The Briny South: Displacement and Sentiment in the Indian Ocean World

225 Pages·2023·5.964 MB·English

by  Nienke Boer

T H E B R I N Y S O U T H
T H E B R I N Y S O U T H
a theory in forms book
A series edited by Nancy Rose Hunt and Achille Mbembe
displacement and sentiment
in the indian ocean world
Nienke Boer
Duke University Press Durham and London 2023
© 2023 duke university press Cover art:
All rights reserved “Cape Town: Number
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca on acid- free paper ∞ of Males/Number of
Designed by Matthew Tauch Females” (detail). In
Typeset in Minion Pro and Trade Gothic LT Std “Various Slave Returns,
by Westchester Publishing Ser vices 1816–1834,” Slave Office
(so) 7/36, p. 183, Western
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Cape Archives and
Names: Boer, Nienke, [date] author. Records Service, Cape
Title: The briny South : displacement and sentiment in Town, South Africa.
the Indian Ocean world / Nienke Boer.
Other titles: Theory in forms.
Description: Durham : Duke University Press, 2023. |
Series: A Theory in forms book | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022039964 (print)
LCCN 2022039965 (ebook)
ISBN 9781478019558 (paperback)
ISBN 9781478016915 (hardcover)
ISBN 9781478024200 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Forced labor—Indian Ocean Region—History. |
Labor in literature. | Indian Ocean Region—Biography—Sources. |
Netherlands—Colonies—Africa. | Netherlands—Colonies—Asia. |
Great Britain—Colonies—Africa. | Great Britain—Colonies—
Asia. | BISAC: HISTORY / Africa / East | HISTORY / Asia / South /
General
Classification: LCC HD4875.I55 B64 2023 (print) | LCC HD4875.I55
(ebook) | DDC 325.492—dc23/eng/20221117
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022039964
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022039965
Kerst & Marieta Boer
This page intentionally left blank
contents
Acknowle dgments · ix
Introduction · 1
Enslaved, Indentured, Interned
1 Representing Speech in Bondage in the Court Rec ords
of the Dutch Cabo de Goede Hoop, 1652–1795 · 17
2 Silencing the Enslaved: The Aesthetics of Abolitionism
in the British Cape Colony, 1795–1834 · 48
3 “Grievances More Sentimental than Material”:
Representing Indentured Labor in Natal, 1860–1915 · 82
4 A Sentimental Education in Boer War Imprisonment
Camps in South Asia, 1899–1902 · 109
5 Sentiment and the Law in Early South African Indian
Writing, 1893–1960 · 132
Coda · 154
No Human Footprints
Notes · 161
Bibliography · 187
Index · 205
This page intentionally left blank
acknowle dgments
This book has taken both far too long and the exact amount of time it
needed, and I am grateful to the vario us institutions that made it pos si-
ble for me to write it. The book was supported by funding from New York
University and generous grants and invaluable sabbatical time provided by
Yale-n us College in Singapore. I am grateful for all the individuals and in-
stitutions who still believe in the humanities.
Written in New York, London, Cape Town, and Singapore, I’d like to
think that this book has absorbed some of the spirit of t hese port cities.
I remain deeply thankful for the support and feedback from my earliest
readers— Mark Sanders, Isabel Hofmeyr, Kristin Ross, Ma nu Goswami, and
Jay Garcia. Other impor tant navigators on this journey have been Gaurav
Desai, Meg Samuelson, and Pallavi Rastogi. I have benefited from vario us
workshops here in Singapore and would like to thank Chitra Venkatara-
mani, Tapsi Mathur, Anne Thell, Christine Walker, Gretchen Head, Robin
Zheng, Gabriele Koch, Geoff Baker, Rajeev Patke, Christopher Trigg, and
Kate Wakely-M ulroney for their suggestions and encouragement. My other
colleagues in Singapore, including Shaoling Ma, Mira Seo, Andrew Hui,
Steven Green, Carissa Foo, Ila Tyagi, Laurel Fantauzzo, Rohan Mukherjee,
Anju Mary Paul, Clay Eaton, Jessica Hanser, Nurfadzilah Yahaya, Stuart
Strange, and Joanne Roberts, have been im mensely helpful in this pro cess.
I cannot overstate how wonderful, brilliant, supportive, and insightful the
students at Yale- nus have been— teaching them has enriched my writing
tremendously. I hope this book acts as a testament to the extraordinary in-
tellectual endeavor that briefly was Yale-n us College.
I am also indebted to the organizers and attendees of vario us panels and
conferences where I have been able to pre sent on this work and to Magalí
Armillas- Tiseyra, Anne Garland Mahler, and Laura T. Murphy for helping
me think through some of the central ideas in the book by inviting me to con-
tribute to vario us publications: Global South Studies: A Collective Publication