Like most of you, I am proud of my country, Mauritius. Sure, I would love to be elsewhere participating in OOPSLA, JavaOne or RailsConf but my heart will always remain here…
… except if politicians make me regret being Mauritian!!!
Here is an extract from a small booklet that was distributed to every Mauritian kid and adult during the Independence Day celebrations in March:
I don’t want to sound condescending but many things happened in my country between 1968 and 1992 and I find it disturbing that some people are manipulating Mauritian history for their own gains. Mauritians should know the history of the country they are living in… It is tough to imagine a young French child not being told of Mitterand or an american child not been told about Clinton… but the equivalent is being done here.
I was born in 1973 and my childhood was during the 70’s and the 80’s. Of course, I was too young to understand everything but I do know that:
- 1968: On 12 March, Mauritius officially becomes an independent state and Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam becomes its first Prime Minister.
- 1971: Promulgation of the Public Order Act which bans many forms of political activity (Mauritius was under a state of emergency when I was born and this lasted until 1976 when I was three!)
- 1976: General elections held which the MMM wins. The Labour Party forms a coalition government with PMSD and remains in power.
- 1979: Devaluation of the Mauritian Rupee (I distinctly remember the Minister of Finance of that day making his speech on TV. I was six…)
- 1982: The first ever 60-0 during the General Elections. The MMM-PSM alliance led by Sir Aneerood Jugnauth, Paul Bérenger and Harish Boodhoo wins all the 60 seats of the General Assembly.
- 1983: Collapse of PSM-MMM alliance. Newly formed alliance between the MSM-Labour Party-PMSD led by Sir Aneerood Jugnauth, Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam and Gaetan Duval wins general elections. This is the start of the economic boom of Mauritius which will last for years…
- 1985: Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam dies at the age of 85. National funeral for the former Prime Minister.
- 1991: MSM-MMM alliance led by Sir Aneerood Jugnauth and Paul Bérenger wins in General Elections.
- 1992: Mauritius becomes a Republic but stays member of the Commonwealth.
Of course, many things happened after 1992 but I will leave this part to real historians.
(Thanks to Mauritius.org.uk and, of course, Wikipedia)
5 January 2007: an update
Thanks to Baboo, I’ve corrected a slight mistake on the duration of a state of emergency in Mauritius.
Another thing that has been bothering me lately is why don’t Mauritians learn the contemporary history of Mauritius at school? I remember, from my college days, that I learnt a lot about Mohenjodaro and the Indus Valley (etc) but nothing about modern Mauritius… Is this done on purpose?
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May 27th, 2007 at 09:13
Hmmm true indeed.
You are nearly as old as the dodo :p
I was reading above, i couldn’t help but notice this part:
1985: Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam dies at the age of 85. National funeral for the former Prime Minister.
Dying at the age of 85 in 1985, didn’t know about that, now the interesting part is that, i was born in 1985, on the 8th of may (5), damned, i could have been the father of the nation born again! (i wonder if i am entitled for some monetary gains coz of that :p)
another thing i noticed was, :http://www.mauritius.org.uk/, something on mauritius oculd have been on a dot mu :p but ofcourse, dot mu are a hell lot expensive!
+$3|
May 27th, 2007 at 09:14
Manipulation de l’histoire, sa banne politicien la!
May 27th, 2007 at 16:19
I was so disgusted by this booklet
We dont even know our history well.
So many students dnt knw how we got independenc n in which context..r unaware of the important events after 1968, the racial conflicts, the personalities of our country, their contribution to the island.
Its only at University that I came to know so many things about the history of Mauritius due to a module on the history of the press in Mtius..
Sad state of affairs!!!C pas surprenant kon arive pas a creer un sentiment d’unité nationale! On ne sait pas grand chose sur notre pays…
Nous sommes tous des ignorants!
May 27th, 2007 at 16:19
2007: Mass Suicide at UoM after System Software exams…
LOL…
May 27th, 2007 at 17:55
To Desperate One:
You are THAT desperate???
Selven & Ishtiba:
I have to agree that most of us (i.e. those up to 35 years old) don’t really know Mauritian history and this is crap!
May 27th, 2007 at 18:21
Although i do agree that history is important..but I personally dont care about it. Its a shame to ignore bad things that happened in the past,but if it helps the future,…. why not?
