Mauritius acceded to its independence on 12th March 1968 but it took 24 years before the country became a Republic (12th March 1992). Depending on your perspective you can either thank or blame the people behind the fight for “Freedom” – the Dream for most, a mistake in the opinion of others. In this article we look at the dreamers, and say thank you to the Father of the Nation Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, the Bissondoyal brothers (Sookdeo and Bassdeo), Guy Rozemont, and Emmanuel Anquetil to name just a few.
Click here to read about Pre-Independence
Some would claim that Mauritius has achieved impressive progress over the past 50 years of independence. Others would like to have seen more progress.
Those that are satisfied would claim that Mauritius has defied the predictions of Nobel Prize winning economist James Meade. Meade predicted a bleak future for the country in 1961, and yet the ‘Pearl of the Indian Ocean’ transformed into one of the highest per capital incomes in Africa. However if you look at your salary slip you may not agree, and there are other issues that will make you disagree with the opinion that Mauritius is doing great and all is fine.
When celebrating the 50th anniversary of Independence; we should take stock of the numerous challenges lying ahead, while we also look at what has been achieved and what opportunities have been missed. These subjects are addressed in various articles within this section: Post- independence.
