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Engendering Mauritian History: the Hidden Controversies Over Female Suffrage

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Engendering Mauritian History: the Hidden Controversies Over Female Suffrage Afrika Zamani, No. 17, 2009, pp. 63-80 © Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa & Association of African Historians 2012 (ISSN 0850-3079) Engendering Mauritian History: The Hidden Controversies over Female Suffrage Ramola Ramtohul* Abstract This article examines the controversy over female suffrage in Mauritius at the time of British colonial rule. Mauritius presents itself as an interesting historical paradox on the timing and form of women’s enfranchisement. This issue has been marginalised by male dominated historical accounts. Drawing from the constitutional debates of the 1940s that took place in parliament and were reproduced in verbatim in the press, the paper examines the manner in which female suffrage was attained in Mauritius. It argues that despite the strongly entrenched patriarchal culture in the island, the social divisions (ethnic and class) in the population had a major bearing on the debates over female suffrage, which were eventually beneficial to a class of women. The study reveals how the strength and domination of class and ethnic lobbies clearly marginalised women’s interests and silenced women. This article thus attempts to undo some of the male bias in Mauritian socio-political history. Résumé Cet article examine la controverse sur le droit au vote des femmes à l’Ile Maurice en période coloniale britannique. L’Ile Maurice se trouve être un paradoxe intéressant dans le choix du temps et la manière par laquelle les femmes ont gagné leur droit au vote. Cette question a été marginalisée par les récits historiques qui sont produits essentiellement par des hommes. L’article s’inspire des débats constitutionnels des années 1940 qui ont eu lieu au parlement et qui ont été repris verbatim par la presse pour examiner la manière dont les femmes ont gagné leur droit au vote à l’Ile Maurice. Il défend qu’en dépit d’une culture patriarcale bien enracinée, les divisions sociales (ethnique et classe) dans la population Mauricienne ont profondément influencé le débat sur le droit de vote des femmes. Ce qui fut bénéfique pour une frange des femmes. L’article révèle comment la force et la domination des lobbies basés sur la classe sociale et l’ethnie ont fortement participé à la marginalisation des intérêts des femmes et à leur silence. Il tente de déconstruire une partie du parti-pris des hommes dans l’histoire sociopolitique Mauricienne. * Department of Social Studies, University of Mauritius. Email: [email protected] 4. Ramtohul.pmd 63 31/10/2012, 17:39 64 Afrika Zamani, No. 17, 2009 Introduction As a British colony in the 1940s, Mauritius differs from most Western nations and former colonies in the timing and manner in which women were given the right to vote. Mauritian historical texts1 unfortunately attribute only marginal coverage to women, let alone the concern of women’s suffrage. Women were rendered virtually invisible within the political discourse and policy of that time period. This situation is in fact reminiscent of the African continent where history textbooks are predominantly male and sexist as they downplay the important role women have played in all aspects of African history (Zeleza 1997). The constitutional debates on female suffrage that took place in parliament in 1946 and 1947 were reproduced verbatim in the press. These debates are the main sources of data for this article and enable a thorough analysis of the manner in which female suffrage was attained in Mauritius at the time of British colonial rule. The consultation of the press archives of 1946 and 1947 also enabled the verification of evidence of the presence of any activities of women’s organisations, women suffragists or women’s voice on the topic. Print media were mainly owned and controlled by private individuals who were in favour of female suffrage. Hence, any women-led demonstrations for the right to vote would have been reported in the press. An analysis of female suffrage in Mauritius also contributes to theorisation on the gender dimension of politics in plural societies. The paper is structured into a number of sections. Following on from the introduction, a brief section on the history of Mauritius outlines the diversity of the population. The next section analyses the status of women in the country under colonial rule, before moving on to an examination of communalism and constitutional change. The article then delves into a gender analysis of the constitutional debates on the introduction of female suffrage. Mauritius: Historical Overview Mauritius is a small island of 720 square miles, located in the south western Indian Ocean with a population of approximately 1.2 million inhabitants. The Island of Mauritius experienced successive waves of colonisers and did not have an indigenous population. Mauritius was first ‘discovered’ by the Portuguese in the first decade of the sixteenth century (Toussaint 1977). After the nominal occupation