Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about 2,000 kilometres off the southeastern coast of East Africa, 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 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.
Mauritian society incorporates several ethnic and multi-ethnic groups. A majority of the republic's residents are descendants of people from India. Mauritius also comprises migrants from continental Africa, China, France, and the East African island of Madagascar. As of 2023, Mauritius now has the highest population density in Africa.
Mauritius has 2 genres of music that originate from the Island. The traditional music of Mauritius which is known as sega music and also Seggae Music. Other genres like reggae, ragga, zouk, soukous and Indian music are also popular, but these genres do not originate from Mauritius, despite famous local singers such as Kaya, who successfully combined Reggae Music with sega 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, multilingual and a plural society with a population composed mainly of four major ethnic and religious groups. It is often depicted as a "rainbow nation".
The Chagossians are an Indo-African ethnic group originating from French slaves brought to the Chagos Islands, specifically Diego Garcia, Peros Banhos, and the Salomon island chain, in the late 18th century. Under international law, they are the indigenous people of the Chagos archipelago. Most Chagossians now live in Mauritius and the United Kingdom after being forcibly removed by the British government in the late 1960s and early 1970s so that Diego Garcia, the island where most Chagossians lived, could serve as the location for a United States military base. Today, no Chagossians are allowed to live on the island of Diego Garcia or anywhere in the Chagos archipelago, despite many of the islands they used to inhabit being over 160 km away from Diego Garcia.
Sega is one of the major music genres of Mauritius and Réunion. It is a complete performance art, involving music, story-telling and traditional dance. Musically, the most modern forms common in Mauritius are its fusion genre Seggae and bhojpuri variations, whilst in Réunion we find the addition of maloya, the latter being much closer to the older, typical music influences originating from Madagascar. The variety of different sega forms is reflected in the multi-ethnic populous of the indigenous population of Mauritius.
A French creole, or French-based creole language, is a creole for which French is the lexifier. Most often this lexifier is not modern French but rather a 17th- or 18th-century koiné of French from Paris, the French Atlantic harbors, and the nascent French colonies. This article also contains information on French pidgin languages, contact languages that lack native speakers.
Indo-Mauritians are Mauritians who trace their ethnic ancestry to the Republic of India or other parts of the Indian subcontinent in South Asia.
Mauritians are nationals or natives of the Republic of Mauritius and their descendants. Mauritius is a multi-ethnic society, with notable groups of people of South Asian, Sub-Saharan African, European, and Chinese descent, as well as those of a mixed background from any combination of the aforementioned ethnic groups.
Seychellois Creole people are an ethnic group native to Seychelles, who speak Seychellois Creole. They are the predominant ethnic group in the country.
Franco-Mauritians form an ethnic group of white people in Mauritius who trace their ethnic ancestry to France and ethnic French people. Franco-Mauritians make up approximately 2% of the country's population. Other than documented European ancestry, it is their skin colour which distinguishes Franco-Mauritians from the rest of ethnic groups in Mauritius, where they are also known as blancs or blanches.
Canary Islanders, or Canarians, are the people of the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain near the coast of northwest Africa. The distinctive variety of the Spanish language spoken in the region is known as habla canaria or the (dialecto) canario. The Canarians, and their descendants, played a major role during the conquest, colonization, and eventual independence movements of various countries in Latin America. Their ethnic and cultural presence is most palpable in the countries of Uruguay, Venezuela, Cuba and the Dominican Republic as well as the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.
Clothing production is an important industry in Mauritius. Clothes are imported and exported in Mauritius. The clothing sector was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2008, but recovered. The sector employed 67,174 people in 2007 and made 1.45 billion dollars in revenue that same year.
Mauritius was a Crown colony off the southeast coast of Africa. Formerly part of the French colonial empire, British rule in Mauritius was established de facto with the Invasion of Isle de France in November 1810, and de jure by the subsequent Treaty of Paris. British rule ended on 12 March 1968, when Mauritius became independent.
Nowadays, no one could still claim his pure race status. Ethnic, social and linguistic differences become each day more and more present and marked all over the world. Time, history and continuous population intermingling across boundaries led to create cosmopolitan beings, that is to say world citizens who, in spite of their singularity, manage to bring themselves together in order to create a unique and single nation. Among the nations most affected by this cross-fertilization is notably found Mauritius. The social and linguistic diversity of this country makes it unique and contribute to its wealth. It arouses curiosity, urges us to deepen our knowledge on the subject and is, to this extent, worth being studied.
Listed here are the human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups found in various ethnic groups and populations from North Africa and the Sahel (Tuaregs).
Mauritius is a religiously diverse nation, with Hinduism being the most widely professed faith. According to the 2011 census made by Statistics Mauritius, Hinduism is the major religion at 48.54%, followed by Christianity at 32.71%, followed by Islam 17.30% and Buddhism 0.18% in terms of number of adherents.
Mauritian Australians are Australians of Mauritian descent, or who were born 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.
General Population on the island of Mauritius refers to the community of inhabitants who belong to the ethnic groups Mauritian Creoles and Franco-Mauritians. Within the General Population there is further division based on skin colour and social status. It also includes most of the inhabitants of Rodrigues as well as Chagossians who usually identify as Mauritian Creoles.
