Today, we took a “rainbow culture” tour that took us to houses of worship throughout Port Louis and inland towards the center of the island. We started in a Tamil Temple that immediately brought us all to attention. Tamil is a form of Hinduism. Our tour guide is Tamil and so we learned a lot wandering around the Temple. But most of us were just awed by the brilliant color.
Then we went to a Jesuit Catholic Church -- St. Francis Xavier -- that wasn’t all that impressive architecturally, but there were prayers going on with no priest or clear leader at the pulpit which was curious. We sat and watched a while, the congregation was sparse but pretty cohesive. They were praying in unison. I’ve added lot more photos to the map than I’m putting in here, so go there if you want to see the Church or more photos of anything else mentioned here.
Then we went to the Islamic Cultural Center and learned about the Muslim history in Mauritius. Most Muslims here came from India. We learned about the programming of the Cultural Center and they had a very nice library on the upper floor. The books are Dewey classed, which I thought was interesting since nearly everything in the collection was classed at 297.
You’d think they’d use something a little deeper to better meet the needs of the collection. The library had beautiful wooden furniture.
(I think I neglected to mention that the guide from the tour agency who took us to Nelspruit for the safari was a retired librarian. He was the Librarian of Parliament in Cape Town for many years. I knew Barbie would have questions about being Librarian of Parliament, but mostly I learned that they are not a national library (the National Library of South Africa is the national library) and I learned a bit about public library & bookmobile service in South Africa.)
The Director of the Islamic Cultural Center spoke with us and took questions at the end. It struck me that the questions that the group asked were all about conflict: what was it like in Mauritius in 1948 when the Indian subcontinent was partitioned and there was such violence between Hindus & Muslims there? What happened in Mauritius? Do the Sunni communities & the Shiite communities of Mauritius get along? Does the Cultural Center speak to both their needs? Is fundamentalism an issue in Mauritius? Question after question about distinction & division. And the Director’s answers were all that Mauritius has always been peaceful, that the religious communities have always gotten along. It seemed a little over-romanticized, but I was really stuck not so much by the answers, but by the questions our group was asking. We were looking for divisions. Yesterday, I talked about Creole & English & French. Today we learned that the Muslim community largely speaks Urdu, the Hindu community largely speaks Hindi or Tamil (in addition to Creole & English). Arabic is spoken by the Muslim community but only really in the religious context. The lines we tend to draw all seemed blurred by the people here. At the end of the questions, the Director asked us where we were all from. We said we were from various universities in the United States. He then asked us if we knew that the United States wasn’t all that well regarded by Muslim communities around the world. Well, yes … One of our group uttered grimly “and we feel your pain” …
Then we went to a Chinese Pagoda. This was the only place we didn’t really have a guide, so we roamed around a bit but did not learn terribly much. I imagine we’ll have many opportunities as we reach China. As with the Tamil Temple, the color here was what drew our attention:
And this woman who was standing outside in her Marlboro shorts & her pink curlers:
Then we went up to a high point in the city and took some photos overlooking Port Louis.
This is David & Phoebe. I believe I’ve mentioned them before. They have been married almost 43 years. They met just 3 weeks before Phoebe went off on a trip to Europe. She was 19 years old and she hitchhiked by herself through Europe for 4 months. It was 1964. They got married 4 weeks after she came back to the States. Phoebe is a therapist and David teaches English at UNC-Charlotte.
And this is Robin with Giles & Kate. Giles teaches political science. His grandfather was an architect who worked for Standford White. Giles' grandfather actually worked on the Rotunda restoration at UVA after the fire. He also designed buildings for Standford White at both Mount Holyoke & at Smith Colleges. Connections to all my haunts. Kate amuses me because her full name is Leah Katherine and she goes by Kate and Ann’s daughter is Katherine Leah and she goes by Leah.
Then we drove out to the middle of the island and had lunch at what was billed as a “Muslim restaurant”. All the food here has significant Indian influence and that was clear with lunch also. The restaurant had a lovely creek running behind with a small waterfall.
I was bit by mosquitoes there. I've been taking my malaria medication since the safari & Mauritius is supposed to be low risk for malaria anyway, but they say there are other horrid diseases you can get from the mosquitoes here too. I hope not.
After lunch we went to a colonial house, built by the French during the British rule. The treaty between Britain and France allowed the French to keep all their land as well as their language and culture. The French culture is much stronger here than the British even though the British settled last. The folks who built this house were clearly colonizers with lots of land and money.
After this stop, we went to the Mahatma Gandhi Institute, which is one of the few colleges in Mauritius. We learned that many students here go to England or elsewhere in Europe for University. The primary & secondary schools follow the British system and so entry into British universities is pretty seamless. The Institute has a folk museum where we started. They house the Indian Immigration Archives where they have the immigration records back to 1834 when Indians started arriving in Mauritius as indentured servants. They were given 5 year contracts and paid 5 rupees for their labor. One of those rupees was supposed to pay their passage back to India after 5 years. At today’s exchange rate there are 32 rupees to the dollar. Eventually, the landowners realized that it was more cost efficient to keep people here for longer periods of time than it was to continually bring new people, who would need to be trained and acclimated. They started bringing whole families over who then stayed. The archive had an office with several women at computers and they are working to computerize the immigration records. I asked if they were putting this information online so that people could do genealogical research on the web. The Director told me originally this had been their goal. The immigration records contain last name, first name, “identifying marks” (birthmarks, etc.), father’s name, dates of arrival and departure (if the individual returned to India), and the individual’s caste. The caste system is illegal now, but politically & socially still a part of the culture. The Director said they regularly get people who come in and argue about the caste of their ancestors. They argue that the immigration records are wrong and they want them changed. He said this is particularly a problem for well known people in power and so making this information public is not possible. They are still in the process of deciding what can be made web accessible and what will not.
Finally, we went to the auditorium of the Institute where we were treated to a demonstration of classical Indian dance. The Mahatma Gandhi Institute is the only University on the island that teaches the arts. The demonstration was done by the faculty and students and they taught us about the different dance elements and some of the meanings and then they performed for us. The students were clearly students, they weren’t always in sync with each other, but it was definitely fun to watch them show off what they are learning. Their dresses were beautiful and it was a lovely performance.
And then David & Phoebe & Robin & I went to Chinatown for dinner. We ran into one of the resident directors who also joined us. The place wasn’t all that great, but it was definitely better than the options in Charlottesville & so that made me happy. I have pretty low expectations of decent Chinese food these days! Like the Indian dinner last night, the meal tonight had interesting French influence. As I mentioned yesterday, the Europeans who colonized Mauritius were in search of a bridge port between Africa & Asia. Traveling around the world like we are is an interesting experience. We still see the African elements from where we just came -- we walked into a store today that had exactly the same jewelry and wood carvings that we saw in South Africa, for example -- but I’m feeling more prepared now for India than I was before. With a hint of China to come ...
