Seminar ‘Between State and Diaspora: Early Modern Wajoq and the Wajorese’

In this seminar Kathryn Wellen will present her new book The Open Door: Early Modern Wajorese Statecraft and Diaspora. She will explore the dichotomy between “state” and “diaspora” using the example of Wajoq, a Bugis polity in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, and the overseas Wajorese. Chronologically the study deals with the period from the exodus after the Makassar War (1666-1669) until the Wajorese leader La Maddukelleng returned from overseas and assumed leadership of Wajoq in the 1730s. It looks at the commerce, politics, family relations and culture of Wajorese communities in Makassar, East Kalimantan, Western Sumatra and the Straits of Melaka. It shows that many of the processes that united Wajoq could be and were transferred to the diaspora, thereby blurring any distinction between state and diaspora beyond utility.

Kathryn Wellen is a researcher at KITLV and a historian of Southeast Asia specialized in the early modern era. She is currently researching marriage, military conquest and state formation among the Bugis in the Cenrana Valley in South Sulawesi and the Bugis in Selangor.

If you wish to attend please register with Yayah Siegers: [email protected].