New subject webpage

We now have a general webpage for Commonwealth Studies as part of the Senate House Library webpage. This page provides a general overview of the collection and a list of databases of interest. We're currently working on lists of internet resources to add to this page. Any suggestions please add as a comment to this post:

The subject webpages are avauilable at:
http://www.shl.lon.ac.uk/subjects/commonwealth/index.shtml

Book of the Month - The History of Col. Parke’s Administration whilst he was Captain-General and Chief Governor of the Leeward Islands

Senate House Library's Book of the Month featured one of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies' titles: George French's The History of Col. Parke’s Administration whilst he was Captain-General and Chief Governor of the Leeward Islands

The son of respected Virginian gentry, Daniel Parke (1669-1710) had strong ambitions to become governor of Virginia. Although disappointed in this goal, he was offered the governorship of the Leeward Islands. Arriving in Antigua in the summer of 1707, he alienated and antagonised both planters and traders with what was regarded as heavy-handed enforcement of the Acts of Trade, and provoked concerns leading to a riot as early as 1708. He was wounded in an ambush in October 1709 and killed on 7 December 1710, when the assembly and settlers turned on him and stormed the governor’s residence. The assassination of a Crown official by his subjects was a shocking event, much reported on back in England.


Most accounts of Col. Parke’s character show him in an unfavourable light, coming from sources hostile to his Virginian ambitions and alliances, or his time in Antigua. Parke had returned to Virginia from his first trip to England with a mistress and child, and rumours also suggest he had scandalised Antigua by trifling openly with the wives and daughters of planters, settlers and natives. George French, a close friend of Parke, writes more favourably, in reaction to “false insinuations” and criticisms of Parke. In his account French defends Parke’s actions while governor of the Leeward Islands from 1708 to 1710, gives many details of lawsuits, depositions, etc., discusses much-needed reforms carried out by Parke in the face of settler hostility, and describes in detail the cruelty with which Parke was treated in the rebellion: “they use him with the most utmost contempt and inhumanity. They strip him of his clothes, kick, spurn at, and beat him with the buts of their muskets, by which means at last they break his back. They drag him into the streets by a leg and arm, and his head trails and beats from step to step of the stone stairs at the entrance of the house, and he is dragged on the coarse gravelly street which raked the skin from his bones.”

This copy, one of fewer than a dozen in England recorded on ESTC, was transferred to the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library from the West India Committee Library in 1977. It previously belonged to the noted American book collector Samuel Latham Mitchell Barlow (1826-1889).


http://www.shl.lon.ac.uk/specialcollections/bookofthemonth/2010_08.shtml

Archive collections - Sandbach Tinne & Co

Another new list attached to the ULRLS Archives catalogue is that of Sandbach Tinne and Co.


Sandbach Tinne and Co (ICS70)

Founded in 1782 in Demerara, now part of Guyana, Sandbach, Tinne & Co., were shipowners, produce brokers, general merchants and plantation owners, exporting sugar, coffee, molasses and rum from the West Indies. James McInroy came to Demerara in 1782, and planted or acquired a sugar plantation soon after his arrival. By 1790 he was joined by Samuel Sandbach, Charles Stewart Parker and George Robertson, and the company, McInroy Sandbach & Co. was founded. At first the head office was in Glasgow under the name McInroy Parker & Co., and in 1804 a branch was founded in Liverpool, which later became the company headquaters. In 1813 Philip Tinne was taken into the partnership and the company became known as Sandbach, Tinne & Co in Liverpool, and McInroy Sandbach & Co in Demerara (in 1861 changed to Sandbach Parker & Co). They were importers and exporters, shipping and estate agents, mainly concerned with sugar, coffee, molasses and rum, but also in 'prime Gold Coast Negroes' (J Rodway: 'History of British Guiana', 1893). The families intermarried and the sons and sons-in-law entered the business.

Although the company passed through a number of name changes, Sandbach Tinne & Co., is the name by which the company is generally known. Branches of the company were opened in Glasgow (briefly), Montreal (West India Co.) and Trinidad.

The records held at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies collections include correspondence between McInroy Sandbach & Co. of Demerara (now Guyana) and McInroy Parker & Co of Glasgow [later Sandbach Tinne & Co of Liverpool] concerning sugar, rum, coffee, and fishing and cotton trades, shipments, the purchase and sale of estates, and political and economic conditions in the Caribbean and Europe, covering the period from 1807 to 1882.

