Family Photographs: Memories and Histories

This is the story of the Elizabeth family, descendant of Elisa Elisabeth, a ‘Government Apprentice’, who by the sweat of her brow and sacrifice, acquired several plots of land in Mauritius and whose descendants today are fighting to regain control of their property.

The story begins with Elisa Elisabeth, also called Eliza Elizabeth, or Elisabeth Elisa who was born in 1805 in Madagascar. Her conditions of arrival to Mauritius could not be traced as searches effected in archival repositories and in Registers of the Civil Status Office proved unfruitful.

However, based on archival documents, Elisa Elisabeth is described as a Government Apprentice and a seamstress. A Government Apprentice was a new category of individual created after the Act for the Abolition of Slave

Trade was passed in Great Britain in 1808. In March 1808, an Order-in-Council was passed by King George III which stipulated that Africans seized on slave ships by the British Royal Navy would be forfeited to the British Crown as ‘prize negroes’, ‘Liberated Africans’, ‘Government Black’ or ‘Government Apprentices’. Between the 1810s and the 1820s, dozens of slave ships and thousands of enslaved people were captured by the British Royal Navy. Elisa Elisabeth may have been one of them. When slavery was formally abolished in 1835 in Mauritius, her freedom (‘affranchissement’) was declared officially at Port Louis on the 25th May 1835. She lived, during her lifetime as a free person, in Curepipe.

Elisa Elisabeth had given birth to a daughter in 1825, Eugenie Elisabeth. Eugenie gave birth to a son, Jean Jacques Elisabeth in 1846. But she passed away at an early age and unmarried at the age of 34 in 1859. Elisa Elisabeth, her mother died on the 7th April 1867.

Elisa’s grandson, Jean Jacques, and his partner, Roselie Agathina had a child, Rosidor Elisabeth in 1867 at Bel Air, Grand Port. Rosidor Elisabeth was a blacksmith by profession, In 1900, he married Emma Emile of Grand Port. They had a child, Pierre Michel Elisabeth, in 1910, born at Mahebourg. His wife, Emma, predeceased her husband on the 15th April 1932 in Rose-Hill and Rosidor himself died in 1945.

Pierre Michel Elisabeth became a stone-mason and resided in Vacoas. On 17th August 1942, he married Lorenza Jean, a pensioner born on the 23rd September 1916 at Souillac residing at Cité Mangalkhan, Floreal. Prior to their civil marriage in 1942, they had had two children: Georges Raymond, born on 2nd April 1939 and Claude Michel, born on 5th February 1941. Both were duly legitimated by the parents following the marriage. Georges Raymond became a mason residing at Vacoas and Claude Michel was a pensioner residing at Allée Jacques, St Paul. Following the civil marriage, nine more children were born. These are:

• Jean Noe born on the 30th August 1942 who later resided at Cité Mangalkhan;
• Luc Marc born on the 5th May 1945 who later moved to Avenue Tourterelles, Beau Séjour;
• Françoise and her twin brother François born on the 31st January 1947;
• Marie Genevieve Isabelle born on the 27th December 1948 who after her marriage migrated to Frankfurt, Germany;
• Marie Danielle born on the 13th January 1952 who after marriage moved to Volmunster, Moselle, France;
• Marie Bernadette Monette born on the 2nd May 1953, now residing in Germany;
• Lauren born on the 29th August 1956 residing at Cité La Caverne, Vacoas; and
• Nicolas Désiré born on the 29th October 1961, residing at Cité Mangalkhan.
• Pierre Michel died on the 1st July 1989.

Georges Raymond, first son of Pierre Michel and Lorenza died on the 13th December 1977 and left three children he had with his wife Marie Rosemay Edna Monien namely Marie Sonia Pascale born in 1972, Marie Odile Natacha born in 1975 and Marie Lauria Estephanie born in 1977 all of Clairfonds, Vacoas.

In 2009, with the interest created by the setting up of the Truth and Justice Commission and based on the vivid oral history passed on from generation to generation, members of the Elisabeth embarked on a journey down memory lane.

With the support and help of the Genealogy Unit of the Nelson Mandela Centre for African Culture Trust Fund, they have been able to build their family tree and have discovered that on the 28th May 1841, Elisa Elizabeth bought a plot of land of about 2 acres and 85 perches situated in the Plaines Wilhems. The reasons that have led to the dispossession of their land are for the time being unknown but following several years of struggle, they managed to regain control of their property. As research is never ending, the family has recently discovered that during her lifetime, Elisa Elisabeth has also purchased not less than 6 other plots of land.