Rodrigues Island: Case for Self-Determination

Cry Freedom
Rodrigues Island: Case for Self-Determination

Three hundred years ago men and women of flesh and bone, were kidnapped from their villages in Guinea; trapped and captured like animals in Senegal, torn from their families in Mozambique; packed on board of the slave ships in Madagascar, and shipped in the Indian part of the world ocean. Those who survived ended their days, working as beasts of burden for teachers foreigners. They never see Africa again. For the rest of the world, they give a human face to the unfortunate end of a dark history of fainting, Rodrigues, which were much more – who were our great-grandparents … general and mothers.

Historical perspective

To get to the bottom of the heart of our liberation struggle Mauritius, which is important enough timeline briefly Rodrigues. There are different versions of history. We have the version of the slave in accordance with slave, we have the release of slaves in accordance with the slaves, have versions of those who see world conquest as Jus ad bellum (just cause of war) and versions do. From this distance blurred when looking for a truth buried somewhere in a dead past, among many other diluted, distorted and deformed half-truths – we can not take a leap of faith.

The name of the same name taken from Rodrigues Diego Rodriguez, a Portuguese sailor whose mission's visit in 1528, announced the arrival of Europeans. There is some evidence that Chinese sailors Pirates Arab and Malay traders, and perhaps fell on the island since the tenth century. No traces of an indigenous population there. In 1638, a local council in the Reunion and Rodrigues administration as a French possession. It remained a French colony until British troops took by assault the island in 1809. It was then governed as a separate territory for the British May 30, 1814, when its administration was transferred Mauritius.

During the Second World War, 300 of our compatriots, my father among them, our small population, the British in Tobruk and El Alamein.
However, in March 1968, we were asked to Mauritius against our will, and isolated in the colonial imposed marriage "forced" the unitary state. Having landed in Mauritius, the British in Rodrigues simply packed their bags, took their dogs, and left.

In fact, we have become the scapegoat, left to thank him for new teachers, to pay the bill for the transgressions of others.

Our history has been a long and painful struggle against non-consensual governments: a from a French possession, French colony, English possession, dependency of the colony of Mauritius, 'District' of Mauritius, Ile Maurice in today.
tags labels replaced foreign colonial neo-colonial masters took over from foreign leaders, but for our people – the dysphoric cycle grinds on: farewell slavery – slavery Hello (farewell of slavery – slavery Good morning.)
Domination policy

In 1960, the decolonization of Mauritius and Rodrigues islands had already been decided. When subsequent negotiations and constitutional conferences were held in London and Mauritius in 1961, '65 and '67, were deliberately excluded Rodriguans. The excuse was that we had no political parties or organizations.

At that time, the hard-line party PMSD Mauritius (Mauritius Social Party 'Democrat), had conducted a campaign of alarmism, to along ethnic lines in Rodrigues. In addition to the promise of freedom, its leader, Duval, had managed to convince our people that the devil and his mother was descended Rodrigues after the British left. It is not surprising that his first contact with the polls in 1967, an overwhelming majority of ninety-eight percent of Rodrigues voted against granting in Mauritius. Unfortunately, the views expressed in our people not to defeat the conspiracy of emergency in the appendix of our country.

It should be noted, in 1967, Rodrigues was not able to choose between freedom and colonialism, we are faced with horns of this dilemma: the British colonization and occupation Mauritius … a foreign sovereign or a foreign master. Not too different from the dilemma of Indochina: the Japanese occupation and French colonization.

Rodrigues no longer British living under the boot more than we ask the prospect of living under a Maurice. And certainly do not want the idea of uprooting our families, leaving the bones of ten generations of ancestors buried in Rodrigues, to sail into exile abroad. But in these cold days in Mauritius, people died in the streets, fear of being carved up next. The tragic reality of the time saw many dispose of their property, homes and lands, to escape to Canada, Australia, France, England, South Africa and elsewhere. For some, this court still close to the bone.

In 1968, before the ink dried on a constitution independence unilaterally drafted with police batons hoisted the flag of Port Mathurin Mauritius summit under a cloud of tear gas. Rodrigues wants to citizens of Mauritius overnight. When our brave brothers and sisters resisted the British troops have been summoned to make our protest.

Certainly, after 1968 British left, our hands were not cut. Still, Rodriguez has been reduced to a Mauritian fiefdom, where marginalization is becoming quickly institutionalized. We ended up with higher unemployment, higher cost of living, higher infant mortality, the most primary dropout rates and low literacy rates and standard of living in Mauritius. Discrimination, domination and exclusion became the standard. Today, cases of force majeure continues to support the status quo.

