News Flash: I am currently in Johannesburg, training with my new guide dog. I’m not going to say too much about it now but be sure you will be learning more about the training and my new partner soon, I promise!
One of the places we discovered while in Mauritius was the Aapravasi Ghat, referred to as the Embarkation Museum. The name is from Hindi and means immigrant riverbank. It is the location where more than half a million indentured labourers arrived in Mauritius under British colonial rule. Most came from India, with a few arriving from China and East Africa. Our guide told us that almost 70% of the Mauritian people are descended from these labourers.
After the abolition of slavery in 1933, the British needed to find a source of labour to work their colonial plantations, including the sugar plantations in Mauritius. So they “imported” labour from places where people were often desperate for an income. The terms under which they came appeared to offer greater opportunities for many people, but in reality, turned out to be harsh and with many of their freedoms curtailed. It was essentially a form of contract labour, and many of those who arrived decided to remain on the island once their contracts came to an end.
The history is covered in the museum exhibits. Sadly, as in many museums, there was not a great deal for me to explore using my other senses, although I did get to explore the bow of a ship modelled on those that brought the indentured labourers to Mauritius, as can be seen in the photograph accompanying this blog.
Even though I am not a physical access expert, I felt the museum should be fairly wheelchair accessible, with all the exhibits being on a single floor. However, if you are a wheelchair or other mobility aid user who is planning a visit, I would contact the museum to ensure that your access needs can be accommodated.
The museum is a compound with several buildings, including an ablution block and the small medical centre that were used to care for the people once they arrived. It is a fairly new museum that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
I came away from our visit with a profound sense of disquiet, based mainly on the framing of the experience of indentured labour. Throughout the visit, our Mauritian guide kept speaking of the success of the experiment. Apparently, indentured labour worked so well for the British colony that it was then extended to other colonies across the world that required an inexpensive source of labour. These colonies included South Africa, where indentured labour was used to grow the sugar industry in Natal.
I found it very hard to consider such treatment of humans as a successful strategy, considering how many of their basic freedoms were curtailed during their contracts, and the conditions that people were subjected to. Perhaps from the perspective of the colonial powers it was successful, but it felt wrong to me to consider it as such.
It was a thought-provoking visit for me and one that taught me a lot about Mauritian history. Definitely a place to visit if you get the chance.
