Mauritius to Erect a Monument in Memory of Slavery

Plans are underway to unveil a stele(commemorative pillar) on 1st February in memory of slaves who were brought to Mauritius as part of the National Day of Commemoration of the 173rd anniversary of the abolition of slavery.

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday morning at the UNESCO office in Port Louis, the capital, Jocelyn Chan Low, a member of the project “The Stele Route” explained that the monument to be erected here will be the fourth one in the Southern Hemisphere.

The first one he said was inaugurated in Fort Dauphin in Madagascar in 2004, then at Saint Paul in Reunion Island in 2005 followed by the 3rd one last July on Mozambique Island, the first capital of Mozambique. The project, he added, is being supported by UNESCO’s project “The Slave Route”.

Chan Low indicated that the South African, Professor Karel Baker, the representative of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) has just arrived in the island to help in the setting up of the monument.

Chan Low observed that the project is the idea of Sudel Fuma, History Professor at the Université de la Réunion, who wanted to immortalize the historical links that bind Réunion Island with the other countries of the Indian Ocean.

Following the inauguration of the stele on the beach of Le Morne in the south of Mauritius, an endemic garden will be created around it with the help of Professor Baker.

Low also disclosed that the next stele will be erected in Pondicherry on the East coast of India and a “Slave Memory Garden” will see the light of day in Nantes in 2009, a French port from where hundreds of slave ships set sail for the Americas in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Source African Press Agency

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