In 1976 a ministry was created to address specific Rodrigues. So far, only a handful of "moderate" Rodrigues, with its clipped wings have never been co-opted for this portfolio. Moreover, none Rodrigues has served in that capacity in the last ten years, and the likelihood that it will become different, seem distant. Mauritian politicians arbitrarily choose the minister for Rodrigues and politically appointed officials of Rodrigues Mauritius governing by proxy – irrespective of our voice.

In 1991, when Rodriguez had the temerity to demand greater control over their own affairs, an island token of the Council was in place to appeased. fellow travelers and hacks were carefully selected and are allowed to make recommendations on local issues. But when the Council but no teeth, he began to fuel nationalist pride among those who have ideas above their station – which was disbanded in 1996 without further delay.

In 2001, after a long struggle continued, the idea of autonomy for the ethnic people of Rodrigues, was the first mentioned. Finally, 170 years after the abolition of slavery, decentralization Powerful rigid centralized control of Mauritius came into view … even briefly.

In 2002, after much fanfare, after the spin-doctors had recited their precision sound clips machine after the pig's head and the big head had their photo opportunities – "autonomy" has arrived. Names have been changed from the Island Council of the Regional Assembly and advisors to the commissioners. Some buildings have been built here and there, some operators learned to fly to Mauritius, to sit silently and motionless in the government back benches and a plague of the introduction of Chameleons Rodrigues is out. This was about the extent thereof.

Mauritian ministers continued to micro-manage our business and we have to elect the lackeys who run their races. The central government retains all legislative and executive powers and almost everything else. Finally even its rusted fans had to acknowledge that we promised "autonomy" was a failure.

When an inch beyond the chic sophisticated PEEK, we see a people still in the hands of another, not only without the consent of the other – but against his will.
Loie no share (absolute rule) is alive and well in Rodrigues, one can see every day of the year, flexing their muscles in his chest in Port Mathurin.

At the risk of choking is clear that one can not consider limited administrative discretion to independence, more than one can seriously consider a pig with an elephant.

The colonial legacy of authoritarian bureaucratic dictatorship was never dismantled in Rodrigues – has strengthened. Foreign bureaucratic masters command of the war and our people obeyed without question. The Chief of Police, Justice, the Minister of Rodrigues, all heads of major departments, all lawyers, all political leaders, those who actually govern Rodrigues – all come from Mauritius.

When our Creole language, which are stored experiences and struggles of our people, is rejected in the Assembly – where sixty percent of our population are excluded from political office do not speak a foreign language –
When the children of half-fed, educated and half free media are forced to learn three languages – when there is a shortage of educational materials African culture in a program designed for us by others – when our children mimic the cultures, beliefs, languages and traditions different from their own, to validate their sense self-esteem – while our public representation of ninety percent of our studies, is actually muzzled political discourse – when our people talk about rumor provisional independence of deaf, for fear of government spies – in which everything is controlled by external forces, no freedom … only rule.
The constitutional guarantees of no ruling caste, not second-class citizens, the consent of the governed to govern, seem to apply to all, except Rodrigues.

The citizen is Rodrigues as a troubled character, hopelessly trapped in an eternal nightmare of suppressed resentment, was forced to watch helplessly as shapers of culture.

Mauritius speaks of human rights in the United Nations, the commitments of solidarity with SADC (Committee for the Development of Africa South) and the African Union – the maintenance of their own colonial rule. The double-edged moral is incredible.

Self-determination

A lot of water and much blood flowed in the Indian Ocean, our brothers and sisters in Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka, Comoros, Africa, Maldives, Seychelles and Mauritius were released (at least in theory) of colonialism Web unfortunate.
But for us, Rodrigues, Mauritius ignominy of being the occupation still haunts our everyday life.

In the 21st century, the island of Rodrigues, an event the last areas of colonialism has become the "sick man" of the Ocean Indian, always linked to a drip being artificial, and even foreigners asking kleptocratic go.

He argues that because the May 30, 1814 Great Britain Rodrigues dependence is called the colony of Mauritius, and managed as part of Mauritius, automatically became an integral and indivisible territory of Mauritius. By Therefore, the mutilation of territory before independence would have been illegal under international law.

If we follow this line of reasoning, we also recognize that all the provisions imposed by the colony are still mandatory for all future generations. And when this thinking is extended retrospectively to Then in 1936 Mussolini laws could still be cited today as justification to continue to plague the lives of Ethiopians, forever.