The Senate House Library also holds a collection of correspondence relating to the trade of Sandbach, Tinné and Co. with British Guiana, from 1808-1909, MS 677, including correspondence with McInroy, Parker & Co. of Glasgow (9 letters, 1817-1829), with McInroy, Sandbach & Co. of Demerara, British Guiana (about 40 letters 1815-1852), with Blackwood, Conor and Co. from 1879 and with Sandbach, Parker and Co. from 1870. The letters concern the shipping of coffee, rum, sugar, cotton, and other merchandise to England, and contain incidental references to French, Dutch and English plantations in Guiana, financial arrangements, the state of crops and the labour force, and the use of machinery in plantations e.g. for cane-grinding. 

Other records for the firm are held at the Guyana University Library; the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich; the Lancashire Record Office; the Liverpool Record Office and the National Museums Liverpool, Maritime Archives and Library.

Caribbean Seminar Series

Caribbean Seminar Series

jointly hosted by the Institute for the Study of the Americas and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London.

You are warmly invited to attend these events. Please note the time and venue in each case. The programme can also be found on http://americas.sas.ac.uk/events.php?aoi_id=79

INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF THE AMERICAS AND INSTITUTE OF COMMONWEALTH STUDIES CARIBBEAN SEMINAR SERIES AUTUMN 2010

20th October, Ben Bowling, King’s College London PANEL & BOOK LAUNCH Policing the Caribbean: Transnational Security Co-operation in Practice Oxford University Press, 2010

VENUE: Chapters, King’s College London, Strand, London WCR 2LS
TIME: 6PM

Panel: Ben Bowling, Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice, King's College London Robert Reiner, Department of Law, LSE Amanda Sives, Department of Politics, Liverpool University
Chair: Philip Murphy, Director, Institute of Commonwealth Studies

Policing the Caribbean examines how law enforcement is migrating beyond the boundaries of the nation state. Perceptions of public safety and national sovereignty are shifting in the face of global insecurity and as the police respond to transnational threats like drug trafficking and organised crime. Transnational policing is one of the most significant recent developments in the security field and is changing the organisation of criminal law enforcement in the Caribbean and other parts of the world. Drawing on interviews with chief police officers, Customs, coastguard, immigration, security, military and government officials, Policing the Caribbean examines these changes and provides unique insight into collaboration between local security agencies and liaison officers from the UK and USA. This book considers the impact of a restructured transnational security infrastructure on the safety and wellbeing of the Caribbean islands and beyond. It concludes that as the “war on drugs” has been fought, transnational law enforcement has displaced drug trafficking to new locations across the north Atlantic rim and with it, the associated harms of money laundering, corruption and armed violence.

Bio: Ben Bowling is Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice at King's College London. He has published widely in the fields of policing and international criminal justice. His books include Violent Racism (OUP 1998) and Racism, Crime and Justice (with Coretta Phillips, Longman 2002). He has served on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Criminology and Policing and Society. He has been a consultant to the United Nations and Interpol, and regularly addresses senior security sector practitioners from around the world.

Hosted in collaboration with the British Society of Criminology

3rd November SEMINAR: Clara Rachel Eybalin Casseus, Université de Poitiers ‘Trans-national Associative Practices: The Case of Haitians in France’

Venue: G32, Senate House, ground floor
Time: 5pm

Abstract:
This paper examines the empirical data collected on a less-visible segment of the population residing in Metropolitan France: migrants of Haitian origin referred to as trans-national entrepreneurs. Three elements in this study help us to understand how migrants transformed themselves into development actors: their ability to cultivate cross-border transactions and exchanges on a regular basis; an engagement with the local community in activities likely to lead to long-term development and sustainability; and an overall approach to empower locals to break the poverty-trap triangle. In the aftermath of the recent earthquake in Haiti, this paper attempts to look differently at the ongoing practices of a diasporic community and its possible impact on local development.

