Maroons of The Seychelles

The research behind this book was originally conducted through the University of Kent, UK, and published by the Centre for Research on Slavery and Indenture at the University of Mauritius in 2016. Profits from the Mauritian edition went towards creating the island’s first Museum of Slavery which opened in Port Louis in 2020.

This extended 2022 version appears thanks to the Seychelles Institute of Culture, Heritage and the Arts and the Seychelles National History Museum.

The book is a collection of maroon stories I’ve gathered since I began research in 2012. The maroons hold a lot of importance as symbols of resistance and empowerment, yet only a couple of maroons have been mentioned by previous general histories of the Seychelles and no specific studies had been made into any kind of resistance to slavery.

When I first read Scarr, Webb, McAteer and the other landmark histories of the Seychelles, stories of individual maroons was something I wished for more of. I hope this book can help spread knowledge of some of the Seychelles’ resistors – many of whom have never been written about since their original ‘crimes’, were recorded in the 18th and 19th centuries.

I also hope the book shows how a widespread culture of resistance developed in the Seychelles similarly to other colonies in the Indian Ocean and Caribbean, and how the unique circumstances of the Seychelles as a small and distant cluster of islands that serviced passing slave ships shaped the story of resistance.