L'ile Longue

L’île Longue the Gorée of the Seychelles By Julien Durup

Herewith a brief history of l’île Longue - the Gorée of the Seychelles - which is now in the hands of foreign developers, contrary to what we have told before, "Seychelles pour Seychellois". If this sort of development was not at first offered to Seychellois entrepreneurs, one could legitimately ask why?

This island was given its name by the quasi French/Irish Captain Cornielle Nicolas Morphey né O’Murphy of Ile-et-Vilaine, in Brittany, who arrived in the Seychelles on the Cerf accompanied by the Saint Benoît under Captain Préjean. O’Murphy dropped anchor in the deep water next to Ile Hodoul on 9th September 1756 the feast of Sainte Anne the patron saint of the Breton corsairs and other mariners. On that same day he named Cerf Island in honour of his ship and Sainte Anne in homage of his patron saint.

L’île Longue was used as quarantine station in the early French occupation a slave transit, recuperation and disorientation depot. The island was utilised mostly by the Portuguese and French slavers whereas the American slavers had a preference for the island of La Digue. During their so called convalescences many of the weak and frighten slaves died and were buried on the island.

Those who had arrived fit enough to survive their journey to unknown destinations were disinfected with vinegar. Later on the slave master used coconut oil as disinfectant when the oil was locally produced.

In 1786 during time of the sick man commandant Antoine Nicolas Benoît Gillot, the ill-treatment of the slaves caused them to revolt. Having no equipment to eliminate their well armed masters they burnt l’île Longue to the ground. The Cerf Island later in around 1832 suffered the same fate. The effects of the blaze on the hilly part on the two islands are still visible. The Code Noir, the law of the land, had no jurisdictions on the slavers to feed the slaves properly. This Letters of Patent was signed by the boy King Louis XV and countersigned by the young Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, the Secretary of the navy who did not know at that time what the colour of the sea was.

Throughout the time of Gillot many slave ships arrived at Mahé. Most of their crew and their human cargo were badly affected by scurvy and many captains died during their stay. One of them was the Belirair. She arrived in June 1784 with all her crew and slaves affected by scurvy. They were helped out of the ship; the crew taken to Cerf Island and the slaves to l’île Longue. On the point of security and replenishments l’île Longue was ideal with good nearby anchorage for big slavers. Though the island was like a little prison without gates marronnage was impossible as the island is surrounded by deep water and most of the slaves who came from inside Africa could not swim.

In 1834 the British used Plate Island as a quarantine station though it was too far for urgent medical assistance and provisions. On 30th November 1868 they abandoned Plate Island and urgently created a new station on l’île Longue to accommodate the liberated slaves from HMS Daphne under Captain George Sulivan with an outbreak of smallpox. They stayed in quarantine for eighty one days; the longest recorded time spent in quarantine on the island. Amongst the slaves were some from Ethiopia, the Gallas. The Gallas women were beautiful according to the Captain. His description seems to corroborate with that of our traditions which described them as les belles (bann zoli famm) Gallas. They had also been immortalised by the irreplaceable musician Jacob Marie alias Ton Pa in two of his melodies. Ton Pa describs the Gallas women as follows: “ti zoli menm …avek trou-d bote, dito mento menm”; and “Sa bann pti fanm abysinnie ki roul an moliman”.The British sailors would give them more attention and generously gave them their soup rations of meat and vegetables. Many of these poor women could have fallen into the trap of the love gestures of the sailors and later became pregnant.

The slaves with a large proportion of females and the crew of the Daphne amounted to over 400 were the biggest group of people ever to be accommodated on the island. It is interesting to note in the eighty one days the British sailors managed to force most of them to abandon their African names and registered themselves on their new given European names. On l’île Longue they created two stations the main one faced Port Victoria harbour, the other one on the other side for the sick slaves. Later the authorities built a larges masonry building. Then in 1918 a wooden storey was added, and modifications were made to the ground floor. The building had three compartments and verandas on the front sides. On the first floor they had four equal rooms with three verandas. The station was also used as rest house for high colonials’ officials when not in used for quarantine purposes. L’île Longue was used as the Seychelles second prison after the airport opened in 1971 and became the principal prison in 1980 to make way for accommodation of 300 soldiers in the newly created Union Vale army barrack which, initially, housed the remainder of the 80 or so political prisoners which included Gerard Hoareau and Paul Chow.

Little is known as to what have happened to our brave slaves’ ancestors who revolted and burnt the islands? May be they were all killed and were buried on site - we will perhaps never know. However, more research should be done, and this important fragment of our history should never be forgotten. I would suggest that the Ministry of Education, the Culture Division, the Africa Association and the quiet UNESCO representative in the Seychelles do something to commemorate the uprising of the poor children of God who were forced to become live tools on our Gorée. If not we will be like what Ton Ton François Mitterand said: “Un peuple qui perd sa mémoire perd aussi son identité”.