\n
<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n On nous accuse de vouloir cr\u00e9er une scission dans la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 en r\u00e9veillant les choses pass\u00e9es depuis longtemps. Nous r\u00e9pondons seulement que la scission existe, mieux caract\u00e9ris\u00e9e que jamais que ce n\u2019est pas noire population qui l\u2019a voulue, et que pour nous qui ne savons pas ha\u00efr, tous nos soins tendent \u00e0 amener la fusion des classes. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 Remy Ollier<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n There are certain dates which impress themselves indelibly in our minds. Such a date is the 16th October, the birthday anniversary of R. Ollier one of those whom we cannot forget, do what we will. He is the pride of the coloured population for whose political, social and economic fights he devoted his life, too short unfortunately. He is the genius, which the coloured population have produced in this land but he worked for all who deserved his attention, irrespective of creed and colour. He could say with truth: \u201cDes mains blanches, brunes et noires se sont fraternellement serr\u00e9es dans notre bureau. Elles se croisaient pour r\u00e9diger La Sentinelle en mon absence. \u00bb<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n It goes to the credit of Ollier that he raised his voice to denounce the ill-treatment meted out to the There are certain dates which impress themselves indelibly in our minds. Such a date is the 16th October, the birthday anniversary of R. Ollier one of those whom we cannot forget, do what we will. He is the pride of the coloured population for whose political, social and economic fights he devoted his life, too short unfortunately. He is the genius, which the coloured population have produced in this land but he worked for all who deserved his attention, irrespective of creed and colour. He could say with truth: \u201cDes mains blanches, brunes et noires se sont fraternellement serr\u00e9es dans notre bureau. Elles se croisaient pour r\u00e9diger La Sentinelle en mon absence. \u00bb<\/em>Indians at a time when they had just come into the island, were looked upon with contempt and when almost nobody interested himself in their case. He described the pitiable state of a hospital at Grande Rivi\u00e8re where Indian patients were lodged. They died, he wrote, \u00ab entour\u00e9s d\u2019un simple camli, sur la bande de t\u00f4le d\u2019un lit de fer, o\u00f9 vous en verrez pas m\u00eame une paillasse. \u00bb <\/em>As a consequence many of them died a miserable death. He compared the diet of the European patients with that of the Indians, pointing out the inhuman discrimination. According to Ollier, the Indian patients were given a handful of rice only, in the morning and in the afternoon, \u00ab une poign\u00e9e de riz tremp\u00e9 d\u2019un bouillon des os de boeuf, en si petite quantit\u00e9 qu\u2019ils meurent de faim, et que leur premi\u00e8re parole aux visiteurs qui entrent est pour demander quelque chose \u00e0 manger. \u00bb<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Ollier was born in Vieux Grand Port at Ferney, which Leoville L\u2019Homme in his Ode \u00e0 R.Ollier describes as:<\/span><\/p>\n Un large vallon de f\u00f4rets et de plaines.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Le morne du lion couchant pr\u00e8s de la mer.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n His father was Benoit Ollier, artillery captain during the Consulate and Empire, who had settled down in the colony and his mother was Julie Guillemeau. So long as his father lived he received a liberal education, devouring during his leisure hours the works of Voltaire and Rousseau. When he was aged 16, his father suddenly died leaving his wife and children without any means of subsistence. The young orphan had to pass through the worst of trials. <\/span><\/p>\n Unsuccessful as clerk, he was put by his mother to learn the craft of harness maker but the fates had not destined him for this humble career. He was to be among the elect. He tried his hand at teaching, even opened a college at St George Street, was forced to shut it, bought the pensionnat <\/em>of one Raynaud, failed in this attempt too and had to give up teaching altogether. Then with the cooperation of an Englishman, Baker, he started the Sentinelle, a weekly newspaper. <\/span><\/p>\n At last he had discovered himself. He was a born journalist. Everything he has written bears the mark of genius upon it. He drew his inspiration from the sufferings of the poor whom he often visited in their miserable huts. \u201cNous \u00e9crivons la main sur le c\u0153ur,\u201d he wrote, \u201cet le foyer de nos inspirations c\u2019est la faim du pauvre, c\u2019est le corps amaigri du mendiant, ce sont les douleurs de l\u2019humble famille.