THE ADVENTURES OF LIEUTENANT JULIEN EMARD DURUP, TIBOY AND DR. DAVID LIVINGSTONE

THE ADVENTURES OF LIEUTENANT JULIEN EMARD DURUP, TIBOY AND DR. DAVID LIVINGSTONE By Julien Durup

Although I do not have a mandate to instruct the world, I would like to comment, as a student of Seychelles History, on the potential project of the ‘Livingstone Art Gallery’ in Marie-Antoinette Restaurant ex Le Grand Trianon), which I presume has been named after Dr. David Livingstone:

Dr. David Livingstone was born on 19th March 1813 in Blantyre, Scotland and was raised in poverty. He first studied Greek, medicine, and theology in Glasgow and later inspired by the famous following twenty words used by another Scotsman Robert Moffat

“I have sometimes seen, in the morning sun, the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary has ever been”.

He later joined the London Missionary Society becoming a minister. Dr. Livingstone is best remembered because of his meeting with the Welsh-born journalist Henry Morton Stanley né John Rowlands that gave rise to the popular quotation “Dr. Livingstone, I presume.”

However, Dr. Livingstone never set foot in the Seychelles but his son Oswell and Stanley did. They resided in a rented house which they baptised it “Livingstone Cottage”. It is sad that history does not say whether it was to commemorate the passage Oswell or his father who failed in his pursuit of souls. In Africa he managed to convert only one person that he named Joseph.

“Livingstone Cottage” was the ex-old Valabji’s house (demolished a few years ago) situated next the Police Station, and has nothing to do with Le Grand Trianon.

Dr. Livingstone motto was “Christianity, Commerce and Civilisation” but he failed to condemn the Europeans’ taking over the Africans’ land and all its treasures. In Africa he discovered nothing new. Wherever he visited there were people and the natives provided everything for him. The “natives” took him to visit the great thundering waters on the Zambesi River which the natives called, by its very appropriate name, Mosi-oa-tunya (the smoke that thunders). As a colonialist he renamed it Victoria Falls after the “little Queen of Britain”. As for his friend Stanley he, with pleasure, helped one African tribe to conduct war against another.

I would like to suggest that it would be more fitting for the owner to do research on the first owner of the building up to the present one and open a historical section for customers/visitors. If “ma mémoire est bonne” that beautiful building was built for a certain Mr. Rahim Hadee, a Muslim long after the passage of Oswell Livingstone. Mr. Hadee was related to the Rassool and Hossen family in La Digue and their parents originated from Karbala in Iraq, and they were Shi’a Muslims. After, the completion of the building, the Jivan Jetha and Company imported, on behalf of Hadee, all the furniture from India. There is also a French connection: Hadee’s wife, I believe, was a French Lady.

Later in the 1960s, the Seychellois sea Captain Tregarthen acquired the place from the Hadee. He named his new property Le Grand Trianon in honour of the official residence of the Sun King Louis XIV. He then rented the place as a public bar and restaurant and renovated the other smaller building at the back as his domicile and named it Le Petit Trianon. Le Grand Trianon was rented to Mr. Corgat and other entrepreneurs and the best one was Mr. Benjamin Choppy. Mrs. K Fonseka later rented and acquired the place and provided the best Creole cuisine in the Seychelles.

During the Second World War this house was taken over by the British military and some high officers were stationed there. They were guarded by Ceylonese (Sir Lankan). One night Lieutenant Julien Emard Durup who was the duty officer, was making his round check on all the other camps on Mahé. He came from the Northeast Camp in a lorry with his batman Swington Zialor alias Tiboy. Before arriving at English River Lieutenant Durup instructed the driver to proceed via Hangard Street and stop and wait for him at the junction of La Bourdonnais Street where they arrived just after midnight. Durup and Tiboy decided to walk in the bush up to the hill-top behind the camp to avoid being seen by the Ceylonese sentinels who were stationed in front of the present entrance. They managed to enter the house without being noticed. While inside they found one British officer drunk and asleep at his desk. Durup immediately took the officer’s pistol and Tiboy his purse that was on the table. They slowly moved out without being noticed

The next morning all the Ceylonese guards that were on duty were court marshalled. In the purse there was tobacco which Tiboy thought to be money and on the way back Durup threw the revolver into the sea.