Where is it located? Should it be located somewhere or does it just exist and grow with us, within and without the Mauritian geographical territory?
When you ask a Mauritian living in Mauritius what is his or her culture. The answer will very rarely be Mauritian culture.
When you ask a Mauritian living abroad the same question, he’ll or she’ll most of the time tell you Mauritian culture. The person also adds that it’s very important to adapt and enrich oneself by taking the best of the culture of his or her adopted country but it’s primordial to preserve our ancestral traditions.
It’s a very interesting way to address the question of Mauritian identity.
Does a Mauritian identity exist? How can we define it?
What makes us a Mauritian? Is a Mauritian living abroad and making up the Mauritian diaspora a “lesser” Mauritian?
What’ we are sure about is that when you meet a person speaking our creole at VT Cash&Carry supermarket in Paris, he’ll or she’ll definitely tell you “mon enn morisyen”.
I’m a Mauritian.
Paradoxically, the answer is very rarely the same for a person living in Mauritius.
In motherland, one is a creole, blanc, indien (Hindi speaking) madras, marathi, musulman, sinwa, telegou,…but very rarely simply a Mauritian.
What’s sure is that whatever our descent, wherever we live, whoever we are, the universal values we’ve inherited while mingling together help us adapt and mould our identity naturally.