Social and Economic History in West Africa
The Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and more broadly the Instituto Universitario de Análisis y Aplicaciones Textuales (IATEXT), are still working on Maritime and African issues. In fact, a paper have just published at the Canadian Journal of African Studies, one of the most renowned journal on African studies. The article, “Les dockers dakarois. L´organisation du travail dans un port ouest-africain, 1910-1990s”, has been written by Daniel Castillo Hidalgo (postdoctoral Researcher at the División de Patrimonio e Historia Atlántica) and Moussa Wélé, Ph.D. Candidate at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop (Dakar). This paper offers a pioneer historical approach on the institutional evolution of dock labour at the Senegalese port using primary sources collected from the National Archives of Senegal. In addition, the paper introduces interesting oral testimonies from retired dockers collected by the authors in 2016 and 2017. This is a pioneer work that remarks the relative colonial institutional plasticity on labour management and the social conflicts caused by the configuration of the colonial hegemony. The paper ends with an analysis of the recent evolution of the sector until the great port reform of 1994 that represented its liberalization under a context of structural adjustment plans.
This publication aims to reinforce the strategic research topics designed by the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in order to foster its regional preeminence. On the other hand, Dr. Castillo has developed an intense work agenda at Senegal during the last years. He taught courses and seminars at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop in addition to his efforts reinforcing research common works between both institutions. Castillo has taught courses on African Economic History at the Máster Universitario de Relaciones Hispano-Africanas.
This paper benefited from the financial ressources of the IATEXT (SEDE) for proof-reading