An earthly paradise, the Seychelles
People in Seychells are said to cook curry with flying foxes. It was after I had traveled the country that I heard about it. So many flying foxes live in the Seychelles that people can eat them. Unlike many countries in Africa they are free from malaria and yellow fever and are safe and politically stable. So we decided to go to the Seychelles as a first trip to Africa.
When I hear the locals pronounce "Seychelles" some sound like "Seychelles" while others sound like "seashells" One of my English teachers said when she first heard the name of the country during the entrance march of the Olympic Games on TV, she thought there was a country which name was seashells. What romantic seashells in the Indian Ocean are !
The Islands had been uninhabited before France sent expeditions several times in the 17th century and were formally claimed in the name of the French king. At that time they were infested with dangerous crocodiles but now are extinct.
Then people started to settle in the Islands to timber, catch tortoises which legs are edible and grow spice. And the country was also a port-of-call for transporting slaves from Africa to the Mauritius. Between 1784 and 1789, 13,000 giant tortoises were said to be exported from Mahe Island. Were they eaten as French cuisine?
The islands were administered by the governor-general of the Mauritius which was also a French colony but in the 1790s amid the French Revolution people in Seychelles established an independent assembly.
During the Napoleonic era the British and the French went to war and the British warships arrived in a port of the Seychelles. The then governor made a surrender and both England and France started to reign the country. To stand neutral the country had to be the supply base of both of British and French ships. But pirates officially recognized by French government thrived and plundered British ships and the country was a haven for the pirates.
Eventually the British irritated by repeated pirate attacks took control of the Mauritius and therefore the Seychelles automatically became dependent of Britain.
Although a slave of habit was illegal in Britain it was permitted tacitly in the Seychelles because of the need from plantations.
At last slavery was abolished and the slaves were emancipated in 1935. They were employed as laborers in coconut plantations. Workers also immigrated from Africa, Arab, Malaysia and India.
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Let's try a tongue twister.
"She sells seashells on the seashore in the Seychelles."
1 The rainy season in the Seychelles is truly
rainy
2 Trees were fruiting bats in the botanical
garden
3 At a bazaar
4 We craved for a car with doors
5 I want to drink genuine coffee
6 How much is one US dollar ?
7 A wedding on New Year's Day
8 A night with tenrecs
9 A journey to paradise
10 French is the language in Paradise
11 What has that passing by?
12 I've left behind my bag!
13 A sexy or salacious palm
14 Black Parrot
15 Seychellois time
16 We went back from the Nirvana