Destination: Paradise

Author(s): William F. S. Miles

Source: The Wilson Quarterly (1976-) , Summer, 2004, Vol. 28, No. 3 (Summer, 2004), pp.
12-20
Published by: Wilson Quarterly

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40260866

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 Destination:
Paradise
Imagine a breezy, palm-fringed island in the Indian Ocean.
There's no money, no Internet or TV, and a single phone line to the
outside world. Only a handful of people are allowed to visit each year.
Tempted? The author was, and he tells what he found.

by William F. S. Miles

island of Agalega is forbidden to Agalega 's most precious natural resources

the casual tourist and off limits even to are modest amounts of coconut and octo-
curious citizens of the nation that claims it. pus, the former shipped off as copra, the lat-
Proscription makes it all the more enticing, ter dried into a local delicacy. Mauritius, in
of course, to the diehard adventurer. Agalega contrast, is an economic dynamo. The size of
is actually two small islands (27 square miles Rhode Island, it has a population of more than
in all) narrowly separated by shallow tidal a million, exports millions of tons of sugar,
waters and sitting by themselves off the manufactures tens of millions of dollars'
southeast coast of Africa in the Indian worth of textiles, and is visited annually by half
Ocean, about 1,000 miles due east of the a million tourists. The place is overcrowded
border between Tanzania and Mozambique. and polluted, which may help explain why it
Agalega 's closest neighbors are the southern regards distant Agalega as paradise and is
group of the Seychelles archipelago and the determined to keep unspoiled this bit of
northern tip of Madagascar. Yet the island has Eden accidentally bequeathed to it by history.
ties with neither. It belongs rather to
Mauritius, an island state more than 600
miles to the south. And the government of
Mauritius has decreed that no one - was a French colony from
Mauritian or foreigner- may set foot on 1715 until 1810, and then a British
Agalega unless sent by the government on offi- colony until its independence in 1968.
cial business. Because the only approved These days you hear not just French and
way of getting to Agalega is with the English spoken on the island but Creole,
Mauritian Coast Guard or by government- Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, Tamil, Telegu,
chartered ship, the travel ban is easily Marathi, and Mandarin Chinese. I was there
enforced. (There's an airstrip on Agalega, as an American Fulbright scholar doing
but there are no commercial flights to the research on multilingualism, and when I
island. The Mauritian Coast Guard uses a first heard of the restriction on travel to
small, noisy, unpressurized plane to get to and Agalega, I made up my mind to visit the
from the place when necessary.) Anyone island. When the permission process turned
alighting by other means would be energet- into a great bureaucratic challenge, the ven-
ically interrogated by a police force whose ture became all the more irresistible. A casu-
main duty it is to assert Mauritian sover- al conversation with a Mauritian police
eignty over the remote outpost. Not that any sergeant at the birthday party of our house-
other nation contests Mauritian sovereignty. keeper had planted the idea in my head.

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 The tip of South Agalega, one of the most remote islands in the world.

"Now that would be an interesting place for the commandant of the coast guard, to the
you to visit," Michel advised. "That's where ministry of education, and to the universi-
you will find the true island life. A place ty dean there in Mauritius. One after
where people live without money. Where another, the "no objections" miraculously
you live in tranquility, as part of nature. A total filtered in. Then I received a call from the
break with your normal routine, away from final gatekeeper, the Outer Islands
modern life, away from the pressures of Development Corporation (OIDC), which
home and work." in practice rules Agalega.
Michel was wistful, though he spoke only "Professor, we have no objection to your
from hearsay. "I have colleagues whoVe conducting research in Agalega. But the
done tours of duty in Agalega," he explained, OIDC is accountable to the government for
"and before I retire I'd like to do one too. But every person we send and every rupee we
it's hard to get the assignment. One has to be spend. In your case, the fee will be 20,000
very lucky. But for you, it's different. If the rupees. This will include your passage to and
American embassy were to write a letter on from Agalega and room and board for the
your behalf, I'm sure you'd have no trouble three days you're there. You'll be well pro-
getting permission. Just tie the trip to your vided for."

research. You don't get seasick, do you?"

