This is a recent reissue of a Reunionese novel, written in French, and first published in 1844. Due to its critical approach to slavery it was initially banned by the French colonial authorities. 180 years after, it has its first English translation.

It reads an adventure story, but told with a light touch, so quite suitable for ages from around 12 years.

The protagonist is Frême, who as a young boy is captured by slave traders in Africa and sold to the Portuguese. He settles with a family on the Réunion island, where, to the family that buys his services, he is their ‘children’s favourite toy’. When a teenager, he falls in love with Marie, the daughter of the white family he lives with, and they flee to the mountains and live in a cave.

Meanwhile, a group of maroons inhabit the nearby wilds, escaped slaves living rough, nicknamed after the Spanish word cimarron, meaning ‘dwellers of the peak’. Frême and Marie join up with them.
It’s a simple story, but as a document, one of huge historical significance. With its short length, it would be ideal for use in schools. race reunion translated1 Fran705 828

"This is the story of an overlooked book...an exiled book...forgotten for nearly a century...the story of a book that remembers."
-Shenaz Patel

In arguably the first Reunionese novel, exiled writer Louis Timagene Houat's tome was published in Paris in 1844, just four years before the abolition of slavery in France.

Both Reunion Island (formerly Bourbon Island) and neighboring Mauritius (Ile de France) were resupply routes in the Indian Ocean for Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, French and English ships. Opportunities for crop cultivation drew settlers to the twin islands and precipitated the capture and enslavement of Africans, abducted mainly from Madagascar and Mozambique.

"...four barely clothed individuals...leave the same colonial residence. On tiptoe and each taking a different path...to attend an escapee's conspiratorial meeting...crawling and wriggling on their bellies when necessary...reckless...especially in pitch darkness...", having heard rumors that abolitionists in France and England had implored the King and Queen to emancipate the slaves. One suggested that they might row to freedom in Europe. "...we are not sailors, and I am well aware that gales of the sea, much our masters, show no mercy. I would rather sink to the bottom of the sea than toil in chains any longer." Another voiced a different opinion. "We won't rebel...we won't shed blood...let us gather our meager belongings and escape from the master. We will become maroons, 'dwellers of the peaks'." The topography of the Salazes mountains consisted of "steep and precipitous terrain and inaccessible calderas. In this 'Kingdom of the Heights' they would find solace and community as they await liberation...".

The Salazes had been providing safe haven for Freme, a young African slave and Marie, his White childhood love. Their interracial marriage alienated Marie from the White settlers. They were forced to take refuge in the mountains where they lived in freedom, foraging for sustenance. They needed to be ever vigilant since slave catchers would eagerly capture them to cash in. "While the threat of being killed or arrested...looms...along with that of other greater misfortunes, for the time being, they have nothing to fear."

Despite graphic descriptions of the cruelty of overseers, drivers and plantation owners, author Houat relates the beauty of Bourbon Island. "Everything was singing: the waterfall, as it cascaded down the mountain; the pristine stream, caressing the green grass: the droplet of dew, shimmering over leaves and beaming inside flowers...the whole of nature-Yes everything was music to the ears and a delight for the eyes, everything was expressing bliss in the paradise, except, of course, for the miserable [slave]".

"The Maroons" by Louis Timagene Houat is a classic abolitionist novel that deserves to be widely read. The Introduction by Shenaz Patel and Foreword and Translation notes by Aqil Gopee and Jeffrey Diteman enhance this important masterpiece. Highly recommended.

Thank you Restless Books for the print ARC in exchange for an honest review.

53 s6 comments Lori2

The Maroons: An Abolitionist Novel is set on Reunion Island, a French department in the Indian Ocean, during the 19th century before slavery was abolished. The author was of West African and French descent and had been exiled from the island. The Maroons is making its English language debut as it has been translated from French.

While the novel was originally published in 1844, it was declared "a threat to the public order" alongside a few other books, and went largely unknown until it was rediscovered in the 1970s by a Reunionese sociologist. Basically, it was banned. By silencing the story, authorities had silenced a piece of history.

Why was it silenced? The novel weaves together the stories of four enslaved men as they attempt to escape enslavement in different ways, and a black man and his white wife who ran to the island's mountains to avoid persecution from the people around them. These central themes of abolition, escape, and revolution were probably not the narrative most officials and landowners of the time were trying to perpetuate. The story also endorses race mixing as shown through the loving relationship between Freme and his wife Marie.

Extensive front matter including an introduction, a note on the translation, and a foreword, helped me understand the time and place Houat was writing in, enhancing my understanding of the story.

The more stories I read the more convinced I become that every voice deserves to be heard, especially those who have historically been silenced. The Maroons had been silenced, but I'm glad Restless Books is once again giving it a voice.read-the-world K352 4

The Maroons is a rare contemporary account of the horrors of slavery on the island of Reunion (then a French possession). The brutality and inhumanity of the system, and its use of collaborators, is told--as is the humanity and divisions amongst the enslaved population, some of whom seek revenge and others of whom seek only the return of their equality and freedom. This is a short but brilliant work. Shannon81

should be taught in every class for suree. found on the "our classics" shelf of loyalty books in petworth DC. the intros and actual story were very good, and it certainly should be added to the classics / to expand on the more known lit.

read as my first book of readathon 2024 J R1,032 12

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