Revisiting the scars of historical oppression of Reunionese indentured labour

The scars from the historical oppression of indentured migrant labour, a deceptively fairer outgrowth of the abolished slavery practice, in 19th century Reunion Island, were revisited through exhibitions, musical book readings, film screenings and roundtables at the “Month of Reunion Island” festival hosted by Alliance Française de Pondichéry.

At a recent event, the island’s prominent author Gaëlle Bélem, whose “There’s a Monster Behind the Door” was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025, engaged a predominantly Francophone audience in a reading session with musical accompaniment from Kafmaron band’s Emmanuel Turpin on the keyboard and Romain Aly Beril on guitar.

In conversation with Arnaud Rondeau, cultural officer of Alliance Francaise, Ms. Bellem read out excerpts that informed the sensibilities that have shaped her writings which explore Reunionese identity, culture, and history, weaving together personal and collective stories.

One particularly striking concidence was that the hall adjacent to the main auditorium featuring an author whose “The Rarest Fruit” (translated from the French original) tracks the true story of Edmond Albius, enslaved as a 12-year-old orphan in what was then termed the Bourbon Island, was concurrently staging an exhibition on the remarkable legend, who, in 1841, pioneered the hand-pollination technique that transformed vanilla cultivation worldwide — Reunion Island, the French overseas department in the Indian Ocean, stands as a leading producer of vanilla, and its Bourbon vanilla now celebrated as one of the finest in the world.

The topic of forced labour has received particular attention over at least the last three decades within the Indian diaspora in the English-speaking and Francophonie world with scholars turning the spotlight on the struggles of Indian migrants to 19th-century sugar plantations.

Ms. Belem was part of a panel discussion at Pondicherry University on “Engagisme” (indentured servitude) along with historian Gilles Gauvin, musician Kafmaron, Judith Misrahi-Barak, associate professor in post-colonial studies at Paul-Valéry University Montpellier, France, and Jenni Balasubramanian, Head of French Department at the Tagore Government Arts and Science College.

In this context, the roundtable addressed issues related to the history of indentured servitude and the memory of indentured labourers in the Indian context, particularly from the Tamil perspective, as well as questions related to cultural and artistic productions.

Back to the musical reading event, where the imaginatively-conceived ambient keyboard segments with guitar accompaniment — totally improvised a few minutes before heading to the event as Aly Beril revealed — also seemed perfectly synchronous with the author’s musically inclined side.

In fact, the 2020 Grand Prix du Roman Métis-winning writer had once told an interviewer that her book, “There’s a Monster Behind the Door”, was a bit like the literary equivalent of the cynical rap song “Nirvana” by French hip-hop artiste Doc Gyneco… with its reference to a reckless urge to reach nirvana like Beregovoy, (former French Prime Minister Pierre Bérégovoy who ended his life) and as fast as Senna (Ayrton Senna who died in a crash during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix).

The author also shared insights on autobiographical elements in her stories and on conceptualising the short story collection, “Sud Savage”— 13 tales set in the Reunion Island, of bad omens, unexplained phenomena, fantastical events and phantom creatures associated with the legends of the land.