Indian Ocean literature

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The Indian Ocean is home to many literary texts, from Greco-Roman times to One Thousand and One Nights , the matrix of many narratives, which portrays Sinbad the Merchant through a fantastic and popular twist of the mind, and which is based on real details of navigation in this first ocean of globalisation. Combining Indian and Chinese literatures, among the oldest on the planet, this can be characterized as the most fictionalized ocean, having been the backbone of many tales, novels and poetic work. [1] [2]

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This was further enhanced when Bartholomew Diaz rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, paving the way for Vasco da Gama, who reached Malindi, before being guided to Calicut, the desired port of spices, by a mualim or regional pilot. The Portuguese poet Camoens then wrote his famous Luciads.

Mark Twain sojourned there. So did Bernardin de Saint Pierre, who invented the naturalist novel with Paul et Virginie , an idyllic and tragic novel under the tropics, in Mauritius. Charles Baudelaire also carried his spleen there, experimenting the correspondences and falling in love with Creole and Indian ladies, as expressed in his poems "La dame créole" and "A une malabaraise". In Réunion, Rouget Leconte de Lisle is foremost, with symbolist poetry.

Many more poets went to the Mascarene islands, like Paul-Jean Toulet.

Colonial era

In the colonial era, writers like Rabemananjara and Rabearivelo took French to new horizons, combining their original languages and cultures with the colonists' idiom. In Réunion, Marius and Ary Leblond developed the colonial novel, and in Mauritius, Clément Charoux and Léoville L'Homme expressed the contradictions of cultures and colours in a colonial environment.

Preceding the independence period, Mauritian writers like Marcel Cabon, Jean-Georges Prosper, Edouard Maunick, Robert Edward-Hart, René Noyau and Emmanuel Juste espoused négritude or more Mauritian themes.

Postcolonial era

In the 1970s, more "sociological" writers such Marie-Thérèse Humbert expressed the duality of multiculturalism.

Recent Mauritian writers include Ananda Devi, Natacha Appanah, Carl de Souza, Shenaz Patel, Barlen Pyamootoo and Khal Torabully.

See also

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mauritius</span> Island nation in the Indian Ocean

Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about 2,000 kilometres off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island, as well as Rodrigues, Agaléga and St. Brandon. The islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues, along with nearby Réunion, are part of the Mascarene Islands. The main island of Mauritius, where most of the population is concentrated, hosts the capital and largest city, Port Louis. The country spans 2,040 square kilometres (790 sq mi) and has an exclusive economic zone covering 2,300,000 square kilometres.

The known history of Mauritius begins with its discovery by Arabs and Malays, followed by Europeans and its appearance on maps in the early 16th century. Mauritius was successively colonized by the Netherlands, France and Great Britain, and became independent in 12 March 1968.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of Mauritius</span>

The traditional music of Mauritius is known as sega music, though reggae, zouk, soukous and other genres are also popular, but the latter genres do not originate from Mauritius, despite famous local singers such as Kaya, who successfully combined Reggae Music to create Mauritian Seggae. Well-known traditional sega singers from Mauritius include Ti Frére, Marlene Ravaton, Serge Lebrasse, Michel Legris and Fanfan.

Mauritius is a multi-ethnic and multi-language society; it is also a plural society with its population mainly composed of four ethnic groups and four major religious groups; it is often depicted as a "rainbow nation". The island of Mauritius did not have any indigenous population; historically, it was characterized by successive waves of European colonization and multiple immigrations. Under the French rule between 1715 and 1810, slaves were imported on the island from mainland Africa and Madagascar; slavery were only abolished in 1835 under the British rule. Indian migrants from Pondicherry first came in Mauritius under the French rule in 1736; The 18th century also saw one the earliest influx of Chinese migrants in Mauritius, who mostly came from Fujian. Under the British rule, more Indian migrants came to Mauritius following the slave emancipation of 1835. Since the 1800s Chinese migrants from Southern China arrived in Mauritius since the 1800s first as indentured labourers and later as free merchants. Since 1860, Hakka immigration started and continued until they become the dominant Chinese population in Mauritius since the beginning of the 20th century. The co-existence of Mauritians of Indian, African, European, and Chinese ancestry eventually led to a sharing of values and cultures, a collective participation in festivals, and an increased understanding between people of different ethnic backgrounds. Mauritians from different cultural backgrounds are very distinct from each other, and it is also highly unpopular to encourage the dissolution of cultural boundaries in Mauritius. In present days, the Mauritian society continues to be culturally and linguistically French-dominated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agaléga</span> Dependency of Mauritius

