Nostalgic Old Trades Facing Extinction in Mauritius, Like a Doomed Dodo

[Super Galaxy?]

inker, tailor, blacksmith, barber, butcher, baker, mason, candlestick maker and carpenter; all old trades that served the seafarers of the 18th century on the trade route to India and the sugar plantation owners of the 19th century in Mauritius, may soon be facing extinction like the doomed dodo. Scene depicting tradesmen in Mauritius. Taken from “The Dodo and its Kindred” (1848) (Public Domain) Scene depicting tradesmen in Mauritius. Taken from “The Dodo and its Kindred” (1848) ( Public Domain ) Spanning the Dutch occupation from 1598, including the French occupation lasting from 1715, until the British colonisation from 1810, the island was a slave owning society.  Slave labour was used to build settlements, forts, docks, a shipyard, canals, expanded roads and always, like a ravenous beast, the sugar cane fields consumed slave labour at a never-ending pace.  But slaves were not the only workforce in Mauritius. Under French governorship of Mahé de Labourdonnais from 1742 to 1746 many free Indians were allowed to settle and trade in Mauritius.  Tinsmiths, jewellers, wig makers, tailors and cobblers catered to the needs of the well-to-do haut monde . Governor Mahé de Labourdonnais, Midas of Mauritius. (Image: L’Aventure du Sucre.) Governor Mah é de Labourdonnais, Midas of Mauritius. (Image: L’Aventure du Sucre.) The Birth of Port Louis Labourdonnais was the visionary governor who decided to move the capital from the Dutch site of Vieux Grand Port in the east, to the more natural harbour of Port Louis in the west.  Around the port he designed the emerging town, and divided it into sections for commerce, administration and residential areas. Merchants’ warehouses, fresh produce markets and pungent reeking meat markets were located adjacent to the harbour to serve the ships. In the alleys and back streets around the warehouses the shopkeepers, tradesmen and artisans set up shop. The outer circle of development, the residential areas, comprised a white city for the aristocracy and a black city, demarcated into camps for state owned slaves, freedmen, Indian, both Hindu and Muslim and Chinese. Today, none of the segregation exists and Mauritius is a peaceful state, drawing cultural nourishment from its multi-racial ancestral roots. The derelict ruins of the Labourdonnais Hospital, awaiting restoration. (Image: Courtesy of the author) The derelict ruins of the Labourdonnais