European imperialists created Black slavery and then take credit for abolishing it. Should Mauritians who truly know and understand their history and have any respect for their forbears contemplate a descendant of slavers as Prime Minister to rule over them?

Mauritius 'was' a European colony, systematically occupied by countries such as Portugal, Holland, France and Britain. Just like Australia was a destination for White British convicts, hence its name « Convict Island », Mauritius was primarily a destination for Black slaves from Africa and Madagascar. Those slaves were the majority on the island until the British forced immigration from the Indian sub-continent.

There are several other islands which were populated by slaves, such as Martinique, Guadeloupe. The French slavers used to call those islands « esclavageries ». Because the convicts sent to Australia were Whites, their descendants are not labelled descendants of convicts. In fact, like in America, Canada and New Zealand, the European colonisers decimated the native populations through genocide and terror and stole their lands. Imperialism is terrorism. Nowadays, when the words Australian, New Zealander, Canadian and American (as in United States) are uttered, the White European person tends to come to mind but not the Aborigine, the Maori or the 'Indian'. After their killing sprees, the European descendants became the majority in those countries and claimed their 'democratic' right to rule. The same process is happening in Palestine presently occupied by White European Zionists, but the Palestinians are still resisting.

While the Pope has apologised for slavery, and the Australian racist government has apologised to the Aborigines, may be we should look forward to an apology from European Zionists after they have decimated what is left of the Palestinian population. Democracy is easy stuff : kill them, rob their lands, apologise to them but keep their lands, steal their resources, rule over them whichever way you can and make as if their fundamental rights are being protected. Thabo Mbeki was more than right when he said : « When the White man kicks you down, he also tells you how to react ».

Descendants of Slaves
In contrast, Mauritius has no indigenous population; so there was none to murder. But this does not mean that slavers did not torture, murder and rape slaves, and make them live under the most abject conditions. Because the British abolished slavery in Mauritius after defeating the French, this does not make them non-slavers. The problem with European imperialists is that they created slavery and then take credit for 'abolishing' it by creating their descendants.

Through sheer indoctrination, those people have been led to believe that they are 'descendants of slaves', commonly called Creoles in French 'colonies' (including Mauritius as an ex-colony) after the language of communication of their ancestors. Although Creole has always been an insulting and racist term, it has been turned into something to desire and to become ! The descendants of slaves are inexplicably 'proud' of being such descendants but, at the same time, they contradictorily 'celebrate' the abolition of slavery. In truth, accepting the stigma of a descendant of slaves can neither be regarded as an act of freedom nor as a belief in liberty because this stigma is derived in bondage.

Descendants of Coolies
Not many people speak about the treatment of indentured labourers by European colonisers in Mauritius. How many were raped, killed and buried on the spot in sugar cane fields? Those indentured labourers were called Coolies. The word « Coolie » [« Kuli » or « Quli »] can be traced to Hindi, Bengali and Tamil. While in the first two languages Coolie means « an unskilled labourer or porter », in Tamil it means « wages ». Kuli can also be traced back to a tribe in Gujarat. Unlike Creole, the term « Coolie » was never a pejorative term, but it has been turned into a racist term used by Europeans against people of Asian descent, including Chinese labourers. But how does one become a descendant of Coolies? Where are the descendants of punkwallahs and cobblers? Like descendants of slaves, those are merely political inventions. They are purely democratic divide-and-rule devices to make people believe what they are not for political power. One way or another, Europeans are always trying to destroy people's identities and giving them identities of their choosing. What they call descendants of slaves and Coolies in Mauritius are really African-Mauritians and Hindustani(or Indo)-Mauritians.

Descendant of slavers as PM
If the colonisers can invent terms like descendants of slaves and Coolies, why can't they be called 'descendants of slavers'? Should Mauritians who truly know and understand their history and have any respect for their forbears contemplate a descendant of slavers as Prime Minister to rule over them? It is no secret that White supremacists like to perpetrate what they believe are the 'Coolie' and 'Creole' subservient cultures and mentalities. In spite of his long struggle to liberate South Africa, most of which time he spent in the prison of Apartheid where he was brainwashed, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ended up in bed with the Mothers of Apartheid for which he is revered in the European West. The British who helped keep him in prison for 27 years even put up his statue in Parliament Square to honour, under the cover of his 'struggle against apartheid', his subservience to them and other Europeans. Is it not because of the same subservient mentality that Karl Auguste Offman, who took an oath as Mauritian President in February 2002 for five years and promised to « help the underprivileged and promote national unity », resigned only 19 months later in order to make way, by pre-arrangement, for his White master to become Prime Minister even though I begged him not to resign?

With the ability of the White European to indoctrinate and fashion the psyche of the individual, from pre-school age, to his way of thinking, it may not be long before a 'descendant of Apartheid' is 'elected' to rule South Africa, or for a European Zionist or pro-Zionist to become leader of Palestine, all in the name of the western-style democracy which, in reality, is but a cesspool of corruption, vice, lies, capitalism, political and military domination, exploitation and theft.

M Rafic Soormally
London