2. Arabia at Sea!

The second of the three lectures given at the Africa Institute by Professor Nidhi Mahajan.

She is an assistant professor in Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Mahajan obtained her PhD in Anthropology from Cornell University in 2015. Her research examines trans-regional maritime connections across the Indian Ocean through shipping and trade networks, ports and their entanglements with state sovereignty. Read more about Professor Mahajan and the other scholars who hosted lectures here.

In more tangible terms, Professor Nidhi Mahajan’s focus for our lecture was on dhows(specifically Indian merchants using dhows). For our lecture, she introduced us to the history of the dhow and its role in the different economies produced from changing policy by sovereign powers.

From both the maritime museum my group visited and the lecture given at the Africa Institute, I got to see how the dhow is created, its purpose, and what makes them special. They are a symbol of transregional cultural heritage, notably in the Gulf States(UAE, Bahrain, Oman, etc), India and Somalia. This was due to thei ability to travel up and down the coasts carrying goods. As the dhow was the boat of choice for pearl diving, the maritime museum had multiple pieces focused on the pearl diving industry, the crew needed to run a dhow, and the different gear a pearl diver would suit. Check out some of the images here.

As expected with the progression of time, the dhow boats have experienced a large change in the technology used to run them. Instead of sails, paddles and wind, the dhow was now able to use diesel engines by the 1930s. Other improvements were seen in the use of more fortified materials like wood, allowing for larger sizes and even heavier capacities. Though there have been attempts and creations of dhows using metal hulls, the rigidity of the metals makes Professor Mahajan think that the dhow will not make a popular shift to being made out of metal.

An interesting concept brought to me by Professor Mahajan is a shadow economy, which pertains to economic activities and the political processes that create them. This can be explained as an economy not built or changed by merchants, dhow owners, or sailors, but instead by policies enforced by governmental powers of the ports and of those who control jurisdiction of the waters. An example was given of accusations by the United Nations against Indian dhow owners who’s boats were transporting and selling coal on the Somalian coast, of funding terrorism as a major port was controlled by the Al Qaeda group. Severe surveillance of the dhow promoted as an ‘anti-terror’ policing, coerced dhow traders into not trading a harmless resource to a well known port, destroying the profits available to an already niche and competitive market. This and many other examples showed how the lines of legality were blurred for many dhow traders as legal trade and practices would regularly go from accepted to illegal within days, much less time than it would take to complete a journey across the Indian ocean!!

This confusing and tricky relationship with the dhow economy and governmental powers continued to be blurred as dhow ships were often contracted for private and government use as well. Examples like large naval security vessels, who don’t often or cannot come to port, paying traders to bring resources like food, gas, and other necessities to their ship almost like Door-Dash delivery service, or government sanctioned shipments from one place to another. My biggest takeaway from Professor Mahajan’s lecture is how to look at the dhow in history and for its future use. These traders are not simple pirates looking to make a quick buck stealing and committing crimes against the states and other merchants. Instead, these traders are trying to make a living for themselves and their families in a vocation that is unpredictable and forever changing while performing a very necessary service that keeps this part of the world in motion.

This is definitely not the last time that I will run into the dhow or the Gulf’s life at sea as I will be focusing on the pearl diving industry, with a particular focus on Dhow boats and the pearl diver’s experience. Yet the introductions to the pearling industry, the lives of pearl harvesters, dhow creation, use of boats, etc. by Maritime History Museum in Sharjah, the Bahrain National Museum, and the lecture given at the Africa Institute have definitely given me the tools to dive much deeper into the cultures associated with the Gulf and its waters.

Photo Dump