Mauritian Creole People - Creoles Today

Creoles Today

The Creoles and the Indo-Mauritians form the largest ethnic groups in Mauritius. They are divided into two main groups in Mauritius (which are not exclusive but were used very often in the past): Mulattos and Blacks. Among the community, there is much multiracial variances, from dark-skinned Creoles to near-white ones. Hindus and Creoles have identified with opposing political parties and groups.

The political competition between these two ethnic groups has continued for decades, starting from Seewoosagur Ramgoolam and Gaëtan Duval in 1960s and 1970s, passing through Sir Anerood Jugnauth and Paul Bérenger in the 1980s and 1990s, and lastly between Navin Ramgoolam and Paul Bérenger in the 2000s. The demographics and population of Hindu well settled throughout the country always maintain their position and the Hindu-dominated parties always win. Ramgoolam and Jugnauth are the two Hindu clans that have been in power since independence. Bérenger and Duval are the two Creoles who have fought for the Christian electorate; they have been allied with the Labour party or MSM in order to be able to gain positions in government.

Despite the rivalry between the two ethnic groups (Indian origin people and Creoles), both sides live peacefully beside each other. The main struggle is to be the most well set community within the Island. Both groups encourage their children to perform well at school and the adults work hard to improve the quality of their lives. The groups generally agree on issues of national priority. For example, Dr Navin Ramgoolam (Indian origin PM) worked hard to have 'LE MORNE' designated as a World Heritage sites, as the LE MORNE site is important to both the Creole community and Mauritians in general. The friendship and unity of the two groups is also seen when Mauritian athletes compete at international level for the country.

There are sizable/influential Muslim (of Indian origin), French, Creole & Chinese communities which if combined together form more than 50% of the nation. Ever since independence, Mauritius has been a democratic country where all governments were elected democratically with international observers being satisfied of elections. According to the system, people vote for party and not on ethnic grounds. Thus Paul Berenger of French origin and Christian faith has served as Prime Minister of Mauritius during the period 2004-2005 after his alliance won the election in which the whole population voted. Worth noting that there is festival Kreol which means festival for Creoles which lasts a number of days with dancing, singing, etc all funded by public money. Nothing comparable for Hindus. There is the ZEP (zone d'education prioritaire) policy whereby priority in education is given to the children of certain regions having bad academic performance. The children of mostly Creole origin profit from this policy; they receive free meals unlike better achieving but poor children of rural areas.