Skip to content
1981
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. International Journal of Francophone Studies
  4. Volume 26, Issue 1
  5. Article
Volume 26, Issue 1-2
  • ISSN: 1368-2679
  • E-ISSN: 1758-9142

Abstract

Beginning in the late 1960s, the entire population of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, part of a British colony, was deported in order to establish an American military base in this geostrategic location. Ignorant about their fate, most of the traumatized Chagos islanders were dumped in shacks on the island of Mauritius. This article analyses the representation of the Chagossians’ plight and eventual fight for justice through the prism of three fictional Francophone texts: Shenaz Patel’s (2005), Caroline Laurent’s (2021) and Jean-Michel Fillol’s (2014). The focus will be on the development of three prevailing themes, (post)memory, trauma and reclaimed agency, by engaging with an array of approaches to trauma theory, in particular as they pertain to a social and cultural postcolonial context. Therefore, the article aims to uncover how these narratives reflect the nostalgic and critical memories, the revolt and the legal battle against the Mauritian and British authorities by the Chagossians. The most significant function of the texts is to enable the Chagossian exiles and their descendants to process the traumatic event, thus empowering and healing them.

Résumé

Vers la fin des années 1960, la population entière de l’archipel des Chagos dans l’Océan Indien, une colonie britannique, fut deportée pour permettre aux Américains d’y établir une base militaire géostratégique. Ignorants de leur sort, la plupart des Chagossiens traumatisés se retrouvèrent dans des bidonvilles sur l’île Maurice. Cet article analyse la représentation du sort des Chagossiens ainsi que leur lutte pour la justice sous l’angle de trois textes francophones: de Shenaz Patel (2005), de Caroline Laurent (2021) et de Jean-Michel Fillol (2014). Un intérêt particulier est porté aux trois thèmes dominants de la (post)mémoire, du traumatisme et de l’agencement récupéré en mettant en valeur les différentes théories du traumatisme, notamment celles se rapportant au contexte postcolonial social et culturel. Ainsi, cet article vise à dévoiler dans les récits la mémoire nostalgique et critique, la révolte et la lutte judiciaire des Chagossiens contre les autorités mauritiennes et britanniques. Les fonctions les plus significatives de ces récits sont de permettre aux exilés et leurs descendants d’accéder à l’ et de guérir du traumatisme.

© 2023 Intellect Ltd
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/ijfs_00053_1
2024-02-22
2024-10-16
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Alexander, Jeffrey, Eyerman, Ron, Giessen, Bernhard, Smelser, Neil J. Smelser and Sztompka, Piotr (2004), Cultural Trauma and Collective Identity, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Bal, Mieke (1999), ‘Introduction’, in M. Bal, J. Crewe and L. Spitzer (eds), Acts of Memory: Cultural Recall in the Present, Hanover, NH and London: University Press of New England, pp. vii–xvii.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Balaev, Michelle (2014), ‘Literary trauma theory reconsidered’, in M. Balaev (ed.), Contemporary Approaches in Literary Trauma Theory, Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1–14.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Bannerjee, Rohini and Patel, Shenaz (2008), ‘Rompre le silence des Chagos: Entretien avec Shenaz Patel’, Nouvelles Etudes Francophones, 2:1, pp. 198–211.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Bowcott, Owen and Rinvolucri, Bruno (2022), ‘Exiled Chagos Islanders return without officials for first time’, The Guardian, 12 February, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/12/exiled-chagos-islanders-return-without-uk-officials-for-first-time?CMP=share_btn_link. Accessed 17 February 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Bragard, Véronique (2008), ‘Murmuring vessels: Relocating Chagossian memory and testimony in Shenaz Patel’s Le Silence des Chagos’, e-France, Special Issue: ‘L’Ici et l’ailleurs: Postcolonial Literatures of the Francophone Indian Ocean’, 2, pp. 132–47.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Bragard, Véronique (2011), ‘“Righting” the expulsion of Diego Garcia’s “Unpeople”: The island space as Heterotopia in literary texts about the Chagos islands’, New Literatures Review, 47&48, pp. 57–69.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Craps, Stef (2013), Postcolonial Witnessing: Trauma Out of Bounds, Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Ducasse, Michel (2002), Mélangés, Mauritius: Editions Vilaz métis.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Fillol, Jean-Michel (2014), Chago, orphelin de l’Histoire, Port Louis: ELP Publications.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Gauvin, Georges (2017), ‘Hommage du Comité solidarité Chagos La Réunion à Jean-Michel Fillol’, Témoignages, 20 September, https://www.temoignages.re/culture/hommage/hommage-du-comite-solidarite-chagos-la-reunion-a-jean-michel-fillol,90647. Accessed 24 March 2023.
  12. Halbwachs, Maurice (1992), On Collective Memory (ed. and trans. L. A. Coser), Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Herrero, Dolores and Baelo-Allue, Sonia (eds) (2011), The Splintered Glass: Facets of Trauma in the Post-Colony and Beyond, Cross/Cultures, Amsterdam: Rodopi.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Hirsch, Marianne (2008), ‘The generation of postmemory’, Poetics Today, 29:1, pp. 103–28.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Hoffman, Eva (2004), After Such Knowledge: Memory, History, and the Legacy of the Holocaust, New York: Public Affairs.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Labelle, Françoise and Cangy, Jean Clément (2017), Chagos mon Amour: Quand Lisette Talate nous racontait Diego, Mauritius: Editions Maanbo and Trilingue.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Laurent, Caroline (2021), Rivage de la colère, Paris: Editions Les Escales.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Mann, Natasha (2000), ‘Island strife’, The Guardian, 12 July, https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2000/jul/13/guardianweekly.guardianweekly1?CMP=share_btn_link. Accessed 10 February 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Nyman, Jopi (2017), Displacement, Memory and Travel in Contemporary Migrant Fiction, Boston, MA: Brill.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Patel, Shenaz (2005), Le Silence des Chagos, Paris: Editions de l’Olivier.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Pilger, John (2007), Freedom Next Time: Resisting the Empire, London: Bantam Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Ravi, Srilata (2010), ‘Grieving islands: History, memory and the Chagossian tragedy’, in P. Gupta, I. Hofmeyr and M. Pearson (eds), Eyes across the Water: Navigating the Indian Ocean, Pretoria: Unisa Press, pp. 344–60.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Sands, Philippe (2022), The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain’s Colonial Legacy, London: Weidenfels and Nicolson.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Torabully, Khal (2009), Cahier d’un retour impossible au pays natal, Saint Pierre: K’A.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. van Alphen, Ernst (1999), ‘Symptoms of discursivity: Experience, memory, and trauma’, in M. Bal, J. Crewe and L. Spitzer (eds), Acts of Memory: Cultural Recall in the Present, Hanover, NH and London: University Press of New England, pp. 24–38.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. van Alphen, Ernst (2006), ‘Second-generation testimony, the transmission of trauma, and postmemory’, Poetics Today, 27:2, pp. 473–88.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Visser, Irene (2014), ‘Trauma and power in postcolonial literary studies’, in M. Balaev (ed.), Contemporary Approaches in Literary Trauma Theory, Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 106–29.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Visser, Irene (2015), ‘Decolonizing trauma theory: Retrospects and prospects’, Humanities, 4:2, pp. 250–65.
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/ijfs_00053_1
Loading
  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): (post)colonialism; (postcolonial) trauma theory; collective memory; functions of literature; Mauritian fiction; Olivier Bancoult; social activism

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error