Abolition of Slavery Day – February 1, 2026 |27 January 2026

The perspective of an adopted son

By Glynn Burridge

Neither I, nor any member of my family, arrived in Seychelles in chains, nor because of separation or the long, unrecorded suffering that once blighted so many lives. I came here by choice, attracted, as if by a siren, to the surreal natural beauty and to the extraordinary gentleness of human contact which sang to my soul. I am an adopted son of these islands. My blood carries no memory of slavery; my name bears no mark of it. And yet, living here as I have for close to half a century now, I have not failed to sense its presence – quiet, persistent, woven into the national psyche, coursing like a steady current beneath calm water.

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