The island of Mauritius lies in the middle of the Indian Ocean, about
550 miles east of Madagascar. Uninhabited until the arrival of colonists
in the late sixteenth century, Mauritius was subsequently populated by
many different peoples as successive waves of colonizers and slaves
arrived at its shores. The French ruled the island from the early
eighteenth century until the early nineteenth. Throughout the 1700s,
ships brought men and women from France to build the colonial population
and from Africa and India as slaves. In Creating the Creole Island,
the distinguished historian Megan Vaughan traces the complex and
contradictory social relations that developed on Mauritius under French
colonial rule, paying particular attention to questions of subjectivity
and agency.
Combining archival research with an engaging literary style, Vaughan
juxtaposes extensive analysis of court records with examinations of the
logs of slave ships and of colonial correspondence and travel accounts.
The result is a close reading of life on the island, power relations,
colonialism, and the process of cultural creolization. Vaughan brings to
light complexities of language, sexuality, and reproduction as well as
the impact of the French Revolution. Illuminating a crucial period in
the history of Mauritius, Creating the Creole Island is a major
contribution to the historiography of slavery, colonialism, and
creolization across the Indian Ocean.
