Mauritius – Aapravasi Ghat
The Mauritan capital of Port Louis is home to one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites that tell a rich history of the island, the Aapravasi Ghat.
Located on the bay of Trou Fanfaron, the Aapravasi Ghat – loosely translated as the immigrant depot – was built in 1849 to receive indentured labourers from India, Eastern Africa, Madagascar, China and Southeast Asia to work on the island’s sugar estates as part of the ‘Great Experiment’.
This experiment was initiated by the British Government, after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834, to demonstrate the superiority of ‘free’ over slave labour in its plantation colonies. The success of the ‘Great Experiment’ in Mauritius led to its adoption by other colonial powers from the 1840s, resulting in a world-wide migration of more than two million indentured labourers, of which Mauritius received almost half a million.
Categories: Mauritius
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