Monday 15th of April 1822 at exactly noon a canon shot reverberated from the Le Bagne Prison where the central post office stands now. (Le Bagne: where the Prisoners under French colonial rule were convicted to do hard labour-and “ Les Bagnes Coloniaux Français” were abolished one year before the beginning of the Second world War II 1938) which was in the Port area destroying the ghostly silence under which the whole Port-Louis was warped.

The military procession with armed British soldiers on well-groomed horses started its deadly rituals. In the middle of the procession was an empty horse drawn carriage. Behind one beefy black slave of mammoth proportion who was naked save a skimpy loincloth. In his right hand was an executioner’s sword. The beefy black slave was going to be the headsman. Behind surrounded with assistant headmen (all slaves) were Ratsitatane (the one who will become the Mauritian Che Guevara), Cotte-Voud also known as Prospere and Latulipe: all sentenced to death by the Mauritian Court of Justice.

There was an immense crowd from Le Bagne -Government House-corner La Chaussée-Rue de Paris (later known as Desforges Street today Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Street) to the scaffold which was erected in the Jardin de la Plaine-Verte. The scaffold was opposite Paris Street. The crowd was murmuring with their hearts.

It is the first beheading to be carried out by the British since the conquest of île de France in 1810. The last capital execution was done in 1774. The persons executed were a soldier by the name of Sans Quartier and his two accomplices. They went through an ordeal of the most barbaric nature.

The first person to be beheaded on that fatal Monday of 15th of April 1822 were Prince Ratsitatane, aged 23 years old.

The headman picked the head of Ratsitatane and showed it to the dense crowd which responded with clapping.
Cotte-Voud was followed by Prospere…
Where is the head of Ratsitatane?

When I was Attorney General & Human Rights Minister, I started some preliminary discussions with former chief justice, Hon Lallah and the late historian Norbert Benoit to have a retrial of Ratsitatane.

Historian Norbert Benoit was a regular visitor at my office for that purpose.
Justice Lallah was even agreeable for a retrial with good criminal lawyers as trainers of the students of law of the University of Mauritius.
In the same vein la “Route de Ratsitatane” would have been re-enacted which if successful (we were thinking of “zozef ek so palto lark en ciel” of Dev Virasawmy and father Gérard Sullivan) at regular intervals for Mauritian students/ tourists and the General Public…

Why is Ratsitatane so important to my mind?

1) Because Ratsitatane symbolizes the struggle of slaves, maroons (Run-away slaves and up to now it is difficult to know how many were killed and hands cut in the most inhumane way and brought-back as scalps to the slave-owners) and apprentices.

Because he was not fighting for liberty but also for another component which is often forgotten by even Human Rights lawyers that is dignity. Dignity trampled and crushed by all those in power. That’s why Dignity is the second leg of Article 1 of the Universal Human Rights Declaration which states:
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”. I emphasize “free and equal in dignity and rights”

2) Because the life of Ratsitatane teaches us how people from different origins can overcome the language barrier to unite for liberty – dignity and justice.

3) Because Ratsitatane was one way or another linked with the plot, revolt, treason (of Laizaff who was in fact the instigator)- arrest, torture, the quasi Kangaroo court and the execution are full of lessons for humans of Post Covid-19. And whether Ratsitatane was not in fact frame by the British because of his staunch opposition to any form of interference by non-Malagasy’s in the politics of Madagascar.

4) Because Ratsitatane was also against Colonial Rule and presence of the British in Madagascar.

I will not expatiate further.

The trial was wrong and unfair. Utterly wrong!

