COLONIAL (Patreon)

Today, December 20, we celebrate the abolition of slavery on my native island.

So I thought about releasing a series we produced with Thomas Vassort around a theme with a colonialist aesthetic.

But above all I wanted to tell you a story that is close to my heart and which is also important for the history of Reunion Island.

This is the story of our so-called “mountainous cirque”.

This natural relief is a natural enclosure with steep walls, circular or semi-circular in shape, formed by a depression of glacial origin, by erosion or even of volcanic origin.

It is said that a group of slaves secretly fled their master's properties, braving the bad weather as well as the steep terrain of its mountains which could reach 1000 meters and more.

These cirques are now home to villages, both named in tribute to their courageous actions. Some of them sometimes climbed with children on their backs or even pregnant women, unions which sometimes resulted from the abuse of their tormentors.

I am proud to be the descendant of these courageous Men and Women: Tsilaos(a) which also means in Malagasy “a place that one does not leave”, Salazie, which would also come either from Soalazy meaning “good camp” in Malagasy, or Salaze meaning “stake”, still in Malagasy and after King Mafati, which is originally the name of a clan leader of Maroon slaves. 

The one whose name means (unfortunately but I suppose by a lack of choice) “He who kills” in Malagasy became the leader of a community hunted by slave hunters.

He took refuge in the most inaccessible cirque on Reunion Island, to which his name was given in the 19th century: the Mafate cirque, as well as its village.