It is not only people who migrate to different places, so too do knowledge, culture, language, plants, animals, technical know-how and ideas. Migration of the various elements that form part of human societies is, as we all know, a natural process of life. For us humans, the prime reason for migration is economic. This is where the element of adventure meets with a form of contractual bond. The concept of ‘indenture’, is actually based on the arrangement for, or contract of, work; and as such, it has generated large scale migration worldwide, through various forms, which continues to this day. We have seen this process at work under colonialism, particularly after the abolition of slavery, wherever there was a shortage of labour. We have to remember that the coolie was Breton, Norman, Congolese, Ethiopian, Malagasy, Irish, Chinese, Japanese as well as, of course, Indian.

This system of contractual bond, with its various legal forms, continues in contemporary societies. In our advanced technological age, some have even adopted the name “cyber-coolies” to designate their new form of contractual work. The coolie is the archetype of the modern migrant; unremittingly trying out various forms of contract, in a world of continuous migrations; thus experiencing the modern wage, based on a contract that will give rise to other migrations.

In the Coolitude poetics of migration, the Indies meet with migratory situations and the exchange of imaginaries that cross the planet today and make ‘indenture’ highly contemporary. [edited and translated from Khal Torabully, ‘Migrations à travers les textes et le temps’ Le Mauricien, 26 October 2015]

http://www.lemauricien.com/article/migrations-travers-les-textes-et-temps

Khal Torabully