Travelling Ayahs of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Global Networks and Mobilization of Agency
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4493795 |
|---|---|
| Authors | O F Robinson (0000-0003-3085-0025, University of Oxford, corresponding author), Olivia Robinson (0000-0002-1006-4353, University of Oxford) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 86 |
| Pages | 44-66 |
| Publication date | 2018-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History Workshop Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1363-3554 • E-ISSN: 1477-4569 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/hwj/dby016 |
| OpenAlex | W2884073099 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 6 |
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries ayahs were a familiar sight on board ships, caring for the children of British families as they travelled to and from ‘home’. Existing and contemporary literature, however, only addresses their experiences once on British soil, and positions them as victims of an inequitable colonial system, abandoned by their employers and in need of rescue. This paper moves the focus away from the metropole towards an ayah-centred understanding of the journey and reveals an infrastructure that linked global sites of empire. This shift in perspective enables a richer understanding of the ayahs’ experiences both as racial and gendered ‘others’ and as agents who leveraged situations to their own advantage. By exploring the intersection of colonial and colonized, the paper shows how, at each stage of the journey, spaces designed to contain could be transformed into spaces of gain.
Agency (philosophy) · Archaeology · Economic history · Mobilization · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Hispanic-African Historical Relations · History · Islamic Studies and History
| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,33 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2025 (6) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |