The Creole Malaise in Mauritius

African Affairs

Volumn 98, Issue 391, 1999, Pages 211-228

  Miles, William F S ^a  

^a NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL IDENTITY; IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION; IMMIGRANT POPULATION;

MAURITIUS;

EID: 0032779401     PISSN: 00019909     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a008008     Document Type: Article

References (51)

1. Although the word has different meanings elsewhere, in Mauritius 'Creole' refers both to islanders of mixed parentage (e.g., African-European, African-Indian, European-Indian, Sino-African/European/Indian) as well as to those who descend more or less directly from African ancestors. Skin colour shading among Mauritian Creoles thus ranges from fairly light to very dark.
2. See Lany Bowman, Mauritius, Democracy and Development in the Indian Ocean (Westview, Boulder, CO, 1991);
3. and Deborah Bräutigam, 'Institutions, economic reform, and democratic consolidation in Mauritius', Comparative Politics, 29 (1997), pp. 45-62.
4. See World Bank, Mauritius, Managing Success (The World Bank, Washington, D.C.: 1989);
5. and Thomas Meisenhelder, 'The developmental state in Mauritius,' The Journal of Modern African Studies, 35 (1997), pp. 279-97.
6. Anthony J. Barker, Slavery and Antislavery in Mauritius, 181(-1833. The conflict between economic expansion and humanitarian reform under British rule (St. Martin's Press, New York, 1996), pp. 60, 66.
7. Benjamin Moutou, Les Chrétiens de l'île Maurice (Best Graphics, Ltd., Port Louis, 1996), p. 36.
8. Vijaya Teelock, Bâter Sugar. Sugar and slavery in 19th century Mauritius (Moka, Mahatma Gandhi Institute, 1998), p. 48.
9. Creole and Franco-Mauritian demands for an out-and-out referendum, formulated at the 1965 Constitutional Conference through the PMSD, were rejected in favour of a general election as advocated by the (now de- creolised) Labour Party.
10. Toni Arno and Claude Orian, Ile Maurice. Une société multiraciale (L'Harmattan, Paris, 1986).
11. Moutou, Les Chrétiens de l'île Alaurice; Bernard Lehembre, L'île Maurice (L'Harmattan, Paris, 1984).
12. Adèle Simmons, 'Class or Communalism? A Study of the Politics of Creoles in Mauritius', in Martin L. Kilson and Robert I. Rotberg (eds), Tlie African Diaspora. Interpretive essays (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, A1A, 1976), pp. 366-90.
13. Most recent census figures are: Indo-Mauritians, 68 percent (52 percent of whom are Hindu and 16 percent Muslim); 'general population' (most of whom are Creole, Franco-Mauritians constituting only 1 or 2 percent of the population), 28.5 percent and Sino-Mauritians, 3.2 percent. Maurice 97 (Southern Press Ltd, Port Louis, 1997).
14. Raj Mathur, 'Parliamentary representation of minority communities: the Mauritian experience', Africa Today, 44 (1997), p. 61-82.
15. Ibrahim Alladin, Economic Miracle in the Indian Ocean. Can Mauritius show the way? (Editions de l'Océan Indien, Rose Hill, 1993).
16. Sheila Bunwaree, Mauritian Education in a Global Economy (Editions de l'Océan Indien, Rose Hill, 1994).
17. In French, cerveaux means brains.
18. Week-End (weekly newspaper. Port Louis), 'Malaise créole, cinq ans après . . .', 1 March 1998.
19. Robert Ted Gurr, Minorities at Risk. A global view of ethtiopolitical conflicts (United States Institute of Peace Press, Washington, D.C., 1993). In fairness, Mauritian demography did not satisfy Gurr's very first operational rule: to '[ijnclude only communal groups at risk in countries with a population in 1985 greater than one million' (p. 8). This is an unfortunate benchmark, for Mauritian Creoles would easily have met the second operational rule: numbering at least 100,000 in 1990 or exceeding 1 percent of the host country's total population. Not recognizing a minority group merely because it resides in a demographically 'small' country, particularly when its aggregate number exceeds that of other groups in more populous states, is itself arbitrary and regrettable.
20. Jean-Claude Lau Thi Keng, Imer-Ethnicité et Politique àl'Ile Maurice (L'Harmattan, Paris, 1991), pp. 92-3.
21. Lau Thi Keng, Inter-Ethnicité et Politique àl'Ile Maurice, p. 92 (my translation).
22. Sydney Selvon, Historical Dictionary of Alaiiritius, (Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ & London, 2nd ed. 1991.
23. Edward A. Alpers, 'The African diaspora in the Indian Ocean: a comparative perspective from the other hemisphere', pp. 16-17, paper presented at the conference on Black diasporas in the Western Hemisphere, Australian National University, 7-9 April 1998.
