INTERNATIONAL INDENTURE LABOUR ROUTE - UNESCO

The International Indentured Labour Route, in French, La Route Internatioanle de l'engagé, was accepted by UNESCO in October 2014, at the request of the Aapravasi Ghat, a UNESCO site for the symbolism of indenture or coolie trade in Mauritius.

A long process

Khal Torabully, a pioneer in the field of indenture, namely through his paradigm of coolitude, was mandated by the former directors of the Aapravasi Ghat, Raju Mohit and Mahen Utchanah, former Energy Minister of Mauritius, to start negotiations with the UNESCO authorities. He was assisted in this complex task by Doudou Diene, the conceptor of the Slave Route of UNESCO and Moussa Ali Iye, who was in charge of the same route and routes of dialogues of the organization. Ms Baswati Mukherjee, former ambassador of India for UNESCO also assisted in the final steps of the process.

An inclusive approach

Through the inclusive philosophy of coolitude, developed by Khal Torabully, UNESCO accepted the project on inclusive grounds, coolitude having laid the foundation of a memorial and historic dialogue between slavery and indenture. Torabully, known for his work in theorizing encounters between imaginaries, cultures and histories through a fluid approach of indenture, proposed a sharing of memories and histories in the preambles of the International Indentured Labour Route, as it avoided competition between those two pages of History. Torabully had written the foundational article about this much needed dialogue in 2006 (https://www.cairn.info/revue-africultures-2006-2-page-101.htm# and https://www.indereunion.net/IREV/articles/khal0.htm). It was on those philosophical grounds that UNESCO accepted the Aapravasi Ghat's request, headed by Mooneshwar Choonee, ex-Minister of Culture of Mauritius. Armoogum Parsuraman, ex-minister of Education of Mauritius also was in the team that supported the Mauritian request. GOPIO Mauritius organized a symposium in 2014 in Mauritius, at the Mahatma Gandhi Cultural Centre, Moka, hosting Ms Sushma Swaraj, ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs of India as guest of honor.

The IIRL is on its way

This route is still under elaboration. Teams are working upon the collection of data transnationally, so as to share them in a collective data bank.

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A long process

An inclusive approach

The IIRL is on its way

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