by the Portuguese during this century, the Dutch2 attempted settlement when they initially landed in September 1598. From 1715 till 1810, Mauritius was a French colony and French settlers became the first permanent inhabitants of the island. Large numbers of slaves were imported from Mozambique and Madagascar and a few artisans were brought from southern India. The French settlement of the island was very 4. Ramtohul.pmd 64 31/10/2012, 17:39 Ramtohul: Engendering Mauritian History 65 successful and led to significant development. The small group of French settlers became wealthy land-owners due to the development and exploitation of the sugar industry. The British took over in 1810 during the Napoleonic Wars. British colonial rule over Mauritius lasted from 1810 till the accession of Mauritius to independence in 1968. Indian immigrants were brought to the island as indentured labourers to work in the sugar cane fields, following the abolition of slavery in 1835. The arrival of Indian indentured labourers brought a radical and permanent change in the ethnic composition of the island: in 1853 they formed a tiny fraction of the population of 100,000, of whom 80,000 were slaves, but by 1861 they made up two-thirds of the inhabitants (Houbert 1981). Chinese immigrants began to settle on the island in the 1830s as free immigrants, but the Mauritian Chinese population is small. Each successive wave of immigrants added new layers to an increasingly complex cultural, socioeconomic and political milieu (Bowman 1991). Until recently, the small but powerful Franco-Mauritian elite controlled political and economic power in the island followed by the light-skinned Creole professional and middle class. Franco-Mauritians represented the bourgeoisie and remained a strong interest group throughout the island’s history and they fought to preserve their political and economic interests with efficacy for many decades. At the bottom of the hierarchy were the dark-skinned Creoles and Indo-Mauritian labourers. The former slaves turned into artisans, carpenters, masons and fishermen. Class and ethnic divisions in the population of Mauritius hence remain very pertinent. Although the Mauritian nation is often referred to as a ‘rainbow nation’,3 in reality, it remains very fragile with a semblance of unity in diversity. Women in Colonial Mauritius Mauritius has been and still is a patriarchal society. Since the eighteenth century, the island had a strict demarcation of sex roles, supported by patriarchal forces that have been very resistant to change. During the colonial period, the status of Mauritian women was legally inferior to that of men, despite the fact that women played extremely important and diverse social roles. Discriminatory legislation included the ‘Code Noir’ and the ‘Code Napoleon’. The Code Noir, proclaimed in 1724, defined the status of slaves and authorised masters and husbands to punish women slaves. The Code Napoleon4 or Napoleon’s Civil Code of 1804 was adopted in 1808. This piece of legislation was characterised by severe patriarchalism and restricted women to the private sphere. It also imposed the status of minor on a married woman. Different groups of women in Mauritius were located in very different positions, primarily according to their class position, although ethnic identity also influenced women’s experiences. 4. Ramtohul.pmd 65 31/10/2012, 17:39 66 Afrika Zamani, No. 17, 2009 The majority of male-authored and male-biased writings on the history of Mauritius have failed to acknowledge women’s contributions to the political and economic life of the country.5 Although documentation does not cover the lives of the wealthy white Franco-Mauritian women, research on the lives of female slaves and indentured workers clearly highlights the strength of patriarchy in Mauritian society, which had a bearing on all women in the colony. The Franco-Mauritian women were privileged in the sense that many of them lived in greater luxury, and financial resources allowed them easier access to education. The extent to which they were able to participate in the public sphere was however limited as women were still legally the ‘inferior sex’. In the case of slaves, although both men and women were brought to Mauritius to work in the sugar cane plantations, female slaves suffered from sex-based disadvantages, where they mainly provided a pool of secondary labour from which the planters could draw (Teelock 1998). Women were considered as the ‘weaker second’ group working behind the main group, weeding and picking up left canes and leaves. Women slaves were also not able to use the sugar industry for their advancement since most of the jobs requiring skills were held by men (Teelock 1998). Indian indentured female immigrants did not fare better than the former female slaves in terms of the work opportunities available to them. One of the central paradoxes of the female immigrant experience in Mauritius was that despite the fact that Indian women were brought as part of a labour importation scheme, they were considered marginal to the production of sugar (Carter 1994).
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