Visions of a Future? Qatar's Bin Jelmood House (of Slavery)

This paper explores the production of meanings at Qatar’s new Bin Jelmood House, aka the slavery museum. Owned and operated by Msheireb Properties, Bin Jelmood is one of four heritage houses, designed to celebrate Qatar’s history and contribute to the revitalization of the city’s old commercial center. The Msheireb Museums brochure proudly announces that the “overarching ambition” of the Bin Jelmood House is to “raise awareness” and support action towards “the abolition of human exploitation” worldwide. While acknowledging that slavery has spread with “the march of civilizations,” it nonetheless notes that in Qatar, the story of human enslavement “ends in shared freedom and responsibility.”

But touring the house, one finds, not surprisingly, a much more complicated set of narratives. They relate to the history of trade in the Indian Ocean; competition between different understandings of what constitutes enslavement and how it should be abolished; and a call to recognize how contemporary societies perpetuate slavery through their consumption practices. Thus, this museum raises issues of history, memory, aspiration, responsibility, and reparations for wrongs. It is unique in the Arabian Gulf, for no other nation has addressed its history of slavery and contemporary labor practices.