Mauritians talk slavery

Dr David B. Lingiah

Slavery is a bad word; nobody likes to talk about it unless to celebrate the contribution that slaves made to the economic progress of European countries. Yet, around the world people are today marking the abolition of this heinous human enterprise, and at the same time to be prepared not to be involved in all other forms of modern slavery.

 This February marks the 200 years since Parliament passed the Act to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire. According to the British Prime Minister Tony Blair this event marked “the start of a long road to abolition.” Across the United Kingdom there has been a calendar of events to mark this occasion. The Mauritian Prime Minister too was in UK, at Hull University earlier this year in June at the invitation of the Wilberforce Lecture Trust to deliver a lecture in commemoration of the abolition of slavery. Mauritius News (July 2007) noted in the introduction to the full text of his lecture these words: “Mauritius itself went through this sad experience from the very early days of its occupation by the European colonisers.”

Dr Navin Ramgoolam, the Prime Minister of Mauritius, while paying tribute to the efforts of Wilberforce, reminded his audience of distinguished people of how the slaves spent their lives: “humiliated, flogged, made to toil like beasts of burden until death.” That was the lot of the slaves in Mauritius introduced from Mozambique.

“So, Mauritius, without slaves would not have been a viable proposition. The introduction of slavery was a seminal moment in the history of the island. In Mauritius, slavery had distinctive features that made it in many ways, unique…Slaves were drawn from various regions and cultures, from Madagascar, Indonesia, India and Africa…Slavery contributed inadvertently to the rich cultural diversity of our island.”