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The ‘Nasyon': a critical exploration of the ‘Nasyon's' persisting dissociation from political power in Mauritius

The ‘Nasyon', persons of (imagined, claimed, and proclaimed unmixed) black African ancestry in Mauritius, have always stood at the lowest rungs of the Mauritian socio-political hierarchy, persistently dissociated from political power therein. In this thesis, I set out to uncover and explore the reas...

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Main Author: Dewoo, Moshumee Teena
Other Authors: Nyamnjoh, Francis
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: African Studies 2023
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access_status_str Open Access
author Dewoo, Moshumee Teena
author2 Nyamnjoh, Francis
author_browse Dewoo, Moshumee Teena
Nyamnjoh, Francis
author_facet Nyamnjoh, Francis
Dewoo, Moshumee Teena
author_sort Dewoo, Moshumee Teena
collection Thesis
description The ‘Nasyon', persons of (imagined, claimed, and proclaimed unmixed) black African ancestry in Mauritius, have always stood at the lowest rungs of the Mauritian socio-political hierarchy, persistently dissociated from political power therein. In this thesis, I set out to uncover and explore the reasons for this through the prism of historical ethnography and from the following question: What are the modes of action (x) that give rise to the ‘Nasyon's' persisting dissociation from political power in Mauritius (y)? From and through this prism, I find the ‘Nasyon' to have been fixed as permanently incomplete humans, if human at all, and their incompleteness to have been institutionalised toward keeping them at the margins of the country as non-citizens thereof. Naturally, they could not access or should not be allowed access to political power. To get to political power, they would need to be complete or be made so, as per the claims and requests of political observers and activists on the matter of the marginalisation of persons of black African ancestry. This is the quest for completeness. But this quest is problematic because completeness is unreal, and incompleteness is the normal order of things in the socio-political world. I take from the works of Amos Tutuola and Francis Nyamnjoh to explain this, putting incompleteness forward as a more wholesome lens from and through which to read the case of the ‘Nasyon's' persisting dissociation from political power in Mauritius: the ‘Nasyon' are incomplete humans, but this is not a problem to be solved.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/38469
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:26.520Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2023
publishDateRange 2023
publishDateSort 2023
publisher African Studies
publisherStr African Studies
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/38469 The ‘Nasyon': a critical exploration of the ‘Nasyon's' persisting dissociation from political power in Mauritius Dewoo, Moshumee Teena Nyamnjoh, Francis Nstebeza, Lungisile Nasyon The ‘Nasyon', persons of (imagined, claimed, and proclaimed unmixed) black African ancestry in Mauritius, have always stood at the lowest rungs of the Mauritian socio-political hierarchy, persistently dissociated from political power therein. In this thesis, I set out to uncover and explore the reasons for this through the prism of historical ethnography and from the following question: What are the modes of action (x) that give rise to the ‘Nasyon's' persisting dissociation from political power in Mauritius (y)? From and through this prism, I find the ‘Nasyon' to have been fixed as permanently incomplete humans, if human at all, and their incompleteness to have been institutionalised toward keeping them at the margins of the country as non-citizens thereof. Naturally, they could not access or should not be allowed access to political power. To get to political power, they would need to be complete or be made so, as per the claims and requests of political observers and activists on the matter of the marginalisation of persons of black African ancestry. This is the quest for completeness. But this quest is problematic because completeness is unreal, and incompleteness is the normal order of things in the socio-political world. I take from the works of Amos Tutuola and Francis Nyamnjoh to explain this, putting incompleteness forward as a more wholesome lens from and through which to read the case of the ‘Nasyon's' persisting dissociation from political power in Mauritius: the ‘Nasyon' are incomplete humans, but this is not a problem to be solved. 2023-09-08T11:51:59Z 2023-09-08T11:51:59Z 2023 2023-09-08T11:35:24Z Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/38469 eng application/pdf African Studies Faculty of Humanities
spellingShingle Nasyon
Dewoo, Moshumee Teena
The ‘Nasyon': a critical exploration of the ‘Nasyon's' persisting dissociation from political power in Mauritius
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title The ‘Nasyon': a critical exploration of the ‘Nasyon's' persisting dissociation from political power in Mauritius
title_full The ‘Nasyon': a critical exploration of the ‘Nasyon's' persisting dissociation from political power in Mauritius
title_fullStr The ‘Nasyon': a critical exploration of the ‘Nasyon's' persisting dissociation from political power in Mauritius
title_full_unstemmed The ‘Nasyon': a critical exploration of the ‘Nasyon's' persisting dissociation from political power in Mauritius
title_short The ‘Nasyon': a critical exploration of the ‘Nasyon's' persisting dissociation from political power in Mauritius
title_sort nasyon a critical exploration of the nasyon s persisting dissociation from political power in mauritius
topic Nasyon
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/38469
work_keys_str_mv AT dewoomoshumeeteena thenasyonacriticalexplorationofthenasyonspersistingdissociationfrompoliticalpowerinmauritius
AT dewoomoshumeeteena nasyonacriticalexplorationofthenasyonspersistingdissociationfrompoliticalpowerinmauritius