Michel Samoisy, a learned teacher, a cultured man, an educated young man of 77, a leader among his equals, I vouch these are not exaggerated superlatives on top of being a guardian of his country’s culture: ancient games, accordion playing and attachment to the ancestral culture.

Michel’s is a living museum. His household premises, house, stores, farm, pens and poultry, crops, are in themselves a living museum of the authentic Rodrigues lifestyle and set up. Michel has grown into a man in Rivière-Coco and even his soul will not leave this place, a kingdom for a simple human whom he serves well, and which serves him and his family abundantly. A man of wisdom, he is never in the rush although in his football team Starshine, he rushed as a shooting star in his position as centre forward. One of his TTC (Teachers Training College) mates of the 68/69 cohort, Jay Augun, said Michel made them all laugh uncontrollably with his tricks on ball control.

Michel expresses his pride and gratitude to the teaching staff of his primary schools, école Ste-Thérèse de L’Enfant Jésus and La Ferme St-Esprit Roman Catholic School. He’s been a ‘komi laboutik’ for some time before he joined the SaintLouis College founded by Regis Claude Obeegadoo in Port-Mathurin. The colonial administration offered a kind of positive discrimination for young Rodriguans to follow a special pupil-teacher training course after Form 3, which Michel completed. This opened the doors of the TTC for a three-year long course from1967 to 1969. They would go back home to fill an ever-increasing vacancy in the primary teaching profession.

Living with host families like all Rodriguan students was an enriching experience, what with living in a new cultural set-up, what with making friends with members of other communities, travelling long distances by bus and… going on errands for the landlady. He saved the money the landlady gave him for the bus fare. Responsibility and reality facing the facts of life has always been Michel’s motto. Cut your coat according to your cloth. Oh! How absence of contact with the family outweighed all the material pleasures of travelling, sightseeing and meeting with fellow Rodriguans on weekends. A mobile phone was out of the imagination. His parents had to be at the Telegraph Department at Mt-Venus at a fixed time to secure a call with Michel. From Port- Mathurin to Port-Louis the sea route was, to say the least, long.

I was invited to attend a special meeting of the Federation of Associations of Older Persons during my visit early December. Here was Michel, the person in chair, the depository of a vast knowledge of human rights, a leader with principles tinged with democratic rules, every member speaks relevantly, information is shared and consensus is developed. This openness to ideas coming from ‘others’ comes from his social engagement at 14 in Les Cœurs Vaillants, a scout-like organization, his involvement in the Rodrigues Council of Social Service, in the Comité village where he resides, in the Elderly Watch and in his day-to-day activities.

Michel is ever ready to champion Rodriguan ancient games (jeux letan lontan), play his accordion and talk to you without fatigue and without pretending to be a man above the lot. He is humility personified. When he speaks and when his eyes brighten, you can expect a cool river of knowledge unfurling.