Visiting Agalega had not been part of my paradise a price? Does heaven post
research plan when I arrived six months ear- an entrance fee? How much would
lier. In fact, I hadn't even heard of Agalega. you pay for the privilege of going where no
Most Mauritians, I was soon to discover, casual traveler can lawfully go?
knew virtually nothing of the island either. Even the most compulsive explorer has a
Agalega had a primary school, and that pro- budget he or she must respect. Twenty thou-
vided a pretext. For the previous three sand rupees (about $1,000) exceeded mine.
months, I had been visiting schools all across I informed the OIDC director, sadly, that
Mauritius. Was Agalega not an integral part my research stipend could not handle what
of the Republic of Mauritius, and was its was, after all, the equivalent of six months'
school any less deserving of a visit than those salary for the average Mauritian. He said he
on Mauritius proper? understood and promised to get back to me.
The case had to be made at several lev- A week later, the fee dropped by half. I
els: to the U.S. embassy, to the commis- explained how much I appreciated the
sioner of police, to the ministry of the inte- efforts made to accommodate my finances but
rior, to the office of the prime minister, to apologized that even 10,000 rupees was a

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 Destination: Paradise

cost beyond my means. least had decent cafeteria-style meals, in

A few days later, the fare was reduced to unlimited portions. And though our bath-
5,000 rupees, the equivalent of about $250. rooms were communal and the vomitoire pub-
Agalega, here I come! lic, the showers had hot (actually, scalding)
water, and the toilets never ran out of paper. No,

what turned second-class into outright hell

were other accouterments, of an electronic
Mauritius Pride is a freight-cum-pas- nature.

senger vessel that plies the Mascarene In each corner of the eight lower-deck sec-
Islands circuit of Mauritius, Réunion (which tions was a video monitor, from which blasted,
belongs to France), and Rodrigues, Mauritius s virtually nonstop and late into the night, the low-
other inhabited outpost. The privately owned est-grade movies produced anywhere on the
Pride is hired two or three times a year by the planet, ranging from American gangster flicks
OIDC to service Agalega, and, for several rea- to Oriental kung fu flops. The air in the com-
sons, it's not an assignment the crew members partment was pierced repeatedly by machine-
relish. The sailing time to Agalega is more than gun firings, bomb explosions, martial arts
twice as long as that to Rodrigues or Réunion, grunting, hysterical screams, torture-victim
and in winter months, the open seas can be shrieks, death-throe gurgles- sometimes in
extremely rough. harrowing combination. Each appearance of our
In the eyes of the ship's hostess and restau- pretty hostess, Sonya, in her quasi-sailor outfit,
rateurs, passengers to Agalega are a social cut provoked in me a Pavlovian response of dread
below those bound for the two "R" islands. No and rage. Her descent to the netherworld of sec-
tourists journey to Agalega, only returning ond class had a single purpose: to replace one
islanders, laborers, and government agents. execrable video with another. Escape was
And crew members are not allowed to go impossible, because the doors to the decks
ashore. Bound by the same legal restrictions as were locked at dusk, and sleep was unsustain-
the rest of the world, they, too, can view able. My misery was complete when I developed
Agalega only from afar. a first-class case of seasickness.

As payback for my shameless bargaining The reality of my nausea initially sank in at

with the OIDC, I was assigned not to the first- lunch, while I was squashed between some
class quarters aboard the Pride, where my com- enormous construction workers with voracious

