maritime Museum pertaining to the British Naval survey of the Eastern and Western African coast conducted
1822-1826 by Captain William Fitzwilliam Owen.

If you would like to attend, please contact Dr Daniel Gilfoyle  dan.gilfoyle@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk, as we will need to supply the venue administrators with a list of attendees.

 http://scolma.org/event/southern-african-port-towns-and-the-shaping-of-indian-ocean-cosmopolitanisms-in-the-early-19th-century/