Unpacking Mixedness for an Inclusive History of the Red Sea, 1800s-2000s

Description du projet

Étudier le rôle de la mixité dans l’histoire de la mer Rouge

La mer Rouge a fait l’objet d’études approfondies en Afrique et au Moyen-Orient. Cependant, l’aspect de la mixité a été largement négligé. De même, les études critiques sur la mixité n’ont pas encore exploré le thème de la mixité dans la mer Rouge. Cette lacune dans la recherche souligne la nécessité d’un examen approfondi de la manière dont les personnes d’origine mixte ont influencé l’histoire de la mer Rouge. Le projet REDMIX, financé par le CER, se concentre sur la période allant des années 1800 aux années 2000. Il vise à créer des archives numériques sur la mixité dans la mer Rouge grâce à une approche à long terme, interdisciplinaire et ascendante qui donne la priorité aux perspectives des personnes d’ascendance mixte et reconnaît leur rôle essentiel dans l’histoire de la région.

Objectif

The debate on mixed-race people is gaining momentum, and the Red Sea – located at the crossroads of Africa and the Middle East, of the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean – stands as a privileged venue to investigate mixedness. Focusing on a timeframe (1800s-2000s) marked by increasing mobilities and mixed-race unions and offspring (e.g. Afro-Arabs, Afro-Asians, Euro-Africans), REDMIX investigates the roots and routes of mixed-race people and groups through a bottom-up, long-term, and interdisciplinary perspective, to create a digital archive about mixedness in the Red Sea.
African and Middle Eastern Studies have examined the Red Sea, its mobilities, and its entanglements, but mixedness has remained marginal in their thematic and methodological debate. Critical Mixed Race Studies has explored mixedness as a broad concept referring to individuals of mixed descent, yet without ever digging into case studies from the Red Sea. Thus, an extensive analysis of when, how, and why mixed-race people and groups have negotiated their position at political and social turning points in the history of the Red Sea is still lacking. REDMIX aims to fill this methodological and knowledge gap by overcoming the partitioned approach to the Red Sea and promoting a perspective centred on mixed-race people. The project intertwines African, Middle Eastern, and (Critical) Mixed Race Studies; brings together a rich corpus of archival and oral sources scattered across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East; resorts to the digital humanities; and contributes to the conceptual framework of mixedness by applying global microhistory and comparatively investigating different case studies through synchronic and diachronic analyses. As the first comparative investigation into the history of mixedness in the Red Sea, REDMIX will take an active part in the mission of writing a more inclusive history of the area, one that firmly establishes the centrality of mixed-race people.