Eviction from the Chagos Islands: Displacement and Struggle for Identity Against Two World Powers (African History)

312 Pages·2011·7.32 MB·English

by  Sandra Evers

Eviction from the Chagos Islands
African History
VOLUME 1
Eviction from the Chagos Islands
Displacement and Struggle for Identity
Against Two World Powers
Edited by
Sandra J.T.M. Evers
Marry Kooy
LEIDEN • BOSTON
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2011
Cover illustration: ‘Uprooted’, Mauritius, 2008. Photograph by AnneMarie Glas.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Eviction from the Chagos Islands : displacement and struggle for identity against two world
powers / edited by Sandra J.T.M. Evers, Marry Kooy.
p. cm. -- (African history; v. 1)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-90-04-20260-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. British Indian Ocean Territory--
History--20th century. 2. Population transfers--Chagossians. 3. Chagossians--History.
4. Chagossians--Biography. 5. Refugees--British Indian Ocean Territory. 6. Refugees--
Mauritius. 7. Refugees--Seychelles. I. Evers, Sandra II. Kooy, Marry. III. Title. IV. Series.

DS349.9.C42E95 2011
969’.7--dc22
2011007059
ISSN 2211-1441
ISBN 978 90 04 20260 3
Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV
provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center,
222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA.
Fees are subject to change.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ......................................................................................vii
Timeline .........................................................................................................ix
Acknowledgements .....................................................................................xv
Redundancy on the Instalment Plan: Chagossians and
the Right to be Called a People ...............................................................1
Sandra J.T.M. Evers & Marry Kooy
From the Birth of the Ilois to the “Footprint of Freedom”:
A History of Chagos and the Chagossians ..........................................11
David Vine
Clement Siatous: Chagossian Artist in Exile ............................................37
“Native Ilois of Chagos”: Excerpts from the Narratives
of Dussercle (1933–36) ...........................................................................41
Vinesh Y. Hookoomsing
Atman Ramchalaon: Seeking the Facts .....................................................59
The Making of the Chagos Affair: Myths and Reality ............................61
Jocelyn Chan Low
Charlesia Alexis: The Struggle of the Chagossian Women .....................81
Sorrow, Sadness, and Impoverishment: The Lives of
Chagossians in Mauritius .......................................................................83
Laura Jeffery and David Vine
Bernadette Dugasse: Born in Diego Garcia
December 1956 ......................................................................................103
Chagossians Twice Forgotten: Exile in the Seychelles ..........................105
David Vine
Allen Vincatassin: Negotiating Life in Mauritius and the UK..............125
vi contents
Responsibility and Redress: The Chagossian Litigation
in the English Courts ............................................................................127
Stephen Allen
Olivier Bancoult: Leading the Way Back to Chagos ..............................153
Self-Determination in the Post-Colonial Era: Prospects
for the Chagossians ...............................................................................157
Maureen Tong
Aurélie Marie-Lisette Talate: Young Again in Diego .............................181
Cleaning for the Dead: The Chagossian Pilgrimage
to their Homeland .................................................................................183
Steffen F. Johannessen
Perspectives of a UK Member of Parliament: “Chagos,
Just Plain Injustice” ...................................................................................217
‘A Lost People’? Chagossian onward Migration and
Echoes of Marginalisation in Crawley
Laura Jeffery ........................................................................................219
Reverend Mario Li Hing: Committed to the
Chagossian Cause .................................................................................239
Longing and Belonging in Real Time: How Chagossian
Children in Mauritius Imagine the Chagos Islands .........................241
Sandra J.T.M. Evers
About the Authors .....................................................................................273
Bibliography ...............................................................................................277
Index ...........................................................................................................289
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Maps
1. Chagos Islands on the World Map ....................................................xvi
2. Map Chagos Islands ...........................................................................xvii
3. Map Diego Garcia .............................................................................xviii
Illustrations
1. Painting by Clement Siatous, Memories of Chagos ........................39
2. Rev. Roger Dussercle ...........................................................................42
3. Text and Musical Transcription of a Çanté Zavirons
‘Innocement’ .........................................................................................44
4. Map Ile d’Aigle ......................................................................................49
5. Text and Musical Transcription of Death Song ‘Aniwawaoh’ .........52
6. Voyage of the Diego, 1934 ...................................................................58
7. Plight of Chagossians. Source unknown. ........................................156
8. Sketched Route of the Chagossian Pilgrimage from Port
Louis to Chagos, 2006 .......................................................................185
9. Religious Ceremony in the Abandoned Church on Peros
Banhos during the Pilgrimage. ©Photo: Norbert Salomon .........203
10. Clement Siatous: “Peros Banhos Abandoned.” Painting
of an abandoned building in Peros Banhos made by a
Chagossian artist living in Mauritius. .............................................211
11. Drawing by Lilli, Life in Chagos ......................................................243
12. Drawing by Anne, Life in Salomon .................................................245
13. Drawing on Life in Mauritius ...........................................................252
14. Picture taken by Daniel (eleven years) showing Chagossian
dwellings just after the floods of March 2008. ................................258
15. Drawing by Marie, Life in Diego Garcia .........................................260
16. Drawing by Lianne, Life in Chagos .................................................261
17. Drawing by Elle, Life in Chagos .......................................................265
18. Drawing by Angie, Life in Chagos ...................................................266
19. Drawing by Rozy, Life in Chagos .....................................................267
20. Drawing by Aurelie, Life in Chagos .................................................268
21. Picture by Daniel of his brother and his brother’s
motor cycle ..........................................................................................269

TIMELINE
1500s C hagos islands visited and mapped out by Portuguese,
who begin using the islands as a stopover between the
Cape (South Africa) and India.
1598 Dutch East India Company (VOC) starts using
Mauritius as a resupply hub between Europe and East
Asia. Formal settlement in 1638.
1700s F rance and England compete for the islands in the
western Indian Ocean as strategic bases to control ship-
ping routes to India.
Ca. 1710 After failed settlement attempts, the Dutch abandon
Mauritius.
1721 The French establish a successful permanent settlement
on Mauritius (renamed Ile de France). Slave trade from
mainly Madagascar and Eastern Africa.
1744 The French claim the Seychelles.
1744 The French claim Chagos’ Peros Banhos island.
Numerous French and English voyages follow to inspect
other island groups in the archipelago.
In or around 1783 a plantation owner from Mauritius,
Pierre Marie Le Normand, founds a settlement on pre-
viously uninhabited Diego Garcia. He brings twenty-
two slaves from Mauritius (most likely originally from
Madagascar and East Africa), who, by all accounts,
become the island’s first inhabitants.
1786 A settlement party of the British East India Company
arrives in the Chagos archipelago to create a provision-
ing plantation, only to discover the French settlement.
Le Normand escapes to Mauritius. The British land-
ing party also departs to prevent an international
incident.
1786 onwards Fishing settlement and coconut plantations are estab-
lished in the Chagos archipelago, the latter by Franco-
Mauritian entrepreneurs. Labourers are principally
slaves from Mauritius, the Seychelles, Madagascar and
the East coast of Africa.