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Mauritians on the Move, American Style

Across the U.S., Le Clézio talks of writing, self-discovery and Mauritius

Over the past several weeks, Jean-Marie Le Clézio, the 2008 Nobel Laureate in Literature, has traveled throughout the United States, speaking about his writing, his fascination with the interconnection of cultures and how his life experiences - especially his ties to Mauritius - continually influence and inform his novels.

In all of his talks - mostly before writing groups and university students in venues as varied as New York City, Mississippi and Boston - Le Clézio frequently mentioned how living in Mauritius exposed him to different languages, cultures and social divisions. It was in Mauritius, he said, that he developed his love for adventure, travel, inter-cultural communication and his personal connection to the world as a global village.

"I am from the creole culture of the islands," he told a packed auditorium of students and faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Le Clézio also offered a rare glimpse into his background and writing habits. He said that he once dreamed to being a sailor in the French Navy, that he considered being a teacher but the pull of writing was too strong, that he used to send copies of his work to his cousins in Mauritius for their critique, and that he avoids the internet and the computer, preferring to write with an ink pen on fine vellum paper.

"I like the smell of ink, and sometimes I write with a fountain pen and an ink pot," he said. "I like the feel of my fountain pen, like the pipe smokers who reflect while playing with their pipe. It's linked to my childhood and the way I like to write."

He said he does not use the Internet to research his novels, preferring instead to consult primary sources in the archives of England or France, where he can make surprise discoveries and touch and feel original documents.

On writing, Le Clézio said the themes of his books - exile, self-discovery and the clash between modern civilization and traditional cultures - reflect his own experiences living in multiple places including Mauritius, Africa and France, but never totally belonging to any single place.

"One of the things I love best about writing is that it's a way of being there, but not being there. I can write well in Mauritius, at the sea, and can also imagine everything the window (of my house) in New Mexico."

"Writing," he added, "is experimenting with things that you might not experiment with in life. It's like dreaming, but then you act on your dreams."

Bu many of Le Clézio's writings were directly influenced by his life experiences.

Born in Nice during the Italian occupation of World War II, he was raised in a small French village, which was bombed during the war. He said he was saved from hunger and starvation by liberating American soldiers who gave him bread. In 1948, he moved to Nigeria with his mother and brother to join his father, who was a medical doctor in the British Army. Intermittently, he lived in Mauritius, and holds both French and Mauritian citizenship. From these experiences, he began to understand how war divides people, countries and cultures, and how colonized nations in Africa and Mauritius marginalized the natives and created social tensions.

He has also lived in Mexico and with an Indian tribe in Panama.

Le Clézio said he identifies himself with rebellious writers of Jewish novels such as J.D. Salinger, and also with writers seeking freedom from the colonies.

He said he doesn't consider himself an exile, but rather as a member of a "vanishing tribe."

"I belong to the French-Mauritian tribe and this in some way is a vanishing tribe that has kept an aristocratic lifestyle in the belief of ethnical purity. You can get locked into these types of things in a small island. But I was offered a way to escape from this vanishing tribe, from this very narrow place."

Le Clézio cited Mauritian author Ananda Devi as another author who explores similar themes of cultural confusion that people from Mauritius experience because of the mix of languages, history and customs on the island.

Le Clézio's lectures were more like an intimate conversation with his audience, a mixture of light-hearted humor and serious discussion of the writing life. Sandy-haired and handsome at the age of 67, the Nobel laureate was humble and soft-spoken. At MIT, he lingered on after the lecture to chat with students and autograph books, and was surprised to find a few Mauritians in the audience.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in recognition of the more than 40 books that he has published. He writes in French, but his novels have been translated into many languages, and are just now starting to gain greater readership in the United States. He was virtually unknown in America until winning the Nobel.

In making the award, the Nobel Prize Committee said Le Clézio is an author "of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, an explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization."

He has divides his time between New Mexico, France and Mauritius.

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U.S. and Mauritius seek to expand trade ties

A delegation of U.S. government officials was in Mauritius in April to review progress in implementing various aspects of the United States-Mauritius Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), whose aim is to expand trade between the two countries.

Under the TIFA, Mauritian companies have participated in several U.S. trade shows, which have resulted in millions of dollars in new trade deals, according to a statement from the U.S. Trade Representative's Office. Signed between the two countries in 2006, the TIFA has also expanded cooperation between Mauritius and the United States on topics such as trade promotion, sanitary and phytosanitary issues and trade-related infrastructure.

Trade between Mauritius and the United States was valued at $227.7 million in 2008, down 4 percent from 2007, primarily due to drops in Mauritian textile and apparel exports because of increased global competition. Mauritian exports to America were valued at $176.4 million in 2008, a six percent decrease from the previous year. U.S. exports to Mauritius were up 3 percent, to $51.3 million.

