Skip to main content

Slavery in Mauritius

 As you might already know, the International Day for the abolition of slavery is right around the corner. A day celebrated to remind us what slaves endured in the past and had it not gone away, in what plight we might have been. Mauritius too has quite its fair share of slavery history, all starting way back in the 1600s.


During the Dutch settlement in Mauritius, in 1600, Van Der Stel was the first governor who brought slaves to the island from Madagascar. A slave is categorised as a person who is forced to obey and work from dusk till dawn for  his masters without any pay. These slaves were needed to cut ebony trees which were extremely rare trees used to make ships, trade to other countries and were very hard to cut down. 


After the Dutch settlement in 1710, when the French rule started, they started bringing even more slaves but this time from Mozambique, India etc. They had to clear forests and cultivate sugarcane and other crops all over the island. The governor, Bertrand Francois Mahe de Labourdonnais took the initiative to build harbour to ease trade between countries. It was built at Port Louis which is now the capital city of Mauritius. Some slaves also worked as domestics in their master's houses.


Their lives were very hard as they had to live in slaves compounds which was known as 'Camp des Noirs' which was near their master's house. They were given manioc(cassava) and maize as their main food and were severely punished even for their slightest mistakes. 

These punishments included getting whipped, chained to boulders, hung to trees until they were out of breath and then whipped again. They did not have the right to talk in their native language and their mouth was shut by instruments designed by the settlers themselves. Their limbs were cut off when they tried to run away so that they cannot run again ever in their life. 

                                             

To distract their mind from the cruelties of their masters, they would chant and dance in the night praying for their freedom. This would later on be called 'Sega Morisien' which is an integral part of Mauritian festivities and our patriomonial heritage. Sega music is internationally recognised through artists like Ti Frére, Marlene Ravaton, Serge Lebrasse, Michel Legris and Fanfan. 

                           

With time, the slaves started to rebel and to run away from their masters. They were called maroon slaves and often robbed, attacked and set fire to plantations. They would hide in deep forests, caves, and the mountain 'Le Morne Brabant' which had since been declared a UNESCO 'World Heritage Site'.


Later on, in the year 1807, the population of slaves was 65,000 which was much more than the number of independent settlers in the country. After the Naval battle which was fought in 1810 between the French and British in which the latter won, they started occupying the country. As the British were against slavery, they abolished it in the year 1835 in all of the British empire which at that time included Mauritius.



After gaining freedom, some of the slaves started working as masons and carpenters and those who settled near the coast worked as fishermen. As for the women, they started working as tailors. Some of them however, left the country to live in Seychelles, Agalega which are other Mascarenes Islands. To commemorate the abolition of slavery, a monument has been built in the south of Mauritius and is called the International Slave Route monument on 1st February 2009 which is also the date we celebrate the abolition of slavery.

Comments

  1. Cedric Noronha31 October 2020 at 05:03

    Very good post about the slavery in Mauritius. Highly informative. Keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete
  2. pathsurround31 October 2020 at 22:50

    You are very well said, must readable content & well defined elaborate setuation . Keep writing such a good things.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mila1 November 2020 at 15:21

    Interesting information

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bolly pradeep2 November 2020 at 02:47

    Wonderful

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mauritian Cuisine part 1

In Mauritius, there are thousands of street food vendors in every corner of the street, but our Mauritian cuisine is out of this world. As it is a multicultural island, with people from all the continents established here, we have developed a unique fusion flavours of Indian, Chinese, English, French and Creole dishes in our cuisine. So here are some selection of our exotic traditional homemade recipes for the food lovers, which are very simple to prepare.  Local Massala Firstly, let me present you our local massala which is the main flavour in most of our Mauritian cuisine. It is prepared with lots of Indian species which give us an incredible aromatic taste. Here are the ingredients:- -250g coriander seeds  -125g cumin -100g dried chillies -125g dried tumeric  -100g whole black pepper  -50g fenugreek ( methi) -50g cloves -25g cardamoms pods  -50g cinnamon  -25g black mustard seeds -Curry leaves Grill and crush all the ingredients on a "Roche à Cari" or bl...
70 comments
Read more

Best Places to visit in Mauritius Part 1

                As stated many times by now, Mauritius is magnificent and today I'm going to tell you about some of the places that you could visit if you come to Mauritius some day. The most prominent attraction at its prime, The Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden (the SSR Botanical Garden) was created over 300 years ago by the French botanist Pierre Poivre. Later on 17 September 1988, the garden was formally named Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden, in honour of the late Prime Minister, who led the country to independence.                   For a long time, it was ranked third among the best gardens around the world. It is notable for its pond of giant water lilies and covers an area of around 37 hectares. Many trees have been planted by great personalities, including Indira Gandhi, princess Margaret, Courtess o...
75 comments
Read more

Mauritian street food 🥣

As you already know , Mauritius is famous for its sandy beaches but what most people don't know is that the street food is marvelous too in here. A variety of spicy and colourful food, which include Indian, Chinese and french make up for the unique creole cuisine that we enjoy in our country today.  Among which the 'dalpuri' is an iconic one. With the curry inside, it is sold at every street corner and even served with rice pudding if you prefer with the taste of sugar. The 'dalpuri' can easily be qualified as the nation's food. We also have 'the roti', these flat breads are completed different and do not taste the same but are served with same curries, pickles and chutneys. This is a reminder of the time of the indentured labourers who came to Mauritius in the 19th century.  -Roti and Dalpuri -The curries which accompany the rotis and dalpuris Fritters like 'chana puri '( are filled with yellow split peas curries) ,' samosas ' ( crunchy ...
59 comments
Read more