Talk
Globalization and Slavery in Arabia in the Age of Empire
Part of "Concepts and Histories of Race in/out of the Middle East"Wednesday, March 07, 2018, 6:30PM
NYUAD Campus, Conference Center
Past Event
Open to the Public
Enslaved Africans and their descendants contributed in vital ways to the economy and culture of eastern Arabia. Global economic forces, especially international demand for Gulf pearls and dates, drove demand in the Gulf for slave labor from Africa. The reversal of those trends in the 1930s spelled economic collapse for the Gulf and an eventual end to the slave trade. This talk traces the origins of the African diaspora in eastern Arabia, explores the lives and labors of enslaved Africans in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and discusses the significance of the African legacy in the Gulf today.
Enslaved Africans and their descendants contributed in vital ways to the economy and culture of eastern Arabia. Global economic forces, especially international demand for Gulf pearls and dates, drove demand in the Gulf for slave labor from Africa. The reversal of those trends in the 1930s spelled economic collapse for the Gulf and an eventual end to the slave trade. This talk traces the origins of the African diaspora in eastern Arabia, explores the lives and labors of enslaved Africans in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and discusses the significance of the African legacy in the Gulf today.
- Matthew S. Hopper, Professor of History, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
- NYU Abu Dhabi Institute