Exhibition showcases history of slavery in Seychelles |03 December 2020
Remembering a dark chapter of our history
By Christophe Zialor
It was French activity in the closing decades of the eighteenth century that transformed Seychelles from a cluster of uninhabited islands to a settlement and eventually the country we know today.
On August 27, 1770 a ship named 'Telemaque' disembarked 28 people on St Anne Island. The group comprising Miguel, Fernand, Ignace, Le Villers, Maladore, Maganga, and Marie – the only woman in the group – were the first slaves to set foot in Seychelles and their names have been cemented in the history of our country.
To commemorate the United Nation’s International Day of the Abolition of Slavery, the National History Museum has put together an exhibition narrating the chronicles of the dark chapters of our history and highlights the important dates throughout the history of slavery in Seychelles until it was abolished in 1835.
The exhibition is a joint collaboration between the museum and the National archives.
Bella Rose, the National Museum Curator, said that the objective of the exhibition is to commemorate the United Nation's International Day of the Abolition of Slavery and give the general public the chance to know more about the history of slavery and the start of our lineage.
“This exhibition is special as it is a way to remind people of the atrocities that happened in our country’s history as well as a reminder that even if it is illegal, slavery is still alive and well in many countries around the world.”
The exhibition begins in 1770 when the first settlers landed on the island. It then moves on to the Code Noir which was a decree passed by Louis XVI (1643-1718) in 1685, to establish the conditions of slavery in the French Colonial Empire. It explicitly legitimised corporal punishment and the death sentence for slaves who had absolutely no rights.
Another interesting part of the exhibition is the growth of agriculture on the island. A large number of slaves, mainly from Mozambique, were employed in the fields.
“Slaves were the ones who established the agricultural economy, among the crops planted were cotton, vanilla and spices,” said Ms Rose.
Although all slaves faced some sort of abuse and inhumane treatment, some fared better than others as is evident in the next part of the exhibition which talks about how they were treated.
Slaves in the Seychelles were placed in four broad categories. Firstly there were the Creoles (the largest group), those of mixed African and European blood who were brought from Mauritius and had children born on the island; they were often regarded as superior in intellect.
The second group were the Malagaches from Madagascar, people noted for their pride in hard work, particularly on the plantations or in the carpentry trade or as blacksmiths.
The third group was a small minority of Indians and Malays known as Malabars, usually trained as domestic servants.
The fourth and largest group was the Mozambiques, brought from the country by boat to work on the plantations. They were widely seen as inferior to the other slaves in the islands.
The exhibit also includes a registry with the names of slaves, their age, date of arrival and names of ships that transported them.
Notorious slaves are also included in the exhibition such as Castor, a runaway slave; Pompee, who was burned at the stake for murder and Alice Japhet, who was the last surviving slave in Seychelles.
The first batch of 252 liberated slaves arrived on Mahé on HMS Lyra on May 14 1861. From then on until 1874 they kept arriving on various ‘slave busters’ such as the Nymph, Vulture, Ariel and Thefis. Between 1861 and 1874 a total of 2,816 African slaves were rescued from Arab dhows and brought ashore to Mahé. The men and women were allotted to different proprietors of estates to work in the expanding coconut and vanilla industries while the children lived vagrantly or were employed in households.
By 1903, the year that Seychelles was separated from Mauritius and ruled as an independent crown colony, the population had reached just over 19,000 and the descendants of the first slaves that were brought to Seychelles, together with those of the first liberated African slaves that had arrived in 1861, had merged with the original inhabitants who were themselves the progenies of mixed races, to form the Seychellois Creole race. In fact by 1913, when the population of Seychelles had reached 23,777, miscegenation had become so widespread that it became impossible to attempt classification by racial origin.
In recent years, the “cultural identity” of the Seychellois people has become a subject of great academic interest. It has brought with it a renewed impetus to understand more comprehensively the genesis of the Seychellois Creole race, and the recognition and interest in the fundamental role that slavery has played in the cultural history of the Seychellois population.
The history of our country began through inhumane abuse however it is through the hardships of the first settlers that gave birth to our culture and traditions.