panions would have been three solar energy appetites. An intellectual incomprehension of
technicians, two OIDC officials, a skiff manu- the ability of my maritime messmates to ingest
facturer, a couple of nuns, and a priest, but to second and third helpings of curry aboard a
the second-class level, among Agalacians pitching and rolling vessel turned to revulsion
returning to the island, a few policemen, and at the very sight of their overflowing plates.
some 40 construction workers. For reasons of The architectural wisdom of installing the
proletarian solidarity and anthropological vomitoire in an easily accessible location
authenticity, I was initially pleased by the became apparent.
placement, however befuddling it was to the It was evening, it was morning, and it was the
ship's purser and welcome hostess. It wasn't third day. Two lights glowed faintly in the
long, however, before I thought I'd been con- predawn darkness. Agalega! Women removed
demned to maritime purgatory. their curlers and changed into fancy, bright
Physically, the accommodations were correct dresses. Policemen donned their uniforms.
enough. If we second-class passengers didn't The excitement grew as sunlight gradually illu-
have the cabin berths enjoyed by our betters, we mined a vista of white dune beach bordered by
at least had plush reclining chairs of a type wind-bent, needle-leafed filao trees, and a ten-
normally associated with first-class airplane der sputtered off the north island to meet us.
seating. If we didn't dine at white-clothed First aboard the Mauritius Pride was the

tables, attended by solicitous waiters, we at commander of the police forces stationed on

>WlLLIAM F. S. MlLES is a professor of political science at Northeastern University, in Boston. He is the author of sever-
al books, including, most recently, Bridging Mental Boundaries in a Postcolonial Microcosm ( 1998).

14 Wilson Quarterly

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 Waiting on Agalega for the Mauritius Pride and the long, rough sea trip back to Mauritius.

Agalega, who quickly dispensed with the for- the corporation or a registered dependent of one.

malities. No sooner had he greeted and back- If freedom from the tyranny of money is one idea

slapped his counterparts than he became of paradise, then Agalega satisfies it. The
engrossed in our latest edition of Le Mauricien. OIDC provides each employee with a credit
Were people stationed on Agalega so starved for account and allocates one time slot per week for
news of the outside world that reading a news- shopping in the corporation store. All transac-
paper took priority over clearing exhausted pas- tions are conducted by OIDC ledger; there s no
sengers for disembarkation? Not necessarily. money on the island. Because the corporation
Reports of police brutality on Agalega had holds a monopoly on civilian transport, it
recently become national news, and the police knows exactly who's leaving, who's arriving,
commander wanted to know at once how his and who's a current resident. The rhythm of life

role in the beating of a young Agalacian man on Agalega is calibrated to excitement over the
had been reported in the Mauritian press. A sur- arrival of coast guard and police vessels and
feit of alcohol and a scarcity of women had the OIDC-chartered Mauritius Pride, and
apparently strained relations between transient regret over their inevitable departure.
Mauritian officers and native Agalacians. In a
drunken row over an island girl, an Agalacian OIDC's rule over Agalega may be
had been so severely beaten by Mauritian absolute, but the corporation is benev-
policemen - in the station house- that he olent. It does, after all, view development, not
required evacuation, by air, to a hospital in profit, as its primary objective. In early colo-
Mauritius. The police commander seemed nial days, in the 1800s, Agalega was run as a
satisfied with the uninformative newspaper private plantation and the workers were per-
account. sonal slaves, not corporate employees.
Agalega is controlled so completely by the During the early years of its independence,
OIDC that not even native-born islanders can Mauritius neglected Agalega, but it's now
own land or possess a right to residence. Every taking the island in hand and looking to the
adult living on the island is an employee of welfare of the inhabitants. The OIDC put in

