Seychelles

The Republic of Seychelles consists of 155 islands off the east coast of Africa, northeast of Madagascar, and has the smallest population of any African sovereign nation. On 29 June in 1976 the country gained its independence from the United Kingdom. Since there’s no indigenous population, the nation consists of immigrants—mostly of French, African, Indian and Chinese descent. English and French are the official languages

It’s thought that either Austronesian or Arabs were the first to visit the islands—which were uninhabited—but the first sighting on record is that of Vasco de Gama in 1502. He named them the Amirantes after himself, the Admiral. Oh, and they were also used by pirates as a place to hole up between Africa and Asia. And we’ve learned how much I like my piratical history. Then the French began to take over from 1756, laying a “Stone of Possession” (which makes me want to go around laying stones of possession… see where it gets me) and, rejecting Vasco de Gama’s initial name for the islands, renaming them Seychelles after the Minister of Finance Jean Moreau de Séchelles.

Then there were the British. After contesting control over the islands from 1794 to 1812 (that whole French Revolution-Napoleonic War period) the British took over after the surrender of nearby Mauritius (then a territory united with the islands of the Seychelles) in 1812, and control was formalised in 1814. The Seychelles were granted status as a separate crown colony in 1903 before independence came along in 1976.

The ousting of presidents via coup d’états is beginning to feel like an alarming tradition as I write these histories, and, yes, the first president of the republic (James Mancham) was indeed tossed out in 1977 and replaced by France Albert René. From 1979 until 1991 the country was a socialist one-party state. In 1992 René was democratically reelected, and stood down in 2004 so that the then-vice president, James Michel, could step up to the plate. He was reelected in 2006.

There are giant tortoises in Seychelles. I want one.

Today’s poem delights me. PBS did a program on the Seychelles in 2002, and included in this program was a song written and sung by secondary school students from the nation and a poem and a story written by two different primary school children. The poem, “Thoughts of a Shark,” is below. The story and song can be found here. I’m sorry that I don’t have the name of the author of the poem.


Thoughts of a Shark

As I watched another of my kind
Being hauled into a wretched boat,
I think of the future that I will never see,
I think of how many of my kind are done for like me
My only future now is on a plate somewhere.

And my teeth shall be sold as a necklace
Somewhere in the market place
You don't know my pain
All you care about is your own gain.

I have survived from the time of the dinosaurs
But now even my immediate future looks bleak
Soon my kind will be no more
We shall be just another lost treasure of this world.
Only heard about, never seen
A legend that once lived.

—Written by a primary school child in the Seychelles