Under your directorship what will be your main actions in the near future?
One of my main objectives as Director is to come up with a new road map or feuille de route, with the help of all AGTF staff members, for new projects and ideas in order to put our site on the map of national, regional, and international heritage. I believe in this post-Covid Mauritius, we will come out stronger and more resilient than ever before. AGTF will play its role fully in consolidating our heritage, history, and activities. In the process, we are and will invite Mauritians and tourists alike to visit and get to know BRIC, AGWHS, and the history of indenture and its relevance to them today.
We had planned an open weekend for mid-April, where members of public could visit the site. This event will be reprogrammed at a later date. We also have planned an event in May for Museums Day when we are planning to organize cultural programs in sugar estates such as Saint Antoine in the context of the 15th anniversary commemoration of the inscription of the site.
In November 2021, we have a regional program at “Antoinette” where we will also resume our outreach program to educate the youth on the historical richness of the AG site. We also intend to build a strong digital footprint and marked presence on social media by leveraging our website, and platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to create awareness and interest in the site and its history.
We are also looking at other sites to preserve, such as, Flat Island Quarantine Station and Bras d’Eau and setting up projects to do so. We have also launched the Indenture Labour Route so as to make Aapravasi Ghat better known in Mauritius and overseas. Similarly, we remain keen to extend our support to co-manage other sites and add them to our list of official indenture sites.
Mauritius celebrated its 53rd year of Independence this year. As a former advisor of the Ministry of Arts and Culture, how have you seen the Mauritian culture evolve over the years?
Indeed, over these five decades, Mauritius has evolved in many ways. I have closely witnessed these, maybe more so as I have been engaged in social work since my early youth. And up till now, as member of the Rotary Club, the interest of the society is still in the forefront of my mind.
As a child I lived in the rural area of Flacq, coming from an extended family, which was common at that time. Given the many mouths to feed and given that most families strove to ensure their children had at least minimal education, the focus of family heads was mainly to work sufficiently to fulfil these needs in food and education. Education was also not free and not accessible as it is now. Therefore, maybe the value of going to school was heightened also due to knowing how big a sacrifice it was for the parents to send their children to further their studies. Actually, in those days, to be educated itself was the great pride of families and considered as “success”. It also went together with moral and spiritual values which were taught through the local network of language classes, baitkas. These baitkas have mostly vanished nowadays but were great vectors of high values such as spirituality, honesty, generosity, self-dignity, honor and so on. For the youths and young adults, Clubs teaching leadership, sports and community service were very present. Therefore, there was a general sense of camaraderie and help and mutual respect across communities, specially towards the elderly. Economically, it was still a time when our rhythm was aligned with that of sugarcane harvests and mill activities.
With the advent of the industrial era and diversification of the economy, the reference points shifted. Importation and exportation was heightened and port activity developed more and more. The cost of living started to rise. Families steadily started moving towards the nuclear model as more and more women started being pulled into the work force of the country. And over time, success started becoming synonymous to wealth and material comfort. Education was readily accessible and transport systems in place, therefore, the shift was towards a better quality of life overall.
So it was also an epoch of militant action for better workers’ rights and more protective legislations. Great figures of trade unions and labour movements emerged like Guy Rozemont, Pandit Ramnarain, the Bissoondoyal brothers, Sir Seewoosagar Ramgoolam and so on. The whole country took pride in being among the foremost countries of the African region in terms of economy, institutions and education.
Nowadays, we have yet another mindset and our economy has shifted to include a greater dimension of services offered to both local and international players, in the financial and IT sector for example. Education is free and accessed through so many ways as a lifelong process. Many families are nowadays reduced to three to five individuals and many young households no longer live in the family courtyard as before. And it is also the network and platform generation. Moreover, values have steadily declined and the lure of easy money and corruption has moved up sharply. Children and youth are more and more captivated by the sheer amount of uncontrolled information and images of all kinds on the social media networks. So where does this lead us to as a society?
However, I am an optimist and just as Rotary has been able to eliminate polio in practically all countries of the world except for war zones, the same way, social values which may have dwindled may be restored over time. For example, we can see movements like environmental activism on the rise and the growing need for ways of artistic expression. As advisor to the former Minister of Culture, who is now the President of the Republic, I have had the opportunity to be involved with theatre, music and dance groups, but also writers, poets, slam artists and producers of various types of light and sound art forms.
As director of the Aapravasi Ghat, I wish to channel these different ways of expression to keep the memory of our ancestral legacies alive in such ways that interest is awakened even in children’s minds and hearts. For a Nation which knows its history and honors the sacrifices, sweat and tears of its ancestors, with a firm belief in perennial values is a Nation that is bound for progress based on immutable values.
Therefore, with the youth in mind particularly, I am convinced that, symbolically, we must set the Aapravasi Ghat free from its walls and stone steps of Port-Louis and make it travel to the heart of towns and villages of Mauritius. By encouraging people to know their History, we can safeguard the wisdom and values of the past and blend them with our modern life. But also safeguard the legacy for the children.
Historical sites and itinerary expositions are also a wonderful means of connecting nations beyond the physical frontiers of a country. Aapravasi Ghat is highly symbolic for the Indian Diaspora around the world. But also a rivet to the ground which will forever attract researchers from all around the world in ethnology, archeology and different sciences. These symbolical stepping stones are also foundation stones upon which our peaceful Nation country thrives. The indenture site guided visits provide a meaningful key to tourists who visit our country and who wish to understand how a multicultural Nation was born and continues to thrive to date. It is deep insight into our common consciousness that provides us with the ability for hindsight into our common past.
Careful Hindsight generates Insight which in turn builds Foresight.
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