Bio: Originally from Haiti, Clara Rachel’s journey abroad begins at age of four due to political turmoil. Her travels took her to different parts of the globe: from Zaire to Miami, from Mexico to Jeddah. A long-time tourism specialist (FL/GA, 1988-1992) and former Healthcare worker in the US and Jeddah, she holds a BA in International Politics and a MAIA/MPA in Strategic Public Policy from The American University of Paris. She also holds an MA joint-degree with the Institut Catholique de Paris in the Sociology of Conflicts. She is currently working on her PhD on Migration & Development Studies at the Université de Poitiers (France), focusing primarily on the evolution of trans-nationalism and Caribbean diasporic communities throughout the European Union.

17th November, Natalie Zacek, University of Manchester SEMINAR & BOOK LAUNCH Settler Society in the English Leeward Islands, 1670-1776, Cambridge University Press, 2010

Venue: G27, Senate House, ground floor
Time: 5pm

Abstract:
Settler Society in the English Leeward Islands, 1670-1776 is the first study of the history of the federated colony of the Leeward Islands - Antigua, Montserrat, Nevis, and St Kitts - that covers all four islands in the period from their independence from Barbados in 1670 up to the outbreak of the American Revolution, which reshaped the Caribbean. Natalie A. Zacek emphasizes the extent to which the planters of these islands attempted to establish recognizably English societies in tropical islands based on plantation agriculture and African slavery. By examining conflicts relating to ethnicity and religion, controversies regarding sex and social order, and a series of virulent battles over the limits of local and imperial authority, this book depicts these West Indian colonists as skilled improvisers who adapted to an unfamiliar environment, and as individuals as committed as other American colonists to the norms and values of English society, politics, and culture.

Bio: Natalie Zacek is Lecturer in American Studies at the University of Manchester. She received her PhD from Johns Hopkins University, and has published essays on aspects of the social, cultural, and gender history of the English West Indies in Slavery and Abolition, the Journal of Peasant Studies, Wadabagei and History Compass, as well as a number of edited volumes. She has received funding awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the British Academy, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Earhart Foundation, and is currently working on a history of horse-racing in 19th-century America.

1st December PANEL: CRIME & DEMOCRACY IN CONTEMPORARY JAMAICA

Speakers: Amanda Sives, Liverpool University; Rivke Jaffe, Leiden University
Followed by book launch of Elections, Violence and the Democratic Process in Jamaica, 1944-2007 by Amanda Sives (Ian Randle Publications, 2010)

Venue: G27, Senate House, ground floor
Time: 5pm

Amanda Sives, ‘A calculated assault on the authority of the State?’: Crime, Politics and the Extradition of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke’
In this paper, I use the extradition of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke as a starting point for analysing the relationship between criminality and politics in 21st century Jamaica. Based on secondary sources and previous research, I analyse this example to explore connections between criminal networks, political parties and the State. I argue the ‘Dudus’ case was inevitable given the historical relationships between criminal actors and politicians and that this extradition could provide a turning point if the State, and agents of the State, prove to be genuinely committed to breaking the connections between politics and crime. In addition, I want to explore other factors which can influence the direction of the process. First, I question how far civil society can be involved in the ‘renewal’ process and where the potential barriers to their engagement could arise and secondly, I want to explore the international dimension, critically important given current economic realities in Jamaica and the trans-national nature of the ‘problem’.

Rivke Jaffe, ‘Hybrid States and Complementary Governance: Crime and Citizenship in Kingston, Jamaica’
Nation-states worldwide face a situation where different governance structures compete for citizens’ allegiance. In marginalized urban areas, new, informal governance structures may provide access to crucial urban services and resources, and offer a framework for social inclusion and belonging. In Kingston, Jamaica, criminal organizations, led by so-called ‘dons’ have taken on these functions of the state. Rather than understanding these non-state governance structures as ‘parallel states’, this presentation explores the idea of ‘hybrid states’ in which criminal organizations and the state are entangled as they share control over urban spaces and populations. Seen from perspective of inner-city Jamaicans, this does not result in a situation where the dons replace the state and entire neighbourhoods become non-state spaces. Rather, it entails a form of ‘complementary governance’ by which citizens utilize informal systems of rule in conjunction with formal state structures.

Bios:
Amanda Sives is a Lecturer in Politics. Her main research expertise lies in the politics of the Caribbean with a particular emphasis on Jamaica. She has worked on a number of research projects in a variety of countries including Jamaica, Botswana, Guyana, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the United States and the UK. Successfully completed projects have focused on election observation, political violence and migration. She has held posts in the University of Nottingham, the Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. She has been working in the School since September 2005.