1) Should Ratsitatane have been brought to Mauritius in the first instance?
2) Was it really at the instigation of Radama l King of Madagascar?
3) Why was he confined to Mauritius? Was he in exile in Mauritius? Was he going to stay in Mauritius for a while waiting for the British to send him further away?
4) What was the role of Governor Farquhar who was doing everything to woo the Franco-slave owners and who will after his governorship in Mauritius become the official representative of the Slave owners in London?
5) Were there only 48 conspirators or many more who were left unaccounted and untraced so as not to provoke the slaves who were in a sizeable majority in Mauritius and particularly in Port-Louis?
6) Who really arrested Ratsitatane? (the militia of 1500 men led by Adrien D’Epinay or the British soldiers?). Why the fact that Ratsitatane was arrested without resistance not pressed by lawyers before the court? Were the lawyers in cahoots with the British to send to the gallows Ratsitatane?
7) Is there an account of his torture in the hands of the militia and the British Soldiers?
8) His questionings and the questioning of others … Where are the records? We must absolutely read the “interrogatoire de Dominique”! (One of the slaves who was arrested to understand the toxic atmosphere)
9) Were there refusals by lawyers to defend Ratsitatane and others?... We must look again whether there has been some collusion untoward to the oath of a Barrister… (the role of Adrien D’Epinay as counsel was against the Code of Ethics for all Barristers in England and in the Commonwealth. See Boulton Code of Ethics).
10) Were the translations of the interrogations of the slaves arrested tinkered with?
11) Was the trial which lasted for two months fair? It could not have been fair but was it only a show? If yes, why?
12) Why the accusation of “black-magician” laid against Ratsitatane?
13) Is the accusation of magic not a further ploy by the establishment? How could it be the exact replica of what was laid against Jakoto or Rakoto, a 23 years old Malagasy slave in Reunion island in 1799. Jakoto-Rakoto was accused with other Malagasy conspirators to kill the whites in the commune of Sainte-Rose!

The whole trial stinks miscarriage of Justice…

Do you know that the following documents are not accessible in Mauritius?

(a) Governor Farquhar’s papers;
(b) Conclusions definitives du Ministère Public Plaignant;
(c) Diary of James Hastie;
(d) Edward Byam (Commissioner of Police) three years of administration of Ile de France;
(e) Procès verbal de l’execution de Ratsitatane, Cotte-Voud dit prospere et Latulipe requête de Mr Barbes substitut du procureur general du Roi”
(f) The correspondence of the top officials at the times of arrest, trial and execution;
(g) Cahiers d’affrontation de Ratsitatane 6-7 mars 1822
(h) Interrogatoire de Brutus et Jupiter and others like d’Arlequin, Lailave, Dick, Edouard, Nina, Nelson, Azor, S. Romme…
(i) The whole Judicial record at our national archives is in tatters… However, the records in London have been safely preserved. Were the British more scared of Ratsitatane running away from Mauritius to go back to Madagascar where he would have opposed the presence of the British?

Was Laizaff used by the British to stop down Ratsitatane of becoming a dangerous opponent to their Indian Ocean ambitions? Why was there not an uproar in Great Britain which has already voted for the abolition of slavery?

(j) The role of Laizaff… For example, the one who betrayed Ratsitatane…What happened to him? Was he rewarded like Judas? Did he forsake his rewards? Why was he prosecuted? Why did he not receive any immunity? Why was him not executed? Is it true that he was released one week before Governor Farquhar left Mauritius?
(k) How can Ratsitatane be part of the conspiracy when he was not there when the plot was hatched?
it is true that the Truth and Justice Commission as set up in Mauritius is the first in the world to look into the history of slavery, its consequences and to accept the principle that reparations are required.

The Truth and Justice Commission recommended the setting up of an Intercontinental Slavery Museum. In fact, the Truth and Justice Commission proposed (I honestly don’t see a better place) the former Military Hospital Complex which is part of the buffer zone of the Aapravasi Ghat World Heritage Property.

The slavery Museum will be able to finance in depth studies after collecting, retrieving and collating all the information concerning the history (truth and myth) around Ratsitatane…

Will we again flush our history?

In two years-time, we will celebrate the bicentenary of Ratsitatane beheading. Will we celebrate as it should, or must we confine ourselves to titbits of what our Colonial Masters bequeathed to us…