Leading U.S. exports to Mauritius include wheat, diamonds, jewelry, and machinery.

Leading Mauritian exports to the United States include textiles and apparel, cut diamonds and jewelry, live animals, prepared fish, optical and medical instruments and perfume.

U.S. direct investment in Mauritius is also increasing - up 83 percent from 2006. Since 2004, the U.S. direct investment position in Mauritius ahs increased nearly 700 percent.

"Mauritius has one of the most open and dynamic economies in sub-Saharan Africa and is a leader among those developing countries seeking to advance economic development through trade," said Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Florizelle Liser.

In a related development, a workshop was held in April in Mauritius to introduce the varied opportunities offered to Mauritian companies to export to American under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The event was organized by the Mauritian ministries of Industry, Foreign Affairs and International Commerce, the Mauritius Export Association and the U.S. embassy.

The goal of the workshop was to try to recapture some of the American market, which has been lost to the decline in textile exports.

A new U.S.-government funded report, called The National AGOA Export Strategy for Mauritius," says that there's not enough awareness about the advantages of AGOA beyond textiles and apparel, and it offers a series of recommendations for Mauritian companies to become more effective exporters to the United States.

Mauritius could expand exports of an array of different products to America, including Victoria Pineapple, litchis, fish and shellfish (processed tuna is the second largest export to the United States after apparel) and handicraft products.

This report is now being used to help companies export to the United States.

"The government of Mauritius must seek ways and incentives for new and creative business ventures," Virginia Blaser, Chargé d'Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Port Louis, told the AGOA Week Workshop on April 6. "It is time to diversify Mauritian exports tot the U.S. market."

She said that President Obama is committed to open trade and that the global economic slowdown will not change that. "In fact," she said, "it makes it even more important that we press forward to build on the market access provided by AGOA."

U.S. could drop Madagascar from AGOA

The U.S. government has warned exporters in Madagascar that the country's eligibility under AGOA might be in jeopardy due to the unconstitutional change of government in March. One condition of eligibility for AGOA is that a country must make progress toward respecting the rule of law. All countries that have experienced political coups in the past have lost AGOA eligibility.

A delegation from Madagascar, led by John Hargreaves, acting president of the Madagascar Exporters Association, met with Obama administration officials in late April in Washington to discuss the issue. Hargreaves explained the dire consequences that would result from the loss of eligibility, as apparel has become the Madagascar's largest export to the United States. Nearly 100,000 jobs depend on the textile industry. He said that loss of eligibility would also affect other countries in the region, including Mauritius, that have economic investments in Madagascar.

Obama officials told Hargreaves that Madagascar must hold legislative elections before the end of the year or it will lose AGOA eligibility for 2010.

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First U.S. ambassador to Mauritius dies

David S. King, the first U.S. ambassador to Mauritius at the time of independence, died on May 6 in suburban Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. He was 91.

President Lyndon Johnson sent King to Madagascar in 1967 as U.S. ambassador. From there, he traveled frequently to Mauritius, where he was to represent U.S. interests and set up the first American embassy that would open for business after Mauritius was officially declared independent from Britain.

King's job in Mauritius was to build an American presence on the island. In keeping with the Cold War of the 1960s, he also kept an eye, and an ear, on what his counterparts from the Soviet Union were doing in Mauritius as well as in the southern Indian Ocean region.

"I went to Mauritius with the idea of being alert - to pick up information that would be of value for the United States," King said in an interview with Weekend in 2002. The United States was especially interested in knowing what the Soviet interests were in the region, and how they were trying to export their politics and culture. It was a common at the time to see Russian naval ships in and around Mauritius.

Since Mauritius was creating a new, independent government, the Americans and Russians were locked in a race to see which superpower could be the first to get a foothold into the country and influence its political and economic development, King said.

"We were trying to sell our values. We had a small aid program (for a medical vaccination program against polio), wanted to send Peace Corps volunteers in and gave Mauritius a small quota to sell sugar in the United States." King said that America was concerned at the time with Sir Seewoosgur Ramgoolam's socialist views.

On March 12, 1968, King watched with thousands of others as the Union Jack was lowered and, with the roar of the crowd, the Mauritian flag was raised.

King left Mauritius in 1969 and was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to a position at the World Bank. When Ronald Reagan was elected president, he left the Bank and went to Haiti for three years as a missionary for the Mormon Church.

A lawyer by training, King also served as a U.S. congressman from Utah from 1959-1963.

a m e r i c a n   s c e n e

WEEK-END --- dimanche 31 mai 2009