Rivke Jaffe is a Lecturer in the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University, the Netherlands. She previously held teaching and research positions at the University of the West Indies, Mona and the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV). She has conducted fieldwork in Jamaica, Curaçao and Suriname on topics ranging from the urban environment to the political economy of multiculturalism. Her current research, in Jamaica, studies how criminal organizations and the state share control over urban spaces and populations, and the alternative governance structures and fragmented sovereignty that result from this.

15th December, Victor Bulmer-Thomas, Professor Emeritus, London University
SEMINAR: The Rise, Decline and Fall of the Belize Economy before Independence

Venue: G32, Senate house, ground floor
Time: 5pm

Abstract: At the close of the Napoleonic Wars, the small population of Belize had the highest average income in the Caribbean. This was due to its specialisation in high value timber products and a very profitable entrepot trade with Central America. By the time Belize became a British colony in 1862, this privileged position was starting to erode due to the decline of the re-export trade and severe difficulties in the mahogany industry. Crown Colony rule did nothing to reverse this, the efforts to diversify the economy towards agricultural exports were both too little and too late, and the Belize economy entered a long period of relative decline. When the Great Depression struck in the 1930s, the material basis of the economy was undermined and the economy endured a sharp fall.

Bio: Professor Victor Bulmer-Thomas is Professor Emeritus of London University and Senior Distinguished Fellow of the School of Advanced Studies. He served as Director of the Institute of Latin American Studies between 1992 and 1998 and recently served as Director of Chatham House. He is currently Visiting Professor at Florida International University where he is working on an economic history of the Caribbean since the Napoleonic Wars.

New lists for some South African/Apartheid archives collections

A number of smaller collections relating to South Africa and apartheid have had their handlists added to the ULRLS Archives Catalogue. These include the following collections:

Roger Southall papers (ICS77)
Roger Southall received a PhD from Birmingham University in 1975. He subsequently worked on East Africa and South Africa, publishing in 1983 South Africa's Transkei: the political economy of an independent Bantustan.  This collection is comprosed of interviews by Roger Southall with South African trade union and political leaders, including members of the National Automobile and Allied Workers Union; the Transport and General Workers Union; the United Democratic Front; the Council of Unions of South Africa; the Motor Industry Combined Workers Union; the Federation of South African Trade Unions; the Azania Peoples Organisation; National Union of Mineworkers; National Union of Textile Workers; Ebrahim "Cassim" Saloojee, United Democratic Front; the South African Boilermakers' Iron and Steel Workers, Shipbuilders and Welders Society; and the Natal Indian Congress.


University of Cape Town: Students' Representative Council papers on South African disturbances, 1976 (ICS81)
Papers relating to activities during disturbances of summer 1976, including comments on the disturbances by black, white and coloured individuals, accounts of incidents and papers by the Soweto Students' Representative Council, the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR), the National Union of South African Students and the Union of Black Journalists.


University of Cape Town: Universities Amendment Bill (ICS82)
In 1959 the South African National Party Government passed the extension of the University Education Act which prohibited the admission of any person not classed as 'white' to universities, other than those established specifically for them, without a permit from the Minister of State. This legislation was strenuously opposed by the University of Cape Town and others. Following an inquiry into education, the Government published the Universities Amendment Bill in 1983, which altered the rules in that rather than a permit system, univerisities were to be prohibited from admitting black students beyond a quota to be stipulated annually by the Minister. Once again there was considerable opposition to the proposed new legislation. The Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Cape Town sent copies of material to contacts in the UK for use in campaigning against the Bill. The papers in this collection comprise a set of this material
 
South Africa: Johannesburg City Council: Department of Non European Affairs (ICS94)
Photocopies of documents concerning squatter problem at Orlando, Soweto, 1946 including records of meetings between the Department of Non European Affairs and deputation from Orlando Advisory Board; record of joint meeting of General Purposes, Non European Affairs and Special Housing Committees; minutes of Sub-Committee on squatter movements, and minutes of meeting of Native Advisory Boards with Non European Affairs Committee
 
South African Institute of Race Relations: Natal Region (ICS95)
Photocopies of minutes and reports of the South African Institute of Race Relations: Natal Region; comprising minutes and papers of Regional Committee meetings; Natal Regional Organiser's Reports, with account of financing of Non-European Educational Fund; African Affairs Sub-Committee minutes and African Fact-Finding Sub-Committee minutes.




