Title: Shipworkers, violence and The French colonial order along the Mekong River
Speakers: Dr Nicola Mocci, Fellow Research on Southeast Asian History at
University of Sassari (Italy), Visiting professor in Kobe University

Date: June 17 (Wed.), 2015, 14:00 – 15:30
Place: Tonan-tei Room No. 201, Inamori Foundation Memorial Building, CSEAS, Kyoto University

Abstract:
Labour and workforce problems in colonial history, particularly in the French colonial Indochina, have always been dealt with in a somewhat piecemeal or casual manner by other branches of social or urban history, gender studies, or social anthropology. As regards French Indochina, any research has mainly been focussed on the very few categories of paid labour, in other words, almost exclusively on the coolies enlisted by the French companies on the extensive héveas (rubber tree) plantations, or, in an incidental manner, on the labourers employed in major
construction works, such as the railways.

This seminar aims to provide a contribution to the analysis of others categories of workers. We’ll focus our attention to the Lao-cambodian piroguiers, namely the oarsmen who, during the French colonial period, rowed the canoes used for the river transport of goods, weapons, and mail in Cambodia and in Laos. Through an analysis of their working methods, of how they were recruited and how they protested against their exploitation by the large shipping companies, the study will take a deeper look at the forms of dissent that, at certain times and in particular situations, gave rise to anti-French protest movements.

Moderator: Dr. Pavin Chachavalpongpun, CSEAS, Kyoto University