From Bengal to the Cape

About the Book

In From Bengal to the Cape, Professor Ansu Datta opens up a hitherto little researched topic of transoceanic slave trade between mainly southern Bengal and the Cape in the Republic of South Africa. This migration took place between roughly the 1650s and about the middle of the nineteenth century when the slave trade was finally abolished. The book offers a short account of the condition in which the Bengali slaves found themselves and in the Cape peninsular society following their dispersal during these early times. It highlights new social formations in the Cape society, especially among the Coloured in South Africa.

Few are aware of this export trade principally from Bengal, the Coromandel Coast, and Malabar. Datta’s researches took him to the National Archives of Cape Town, and to some universities in South Africa. He obtained records from Municipalities and interviewed people who today claim descent from Bengali slaves. The book underscores the need for further research on this unexplored issue in India and South Africa.

About the Author

Ansu Datta was born in 1929 in Delhi. After graduating from Calcutta University he received a PhD from the University of Leiden and later was awarded a Doctorat d’ état from the René Descartes University of Paris. Dr Datta spent many years teaching and doing research in universities in sub-Saharan Africa, some of these years working for the UNESCO. His last appointment was as Director of the National Institute of Research in Botswana. He authored many academic papers and books, attended numerous conferences and addressed many academic bodies. Africa and African interests occupied a special place in his heart and academic life. He believed that the study of societies in sub-Saharan Africa, hitherto much neglected in India, would benefit international understanding. His first book, published in 1968, was on Africa in Bangla. In From Bengal to the Cape Ansu Datta tells us about the black slave trade that touched Bengal. It includes the record of a seventeenth century abduction of ‘Angela van Bengale’, amongst thousands pirated from the East Indian shores to South Africa. How she worked her way from slave to slave-owner to become admittedly the grand matriarch of many families now living in South Africa and Europe is a fascinating read and the most significant resource for future researchers.