 

New books (August) Part 2

A further selection of some of the new books recently acquired and now available (please click on the title for full catalogue record):

Amucheazio, Elo and Okechukwu Ibeanu (eds). Between the theory and practice of democracy in Nigeria : an assessment of Obasanjo's first term in office by academics and practitioners, London : Adonis & Abbey Pub., 2008

Bryan, Patrick E. Edward Seaga and the challenges of modern Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica : University of the West Indies Press, 2009.


Bubenzer, Ole. Post-TRC prosecutions in South Africa : accountability for political crimes after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's amnesty process, Leiden ; Boston : M. Nijhoff, 2009.


Kagwanja, Peter and Roger Southall. Kenya's uncertain democracy : the electoral crisis of 2008, London ; New York : Routledge, 2010.


Kolsky, Elizabeth. Colonial justice in British India, New York : Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Maina wa Kinyatti. Mau Mau : a revolution betrayed, Nairobi ; Jamaica, N.Y : Mau Mau Research Center ; London : Vita Books, 2000.


Matembe, Miria R. K. Miria Matembe : gender, politics, and constitution making in Uganda, Kampala : Fountain Publishers, 2002.


Mines, Diane P. Caste in India, Ann Arbor, Mich. : Association for Asian Studies, c2009.


Misra, Biswa Swarup. Credit cooperatives in India : past, present and future, London ; New York : Routledge, 2010. 


Mokitimi, None. Analysis of security of tenure under the customary land tenure system of Lesotho, Roma, Lesotho : Institute of Southern African Studies, National University of Lesotho, 2006.


Nilsen, Alf Gunvald. Dispossession and resistance in India : the river and the rage, London ; New York : Routledge, 2010.


Pawancheek Marican. Anwar on trial : in the face of injustice, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia : Gerakbudaya Enterprise, c2009.

Seshamani, Venkatesh et al (eds). Zambia's health reforms : selected papers, 1995-2000, [Lusaka] : Dept. of Economics, University of Zambia ; [Lund] : Swedish Institute for Health Economics, 2002.

New books (August) Part 1

Another batch of new books have arrived today, freshly catalogued and are being shelved as I write.
Only have space for a selection (click on the title to see the full catalogue record):

Balogun, M. J. The route to power in Nigeria : a dynamic engagement option for current and aspiring leaders, Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, c2009.


Bhattacharyya, Harihar et al (eds), The politics of social exclusion in India : democracy at the crossroads, London ; New York : Routledge, 2010.


Cole, Catherine M. Performing South Africa's Truth Commission : stages of transition, Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c2010.


Endeley, Joyce B. et al (eds) New gender studies : from Cameroon and the Caribbean, Buea, Cameroon : Dept. of Women and Gender Studies, University of Buea, 2004.


Fioramonti, Lorenzo. European Union democracy aid : supporting civil society in post-apartheid South Africa, London ; New York : Routledge, 2010.


Guichard, Sylvie. The construction of history and nationalism in India : textbooks, controversies and politics Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Oxford University Press, c2010.


Heath, Deana. Purifying empire : obscenity and the politics of moral regulation in Britain, India and Australia, Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Khan, Nichola. Mohajir militancy in Pakistan : violence and transformation in the Karachi conflict, London ; New York : Routledge, 2010.

Michael, Michális S. Resolving the Cyprus conflict : negotiating history, New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Morton, Fred. Historical dictionary of Botswana, Lanham, Md. : Scarecrow Press, 2008.

Niezen, Ronald. The rediscovered self : indigenous identity and cultural justice, Montréal, Québec : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2009.


Ortmann, Stephan. Politics and change in Singapore and Hong Kong : containing contention, London ; New York : Routledge, 2010.
 
Raman, K. Ravi (ed). Development, democracy and the state : critiquing the Kerala model of development, New York : Routledge, 2010.
 
Spooner, Kevin A. Canada, the Congo crisis, and UN peacekeeping, 1960-64, Vancouver : UBC Press, c2009.


Vaidik, Aparna. Imperial Andamans : colonial encounter and island history, New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.