The Significance of the IIAS to my Career

During my time lecturing in economic history at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), Johannesburg, South Africa, from 1985-1995, I opened a new research frontier investigating the origins of the Malagasy. Hitherto, this issue had been largely confined to French academic circles, and revolved around two main theories, the one held by Alfred and Guillaume Grandidier arguing for a Southeast Asian and Melanesian origin to the original settlers of Madagascar, and the other by Gabriel Ferrand who argued for a Southeast Asian and African origin. 1 See Gwyn Campbell. 1996. “Theories concerning the Origins of the Malagasy” in Marc Michel & Yvan Paillard (eds.), Australes (Paris: l’Harmattan): 127-153; Idem. 1996. “The Origins and Demography of Slaves in Nineteenth Century Madagascar: A Chapter in the History of the African Ancestry of the Malagasy” in François Rajaison (ed.), Fanandevozana ou esclavage (Antananarivo: Musée d’Art et d’Archéologie de l’Université d’Antananarivo): 5-38 I interested a group of human geneticists based at WITS in the subject, and we won a National Geographic grant to investigate the DNA of the main Malagasy ethnicities. This research demonstrated for the first time the dual Asian and African genetic heritage of the Malagasy.2 Hewitt R, Krause A, Goldman A, Campbell G, Jenkins T. 1996. “ß-globin haplotype analysis suggests that a major source of Malagasy ancestry is derived from Bantu-speaking Negroids” American Journal of Human Genetics 58.6:1303-1308. However, it did not furnish any historical evidence for this finding. As a result, I applied to the IIAS for a fellowship to investigate the historical background to the Southeast Asian input into the origin of the Malagasy, focusing on four main issues: (i) what was the geographical “homeland” of the Asian component of the first Malagasy; (ii) timing – when did they leave their homeland and when did they settle Madagascar; (iii) what was the route they took; and (iv) why did they migrate to Madagascar.

My time at the IIAS was highly fruitful, opening for me a number of new perspectives not only on the issue of the origins of the Malagasy, but more generally on historical relations between Africa and Asia, focussing on a vibrant trans-oceanic exchange, from at least the BCE/CE changeover, that included humans, commodities, plants, animals, ideas, technologies and, inevitably, diseases. I also became aware of the historical significance of the Asian monsoon system and associated climatic factors.  Indeed, my time at the IIAS laid the basis for my subsequent research agenda and my academic career. I moved from WITS to the University of Avignon, France, where I organised a series of conferences comparing and contrasting the Atlantic and New World systems of slavery and the slave trade with those of what I termed the “Indian Ocean World” (IOW) – a macro region running from East Africa to China.  These conferences, inspired by my experience at the IIAS, resulted in a series of publications that had a fundamental influence on slavery studies.3 Gwyn Campbell, Suzanne Miers & Joseph Miller. Eds. 2007. Women in Slavery. Vol.1: Africa, the Indian Ocean World, and the Medieval North Atlantic; Edward Alpers, Gwyn Campbell & Michael Salman. Eds. 2005. Slavery, Forced Labour and Resistance in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia; Gwyn Campbell. Ed. 2005. Abolition and Its Aftermath in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia; Gwyn Campbell. Ed.  2004. The Structure of Slavery in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia.

My research, publishing and teaching in IOW studies, including my IIAS fellowship, was fundamental to me being offered a Canada Research Chair Tier 1 at McGill University where I founded and direct the Indian Ocean World Centre (IOWC), an official McGill research centre. It has also formed the basis for successful applications for back-to-back Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) research awards, each worth $2.5 million over 7 years. These resulted in vibrant international research collaborations investigating the economic and environmental history of the IOW in which IIAS contacts have proved central.4 E.g. Sandra Evers - see: Sandra Evers, Gwyn Campbell & Michael Lambek. Eds. 2013. Contest for Land in Madagascar. Environment, Ancestors and Development. I also successfully applied for a Beatty grant to bring Sandra Eto McGill to give a prestigious Beatty Lecture on “Lex Loci meets Lex Fori: Merging Customary Law and National Land Legislation in Madagascar” (10 Oct. 2008).

At McGill, I have considerably advanced frontiers of research that were first opened up to me at the IIAS. There, I continued to produce innovative work on IOW bondage that fundamentally challenges the dominant view based on the Atlantic world. This has focussed on two main areas. The first is slavery studies, in which I have continued to forge innovative perspectives on IOW bondage, in research, teaching and publications, that fundamentally challenges the dominant view based on the Atlantic world.5 Gwyn Campbell & Alessandro Stanziani. Eds. 2019. The Palgrave Handbook of Bondage and Human Rights in Africa and Asia; Gwyn Campbell & Elizabeth Elbourne. Eds. 2014. Sex, Power, and Slavery; Gwyn Campbell & Alessandro Stanziani. Eds. 2013. Bonded Labour and Debt in the Indian Ocean World. The second focus is environmental history. This had resulted in pioneer studies underscoring the idea that human-environmental interaction, rather than human action alone, forms the chief catalyst of historical change in the IOW.6 Frank Muttenzer, Gwyn Campbell & Jacques Pollini. Eds. 2023. Perceptions and Representations of the Malagasy Environment Across Cultures; Gwyn Campbell & Eva-Maria Knoll. Eds. 2020. Disease Dispersion and Impact in the Indian Ocean World; Gwyn Campbell. 2019. Africa and the Indian Ocean World from Early Times to 1900; Gwyn Campbell. Ed. 2018. Bondage and the Environment in the Indian Ocean World; Gwyn Campbell. Ed. 2016. Early Exchange between Africa and the Wider Indian Ocean World. This has manifest implications for the history of other major world regions and, most acutely in the context of global warming, for climate risk policy. Indeed, this forms the rationale for a new application for a large international and multidisciplinary SSHRC grant on past-to-present patterns of environmental change affecting low-lying regions of the IOW since 1600, and their implications for climate risk policy. 

I am pleased to add to this testimonial a recent initiative that further strengthens my connection with IIAS: I have invited IIAS to participate as one of the key partners in the development of a major research proposal titled "Tipping Points: Environmental Crises in Coastal Zones of the Indian Ocean World, 1600 to the Present," initiated and led by the Indian Ocean World Centre (IOWC), at McGill University. 

In all, my experience at the IIAS has had a fundamental impact upon my research agenda. The IIAS is a truly humanist research institution that through its multi-disciplinary umbrella, and a rare vision, encourages scholars not only to further explore established avenues of research, but also to test conventional spatial, temporal and thematic paradigms emanating from Eurocentric, often Western colonial, standpoints. This vision significantly impacts the influence that its alumni has on current political, economic and environmental issues of vital importance to the future of the planet.