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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.

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http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1386/ijfs_00053_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): (post)colonialism; (postcolonial) trauma theory; collective memory; functions of literature; Mauritian fiction; Olivier Bancoult; social activism

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