May 27th, 2007 at 18:58
What is disturbing is ignoring only part of the past (anything that might be interpreted as positive towards the current opposition political parties)…
May 27th, 2007 at 20:22
some might call me unpatriot.. But how many Mauritians really don’t care about the history of Mauritius..
whenever there are programs or books talking about the past.. they mention SSR and his justice league fighting for independence and the famous ClichE scene of lowering the union jack to raise for the first time the Mauritian flag..
But many things like giving away of diego.. At that time Gaetan Duval and many people was against independence? Y? Was Mauritius really in need of independence or was it just a quest for power by some people?
Where Mauritius in Bad condition under the british ??
Its these little things that i would like to know..
May 27th, 2007 at 21:00
reminds me of a book i read.. 1984 earth, by george orwell… maybe they want to turn the country into something they want, by just burning out history… :p C’est bien ki mo papa inn racont mwa l’histoire then :p
+$3|
May 27th, 2007 at 21:02
Hi Avinash!
How much and what kind of history (national/world) one has to study during elementary school, high school and university overthere?
May 27th, 2007 at 21:04
to Desperate one :p
Hmm.. mo p doutE kisana sa :p
its just a module, einstein himself failed a lot at school, plus, i realized that its better to have fail than to have a brain which doesn’t work on your command.
after some few years, you’ll sure see that univ marks meant nothing compared to the fun you had at doing things and learning things.
+$3|
May 27th, 2007 at 22:43
Irina, you’ll be surprised to know that I was not taught the history of contemporary Mauritius at all during my primary and secondary schooling…
I don’t know if things have changed since (anyone with a little brother or sister who can just peek inside primary and/or secondary books?)
It’s a pity in fact. How can a country evolve without its population knowing what happened 20-30 years before in order not to reproduce the same mistakes is beyond my understanding. Here I am referring to the “bagarres raciales” (racial/racist conflicts) that happened during the 60’s. We were close to another one in 1999 (Kaya) et not very far from one two months ago…
I wonder why it’s tough to get authoritative books (or sources of information) on the history of contemporary Mauritius. Even on Wikipedia, there is not much about the past 30 years…
Luckily, like Selven said, we all have fathers and mothers who can tell us what happened before (but I suppose that what they tell is not 100% objective…)
Perhaps the Web will change things. Perhaps it’s high time to have a Mauritian wiki where everyone will be free to write whatever he/she wants. In the medium term, this might become something authoritative on contemporary Mauritius.
What do you think?
May 27th, 2007 at 23:40
:p indeed
I have lots of webspace!
May 28th, 2007 at 11:30
Or much much better!
Why don’t we encourage people we know are objective and are aware of the history of contemporary Mauritius to contribute to Wikipedia directly?
May 28th, 2007 at 15:55
Yes, Avinash, I am really, really surprised to hear all these. I totally agree with your point of view. It is extremly important to understand the past, and this is generally valid. Things are so connected in this life, more than one can imagine.
I think your suggestions regarding doing something to change the situation are very good because something must be done, there must be a start point.
The simple fact that you post about this situation is a great step in my opinion.
Avinash, just to satisfy my curiosity: how much anatomy and physiology were you taught in school and at what level?
May 28th, 2007 at 18:00
Hi Irina,
I studied Biology up to SC level here (16 years old) and I learnt a little bit about the human body (respiration, digestion, reproduction, etc) and fundamentals like genetics but I seem to remember that things were somewhat superficial…
May 28th, 2007 at 19:28
I created a blog sme time back to write about the history of Mauritius and to have some “témoignages de nos ainés”…to make us understand Maurice d’Antan.
Unfortunately,I didnt have time to post new things.I If ever some1 wants to contribute just check this blog:
http://zistoiremoris.wordpress.com
May 28th, 2007 at 20:13
in response to Irinia, during my time in college, i think form one or two..cant remember well.. i did a subject called sex education… although it was a mixed college and class, they did teach us basic things like reproduction,protection,aids etc, which i think was enough to know at that age …
May 29th, 2007 at 15:22
Thank you Avinash and Rafa for satisfying my curiosity.
Things will start to change when changes will appear first of all at family level, because if ignorance (and Ishtiba is perfectly right in her affirmations regarding ignorance) continues to be propagated further and there is nothing done against it, then will be no good results and evolution. It is not at all an easy thing to do, but not impossible.
Avinash, I really appreciate your opening towards posting about subjects related not only to computers (which it happens to be of interest for me too) but also related to raising awareness regarding very important matters.
