Unpacking Mixedness for an Inclusive History of the Red Sea, 1800s-2000s

Introduction

The debate on mixed-race people is gaining momentum, and the Red Sea – located at the crossroads of Africa and the Middle East, of the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean – stands as a privileged venue to investigate mixedness. Focusing on a timeframe (1800s-2000s) marked by increasing mobilities and mixed-race unions and offspring (e.g. Afro-Arabs, Afro-Asians, Euro-Africans), REDMIX investigates the roots and routes of mixed-race people and groups through a bottom-up, long-term, and interdisciplinary perspective, to create a digital archive about mixedness in the Red Sea.

Background

African and Middle Eastern Studies have examined the Red Sea, its mobilities, and its entanglements, but mixedness has remained marginal in their thematic and methodological debate. Critical Mixed Race Studies has explored mixedness as a broad concept referring to individuals of mixed descent, yet without ever digging into case studies from the Red Sea.

Research Gaps

Thus, an extensive analysis of when, how, and why mixed-race people and groups have negotiated their position at political and social turning points in the history of the Red Sea is still lacking.

Objectives

REDMIX aims to fill this methodological and knowledge gap by:

1. Overcoming the partitioned approach to the Red Sea.
2. Promoting a perspective centered on mixed-race people.
3. Intertwining African, Middle Eastern, and (Critical) Mixed Race Studies.
4. Bringing together a rich corpus of archival and oral sources scattered across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
5. Resorting to the digital humanities.
6. Contributing to the conceptual framework of mixedness by applying global microhistory and comparatively investigating different case studies through synchronic and diachronic analyses.

Significance

As the first comparative investigation into the history of mixedness in the Red Sea, REDMIX will take an active part in the mission of writing a more inclusive history of the area, one that firmly establishes the centrality of mixed-race people.