Two score and two, that’s the age of our independent nation today. In the life of a human being, this would ordinarily give rise to a so-called mid-life crisis. For a nation, it could constitute a perennial crisis, imagined or real, of national identity, and it is perhaps an opportune time to ask the question what makes a Mauritian a Mauritian.

Between the time the head of a Mauritian baby is seen and the time the baby is deposited in the cot, he has time to have a trip around the five continents. When he opens his eyes, between the nurses, the doctors and the patients, he has seen what the whole population of the world looks like. As he learns how to speak, he already knows how to address people. He knows who to call ‘Monsieur’, ‘Bhye’, ‘Chacha’ and ‘Uncle’. He instinctively knows which lady he would offend by calling ‘Tantine’ and which one he would displease by not calling her so. By the time he begins to socialize, he has mastered the art of greeting. He knows which hands to shake, which cheeks to kiss and what body language to use from a distance. When he makes his first steps to a place of worship, he has already been acquainted with the other places of worship he will not step into. When he starts entertaining people, he has no problem dealing with all their religious dietary constraints. When he starts cooking, he will know which of his colleagues has a good Kalia recipe and which one will show him how to make ti-puri or mee foon.

That is an awful lot of knowledge. It is an awful lot of culture. It is a tremendous start in life. It is a leg-up over so many children his age who are not fortunate enough to have been born in such diversity.

Unfortunately, he will also grow up in relative insularity, in an isolated island in the vastness of the Indian Ocean, unthreatened by anyone. Having no foe from without, he learns to invent enemies from within. He becomes highly competitive, divisive and his sense of self-preservation will prevent him from opening up to others. He is religious, undoubtedly, but he is more interested in making a show of his religion than in grasping the principles behind it. His sense of family values is very strong but so is his sense belonging to his community. He sees himself fi rst as a member of a community and then as a Mauritian. Of the people around him, the ones he discovered from those early days just after his birth, he knows with whose children he will be playing, the ones he is likely to choose from when he decides to get married and the ones at whose table he will be sitting. About the others, he will speak of tolerance. Not a good enough word but better than many countries have been able to achieve.

Given this multi-dimensionality of the identity matrix, what makes the uniqueness of the Mauritian identity? The way a Mauritian juggles all his identities without any contradiction. He cannot fit in the mould of George Bush, ‘you are either with us or against us.’ He belongs to his community first, but that does not decrease his love for and loyalty to his country or the pride he feels in belonging to it. Don’t ask him to choose. He is happy the way things are. The Mauritian way.

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