LITERESI BILENG AVANSE - boukie banane

IN SEARCH OF AN IDENTITY
In a plural society - or multi-racial if you want - it is normal that the search for an identity is an ongoing
process specially in the case of a newly independent country (some 40 years are not a big
deal). This issue regularly surfaces, normally before, during and after general elections. For some the
solution is ever so simple; for most it is intractable and for some others it is a long and slow process
of change.
For the cock-eyed optimist we should embrace Morisianism and ignore/delete the rest. What's
strange with the 'Nou Morisien' bunch is that among them we have quite a few who support the
opinion that the people of the Mauritian diaspora should retain all the rights which Mauritian
citizens enjoy. A very noble stand indeed! As a matter of fact they accept the principle of dual
citizenship for those who have settled down in a foreign country. You can be British or French or
Australian or South African or American or Indian AND Mauritian at the same time. A person can
have two or more identities. Yet they deny this right to citizens living in Mauritius. You cannot be
Mauritian and a Hindu or Muslim or Christian or Telugu or Marathi or Vaish etc.
The ultraconservatives – we will burn forever in the hellish flames of ethnic division and conflicts –
think it is pointless and dangerous to even think that a supra-ethnic identity is possible and are
determined to preserve their so-called purity.
There are also people (they may be only a handful) who are convinced that a supra-ethnic identity is
in the making. The process may be slow but for those who want to see, hear and feel there are clear
manifestations of a new reality emerging. We may be called Don Quixotes. Never mind! The world
needs more Don Quixotes.
Now that my career as a culture activist is drawing to a close there are a few upsetting experiences I
want to share which can give a glimpse of how hard the task of nation building is. After the byelection
of September 1970, Loga accompanied me to the Legislative Assembly for the swearing-in
ceremony. She was elegantly dressed in a beautiful saree. The editor of an important afternoon
paper told me off in private for allowing my wife to wear a saree. For him Morisianism meant
'anvlope nou pa'le'. Today he runs a very important paper. I have never asked him if he still holds to
his retrograde view.
Some 10 years later, when the Mauritian version of 'Joseph And His Amazing Technicolour
Dreamcoat' became known as 'Zozef Ek So Palto Larkansiel' some left-wingers started to attack me
and the artistic artefact. I was the traitor, the turncoat, one who had sold people's culture to the
Catholic Church. Moreover the symbol of the rainbow was pooh-poohed. In those days the
catchword was 'Enn sel lepep, enn sel nasion'. The colours of the rainbow never merge or fuse. So
the symbol of the rainbow as one of national unity is all wrong. The rest is history.
THE STRAW AND THE BEAM
All the honest, honourable, open-minded citizens who never practise communalism or casteism
have every right to denounce these scourges. I've always wondered why racism is never denounced.
It is even thought improper, not politically correct, to say that a handful of white people own and
control over 75% of the wealth of the country. The racist belief that only the whites can develop the
country is never denounced or condemned while it is politically correct to say that communalism is
responsible for all evils affecting us.
What is communalism? Feeling different? Feeling superior? A feeling that one should preserve one's
culture? A combination of all these? If it is bad to consider oneself superior, is it bad to feel different,
to want to preserve one's ethnic culture and identity? Is anti-communalism a genuine concern for
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