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Destination: Paradise

place the nonmonetary economy to shield Much of what Scott described two
Agalacians from a pattern of debt and generations ago has disappeared. There
improvidence, and it's for their benefit that are no horses or donkeys left; the roads
the company store sets a limit on the amount that impressed him so much have either
of liquor available to each worker. And shrunken or been reclaimed by nature;
thanks to the prefabricated housing and street lighting has vanished, as have trol-
scores of well-fed construction workers our leys and a narrow-gauge railway. Agalega
ship was disgorging onto the island, was once the "pearl" of the so-called Oil
Agalega s ramshackle tin huts were soon to be Islands, those British Indian Ocean
replaced by modern dwellings. islands from which coconut oil used to be
exported in significant quantity. When
the British took over Mauritius from the
French, in 1810, they allowed the
As we coasted along this island, it seemed French elites to remain and guaranteed by
very fair and pleasant, exceeding full of treaty their cultural, linguistic, and prop-
foule and coconut trees: and there came erty rights. So even under British rule,
from the land such a pleasant smell as if it local concessions were still very much
had beene a garden of flowers. dominated by a Francophone upper
class. Agalega was developed principally
In 1 596, that s how Sir James Lancaster, an under the tutelage of appointed adminis-
English navigator and pioneer of East Indian trators, of varying degrees of enlighten-
trade, described the desert island named ment, both before and after Great Britain
after the early- 16th-century Portuguese abolished slavery in 1835. With the
explorer Juan de Nova, otherwise known as founding of the Société Huilière
Jean Gallégo on account of his Galician ori- d'Agaléga (Oil Company of Agalega) in
gins. Three and a half centuries later, 1892, a somewhat less arbitrary regime
Agalega was still idyllic, at least according to emerged.
the British geographer Robert Scott, who
wrote this in 1961: are still three settlements on
the twin islands - La Fourche,
The impressions which Agalega leaves are Sainte Rita, and Village 25, the last so
of light, freshness, color, and incessant named because, according to local lore,
movement. The sun makes constantly slaves who misbehaved were taken there
changing patterns of green and cobalt and to receive 25 lashes of the whip. But
gold. It accentuates the whiteness of the there are half as many people as when
long, straight roads and the spaciousness of Scott visited. Indeed, with fewer than
the grass-covered aisles between the 230 islanders, Agalega is less populated
coconut palms. In turning to flashing today than it was in the middle of the
green and silver the breaking rollers and 19th century. You would expect the
shoal waters, it emphasizes the deep, absence of humanity to make for a pristine
changing blue of the ocean. The steady natural setting, and Agalega is, in many
breezes temper the heat of the sun and the respects, still as beautiful as Lancaster
constant movement of vegetation gives and Scott found it. Trees that in the local
vitality to the landscape. Whether it is the Creole are called "good God's coconuts"
rush and murmur of the surf; the dance of sway to Indian Ocean breezes along the
light and shadow in the groves; the sudden coastline and in the interior, and the
flight of birds; the whirring of a carriole softly lapping coral-green waters mes-
behind the beat of a pair of cantering hors- merize with their translucence. Yet
es; the swirl of a herd of wild horses as they though the place would seem cut off
gallop with flying tails towards the deeper from the world, Agalega's otherwise love-
shelter of the groves, followed sedately by ly powdery sand beach is periodically
their more inquisitive entourage of mules, blighted by debris brought from afar by
there is always a feeling of liveliness. ocean currents.

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 lism, when you go to Santosh's tiny Mauritius
Telecom office to place a phone call from
of expatriates on islands, and you Agalega, you're greeted by a "Faith in God
evoke images of wizened and overtanned Means No Fear" sticker at the counter.

colonials, hippies, and volunteers going either The best-acclimated expatriates on Agalega
native or stir-crazy. On Agalega, though, the are no transient, childless Hindus, as are
expats are themselves islanders: Mauritians. Rajesh, Santosh, and Abeeluck, but a Muslim
(The differences in skin color are less pro- family man, Parvez Sultan Husnoo, and his
nounced than in the classic expat scene: wife. (Sensitivity to Muslim modesty stopped me
Mauritians, mostly of South Asian ancestry, from asking Madame Husnoo her first name.)
are brown; Agalacians, descendants of Afri- The couple constitute the entire teaching staff
cans, are black.) Although the Mauritians serv- at the government primary school, where they
ing as teachers, nurses, and technicians on instruct 26 students, including their two sons,
Agalega have officially never left their own in grades one through six. (I observed classes
country, some manifest the same symptoms of taught in English and French at the school.)
isolation and culture shock shown by This is the couple s second extended sojourn on
American Peace Corps volunteers parachuted Agalega. Previous teachers, ostracized by
into Pago Pago or Vanuatu. Typical case: A ornery parents or racked by island fever, fled
Mauritian signs up with the OIDC for a one- Agalega in dejection and loneliness. But when
year contract, and after those 12 months he s sup- the island's parents invited Parvez to return
posed to sail home. But the Mauritius Pride after his first assignment, he accepted eagerly.
doesn't show up to repatriate him, and three, "This is not an easy teaching post," Parvez
maybe four, months elapse beyond the con- explains in flawless French with a Mauritian
tractual expiration. The worker is stranded on lilt, "but it has its rewards. The main problem
Agalega. is that there's no clear connection between
When that happened to Rajesh Tataree, a what goes on inside and outside of school.
young paramedic on North Agalega, he Hardly any parents of our pupils are themselves
became philosophical. On an island that literate. There's no reinforcement of chil-
enjoys only two hours of electricity a day, dren's reading or schoolwork. There's no work
Rajesh relishes his unobstructed view of the stars ethic at all on Agalega, certainly no study
each night, a virtually impossible visual expe- ethic. Only one or two kids here have any
rience on superlit Mauritius. Santosh chance at all to go on to high school. For the
Bissessur, on the other hand, views every extra rest, school is just a place to spend a couple of
day as the extension of a prison sentence. For hours a day for a couple of years before going
Santosh, life on Agalega is absurd. He copes by out into a world on the island in which their

