The defacing of history
By: The Secret Mauritian
Tags: Slavery, History, London, Writing, BlackLivesMatter

Le Morne By Máth Dávid — Mdavid89 — Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24880772

An old friend who did a course with a self help group once phoned me up at 5:30AM to tell me we were going to end Slavery. Sadly we did not get round to it.

As we grow older and learn more we understand how slavery built countries and empires and the legacy is still around. London and its trading grew via tea, coffee and sugar. Slaves were beaten, crippled, and considered property.

History is the DNA of country, our shared experiences shape us and frame our values, but this needs to be born out of truth.As someone who has never experienced slavery or indentured labour, I can hardly comment on the pain and the suffering, I can only imagine what our ancestors went through and the ancestors of the Creole people.

The two largest groups within Mauritius, are Indo Mauritians are Creoles. There are two different backgrounds, Indo Mauritians were indentured labourers and those who who descended from slaves, Creoles.

There is a shared history here of forced labour, and one of the most powerful reminders is Le Morne in the South. It was listed as a cultural site by UNESCO not due to its magnificence, but its cultural significance; escaped slaves took shelter on this rock and even ended their lives there to avoid being beholden to a master. Every time I visit or even see the place I am reminded of a dark chapter in human history. Around the world there are reminders of this darkness, the world trade centre, the tomb of the forgotten soldier, war memorials, Auschwitz. It is not to be ignored. My grandmother used to say when we were talking about land, “ena di san grand dimoune dans ca la terre la” which means blood of our ancestors is in the land. This is a powerful statement.

This is why it horrifies me that companies including well known hotels and a luxury car dealership are using the image of Le Morne without the context. In fact the car dealership video was patronising, and seemed to paint colonialism in a non critical light (that argument is for another time). I would rather trust ignorance of this fact as opposed to a more cynical view that companies are profiting from the UNESCO citation and not putting the images into context.

Even on the 12th of March 2018 the day of our independence, the wikipedia page has been altered to state it has not been proven despite evidence to the contrary that Le Morne was a refuge for escaped slaves,

Here is the extracted text:

Le Morne has been declared a World Heritage Site despite a lack of any physical evidence to corroborate the claim and has newly created monuments to the slaves at the base of the rock greatly benefiting the ever-growing Mauritian tourism industry; note the omission of any participation from Britain (as opposed to France).[citation needed] The monument includes an inscription of this extract from the poem “Le Morne Territoire Marron” by Richard Sedley Assonne; “There were hundreds of them, but my people the maroons chose the kiss of death over the chains of slavery.” No written factual account of the myth exists (other than the poem). In addition, no physical evidence (that may be accurately carbon-dated), “human remains, remains of informal settlements, signs of fire, carvings, artifacts” (on / or at the base of the mountain) has been discovered to corroborate and validate the historical account of this island legend.[citation needed]

The entry was altered by the username of Maurice55 which had only ever done one edit in wikipedia which was the article on Le Morne.

The motivations of Maurice55 are unclear, and the nature of access to Le Morne has been historically contentious, with land owners contesting the right of passage to even make it to the monument.

I contacted Le Morne Heritage and the government to investigate, twice to investigate and correct and the article remains an insult to those forced into slavery and Creole Mauritians. Sadly nothing has been done.

Today is where we remember slavery in this country, Abolition day, a public holiday, sadly slavery still exists and there are people for whatever motive have dishonoured their suffering.

An update a company called Le Morne Brabant IRS Company limited has put in a building and land use permit.