August 1-2, 2026 The educational pillar: repair through memory, restore through knowledge

On August 1 and 2, 2026, the Kolektif Reparasyon Avansman Kreol (KRAK), in collaboration with the Cardinal Jean Margéot Institute (ICJM), will bring together in Beau-Bassin nearly 100 experts from the Indian Ocean, Africa, Caribbean and Europe, as reported in Le Mauricien of July 16, 2026. The chosen theme is straightforward: "Corrective history and reparations: restoring the truth, preserving memory and reclaiming dignity." This first international conference on restorative justice is in full compliance with the Accra 2026 Global Framework and resolution A/RES/80/250 of the United Nations General Assembly. Among the strategic pillars identified for reparation, I consider priority: “education”. Not as a simple addition, but as a foundation. This article offers some elements of the Mauritian context, relying mainly on the Report of the Truth and Justice Commission, Volume 1, Chapter 7, 2011. Twelve years after its publication, this report remains a reference of scientific authority, cited in numerous international studies on repairs.

What does the TJC report say?

He identifies the lack of education as the most destructive long-term consequence of slavery in Mauritius. A wound that continues to shape the lives of descendants today. Throughout the period of slavery, from 1721 to 1835, education was systematically refused. The logic of the plantation economy demanded it: a docile, illiterate workforce, attached to the cane. To know how to read was to think. To think was to risk revolt. After the emancipation of February 1, 1835, logic did not disappear. She has transformed. The four years of “apprenticeship” until 1839 kept the former slaves with their former masters. When a form of school existed for former slaves, it was strictly professional. Its goal was not to emancipate, but to respond to the needs of employers. Train good cane cutters, not citizens.

The Commission describes the material consequences of this forced illiteracy. Without understanding the value of writing, former slaves did not keep their documents. Result: massive land dispossession through fraudulent titles, impossibility of reconstructing family genealogies, and lasting exclusion from property and political rights. The Commission describes this mechanism as “irreparable harm”. The report draws a striking contrast with the trajectory of Indian conscripts. They too suffered from insufficient and discriminatory educational provision at the start. Few schools accepted their children. But in the 20th century, attitudes changed. Schools opened, communities organized. For the