24. In this connection, Professor Alpers cites Linda Kaye Sussman, 'Medical pluralism on Mauritius: a study of medical beliefs and practices in a polyethnic society', unpub. PhD thesis, Washington University, St. Louis, 1993.
25. Alpers, 'African diaspora', p. 17 footnote.
26. Interviews with Gilbert Ahnee, editor of Le Mauricien, 1 October 1990,
27. and Jean-Claude de l'Estrac, editor of l'Express, 8 October 1996.
28. That varieties of French créole are spoken in other Indian Ocean nations (e.g., the Seychelles, Réunion) as well as in the Caribbean (e.g., Dominica, Haiti, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Lucia) does not detract from the specificity of Kreol.
29. Sino-Mauritians come mostly from the Hakka-speaking region of China, smaller numbers hailing from Cantonese backgrounds.
30. Private associations, such as Ledukasyon pou Travayer (Education for Workers) and Lalit (The Struggle), have promoted adult literacy classes in Kreol.
31. Interview with Philippe Fanchette, Françoise Labelle, and Jean-Yves Violette, 19 December 1996.
32. Interview with Michel Sylvio, 1997.
33. Approximately 8,000 contractual manual labourers from Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh are working in the Mauritius export processing zone.
34. It is worth stating 'acknowledged', for in at least one other former slave island, Martinique, a historical polemic pit traditionalists wishing to mark the proclamation of emancipation in Paris (27 April) against those preferring the date of a local slave uprising which preceded the actual arrival of the definitive abolition decree (22 May). Belonging to a British colony, Mauritian slaves were liberated thirteen years before (French) Martinican ones were. See
35. William F. S. Miles, Elections and Ethnicity in French Martinique: a paradox in paradise (Praeger, New York, 1986), pp. 83, 177, 243.
36. Interview with Father Philippe Fanchette, 31 January 1997. Interestingly, the equation of religious with ethnic identity is not problematic for Indo-Mauritians of the Muslim faith.
37. See articles in l'Express (Port Louis), 'Affirmer son identité un besoin nécessaire', 2 February 1997; 'Appel de Minerve: Toute forme d'"esclavage moderne" doit être rejetée', 26 January 1997; 'Changement d'attitude souhaité envers les créoles', 12 February 1997; in Le Mauricien, 'Abolition de l'esclavage', 1 February 1997; Jean-Yves Violette: ' l er Février: point de renouveau pour affirmer avec dignité et fierté l'identité créole', 12 February 1997; Philippe Fanchette; ' "l'Eglise doit réparation" ', 27 January 1997; and in Week-End (Port Louis), Le PM, le Dr Nayin Ramgoolam: ' "Chaque communauté a les mêmes droits et a droit àla même reconnaissance" ', 2 February 1997; Philippe Fanchette: ' "On ne pourra plus ignorer le fait créole" ', 2 February 1997.
38. Moutou, Les Chrétiens de l'île Maurice, p. 439.
39. Issa Asgarally (éd.) Etude pluridisciplinaire sur l'exclusion àMaurice (State House, Réduit, 1997).
40. Jeanne Gerval-Arouff, 'Africa Day 97 au R. Gujadhur SSS. L'âme noire àl'air libre,' l'Express, 28 May 1997.
41. See, for example, the rubric of articles under the title 'Etre créole, au-delà des clichés', in Le Mauricien, 24 October 1996; Gaétan Jacquette, 'La contribution de la culture créole", Le Mauricien, 28 October 1996; Joël Toussaint, 'Le fait créole', Le Mauricien 15 October 1996; and
42. Jean Marie F. Richard, 'Que fleurissent les bourgeons multicolores de la Crédité", l'Express, 9 November 1996.
43. Hugh Tinker, 'Between Africa, Asia and Europe: Mauritius: cultural marginalism and political control', African Affairs 76 (1977), pp. 321-38.
44. Interview with André Fanny, director of African Cultural Centre, 26 September 1996. See also
45. Le Mauricien, 'P. Bérenger s'insure contre le retard àdoter le CCA d'un président et de moyens d'action', 26 May 1997.
46. Teelock, Bitter Sugar, pp. 6-7.
47. Le Mauricien, 'Rodrigues: conditions déplorables pour scolaires et personnel', 14 May 1997; 'Rodrigues.Taux alarmant d'enfants au travail'j 14 May 1997;
48. Mario Edouard, 'Les RodriguaiSj citoyens de deuxième grade', Le Mauricien, 16 April 1997.
49. Week-End (Port Louis), 'Les Chagossiens redescendent dans la rue', 19 January 1997.
50. Jean Bernabé, Patrick Chamoiseau and Raphaël Constant, Éloge de la Créolité. In praise of crcoleness (Paris, Éditions Gallimard, 1993).
51. Edward A. Alpers, 'Recollecting Africa: Diasporic memory in the Indian Ocean world', p. 1, paper presented at the conference 'African Diaspora Studies on the Eve of the 21st Century', University of California, Berkeley, 30 April-2 May 1998.