Aapravasi Ghat: Why This Port Louis Site Belongs to All Mauritians

Tucked into the waterfront of Port Louis, the Aapravasi Ghat is far more than a collection of old stone buildings. It is the site where over 500,000 indentured labourers arrived between 1834 and 1923, making it one of the most significant migration landmarks in the world. In 2006, UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage Site, recognising it as the birthplace of what historians call the "Great Experiment": the first large-scale use of indentured labour as a replacement for enslaved workers after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.

V.P. Bundhun, Director of the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund (AGTF), the statutory body responsible for preserving and promoting the site, spoke to the Mauritius Times about its importance and the work being done to keep its memory alive.

Bundhun describes Aapravasi Ghat as a place that transcends any single community. While it is most closely associated with the ancestors of Mauritians of Indian origin, who made up the majority of indentured labourers, workers also came from China, Madagascar, Mozambique, and other parts of Africa. The director emphasises that the site belongs to all Mauritians as a shared point of origin for the country's diverse, multicultural society.

"It is a unique place where all Mauritians can connect with their shared history, heritage, and identity," Bundhun is quoted as saying.

One of the AGTF's current priorities is education. Bundhun says the Trust Fund is leading discussions with educational authorities on integrating the history of indentured labour into school and university curricula. This is a significant gap: despite the system shaping the entire demographic and social fabric of Mauritius, it remains underrepresented in formal education. The AGTF wants students across the island to understand not just dates and figures, but the human stories behind the ghat's crumbling arches.

The site itself, located on the edge of the capital's harbour, is open to visitors and houses a museum that documents the journey of indentured workers from recruitment in their home countries to arrival, registration, and dispersal to sugar estates across Mauritius. Original immigration depot buildings, some dating back to the 1840s, still stand on the site, though conservation remains an ongoing challenge given their age and the coastal environment.

The AGTF also works internationally, connecting with diaspora communities and other UNESCO World Heritage Sites linked to the indentured labour story, including sites in Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji, and South Africa.

What this means: For residents and visitors, Aapravasi Ghat is one of only two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Mauritius, alongside Le Morne Cultural Landscape. The push to teach indentured labour history in schools could reshape how younger generations of Mauritians understand their national identity, drawing connections between communities whose ancestors arrived under vastly different circumstances but through the same processing point on the Port Louis waterfront.

Source: Mauritius Times