imposing an unflinching strictness on his education is irrelevant.

hours of operation as manager of the island s sole "The second problem is a lack of continu-
telephone link to the outside world- and his ity. The arrival of the Mauritius Pride is a
rigidity inconveniences and frustrates every- great disruption to learning, not so much
one else. In 1799, in the first attempt to settle because we have to cancel classes when the
Agalega, a French physician convinced the ship arrives but because parents will just yank
governor of Mauritius to dispatch a sailor and their kids out of school in the middle of the year

a slave to conduct a survey. By the time the physi- and take them on board back to Mauritius.
cian remembered to relieve them three years Sometimes parents will leave on the ship and
later, the sailor had gone mad. Reading about not take their children with them. That's also

that unfortunate seaman, I can't help but think disruptive." It was clearly so for one boy who
of Santosh. sat face down and crying at his desk. His
In contrast, Santosh's fellow OIDC con- mother had decided to leave for Mauritius
tractée Abeeluck copes by "attending" cours- the next day, and the fatherless boy was to be
es over the telephone from Brahma Kumari looked after by his older sister.
Raja Yoga Spiritual University in India and "A third problem is alcohol. What is there
functioning as unofficial Hari Krishna mis- to do on Agalega? What distraction, what
sionary. Thanks to Abeeluck's Hindu evange- entertainment? All the men do is drink. All they

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Destination: Paradise

Schoolchildren returning home after lessons in Agalega' s primary school.

care about is getting around the regulation of life not available on their native
that rations rum. Since there's no money on Mauritius. Yet they pay a high price.
the island, people trade in liquor. That's what Housing is scarce, and the Husnoos' mod-
got some of my predecessors in trouble. If est one-story home is not within easy walk-
teachers refuse to trade in alcohol, parents ing distance of the school. They commute
turn against them. If they get sucked into to work by motor scooter, over unpaved
becoming suppliers, that brings trouble as tracks, and the grueling cross-island travel
well." has caused Mrs. Husnoo to miscarry.
"How do you avoid the trap?" I ask. I am put up at the comfortable OIDC
"I'm a Muslim," Parvez explains, "so I guesthouse, within easy walking distance of
don't use alcohol. I made that clear to the the school.

parents from the outset, and it's something

they understand and respect. In the same
way, I lay down rules for the students that I
demand the parents to respect." Sainte Rita, erstwhile "capital" of
The Husnoos work nonstop through the Agalega, resembles a ghost town. The
morning, then send the students home and hamlet, on South Agalega, no longer has, as
eat their family lunch in Mrs. Husnoo's it did for Scott, "a smiling . . . aspect, the mel-
classroom. Classes resume in the after- low, comfortable look of a place that has been
noon, and when the session's done, Parvez a loved home for generations, its old buildings
goes fishing for the evening meal's entrée. carefully preserved." Agalega 's administrative
His is the life of Robinson Crusoe, peda- center was moved to the north island because

gogue. It's clear that the Husnoos have not it was so dangerous for ships to berth at Sainte
chosen to reside on Agalega for the finan- Rita. Fronting the large village square are gov-
cial bonus given all Mauritian civil ser- ernment stores and offices, a police station, a
vants who live there. The Husnoos savor the school, a church, and a dispensary. But the steel
simplicity of existence on the island, the frames of the government buildings have
closeness with nature and the sea. It's a way been exposed and twisted by a cyclone, the