During the governor Mad Dog Morgan, Jamaica, looting and rape were the arrangements for the day. As one might expect reasonably When Morgan left attacker, his regime went with him. The British wrested Rodrigues from the French bayonet point hooked up a gun, so all the arrangements made during his reign became null and void – the time is gone.

It has never been any command 11, which gave Britain a divine right to bequeath to our lives, our lands and our country to Mauritian time without end.
Our people do not Mauritius or another person's private property. We are not cattle to be given a love one to another.

Unitary state was part of British colonial policy. As a result, despite underlying divisions among different geographical ethnic groups, territories were artificially forced into a unitary state. For example, New Zealand was administered as a dependency of the colony of New South Wales, the Caribbean islands were grouped willy-nilly, the Seychelles was administered as part of Mauritius;
Plans are underway to bring together all the British colonies in East Africa in a federation. And that was only the veto selfless leaders who saved India to Burma to be administered as part of India. Unfortunately, Rodrigues Gandhi or Jinnah or Nehru us Duval, demagoguery and double cross A Go-Go.

The truth, however unpleasant, is when colonial rule ended in 1968, the island of Rodrigues had population and that the island belonged to this population and did not win.

On March 12, 1968, there should be two proud islands, coast side, free association, both celebrating their freedom. Unfortunately, there was the pride of one side of the Indian Ocean and the humiliation of others. During the dark of that unfortunate day, some still maintain Rodriguans a minute of silence … and remember.

The flaw in the argument that FGM is based on the premise false that Rodrigues was a legitimate territory of Mauritius prior to independence. This was never the case. Rodrigues Mauritius never discovered a terra nullius, never caught conquest Rodrigues, the British wrested Rodrigues from the French in 1814, just to give Mauritius, Rodrigues never surrendered their individual sovereignty, territorial integrity and Mauritania "Pax – addition, Rodrigues nation never consented to be part of, or governed by Mauritius.

State propaganda sponsored repeats tirelessly and are integrated into the school children as fact, is very difficult to forget. The truth is Rodrigues intact part of the British Empire until 1968, and today is a country Under the occupation attached.
It is no longer a territory of Mauritius, as Hercules is the son of Zeus.

What Britain gifted Rodrigues Island Mauritius 1968, because it gives Eritrea to Ethiopia or opportunistic Maurice attached, is neither here nor there.
Whatever you face of collusion between Britain and his minister colonial Mauritius, without our consent was illegal and immoral.
It involved an attacker to reward his faithful slave, a slave of his own.

It was a blatant promotion of country's territorial ambitions at the expense of its neighbor. Maurice added 130.000 miles of our EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) in its territory and our people have lost their homeland and their dignity.
The United Kingdom, Mauritius and the international community clearly understand, like me, like you, like all of us … He was wrong then – if now is a mistake!

In 1968, our lack of economic or political development should never have been used as an excuse to deny us our independence. Mauritius has been granted its own independence separately, as Northern Rhodesia was. Rodriguez should have been placed under the tutelage Board United Nations Trust, a non-autonomous territory. A pan-African and UN special committee for self-determination then able to develop a long- deadline for independence.

Under a mutual agreement on the constitution, with the opt-out clauses may be appropriate even remained in free association with Mauritius, instead of being perpetually trapped in the existing abomination, euphemistically known as "autonomy."

If historical debts, legal or at least moral responsibility, repealed in 1968, was fulfilled to some extent, past injustices can be corrected late. We remain hopeful.

It is not our lot in life, to be perpetually governed by other people. We do not accept the rule of non-consensual France did not accept Great Britain – we never accept from Mauritius.

Ethnic Dilution

Most Mauritius 1.3 million inhabitants are descendants of workers Indians recruited, mainly from Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, introduced by the British to respond to labor shortages in sugar cane plantations, while the eighty-five percent of the population of forty miles Rodrigues strengths are direct descendants of African slaves.

We are opposed, as they say Mexicans and Kenyans. This ethnic heterogeneity differentiates the island from each other.

Rodrigues is not an Aboriginal group or ethno-national minorities proposed piecemeal internal self, we are a distinct people with a fervent desire self-determination of our future. Our for the full sovereignty is exceptionally strong. More precisely, we can not leave our country – that our ancestors have paid a high price for it!

Until recently, the ability to load small Rodrigues (50, 000) and its geographic isolation, succeeded to preserve their cultural identity, to some extent. However, in recent years have seen the Mauritians, in ever larger, being fast-tracked in Crown Lands in Rodrigues.
If this trend (or politics government) continues, is a mathematical certainty that it will dilute our ranks to a moribund minority. Like the mixture of thirty bottles of beer with a bottle of lemonade – there lemonade.

