Aapravasi Ghat, a temporary shelter for people arriving from far-off lands: this is the Hindi phrase describing the place through which hundreds of thousands of migrants landing in Mauritius had to pass, between 1834 and 1923, and whose restored ruins are still in the port area of Port Louis. The vast majority of these migrants came from India; the others were from East Africa, Madagascar and China. They were called indentured labourers. For the British colonial government, they were part of a new “Great Experiment” in recruiting labour. After the abolition of slavery in Mauritius in 1835, the slaves had to be replaced, to ensure the sugar cane plantations, the island’s main source of income, could continue production. SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME Unlike the slaves, these indentured labourers were in principle free and voluntary, and were given a contract, usually for five years, at the end of which they could return to their own country. But having sometimes come with their families, most of them stayed on the island, having no money and no desire to return to where they came from. Drawn by the recruiters’ enticing promises of a paradise on earth and “gold under the rock”, the vast majority had fled Bihar, a destitute state in Northeast India, then also a British colony. In 1849, to receive these hordes of indentured workers, known for many years as “coolies”, the British government built an Immigration Depot in Port Louis, today mostly destroyed or buried, although several buildings still remain: shelters for the migrants, kitchens, privies, wash basins, a stable, an infirmary, and especially the heartrending series of 14 black basalt steps that the new arrivals had to climb to reach the Depot from the sea. After an exhausting voyage down in the hold, the migrants were registered, photographed, then given a health check and an ID number engraved on a tin plaque. The sick ones were quarantined on Flat Island, off the coast of Port Louis. The others waited in shelters before being allocated to white owners, mostly sugar cane planters, still influenced by the slave mentality. Over 450,000 Indian “coolies” were hired in Mauritius as labourers on the plantations. Their living conditions were more or less the same as those of the former slaves: working 12 hours a day, bullied, whipped, underfed, and forbidden to move around without a permit. It took several rebellions for these labourers to gradually obtain rights and dignity. THE MAURITIAN IDENTITY Having become the island’s main workforce, the indentured workers contributed largely to the development and wealth of Mauritius. Today, their descendants form about 70% of the country’s population. The success of the indenture programme in Mauritius inspired other colonial powers, to such an extent that an estimated two million indentured labourers were sent all over the world at the same time, to Mauritius, but also to Reunion, Southern Africa, the West Indies and even Australia. This system, which started the first major migratory wave of the modern world, continued until the 1920s. The site sank into oblivion and lay abandoned for a while. In 1987 the immigration depot was renamed “Aapravasi Ghat”. Archaeological excavations took place in 2002, followed by extensive restoration work. In 2006, it became a UNESCO world heritage site, and a museum was opened to teach people about the history of Mauritius. With Le Morne Mountain, where Two “brothers”: the Mauritian writer Abhimanyu Unnuth, descendant of an indentured worker, and an Indian “labourer”. Deux hommes fraternels : l’écrivain mauricien Abhimanyu Unnuth, descendant d’engagé, et un « laboureur » indien.
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