This blog presents the second part of an exhibition that launched at the Amicale Vietnamienne, Nouméa, on 21 February 2024. The exhibition – presented here in the English version – explores the history of deportation and exile from French Indochina to New Caledonia, within its global context. Readers might be Continue Reading
Exhibition: Exiles and Prisoners from French Indochina in New Caledonia (Part 1)
This blog presents the first part of an exhibition that launched at the Amicale Vietnamienne, Nouméa, on 21 February 2024. The exhibition – presented here in the English version – explores the history of deportation and exile from French Indochina to New Caledonia, within its global context. Readers might be Continue Reading
An Algerian Prisoner in New Caledonia Part 2: The Descendants of Abdelkader ben Cherfia
In a previous blog, An Algerian Prisoner in New Caledonia, we began the story of Abdelkader ben Cherfia. A blacksmith from Blida, Abdelkader met an untimely death as a murder victim at the hands of his wife, Peroline Langevin, in 1901. His death notwithstanding, Abdelkader ben Cherfia’s life story reflected Continue Reading
An Algerian Prisoner in New Caledonia
The Story of Abdelkader ben Cherifa Many accounts of Algerians sent to New Caledonia focus on those sent in the aftermath of the 1870-71 uprisings against colonial French rule. However, prisoners were also sent from Algeria and areas of the Maghreb prior to 1870; approximately 2000 prisoners were transported between Continue Reading
Convicts from French Indochina in the Global French Empire
Throughout the ninety-year French colonization of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos (1863-1954), approximately eight thousand prisoners were exiled to twelve different geographical locations the length and breadth of the colonial French Empire. From Gabon to Guiana, there was hardly a corner to which these prisoners were not sent. Prisoners from Indochina Continue Reading
Shifting The Gaze on Histories of Penal Transportation
In some of our recent writing (available freely here and here) and in some of our recent talks we have been arguing in favour of approaches to the history of convict transportation that started in the receiving destinations: the penal colonies. Our ambition was to move the focus of our Continue Reading
Histories and legacies of intra-colonial transportation: an introduction
What would post-colonial and multi-ethnic histories and societies look like if they were written from the perspective of the descendants of non-European convict transportees? This question is the starting point for this new project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. It focuses on six case studies in the former empires of Continue Reading