Let us revisit Seychelles from 1811 to 1976 |28 June 2021
President James Mancham & Prime Minister Albert Rene
Seychelles, which is comparatively a young nation, will celebrate its 45th Independence anniversary tomorrow, June 29.
According to historians, Seychelles can trace its first settlement back to 1770 when the islands were first settled by the French, leading a small party of whites, Indians and Africans. The islands remained in French hands until the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, evolving from humble beginnings to attain a population of 3,500 by the time Seychelles was ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Paris in 1814.
During this period Seychelles came to know the enlightened policies of administrators such as Pierre Poivre, the brilliant politicking of Governor Queau de Quinssy and, of course, the terrible repercussions of the French Revolution.
Under the British, Seychelles achieved a population of some 7,000 by the year 1825. Important estates were established during this time producing coconut, food crops, cotton and sugar cane. During this period Seychelles also saw the establishment of Victoria as her capital, the exile of numerous and colourful troublemakers from the Empire, the devastation caused by the famous Avalanche of 1862 and the economic repercussions of the abolition of slavery.
To celebrate the 45th anniversary of Seychelles’ Independence Day (1976-2021), historian Tony Mathiot conducted a virtual talk spanning the period 1811 to 1976 at the National Museum, where members of the public can also view the presentation.
The following is a recount of Mr Mathiot’s presentation.
The first Capitulation of Seychelles 1794
Seychelles was among the last colonies of the British Empire to claim their nationhood. The National Museum of History presents the chronology of events that led to the greatest milestone in the history of Seychelles.
On April 21, 1811, Capt. Barthelemy Sullivan arrived abroad the Nisus to assume control of the Seychelles as the First British Civil agent and commandant. This was a consequence of the capture of Mauritius to British Forces in 1810. The 1814 Treaty of Paris accorded Great Britain possession of the Seychelles. The Seychelles islands were ruled as a Dependency of Mauritius by a civil agent who received his instructions from the Governor of Mauritius which had been made a crown colony.
In 1812, Jean-Baptiste Queau de Quincy was appointed Juge de Paix, a post he occupied until his death on July 10, 1827.
Great Britain deemed it more pragmatic for Seychelles to be ruled as a Dependency of Mauritius. The population of Seychelles was then about 6000 inhabitants, among whom most were African slaves and slaves kept arriving by the scores despite the fact that since 1807 an Act of Parliament had imposed prohibition on slave trade in British Colonies. The scattered islands of the Seychelles were propitious to conceal slaves before they were taken to the slave market at Zanzibar, thence to Europe and America.
On February 1, 1835, the abolition of Slavery came into force throughout the British Empire – in Seychelles 6,521 people from a total population of 7,500 inhabitants were freed. However, the liberated slaves remained in engagement with their owners in accordance with the provisions of an Apprentice scheme that was included in the Abolition Act. The Period of the Apprentice Scheme would last until 1839, three years earlier than it had been proposed.
In 1839 a new civil commissioner, Charles Etienne Augustus Mylius (1795-1873) arrived. With a grant of £50 from Mauritius, he initiated the building of a jetty that projected 200 feet out to sea.
Mylius had the foresight of knowing that a port was an indispensable amenity for the economic development of the Seychelles. The importation of commodities and the exportation of agricultural products would guarantee the survival of the islands for more than a century.
It was in 1841, during Mylius administration that the capital of Seychelles was named Victoria (by ordinance no 12 of 1841). This was in honour of Her Majesty Queen Alexandra Victoria (1819-1901) who was then twenty-two years old and in the 4th year of her reign. Two streets in the little town were named ‘Victoria’ and ‘Albert’ to commemorate the wedding of her Majesty to Albert Francis Charles Augustus Emmanuel of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1819-1861).
During the second half of the 19th century, the main occupations for most of the few thousand inhabitants were agriculture, fishing and shipbuilding, not different from those of the late 1780s albeit on a greater scale. Between 1810 and 1861 a total of 48 ships were built in Seychelles amounting to 4,605 tonnes.