Once our culture, traditions, language and way of life are gone, once we have lost our identity as a people, and once our claim of sovereignty is extinguished forever – that would become a nation of slaves and serfs semi-half-repressed, trapped in the lower end of a class structure Mauritius vertical.

The proud people of Rodrigues have been reduced to a motley mob of untouchables, straw hats in hand, waving the gay life in the ghettos of Mauritius or earn their living in the mountain ridges in Rodrigues.
We can never aspire to be something that only half of the population would never reach out to other cultures. As a people, we would be dead.

For Rodrigues, it is an existential challenge. If they have, if we wait for the time should come, without certainly follow the Dodo. I do not think – I know.

Conclusion

The common Portuguese name Rodrigues (son of Rodrigo) was poorly chosen for us by the old masters at the wrong time. Given all be branded However, even the Brotherhood of Elves, Gnomes and Gremlins would be achieved for the AK47. More seriously, " Rodrigues is an ancient relic, a fossil On another occasion, while disconnected from and incompatible with the essence of our people. And not to mention blood-stained images brutal savagery in this region of Portugal, whose name evokes – It is time for our generation to give (Rodrigues) Back to the story.

We lost a country – our body politic is being trampled and the smell of humiliation is everywhere; cultural oblivion is an important, yet remain ruined by a small clique of puppets inflation and well assimilated "Uncle Toms of the Last Days, which refused to accept foreign domination.

Strangers abroad, who do not vote and can not be eliminated from the design of our electoral systems and electoral constituencies to decide our laws, taxes, tariffs, decide our health, education, foreign and economic policies. Strange decide the future of our children –
Strange decision – Strangers have been instrumental for most of the 300 years.

The time has come – we have decided! Because we also have a brain and a backbone. Yes, indeed! Also have dreams and hopes of our people.

It is time to cut the umbilical cord tightly neocolonial adrift, to take active measures to reduce dependence others, believe that if we reduce our needs and work hard, that autonomy is possible and even desirable.

It's time to stop depending on build- assumptions, on ideas and systems that have been partially responsible for our current subordination. It's time to try other ideas, other approaches, perhaps invent new ones are best suited to our circumstances.
It is time to stop imitating others and trust in ourselves – Who we are, has value.

Rodrigues are resilient people. I say this because contrary to popular belief, it is our people who have worked the land and seas fisheries and livestock kept and preserved this small economy afloat – generation after generation. We did it before, we do now – we can do better. Do not hesitate to continue drinking the old well (land and sea) until the specter of globalization comes with the magic potion.

It's time to quit too poor, too small, not arguments are ready yet. They are as bad as the documents have been played on several occasions. They are designed to hinder rather than liberate. Fortunately, the people oppressed around the world have been ignored, if not most of the islands in the Caribbean, Indian, Atlantic and the Pacific, much of Africa and Asia, and perhaps half the planet would still be under some form of colonial domination today. In all cases, the size and wealth of a country would need to people to qualify for their freedom? Moreover, who decides?

Our leaders must re-connect with the poor and dispossessed in this country, reconnect with our African ethnic parents, reorganize our people at the base and demand what they stole in 1968 … country.

Let us not be discouraged by the McWorld indifference of a dog-eat-dog, what we should not hesitate, go to our iron will and demand of our independence. We will speak with pride in every home, every church, in any bazaar, in all post-fishing, on all farms in every corner, in every bus and when and where our people are.

Our task is not without sacrifice, But when we back to independence now, we condemn our children to another 300 years of foreign domination. The alternative is simple: the eternal struggle or submission.

Our people have been human guinea pigs for a cold-blooded world of social experiments. We were tired at the end of the range of monstrous slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism and "civilizing missions of the Missionaries. Despite the inhumanity, degradation, humiliation, and despite the loss of our big names Africans, our sense of identity, traditional African beliefs our clothes and our relations with our relatives in Africa – we have forgiven and moved on.

continuing domination is not a destination where we lead our children, or as the late Pope John Paul II used to say to busy people everywhere, "do not know what say you are, let me remind you who you really are … "
Our people have suffered long enough learning to be free. It is time for us out of the abyss of serfdom, and see the world through our own eyes.

As children of this planet flying is our indisputable right to self-determine our own future, we will exercise this right and claim our inheritance in the human family.

With this commitment, warming our hearts with their heads held high – Reinforcements to deal with a promising future with courage.

Rodrigues … Live Free

Alain Leveque
September 7, 2006

About the Author

Alain Leveque is a writer living in Melbourne, Australia, who promotes the self-determination of the Rodriguan people.

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