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church is desolate for lack of a priest, and stranger- an Indian Ocean policeman at
tropical vines creep through the closed-down that- been so solicitous about my physical
schoolhouse. The companion-starved police- comfort. The constable insists that I take
man, Louis Nilkamul, who argues with the more tea, that I unload my heavy backpack
"doc" in the dispensary, Paul Coralie, over under his protection, and that I follow his
who will host whom for lunch, reminds me of advice about tying my shoes. "Don't lace
the abandoned French sailor of yore. We vis- them so tightly," he admonishes me in
itors from the north island, with whom I'd French, after the obligatory siesta. "It's not
sailed on the Mauritius Pride- the solar tech- good for the feet." When I loosen my laces
nicians, the two nuns, the priest, and Paul's under his guidance, he murmurs approving-
wife, Alix- make up more than half the peo- ly, "Aft, ça, c'est mieux ça!7
ple now on South Agalega. Other than the Despite his obvious hunger for compan-
lonely cop and the paramedic, only a few old ionship, the lonely constable claims he is
men and some young mothers with their chil- happy in Sainte Rita. At his regular post on
dren regularly occupy Sainte Rita. Mauritius, he explains, the police register at
Passage between North and South least 3,000 cases a month. During the past
Agalega is much less ceremonious than it three months on South Agalega, he has had to
was in Scott's day. Forty years ago, the file only two reports. It's true that both
crossing was expedited by "cheerful burly involved fatalities, but then again, neither
men very neatly dressed in sailors' white death was human. The first creature to die was

duck uniforms" working out of a perma- a pig. That case was closed when it was deter-
nent boathouse. Nothing of the sort exists mined that the swine had died of natural poi-
today. Once there was even a causeway for soning, after having eaten something lethal.
wheeled traffic, but that was more than a The second to die was a cow, and the suspicion
century and a half ago. At low tide one can is that the animal was deliberately poisoned
walk the mile-and-a-half channel, and with insecticide. The affair is still pending,
that's how Alix made her way to her hus- and the constable, in the meantime, spends
band's side. (I traveled by motorboat.) much of his time spearing and drying octopus
Before Paul's assignment to Agalega, the and taking siestas in the hammock that's
Creole couple, married for 20 years, had plainly visible in front of the Agalega-South
never spent a night apart. But their elder Police Substation.

daughter wanted to study art and theater in South Agalega seems a lugubrious place,
France; to make that possible, Paul needed and a visit to its two burial grounds- one for
the salary bonus from the hardship posting the white overseers of yesteryear, the other
to Agalega. A Michelin map of France for their black hands- reinforces that impres-
adorns his wall and is the most prominent sion. Not even in death do the two races min-
fixture in his humble home, an extension of gle. But in a counterhistorical twist, the
the church. cemetery for blacks is preserved and the one
Constable Nilkamul, a large Catholic for whites is in ruins. Once-powerful masters
wearing a Marlboro T-shirt, insists that, become poignant in their anonymity. The
despite the dearth of available Christians, the tallest tombstone reads:

visiting priest ought to celebrate Mass: "If

you're doing it on [the] north island, you Administrateur de l'île

should also do it in the south." The priest says Décédé le 13 Février 1897
that he hasn't enough wafers for two Masses, Agé de 42 ans
so he will conduct a service but not perform
the Liturgy. On North Agalega, an old woman is dying
The policeman, the priest, and I are three in the dispensary. She has had a stroke and pre-
at the table, and Constable Nilkamul has sents a major managerial problem for the eth-
only two teacups, both of them chipped. ically responsible but cash-strapped OIDC.
When a visitor empties one, Nilkamul takes it Should she be taken to Mauritius by air or by
and, without rinsing or wiping, pours himself sea? What are the chances of her expiring en
a drink. Never before in my life has a route? If she should die in Mauritius, where she

