À l’heure du tout à l’image et du buzz sans suite, «l’express» souhaite faire découvrir la plume de poètes, de chanteurs, d’écrivains et de tous ceux qui jettent leur âme sur le papier, et qui mettent en mots des réflexions profondes.

February first, year eighteen thirty five

Governor William Nicolay solemnly advertised;

all slaves; men, women and children

had to be immediately taken

by their Masters as apprentices.

Thus slaves kept providing their services,

To buy back their freedom

In servitude years went on.

That difficult period over,

Some became dockers at the only harbour,

boatmen, fishermen, all skilled manual labour.

Liberated Africans from holds of ships

filled villages, freed from further trips.

As they settled along regions of the coast,

of painful land farming they could boast.

They were free men by law

physically not harassed any more

but deep down their hearts

they carried years and years of their past

with pains and wounds filled

as for food, the soil they tilled.

To let free the black slaves,

to white ‘Colons’, huge sums were paid

not one cent aside was laid but

for the slave, whose bad luck

even in freedom continued;

no money, no reward, no gratitude.

Bio

Dr Anitah Aujayeb

A long-standing educator, now teaching at tertiary level, she has authored several books in all genres of literature, novels, stories, travelogues, poems and history. This poem is from her book entitled “Mauritius in Rhythms”.