Le Morne Brabant is a peninsula at the extreme southwestern tip of the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius on the windward side of the island. It is highlighted by an eponymous basaltic monolith with a summit above sea level. The summit covers an area of over. There are many caves and overhangs on the steep slopes. It is largely surrounded by a lagoon and is a well known tourist attraction. It is also a refuge for two rare plants, the Mandrinette and the Boucle d'Oreille. The mountain is named after the VOC-ship Brabant that ran aground here on 29 December 1783 on the cliffs. The peninsula of Le Morne benefits from a micro-climate. Le Morne Brabant Mountain was submitted to the candidate list of the World Heritage sites in 2003. In 2008, the nomination process concluded when UNESCO inscribed the site on the World Heritage List.
Peninsula
The peninsula is steeped in cultural "myth and legend" in the early 19th century as a suggested refuge for Maroons and people who escaped slavery. After the abolition of slavery in Mauritius, on 1 February 1835 it is rumored that a police expedition was dispatched there ostensibly to inform those who escaped slavery that emancipation had made them legally free men and women. The arrival of the police at the base of the mountain was misinterpreted by the former slaves who had scrambled to the summit and subsequently elected to leap to their deaths from the rock and commit suicide by landing in the ocean, rather than be recaptured back into slavery. Since 1987 the date is celebrated as the Annual Commemoration of the Abolition of Slavery. Le Morne has been declared a World Heritage Site. The monument includes an inscription of this extract from the poem "Le Morne Territoire Marron" by Richard Sedley Assonne; "There were hundreds of them, but my people the maroons chose the kiss of death over the chains of slavery."
Cultural and aesthetic impact
With Aapravasi Ghat, the first World Heritage site of Mauritius, Le Morne highlights the historical significance of slavery and indenture, two labour systems that shaped modern Mauritius. It is a unique conjunction in the Indian Ocean and abroad, and UNESCO has promoted a symbolic meeting of those two systems, to foster a better understanding among the descendants of both the slaves and indentured labourers in the colonial plantation system. Poet Khal Torabully, who developed the concept of coolitude, springing from intercultural strata of his native island, dreams that the memories of indenture and slavery will enhance debate on identity in Mauritius and elsewhere. For him Le Morne Brabant and the Aapravasi Ghat have to be considered as two characters of a collective narrative that will enhance openness and exchanges between cultures and dispel exclusive and sectarian views of identities.