In the early 1860s Victoria was a quaint little coastal town with an assortment of timber and corrugated iron dwellings and a few of limestone coral, such as the St Paul’s Anglican Church (1859) and a post office which had opened on December 11, 1861. They survived the ‘lavalas’ (avalanche) of 1862 which laid the entire town to waste, killing scores of people. As of the year 1861, Seychelles became the sanctuary for some 3,000 Africans who were rescued by the Royal Navy from Arab Dhows, intent on persisting with the ignominious slave trade. These liberated Africans became Seychellois just like those that were brought in chains many decades before.
List of liberated slaves
The last two decades of the 19th century were quite eventful. There was calamity, misfortune and development. 1883 was a dreadful year. The country was afflicted with an epidemic of smallpox Vario Vera. On June 5, 1883, HMS Undine arrived in Port Victoria from Zanzibar. Aboard the ship, was a passenger who had contracted the virulent disease, wrongfully diagnosed as chickenpox. The disease soon spread across the town and suburban neighbourhoods, killing dozens of people and creating panic among the population.
In 1887, the New Oriental Bank opened a branch in Victoria. The company undertook the construction of their building on reclaimed land. Unfortunately, the bank had to close down in 1892, having overestimated the investment potential of a fundamentally struggling agrarian society.
Landing of Telegraph Cable at Mahé 1893
On November 11, 1893, Seychelles became part of the world telecommunications network. That was when the Eastern and South African Telegraph Company completed work on a submarine cable linking Zanzibar with Seychelles thence Mauritius, Capable of transmitting 15 words a minute.
A major constitutional reform was implemented in 1887 when the office of the Chief Civil Commissioner was abolished, to be replaced by that of Administrator who was accorded all the powers of the Governor of Mauritius, except the powers of pardoning persons sentenced to death. An Executive Council and a Legislative Council were established. The First administrator was Thomas Risely Griffith. Mauritius exercised authority over the Judiciary of Seychelles. Notwithstanding the fact that the Administrator could, with the advice and consent of the Legislative council, make laws for Seychelles, the power for Mauritius to legislate for Seychelles prevailed. Capital offenses were tried in Mauritius.
On November 20, 1899 Ernest Bickham Sweet-Escott (1857-1941) was sworn in as Administrator of the Seychelles. He established an inland postal service and inter alia introduced various measures for the promotion of education in Seychelles.
By letters patent of August 31, 1903, King Edward VII (1841-1910) accorded the status of colony to Seychelles. On November 9, 1903 Ernest Bickham Sweet-Escott was sworn in as the first Governor of Seychelles. The population of Seychelles was then just over 19,000 inhabitants.
The First Governor of Seychelles- Sir Ernest Bickham Sweet-Escott (1857 – 1941)
In 1908, Seychelles exported its first cargo of 740,123 kilos of cinnamon at R50,166. Gradually it became a second pillar of Seychelles economy, after copra and most crown lands on Mahé and Praslin were leased for cinnamon cultivation – an activity by which hundreds of men and women earned their livelihood.
On January 22, 1910, the Carnegie Library was opened by Governor Walter Edward Davidson (1859-1923). It was constructed with a donation of £1, 750 from the Scottish born American anthropologist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919). Three years later, in 1913, the new Government House (the actual State House) was completed at a cost of R76,411. It would be the home of sixteen British Governors and one Seychelles President, Sir James Mancham (1939-2016).
In 1914, when the First World War broke out, the population of Seychelles was 24,435. Governor Charles Richard Mackey O’Brien (1859-1935) imposed various precautionary measures, through legislation, in order to minimise the impact that the war in Europe was going to have on Seychelles.
Like other territories of the British Empire, Seychelles made substantial contributions to the war. In response to a request for additional workforce in East Africa, a total of 791 Seychellois volunteers known as the Seychelles Labour Force went to Africa in two groups. Sadly enough, 327 of them fell victims to dysentery, beriberi, malaria, pneumonia and other diseases.
Victoria Hospital 1924
On Sunday November 30, 1924, the new Seychelles hospital was inaugurated by Governor Sir Joseph Aloysius Byrne (1874-1942). It was constructed partly with surplus funds of R488.88 left from the peace celebrations of 1919 to mark the end of the First World War (1914-1918).
