Transitions in south-east Africa and the Middle East at the end of the 18th century | 30 January – 2 February 2023
What was NEW? Frictions forces of the contemporaneity Southern Africa and the Middle East.
NEW (International Emerging Action)
IFAS-Research, IFPO (Institut Français du Proche-Orient) and Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative (University of Cape Town) are pleased to organise a conference on transitions in south-east Africa and the Middle East at the end of 18th century. The event will take place from the 30th of January to the 2nd of February in Pietermaritzburg.
NEW aims to investigate potential rupture in the modern era, with specific focus on the end of the 18th century. Two major areas, Southern Africa and the Middle East, witnessed important changes between roughly 1750 to 1830, and a series of observations underpinning these changes provide the potential for a comparative project. NEW seeks to reconsider the political history of Southern Africa and the Middle East, by scrutinizing autochthonous political discourses, entities and their evolution in these two regions. It is based on the hypothesis that two major dynamics reshaped local political entities: a new geopolitical situation with the rise of Western trade and imperialism; and important environmental changes in both regions. The first of the aforementioned areas stretches from current Iraq to Syria. The second one concerns the territory between Eastern Cape to southern Zambia.