May 29th, 2007 at 18:57
I happened to be invigilating for a F3 Social Studies class today…ha a look at the book et effectivement notre histoire s’arrete a la colonisation anglaise..enfin jusqu’a kon a obtenu l’independance!!!
May 30th, 2007 at 03:24
doesn’t quite remind me of a book I read because I don’t remember the title
or author… was it Marcel Cabon or Gabon or something..?anyways it’s about this guy called Ram in a valley a valley with lots of unhappy people a long time ago somewhere in Mauritius. Now don’t focus on Ram, focus on the people.
They were unhappy. Very Unhappy. Granted this is fiction but there is a dose of truth to it. People were unhappy in Mauritius for a very long time. Generations of unhappy people don’t generally want to celebrate it or remember it.
The way I see it, before independance there was the security of being a british colony. (oddly my mind drifts to a documentary about Afghanistan in the 70’s)then after independance (visions of footage of the first flag raising ceremony. rows and rows of hapless teenagers energetically flapping their tiny flags… what is wrong with you people!!?) there were other more important thing to think about than keeping track of events in passing.
and i believe that all the events you listed are just political events. and the events listed before 1968 by the brits are mostly politics too.
So we discontinued the political periodical after 1968. No big deal.
think about it, is there anything particularly worthwhile to remember about the mauritian history?
I’m not proud of this country or ashamed of it. Or any variation in between. Never cared much for it. It’s just earth under my feet.
meh, a one last things otherwise i’ll exceed the character limit.
@avinash(can I call you avinash?). I’ve been meaning to ask this for a while now…. you’re about 35-38 yrs old right? so… where did all your hair go?
May 30th, 2007 at 08:28
(1) The book is called Namasté by Marcel Cabon. It has been described here as “S’inscrivant dans la lignée des grands romans paysans tiermondistes”
(2) I can understand that some people don’t like politics. But it’s dishonest to “forget” about some important political events because they have been conducted by (now) opposition members.
(3) I am 33 right now and I started losing my hairs when I was 17-18. Must be the amount of testosterone I have in my blood
May 30th, 2007 at 18:24
@Ketwaroo D. Yaasir
Its not only about keeping track of EVENTS Mr Yaasir..its some part our heritage that we r losing. its not only about politics. U say this coz thats wat u have been taught at school u have been shown only the political side of our history! which is of course boring to a student!!
But our history is far from that… Just go in a history class 1 day n u will be amazed how rich our history is, how the lives of the people were on the island..etc etc
Also dnt forget that even when driving your aim is to go forward but to move on we should also use the rear-view mirror…try to reflect on this !!
May 31st, 2007 at 05:44
little lady, you confuse History and culture.
History is just a series of events. Culture is just a collection of habits(yeah, habits) and ways of doing things.
Now, India has culture, China has culture, the Internets have more cultures that you want to know of or ever heard of in you short lifetime, anywhere with people living (merely hanging out is enough) in groups has culture,
Mauritius has culture too.
culture is nice to look at and all but it has tradition. Some traditions are useful but others I prefer to make my own way.
I prefer stories over history. History has dates attached. stories just need “a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away” in front.
Like Namasté. I didn’t remember the title or the author but i still like the story. Okay it’s not in a galaxy far far away but still a nice story.
History requires a much longer time period than just 1968 to today for really worthwhile events that will be remembered. Overall the modern history of mauritius doesn’t have that many highlights.
although we do have the occasional really big cyclones(not since independance though) and some riots and public upheavals, riots and stuff.
there are already historians in mauritius studying our past. It’s their passion and maybe yours but not mine. And also archives of most of our newspapers, of which none have been lost in great fires or anything … i think.
One doesn’t have to really care about contemporary event as much since they are living through it already.
you can put things in this perspective.
assume yesterday, you ate an egg.
in 2 days, you won’t even remember it.
in 20 years nothing much. the egg has been recycled in all sort of things.
in 200 years chicken have been extinct for a while and historians write lengthy essay on the facts of life when there was still eggs. Suddenly an egg you didn’t give a damn about becomes much more important.
in 2000 years. a neo homo sapiens sapiens sapiens makes a holo-reality-documentary(the type where you can interface your brain with and live the events as if you were there) on the eating habits of their ancient ancestors and distributes it on the pan-galactic neural net(the uber future version of the internet where all the minds in the galaxy are connected). It show ancient humans actually ingesting unfecunded fetuses of sentient beings!!. The documentary causes an upheaval unhead of. The galaxy is in outrage. a 10000 year war ensues and all of the universe is destroyed.
see, your egg destroys the universe. you happy now?
things happened, happen and will happen.
also before you get all high at me again, you shouldn’t try to compare what you want to what I do. your aim may be to go forward but mine may not be comparable to going in any particular direction.