During the Second World War (1939-1945), the colony of Seychelles despite being ‘a thousand miles from anywhere’ was not exempted from the consequences of the global conflict. The islands served as a depot for the refuelling ships of the Royal Navy as an advance base for anti-submarine patrols of the Royal Air Force. Garrisons of Indian troops and of the King’s African Rifles were stationed in the colony from 1940-1946. Almost 1000 volunteers were recruited to form two companies known as the Seychelles Pioneer Companies. They left in April and in December of 1941 to participate with other Commonwealth Forces on the battlefields of Tobruk, El-Alamein, Libya, Tunisia, and Italy. Approximately 60 died.
The Seychelles Pioneers in Egypt 1943
Passive defense services were organised and included an ambulance unit, a look-out corps, a rescue service and air raid wardens.
During the entire duration of the War, various regulations and measures were implemented in accordance with the Emergency Powers order in council 1939- this included Food Rationing (as of 1942) tax on goods and restrictions on taking photographs.
In 1958, there was the first visit to the colony of a Minister of the crown John Denis Profumo (1915-2006), O.B.E MP (then Parliamentary undersecretary of state for the colonies) spent a week under in the colony. Great Britain emphasised its interest in the colony and its future by providing a grant in aid and by increasing the amount of Colonial Development and Welfare Funds allocated to the Colony. In 1959, Barclays Bank opened a branch in Seychelles.
The main sources of revenue were customs duties, Income Tax, Licenses and Direct Taxes. Copra was the mainstay of the islands economy. In 1958, 5,600 tonnes were exported at a value of R5,447,063. The majority of the population was engaged in Agriculture. There were four registered Trade Unions: The Seychelles Teachers Union, The Seychelles Building Trade Union, the Stevedores and Lighterage Workers Union and the General Workers Union.
On April 9, 1963, the Seychelles Islanders United Party was formed by Rufned Jumeau (1937-2019) ‘to deal with the welfare of and take democratic action for a higher standard of living for the people of Seychelles’.
But the first tremors of political agitation began in 1964 with the formation of two political parties: Seychelles People’s United Party (SPUP) which called for Independence from Great Britain and Seychelles Democratic Party (SDP) which wanted integration with Great Britain. The leaders of the two parties were respectively France Albert Rene (1935-2019) and James Mancham (1939- 2016).
It was the bitter rivalry between the two parties that would dominate the political arena during the following decade. Indeed, during most of the 1960s and early 1970s, Seychelles was in the throes of industrial disputes, protest marches, strikes and political rallies mostly carried out by the SPUP whose manifesto called for the Independence of Seychelles.
Constitutional reforms made significant progress in 1966 with the visit of a Constitutional Adviser, Sir Colville Deverell (1907-1995). On December 12, 1967, the first General Election based on the new constitution took place. There was the introduction of universal adult suffrage; the creation of a majority of elected members in the legislature from five elective seats to eight, the division of the population into eight electoral areas and the establishment of a single Governing Council which performed both Legislative and Executive functions. SDP won 4 seats, SPUP won 3 seats and 1 was won by an Independent candidate.
In 1968, the issue of independence was raised in the House of Commons and the following year, Lord Sheperd (1918-2001) – Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs – arrived in Seychelles to have discussions with France Albert Rene, leader of SPUP and James Mancham, leader of SDP. From then on, there was no doubt that the colony would soon achieve its Independence.
On March 9, 1970, a first Constitutional Conference was held in London to formulate a new constitution which provided for an 18-member Legislative Assembly and an Advisory Council of Ministers. In the elections which followed after, SDP won 10 seats and SPUP won 5 seats. James Mancham was appointed the first Chief Minister of Seychelles.
From March 14 to 24, 1975, a second Constitutional Conference was held in London at Marlborough House under the chairmanship of Joan Lester (1931-1998), Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
In June 1975, SPUP and SDP formed a coalition Government. In September that same year Seychelles entered self-government and James Mancham became Prime Minister.
In January of 1976, a third Constitutional Conference was held. It was attended by Governor Collin Hamilton Allen (1921-1993). This last conference was chaired by Edward Rowlands, parliamentary undersecretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
On June 29, 1976, Seychelles achieved its Independence and became a Republic. James Mancham (1939-2016) became President of Seychelles and France Albert Rene (1935-2019) became Prime Minister. The population was then 60,504 inhabitants. Thus, Seychelles achieved its independence after 165 years of British Rule (1811-1976)
