While the dodo chook is legendary around the globe, the island the place it used to reside is much less recognized, notably within the Americas, Caribbean and Oceania areas. Many Mauritians can relate to those fascinating conversations about Mauritius that one expertise as you meet and speak with individuals from totally different corners of the globe:

“I’m Mauritian…No I’m not from Mauritania however Mauritius, the island”

“Sure it’s an African nation…an island in South Western Indian Ocean…about 800 km East of Madagascar…Oh, you additionally don’t know the place Madagascar is discovered?

And greater than as soon as, I’ve discovered myself drawing imaginary strains within the air roughly indicating the areas of various islands in relation to the higher recognized South Africa.

Whereas at occasions, some questions could be irritating, general these experiences could make you assume increasingly more about your origin. It might additionally come a time when that must look into the previous, to attach with the island’s and your personal historical past, simply can’t be shaken off. As you dig increasingly more for data, ensue frequent moments of surprises, extra questioning and likewise emotional discomfort as you are feeling such as you belong to many locations but additionally nowhere on the identical time.

Once I say that Mauritius was uninhabited earlier than it was colonised, I all the time count on stunned expressions. And I’m hardly ever upset. Certainly, the island has no native human inhabitants and it by no means did.

There was a time although once I wished that this a part of our historical past was totally different and I envied others that might determine with particular tribes with lots of or hundreds of years of distinctive historical past, tradition and conventional information.

Then, I had an enlightening dialogue with a Haitian on the very first day I visited the nation, a couple of years again. Via Marco’s tales, I realized in regards to the destruction of the indigenous inhabitants (the Taíno people), his personal interrogations about their genetic legacy inside the present Haitian inhabitants, about colonisation by the French and the Haitian revolution.

Upon extra reflection, it thus dawned on me that if Mauritius had a local inhabitants, it’s historical past would in all probability be extra tainted. I want to not think about what would have been the destiny of a local inhabitants right here upon the arrival of colonists. There’s already a way of loss, notably for Mauritians of African descent, regardless that we aren’t all the time capable of pin level the place it’s stemming from.

Individuals from totally different corners of Africa and Asia have been delivered to the island to offer labour and with them, got here a wealthy variety of tradition, non secular beliefs, languages and conventional information. However over time a lot was misplaced with cultural homogenisation notably inside the slave group.

With no indigenous individuals, the Mauritian inhabitants is a comparatively younger one, formed over a interval of a bit of greater than 200 years, underneath totally different colonial regimes. Whereas a small proportion of Mauritians are direct descendants of French colonists, the vast majority of Mauritians can hyperlink their ancestry to individuals introduced right here by slavery and indentured immigration.

Mauritians with African ancestry can hint their origins to people from West Africa, East Africa (Mozambique/Swahili coast) and Madagascar that have been bought into slavery in addition to presumably to “Liberated Africans” from comparable areas.

With the abolition of slavery within the 1830s, indentured labour was not solely supplied from India but additionally from different areas and nations together with East Africa, Madagascar, Comoros Islands, France, China and Yemen.

A genetic study inside the Mauritian inhabitants additionally discovered that African lineages have been principally from Madagascar and East Africa with minor influences from West Central and West Africa.

Indo-Mauritians, who now represent about two thirds of the total population are principally descendants of Indians who got here within the 1830s as indentured labourers. Nevertheless, Indians have been additionally introduced in Mauritius earlier, as slaves, and they do not seem to have contributed to the robust Indian cultural traits discovered within the Mauritian inhabitants presumably due to assimilation and intermarriages.

A genetic evaluation of the Indian lineages in Mauritius point out that they originated principally from the Northern a part of India adopted by the Southeast after which West India.

Throughout the earlier years of colonisation, the Dutch didn’t solely carry Indians but additionally Chinese language individuals to offer labour. Nevertheless, there aren’t any recognized descendants from this group. A much bigger inflow of Chinese language immigrants occurred from 1840 to 1844 when immigration from India was quickly suspended.

To those that find out about Mauritius, the island is usually seen as being superbly multicultural, which it’s. However until you come from a really privileged background and reside with rose-tinted glasses, few Mauritians can and can deny that the Mauritian inhabitants is way from being united in its ‘Mauritianism’ and there’s nonetheless a lot therapeutic to be performed.

Some teams of individuals nonetheless really feel extra linked to the nations of their ancestors versus the one they have been born in and grew up in. We have now a posh historical past that forces us to navigate a number of identities. However we’re now not Indians, Chinese language, Senegalese, French, Malagasy, Mozambicans and so forth.

As Mauritians, you will need to embrace our various origins and acknowledge the legacy of slavery. And hopefully increasingly more individuals will perceive that we are able to determine with particular ethnic teams, with out having to segregate ourselves into conflicting “Us” and “them” classes, the place the “Us” is usually equated to being higher or superior.