…. and if you should look at the road while going forward, not in the rear view mirror…
———————————————
more generally:
I agree with avinash(can I really call you that?) about some political events being dubbed out because they occur for the opposition. But hey, history is written by the victors right? you are seeing in action. But inevitably one day, all those events will end up written down as mere facts in an almanac somewhere…
who knows, some kid with a passion for history will someday read your blog and be inspired to make writing the history of Mauritius his life mission.
May 31st, 2007 at 11:10
To yaasir
“People were unhappy in Mauritius for a very long time. Generations of unhappy people don’t generally want to celebrate it or remember it.”
there is some truth in that.. but people practically are never happy.. they always tend to complain!! lol
To Ishtiba
Many people acknowledge that the history taught in school are boring, yet it stays the same.. not much progress in the syllabus i see.. don’t know if students are meant to remember the name of the number of sugart factories or the longest river etc
Also the thing is if you keep looking in the rear mirror you might just as well make and accident..
There is a need to fall for a balance..
To vicks
i can’t really say whether Mauritius was in bad shape before independence but my father says that life under british occupation quite nice indeed..
there was something known as “4 jour a pari” or something like that where unemployed people was given some sort of task to perform and were paid for that..
Education wasn’t free but do we really need free education?? should every1 have a university degree?? y? have a Master to do what?? work as a clerk??
I also think that people looking for independence at that time was not doing it for the greater good.. there was some hidden intent in that..
The thing that stinks the most is the when our dear prime minister build his own political campagne base on what his dad has done..
“Mo papa ti fer education gratis..
Moi mo pe donne zotte transport gratis..”
May 31st, 2007 at 11:16
Creepy. At least you pointed it out.
Who knows what else is manipulated behind the scenes?
May 31st, 2007 at 15:01
Yaasir, I am hereby awarding you a special prize for one of the best ever comments on this blog!
The “unfecunded fetuses of sentient beings” part is magnificent
June 1st, 2007 at 00:42
Nice comment
If u want to play on words ok.. Looking in the “rear-view mirror” gives us a clue about our culture and traditions. Done in an informal way but still part of our history!
Culture as you say is a “collection of habits” but a collection itself entails a process,an accumulation. These very words finally mean the combination of past and present events. So British /Chinese culture are framed by past events also and they determine present cultures.
How do I go about “knowing other cultures that according to you I dnt ever heard of”? One way would be to go back to history..Maybe you could also tell me but again it would be a “Once upon a time story” that you will tell me..which is ultimately an account of past events, past habits!etc Still we go back to history
Concerning your story about that chicken and egg thing..though very funny it could also be seen from another perspective. Your story is all about how the search for a historical event could jeorpardize the whole EVOLUTION of “your neo homo sapiens” :-)and by the way how did we find the term homo sapiens? Well obviously thru history once again..
And history is so part of our evryday life..Unconciously we use it to reflect on ourselves, in our studies..watever is learned in science classes for e.g. can be traced back to one important event in time.
Remember this?..A long time ago an apple fell from a tree and gave that fellow scientist a great insignt into how smg works…..u must have all completed the sentence by now..Thats how we learn lessons of history in evryday life and still use these lessons of people we have never known in present day..they have become universal laws that scientists all use..but it all happened at one point in time but still so relevant today!
So my point here, is that history is as important as anything..U may not like it, but still it is very part of yourself, of wat you are, and what you will be..In fact evolution ceases to exist without a reference to the past.
And my initial comments were about the kids..that they should be taught our history..it concerns their identity and their citizenship also. U may say they can grasp it thru informal ways but we ourselves dnt knw much about it..wat do we share then?..Its in this way, if we dont change mindsets that the “I think Mtius was like that” discourse will continue.
Its not the dates that r important ..but the significance of the events..how to build a better future out of our past…But not the kind of future that u r seeing though, with that catastrophic egg story
Eventually its how history is told/taught that makes it interesting.
