Chinese labour on the French Congo-Océan railway in 1929

Lunch seminar by joint ASC-IIAS visiting fellow Dr Julia Martinez. Please bring your own lunch.

Chair: Mayke Kaag, ASC

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 A.E.F., had to guarantee safe working conditions for the Chinese.

This lecture examines the Chinese experience in the Congo and the controversy over French colonial labour conditions.

The speaker

Julia Martinez is an Associate Professor and Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the University of Wollongong, Australia. As an 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.
My research project for this IIAS and African Studies Centre fellowship is an 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. 

Registration: Marieke van Winden, winden@ascleiden.nl

Inline photo: blog Julien Bokilo.