Encounters at Sea: Piracy and Protection in the Indian Ocean

Jatin Dua, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan

Recorded on September 16, 2016

Maritime piracy as a kidnap and ransom economy enjoyed unprecedented success in the Western Indian Ocean from 2007-2012. While global attention was transfixed by the capture of oil tankers and large container ships, the expansion of piracy in the Indian Ocean led to many more engagements between pirates and motorized dhows that sail from port to port in the western Indian Ocean littoral. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in India, UAE, and Somalia this talk focuses on these interactions between pirates and dhows in the watery expanses of the Western Indian Ocean. Specifically, by highlighting what came to be known as the practice of “mothershipping”–the use of captured dhows to expand the spatial and temporal range of piracy—I note worlds of violence, threat and hospitality constructed in these moments of encounter. Instead of a vision of the Indian Ocean that foregrounds long histories and cosmopolitan exchange, “mothershipping” emphasizes forms of contact that are both fleeting and overwhelmed by real and potential violence. Through an ethnographic engagement with this practice, I show how these onboard encounters can help theorize spatial and regional futures in the Indian Ocean and beyond.