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Aapravasi Ghat

Mauritius
Date of Inscription: 2006
Criteria: (vi)
Property : 0.1640 ha
Buffer zone: 28.9000 ha
Port Louis District
S20 9 31.1 E57 30 11.4
Ref: 1227

Brief Description

In the district of Port Louis, lies the 1,640 m2 site where the modern indentured labour diaspora began. In 1834, the British Government selected the island of Mauritius to be the first site for what it called ‘the great experiment’ in the use of ‘free’ labour to replace slaves. Between 1834 and 1920, almost half a million indentured labourers arrived from India at Aapravasi Ghat to work in the sugar plantations of Mauritius, or to be transferred to Reunion Island, Australia, southern and eastern Africa or the Caribbean. The buildings of Aapravasi Ghat are among the earliest explicit manifestations of what was to become a global economic system and one of the greatest migrations in history.

Aapravasi Ghat | Barbara Blanchard © B. Blanchard More pictures ...

Statement of Significance

Criterion (vi): Aapravasi Ghat, as the first site chosen by the British Government in 1834 for the ‘great experiment' in the use of indentured, rather than slave labour, is strongly associated with memories of almost half a million indentured labourers moving from India to Mauritius to work on sugar canes plantations or to be transshipped to other parts of the World.

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