The Bastard Children of Colonialism 

I’m the great-granddaughter of plantation rape. There’s a tinge to my slightly-light-ebony-blackness. I’m the daughter of Creole slaves, and something far more sinister. Descendants of domestic servants and white masters who abused their workers. I have white male ancestry in me. Involuntarily. The whiteness I carry was not a choice. The greedy sugar barons took what they wanted, women and girls over whom they had extraordinary power, and then failed to claim their children. How can they deny their morbid past when we, the bastard children of colonialism, are here to remind them of their legacy. We carry the truth. As clear as daylight. The blue sky above is not a lie. We’re the living proof of a dark history that cannot be whitewashed. Look at me and tell me that history hasn’t tainted me.   

Bibliography for my work-in-progress: 

• The Franco-Mauritian Elite - Power and Anxiety in the Face of Change by Prof. Dr. Tijo Salverda 

• Bitter Sugar – Sugar and Slavery in the 19th Century Mauritius by Dr. Vijaya Teelock 

• Georges – by Alexandre Dumas  

• Sing, Unburied, Sing – by Jesmyn Ward 

• A l`autre bout de moi – by Marie-Thérèse Humbert 

• L’Île Maurice des Cultures by Dr. Issa Asgarally 

• University of Iowa’s International Writing Program’s Women Creative Mentorship Project material that were made available during our course by various Contributors/Mentors