On the afternoon of November 17, 2022, the Sub-Saharan Africa Research Group of the Institute for International and Area Studies (IIAS) of Tsinghua University hosted the fourth lecture for the fall semester. Titled “Legacy as Reality: The Descendants of Slaves in Mauritius Today,” the lecture was delivered by Didier Michel, head of the Department of Law, University of Mauritius, and presided over by Xiong Xinghan, Assistant Professor at IIAS. IIAS faculty members and doctoral students, scholars and students from outside the Institute at home and abroad, and others interested in the topic attended the lecture.
The lecture consisted of four parts: an overview of Mauritius, slavery in the colonial period of Mauritius, the slave population in the early days after Mauritius’ independence and the legacy of slavery in Mauritius. In the first part of the lecture, Dr. Didier gave an overview of Mauritius’ strengths, including its political and economic achievements, booming tourism and relatively stable financial system and legal system.
In the second part, Dr. Didier reviewed the colonial history of Mauritius, which was also the outset of the legacy of slavery. He pointed out that from 1598 to 1835, Mauritius was successively colonized by the Netherlands, France and Great Britain. The emphasis and intention of exploitation and imposition vary in different phases of colonialism. He then introduced the legal framework in the colonial period of Mauritius, saying that the provincial councils took charge of internal and external administrative affairs, and there was also a legal system slavery as set forth in the Code Noir published by Jean-Baptiste Colbert in 1685. The Code Noir, consisting of 60 articles, specified slaves’ obligations to their masters and stipulated that masters shall have the final say. Dr. Didier described it as an extremely restrictive legal framework for slaves, who were deprived of all rights and subjected to unfair treatment in numerous areas, such as being denied of any legal existence, being classified as movable property and being forced back into slavery. Dr. Didier also introduced the decree on the abolition of slavery announced in February 1794, which represented the first attempt to abolish slavery in French colonies. However, members of the colonial parliament opposed the abolition of slavery and voted against the decree. At the time, Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen, French general and governor of Ile-de-France (Mauritius), pushed for reform of the legal and institutional systems and the establishment of laws on free people.
Then, Dr. Didier moved on to the British rule period in Mauritius (1810 to 1968). He expounded on articles 7 and 8 of the Capitulation Treaty signed by France with Britain on December 3, 1810, which provided that inhabitants’ property, no matter what kind of property (including slaves), shall be protected, and that inhabitants would be free to retain their religions, laws and customs. Subsequently, Mauritius abolished slave trade in 1812 and slavery in 1835. According to Dr. Didier, the abolition of slavery in Mauritius went through two periods, namely, the “official period” in 1835 and the “apprenticeship period” till 1839. The characteristics and the policies concerning slavery were different in each period. Dr. Didier pointed out that the academia today is still divided over what kind of situation slaves faced when they became free people, but overall, the legal freedom of slaves on the basis of slavery didn’t bring them any economic freedom.
In the third part of the lecture, Dr. Didier briefed on the situation in Mauritius from 1961 to 1965 before its independence. In 1965, Britain convened the Constitutional Conference at Lancaster House to discuss the legal status of Mauritius after its independence. Then, Dr. Didier introduced that in the Constitution of Mauritius, the country’s population shall include a Hindu community, a Muslim community and Sino-Mauritian community, as well as the General Population. From 1967 to 1968, Creole launched an ethnic struggle against discrimination jointly with African descendants. As Dr. Didier pointed out, African descendants were marginalized due to their economic conditions, racial discrimination and other factors, and were deprived of equal access to housing, education, work, wealth, etc. In response, they got involved in politic activities and believed that the effective solution to those problems was symbolic and economic reparations, for example, establishing the bank holiday in commemoration of the abolition of slavery, establishing the truth and justice commission and proposing to recognize slavery and contract labor as crimes against humanity.
In the final part, Dr. Didier discussed the legacy of slavery. As he said, historical research shows that the social exclusion of descendants of slaves in Mauritius today dates back to the period following the abolition of slavery. Nowadays, descendants of slaves still have little say in the public sphere and government. For example, they generally live in bad housing conditions, are poorly educated and obviously absent in agriculture, trade, commerce and other fields, and mostly earn their living by manual labor.
During the Q&A session at the end of the lecture, Dr. Didier communicated with the audience on a range of topics, such as whether the abolition movement was led by elites or propelled by the grassroots, how descendants of slaves today identify themselves and what results their political campaigns have been produced.
Didier Michel is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law and Management and head of the Department of Law of the University of Mauritius. His research interests mainly include how slave trade and slavery influenced the countries and regions where they existed and how to eliminate the aftermath of slavery there to restore social justice. He has published a number of papers on the topics in English and French academic journals.
Contributed by: Ding Ruilin
Proofreader: Sub-Saharan Africa Research Group
Typesetting editor: Cheng Yao