June 2nd, 2007 at 18:32
Anyone thinking of a hidden agenda behind our independence is really insane! It was a time when bold decisions were to be made.
Who would not want to be independent? The British colonized large parts of Africa and Asia, not to mention tiny and the most remote islands of the Pacific, robbing them of their culture, creating imaginary borders in Africa (they are responsible for that mess!), etc.
To vicks,
I’m really appalled by the fact that Diego matters a lot to you for reasons you have not revealed to us! In fact, Diego guys are more fortunate than you are in some sense(Go check the news for the past decade and you will understand). You should be reminded that the Diego issue has been paraded for years and years, played with and soiled by various political parties, resulting in so many fellow Mauritians not even getting the slightest glimpse of what really happened at that time.
Don’t get easily fooled by partisan newspapers who have lauded every single step towards denigrating SSR.
Was life better during the British period?
I agree that differences in opinion rationalise the complexity of this world we’re living in today. I do not know from where your ancestors hail from but all i can thank the British for is for getting many Indians out of their misery in NorthEast India and gifting to us the English language.
On the downside, they left Mauritius’s economy in tatters. During the 1970s when a new political party still claiming for a better and brighter country wrecked havoc with massive strikes. Our island survived with barely a reserve of 2-3 weeks of foreign currency. Yet, Mauritius surmounted those dire difficulties and consider us fortunate…
unless we have that inferiority complex towards white British people(that’s not a racist overtone) who we should all emulate.
It’s been said for so many centuries: ‘The sun never sets on the British empire’.
2007: Where are they now? Locked up somewhere and muted in Europe and now starting to get colonized by the very same nations they gave birth to!
June 2nd, 2007 at 19:43
You speak as if Britain invented colonisation and that it’s payback time for them now that immigration is taking its toll on the country. Don’t forget that the Romans colonised the the island a very very long time ago, and that throughout history, Britain has been colonised on and off by foreigners.
As for the situation in Africa, it’s not Britain’s fault alone. In fact, had Britain been the only nation to colonise the continent, perhaps there would be no “artificial” barriers! It’s only when the other European countries started picking their share of Africa that these divisions were made. (Well, it’s not as if everything was rosy in Africa with tribes warring amongst themselves and the Arabs colonising them.)
Anyway, my point is, had Mauritius not been colonised, the nation would not exist, right? Colonisation is inherently bad, but how can we be sure that our history would not have been worse under different rulers? The exploitation of the people of Congo under the Belgians come to mind.
January 5th, 2008 at 01:52
First of all the “ilois” are our freedom fighters if Sir S Ramgoolam did not gave Diego garcia to Harold Wilson ( british prime minister) he would have returned home without independance nothing else,Britain was eager to quit Mauritius as it was an hopeless case..But there was nothing after independance the government was hiring part timers to do unproductive jobs (4 jours a pari)there was no hope be honest let’s talk about it.It’s only when they started the Free zone industries and the French opened the Club Med ..
Most of our young peoples think that as if Ramgoolam and the labour party were magicians they turned Mauritius to what it is today…..give me a break
By the way Avinash I don’t think Mauritius was under state of emergency from 1973 to 1978 as there was elction in 1976 so it’s impossible
January 5th, 2008 at 12:35
Hi Baboo,
I’ve checked some websites. At least one says 1978 but most say 1976. Thanks for pointing this out. I’ve amended the main text.
Avinash
January 7th, 2008 at 03:21
Hi Avinash,
I think Sir Satcan Boolell was the leader of the labour party in 1983 but of course SSR was the maestro of the alliance MSM,labour,PMSD..Avinash I am only sharing what I remember and I am not a pro like your dad LOL
January 7th, 2008 at 07:57
I am not 100% sure. I’ll check.
As I wrote in the main text, another thing that has been bothering me lately is why don’t Mauritians learn the contemporary history of Mauritius at school? I remember, from my college days, that I learnt a lot about Mohenjodaro and the Indus Valley (etc) but nothing about modern Mauritius… Is this done on purpose?
February 11th, 2008 at 18:31
Hye
Hey i think that you are the one who can hlp me.am doing a project @ school on the 40 yrs of Mtius independency.Could you help me PLEASE.
You can send me feedback on my E-ad
February 11th, 2008 at 19:08
Hi Yaad,
What do you mean? What exactly is the project you are doing and how can I possibly help???