Mauritius, an island of natural beauty

by Flora Nanayakkara

We visited Mauritius, a gem of an island closer to Africa, hidden in the vastness of the Indian Ocean. To us, Mauritius is important for many reasons. It has a link with the history of our nation which we do not much talk about, perhaps because of the sad ending of the story. As school children we learnt in our history lessons how the last King of Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, King Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe who fought gallantly to preserve the freedom of our country was captured by the British rulers and sent to Mauritius as a common prisoner.

Ceylon and Mauritius were British Colonies then. It is not quite clear as to how the life of King Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe, the last link in the lineage of kings who ruled over this proud nation for centuries came to an end in Mauritius. Being betrayed by his own chieftains and unceremoniously banished from the country, the king would have led a miserable life. It is on record that there is a monument related to this incident in Mauritius.

As the story goes, this small island in the Indian Ocean had first been discovered by the Portuguese navigators who came to the East passing the Cape of Good Hope in search of goodies not found in Europe. It is no surprise if the Arabs, being shrewd merchants knew about its existence, but kept it to themselves. The Dutch who followed the Portuguese had landed in the island in the late 16th century and said to have named it Mauritius. However, nothing had been right for the early settlers. In fact this “virgin” island has had nothing to interest the visitors, but the arid land and a few hundreds of desperately poor inhabitants who simply had no care for the world outside.

The Dutch sea farers, rough and tough in their mindset decided to stay on and keep the island to themselves. However, life was not easy for the early settlers. Sheer determination and courage would have persuaded them to stay on in thatched huts with no proper sanitation, difficulties of communication, braving harsh weather conditions and on top of everything dealing with hoards of insects throughout the day.

Insects

The classic story how they made Mauritius a habitable land is interesting. In the absence of modern day insecticides and pesticides they had to learn how to control the hordes of insects and pests by other means. The ingenious method they found to get rid of the swarms of locusts and other insects was by the introduction of Mynahs from India.

How did they control the ever increasing rat population who simply munched their way through everything? The enemies of the rats the mongooses too were brought from India. It is on record that many birds and animals not found in the island were introduced by and by. Then, there had to be some purpose for settling down. They experimented with a variety of crops for sustenance. Finally the sugarcane was proved agreeable to the soil and weather conditions of the country.

Sugar, the sweet treasure of the Mauritians took the centre stage as their cash crop. Gradually they turned hundreds of hectares of degraded land to produce good sugarcane harvests, spurring a grass roots agricultural revolution almost unnoticed by the outside world.

The Dutch had to leave the scene when the French took over. The island prospered under the French. From difficult beginnings incredible progress was made. Standards of living improved. By now sugarcane has established its position.

As the inhabitants who lived in the hamlets far apart could not be persuaded to work in the sugarcane plantations, slaves were brought in from Africa. There were strict rules governing the life of all slaves.

Slavery was the economic system of the time until it was abolished in 1835. The alternative was to bring in Indian labour. When the sugar industry continued to develop the Indian labourers were brought in. They came to the island with their families, in large numbers and settled down in villages, never to return to India. Eventually they became the owners of small plots of land and small scale planters. This system paved the way for them to buy more and more land and become Mauritian citizens.

Sugar

Now we come to another interesting part of the sugary story. We are quite familiar with the ancient Silk route which linked our country with the outside world. Did we ever know of a sugar route? Now as the story goes, sugarcane has originated in New Guinea. Somehow China and India had been familiar with this sweet crop from the earliest times. Then it had reached Persia and spread throughout the Middle East. It reached the shores of the Mediterranean Sea from where it found its way into Europe.

Initially, sugar became a much sought after item of the rich and the affluent. Europeans got accustomed to the use of sugar to sweeten their coffee and chocolate drinks. Sugary delicacies became a must on the tea table of the rich. Serving the visitors with rare goodies with sugary taste became the fashion. Such was its demand and craze!

By this time even the Americans had got the good news and saw to it that the barges of sugar did not bypass their shores. By the end of the 19th century sugar had completed a world tour. How did this wonder grain manage to travel? The tour was made in barges by the sea, in caravans on land and perhaps hiding in the haversacks of the sailors who visited Mauritius on their way to other countries. It travelled far and wide until it became a commodity in the day to day life of the common man.

The British who became a strong naval force took over the rule of Mauritius. Democracy prevailed. Mauritius became a plantation colony.

The inhabitants were given more freedom. Industrial revolution and the advances of new technology brought a happy future for the Mauritians. Economic progress paved the way for infrastructure development. These developments coupled with their ingenuity, new methods of producing sugar types different in taste, colour and even shape were found. Their Rum made out of the residue, molasses, considered the best of its kind was considered good enough to be served even to royalty.

English

Even though Mauritians are more fluent in French, by being under the French rulers for a longer period, English is adopted as the language for trade and commerce and for communication with the outside world. Mauritius has been under the British from 1810 to 1968 until it gained independence.

This wonderful island of only 1852 square kilometres has so much to offer to the world. As we lowered down to the airport, we were greeted by the acres and acres of sugarcane plantations, the blooming flowers waving at us in unison.

Side by side with the sugar factories, textile industry and tourism have been progressing resulting in a successful diversification of its economy.

Mauritius we saw is a pleasant and peaceful country much sought after by the holiday makers. Our three day stay was at Hotel Recif Attitude at Grand Bay, a beach resort, built amidst tropical splendours.

Here visitors can just relax by the beach looking at the translucent blue sea, golden sunsets in the evenings or wading through the shallow water on the reef. Just outside the main gate you come across hundreds of nests of weaver birds, built high up on the trees, a sight you could enjoy only by creeping into a thick jungle elsewhere. The commitment to preserve nature was quite evident right round the hotel.

Multi-cultural

Mauritian population is multi-ethnic and multi-religious and therefore multi-cultural. The booming tourist industry, growing rapidly with an influx of tourist hotels right round the island is the ideal travel destination to those who are weary of a hectic life in the developed world.

There is amity and peace among all communities which comprise the island’s early inhabitants, the descendants of the early sea-farers, the Dutch, French and English and also the Indians who had come to work in the sugarcane plantations now considered as the main ethnic group in Mauritius. Among the Tamils and Muslims living happily and contented scattered all over the country are wealthy hoteliers, bankers, businessmen, retail traders, planters and industrialists.

They are all Mauritians irrespective of religion and race. The success of the Mauritian lies in integration among the communities strengthening friendship, goodwill and camaraderie and living together as one country, one nation.