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sega (genre)</span> Music genre of Mauritius and Reunion island

Sega is one of the major music genres of Mauritius and Réunion. The other genres common in Mauritius are its fusion genre Seggae and Bhojpuri songs while in Réunion there is also seggae and maloya. It has origins in the music of slaves as well as their descendants Mauritian Creole people and is usually sung in Mauritian Creole or Réunionese Creole. Sega is also popular on the islands of Agaléga and Rodrigues as well as Seychelles, though the music and dances differ and it is sung in these islands' respective creole languages. In the past, the Sega music was made only with traditional instruments like ravanne and triangle, it was sung to protest against injustices in the Mauritian society, this particular version of the Sega is known as Santé engagé. Other types of Sega have been included in UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage lists.

Mauritians of Chinese origin, also known as Sino-Mauritians or Chinese Mauritians, are Mauritians who trace their ethnic ancestry to China.

Indo-Mauritians are Mauritians who trace their ethnic ancestry to Indian subcontinent or other parts of South Asia.

Chinois, also referred to by the Réunion Creole name Sinwa or Sinoi, are ethnic Chinese residing in Réunion, a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean. As of 2000, roughly 25,000 or more lived on the island, making them one of the region's largest Chinese communities along with Chinese South Africans, Chinese people in Madagascar, and Sino-Mauritians.

Franco-Mauritians are an ethnic group from Mauritius who trace their ethnic ancestry to France and ethnic French people. Franco-Mauritians make up approximately 2% of the country's population.

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Maloya is one of the two major music genres of Réunion, usually sung in Réunion Creole, and traditionally accompanied by percussion and a musical bow. Maloya is a new form that has origins in the music of African and Malagasy slaves and Indian indentured workers on the island, as has the other folk music of Réunion, séga. World music journalists and non-specialist scholars sometimes compare maloya to the American music, the blues, though they have little in common. Maloya was considered such a threat to the French state that it was banned in the 1970s.

Issa Asgarally is a Mauritian doctor in linguistics and a professor at the Mauritius Institute of Education. He is regarded as a leading intellectual figure on the island and is influential in literature and the media. His native language is Mauritian Creole, though he is fluent in French and English as well.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mauritian cuisine</span> Culinary traditions of Mauritius

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Joseph Tsang Mang Kin, born 12 March 1938, is a Mauritian poet, political scientist, philosopher and biographer. A former diplomat and ex-politician; Secretary General of the Mauritius Labor Party, Member of the Parliament and Minister of Arts and Culture, he currently operates as a panel member of the African Peer Review Mechanism, African Union.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mauritian Creole</span> French-based creole language spoken in Mauritius

Mauritian Creole or Morisien is a French-based creole language spoken in Mauritius. English words are included in the standardized version of the language. In addition, the slaves and indentured servants from cultures in Africa and Asia left a diverse legacy of language in the country. The words spoken by these groups are also incorporated into contemporary Morisien.

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References

  1. Adejunmobi, Moradewun (2009). "Claiming the Field: Africa and the Space of Indian Ocean Literature". Callaloo. 32 (4): 1247–1261. doi:10.1353/cal.0.0548. ISSN   0161-2492. JSTOR   27743146. S2CID   161908272.
  2. "The Indian Ocean: narratives in literature and law". UK Research and Innovation.