An island with no native population, Mauritius was permanently peopled through colonisation as from the early eighteenth century. European colonists, African and Malagasy slaves, Indian contract labourers, Chinese and Indian petty merchants settled on the island and progressively created a society shaped by the diversity of its population and also by the unequal access to limited resources and wealth. Contemporary Mauritius tends to be sensitive to its multiple origins and identity boundaries, as well as to potential conflicts and the importance of interaction and communication in a multicultural society. Common denominators of culture and language, as well as dynamic processes of cultural and linguistic hybridity, that could form the basis of an all-Mauritian culture thus become crucial. This is shown in the studies presented in this volume which are given a wider perspective through comparison with other post-colonial societies such as the French Caribbean.

The Editors: Vinesh Y. Hookoomsing has completed a long career as Professor of Linguistics at the University of Mauritius. His research areas include language, education and culture studies in Creole and plural societies of the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean. His current research interests lie in Mauritian diaspora history and literature. Ralph Ludwig is Professor of Romance Linguistics at the University of Halle. His main research areas are orality studies, francophone and latinamerican language variation, contact linguistics and creole studies, as well as francophone literature. Field work regularly takes him to the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean and South America. Burkhard Schnepel is Professor of Social Anthropology and Director of the Centre of Oriental Studies at the University of Halle. He has done extensive research on East Africa, East India and recently Mauritius. His current thematic interests lie in the anthropology of tourism and in the ethnohistory of port cities of the Indian Ocean.

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