Indentured labour and the Aapravasi Ghat

Replacing slaves: "the great experiment"

When slavery was abolished in the British Empire, by a law passed in 1834, Mauritian planters feared they would run short of workers for sugar cane. The British government then launched what it called "the great experiment": recruiting free workers on contract, mainly from India. This was indentured labour. Mauritius was its first major testing ground, and the model was later exported to other colonies.

2 November 1834: the arrival of the Atlas

On Sunday 2 November 1834 the Atlas sailed into Port Louis with a first group of workers who had signed their contracts in Calcutta. Known as "Hill Coolies" or Dhangars, they came from the hills of Bihar in eastern India. Every 2 November this arrival is commemorated at the Aapravasi Ghat.

Half a million lives

According to UNESCO, almost half a million indentured workers arrived in Mauritius between 1834 and 1920. The vast majority came from India, but there were also recruits from East Africa, Madagascar, China and South-East Asia. Most worked on the island's sugar estates; others were shipped on to Réunion, Australia, southern and eastern Africa or the Caribbean.

Contracts set a wage and a fixed term, but living and working conditions were often very hard. Many never went home: their descendants now make up a large share of the Mauritian population.

The immigration depot

To receive and register arrivals, the authorities built an immigration depot in 1849 on Trou Fanfaron bay in Port Louis. It operated until the mid-1920s. This is where newcomers passed through: inspection, registration, waiting, then assignment to the sugar estates.

What remains today is modest but moving: parts of sheds, kitchens, latrines, a hospital block and, above all, a flight of 14 steps that every immigrant had to climb to enter the depot. These steps have become the symbol of arrival in Mauritius.

A World Heritage Site

In 2006 UNESCO added the Aapravasi Ghat to the World Heritage List under criterion (vi), for its value as a testimony. The site, only about 1,640 m², is recognised as the place where the modern system of indentured labour began, a labour migration that shaped the history of many countries.

A living legacy

Indenture deeply shaped Mauritius: religions, festivals, food, music and languages. Bhojpuri, brought by migrants from northern India, is still spoken. Traditional Bhojpuri songs, or Geet-Gawai, sung especially at weddings, have been on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2016.

Visiting

The Aapravasi Ghat is in central Port Louis, near the waterfront and the Immigration bus station. On site you can see the steps and the remains of the depot. Allow about an hour, and combine your visit with the Caudan, the Central Market or the Place d'Armes.