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Destination: Paradise

has no relatives, must her next of kin be trans- impressions. Sister Julie will return to
ported from Agalega to bury her? The OIDC Agalega one day, perhaps accompanied by
does its level best to ban dying on "its" islands. "Mon Père." When she does, she will no
Old age, illness, and death are too adminis- doubt see the Husnoos, the Mauritian
tratively inconvenient. Muslim answer to the Swiss Family
That's why Tonton René, a sprightly sep- Robinson, and Paul Coralie, the lonely
tuagenarian who has no blood relatives on "Doc" of Sainte Rita, changing bandages
the island, is being evacuated against his will and dreaming of Alix, his wife in distant
from Agalega. The man has been shifted Mauritius. They're among the privileged
back and forth between Mauritius and the few to whom Agalega cannot be forbidden.
island for some time now, at mounting With a little luck, even Tonton René may
expense to the OIDC. Rene's knee is bad, get his wish and return to die on the island
and the authorities have decided he cannot of his youth.
be properly cared for so far from Mauritius.
"I want to die and be buried on Agalega/' he
confides in a strong but sad voice. But his
wish for a tranquil demise on his peaceful do not plan to return to Agalega. One visit
island is being thwarted. Tonton René will was enough for me. Yes, its crystal-green
most likely end up in the Mauritian capital, waters were splendid to behold from shore
Port Louis, in a hectic, grimy slum. and an irresistible enticement to wade. But I

was unprepared for the detritus that mars the

island, both physically and culturally: the bot-
tles and footwear from Indonesia, clear across
the return journey to Mauritius, the Indian Ocean, that wash up on the beach;
the crew and Rajesh Tataree, the the violent videos that make up a large share
paramedic whose tour of duty had expired of the imported celluloid entertainment.
four months earlier, took pity. Rebuffed in Remoteness no longer guarantees either a
my pleas that there be at least one "no pristine land or a pristine soul.
video" section in second class, I'm upgrad- After all my strenuous efforts to reach
ed to share a first-class cabin with Rajesh. Agalega, I kept encountering, during my three
And so I join the genteel company of mem- days there, people who couldn't wait to escape
bers of the cloth, OIDC officers, solar ener- the place. Islands, after all, may be exotic to us
gy technicians, and a Franco-Mauritian continental folk, but are not necessarily so to
builder of yachts and skiffs, the only other islanders.

white passenger on board the Mauritius Still, from Parvez I learned that you don't
Pride. It seems to make everyone more have to be an urbanized Westerner to want to
comfortable, the crew as well as the first- and get away from it all. The Muslim and his wife
second-class passengers, that I'm where I love having escaped the stresses of life on their
"belong." I now have an acknowledged sta- developing island-nation of Mauritius. On
tus and nickname: "Prof," I'm called, just as Agalega, they contemplate their faith and raise
the priest is always "Mon Père," the nuns are a family, out of range of the siren songs of
"Ma Soeur," and Rajesh is "Doc." It's fanaticism and materialism. Parvez is master of

quaint (and not a little colonial) the way his school, where he begins the day inspecting
we use these intimate but formal epithets. the fingernails of his few pupils and encouraging
Seasickness returns, of course, but at least I'm them to say their Christian prayers. Far from the

miserable in the semiprivacy of a cabin, intrusions of school inspectors and ministeri-

where I can put myself out of sight, mind, al mandates, he performs his job faithfully, a
and video. true professional, answering above all to his con-
Sister Julie, a pint-sized and energetic science.

nun originally from Madagascar, is a non- No man is an island unto himself? Could be.

stop source of conversation, no matter After Agalega, I rather think that an island can
what the sea conditions. "I'm no saint," she set you free or make you flee. One man's par-
explains, repudiating any spontaneous first adise is another's prison. □

20 Wilson Quarterly

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