\u201d <\/em>He sacrificed his own self for these and for his country for which the bright flame of patriotism burnt in his breast.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cRedresser les torts, encourager le m\u00e9rite dans quelque classe et sous quelque \u00e9piderme qu\u2019il se rencontre, appeler tous les Mauriciens \u00e0 une intelligente unit\u00e9. \u00bb<\/em> Here were the noble aims which he had set before him. He lived up to these high ideals and was ready to lay down his life for them.<\/span><\/p>\n As in the case of the Rev. Jean Le Brun and P\u00e8re Laval a formidable host rose against him. Everyone of his actions was keenly watched and to make him get disgusted with his self imposed task, he was made the object of ridicule and bitter criticism. \u201cNous le ferons tomber par l\u2019amende,\u201d hoped his foes but they could find nothing to prove against him. He was always writing after having collected first hand evidence of whatever he wrote. Finding that nothing could daunt him, some of those who had been the butt of his just attacks one night disguised themselves and laid an ambush for his life in a street corner. Fortunately for him he did not die from the wounds sustained from this attack but he was confined to bed for two months. <\/span><\/p>\n Commenting to his wife upon this sad episode of his life, he said: \u201cOui, en me d\u00e9fendant, j\u2019ai vu tomber le masque d\u2019un de mes agresseurs et je l\u2019ai reconnu; mais je garderai mon secret. Je ne veux pas de repr\u00e9sailles ; cette vie, je l\u2019ai donn\u00e9e en holocauste \u00e0 mes concitoyens. \u00bb<\/em> Could there be any other words more christian than these? If modern times can afford one parallel to this side of R. Ollier\u2019s character, it is the case of Mahatma Gandhi, who was attacked shamefacedly by some white hooligans in South Africa and he with a smile forgave his aggressors.<\/span><\/p>\n Among other things which he demanded and which were in the course of time obtained were to introduce the elective principle in the council of government, the creation of a municipality, that Mauritians would prepare themselves for autonomous government which he considered to be a country\u2019s most solemn right. He wanted that scholarships should be granted to two of the best pupils of the Royal College and that the children of the coloured population should be allowed to take part in a just competition which would decide who were the laureates. He demanded the institution of district magistrates and the system of trial by jury.<\/span><\/p>\n Mauritians have amply shown gratitude for their indebtedness to him. A monument was raised in his memory in the Western Cemetery where he was laid to rest. The Municipal Council gave his name to the Des Limites Street and to a square of Plaine Verte. A bust of his was erected in 1908, and in October 1916 the centenary of his birthday was celebrated with great pomp.<\/span><\/p>\n Remy Ollier passed as a meteor in the History of Mauritius, achieving in scarcely two years the work of a generation. He infused a new spirit into the coloured people and set them on their way to future progress. He did not preach discord and hatred but strove hard that justice might be done to every class of Mauritian society. It might do good to us to contemplate on some of his sayings and try to live up to them for they are as true today as they were when he penned them.<\/span><\/p>\n (Mauritius Times – Friday 14th October 1955)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On nous accuse de vouloir cr\u00e9er une scission dans la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 en r\u00e9veillant les choses pass\u00e9es depuis longtemps. Nous r\u00e9pondons seulement que la scission existe, mieux caract\u00e9ris\u00e9e que jamais que ce n\u2019est pas noire population qui l\u2019a voulue, et que pour nous qui ne savons pas ha\u00efr, tous nos soins tendent \u00e0 amener la fusion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":6560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23],"tags":[338,4552,68,36,1269,736,5613],"class_list":["post-4311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","tag-d-napal","tag-leoville-lhomme","tag-mahatma-gandhi","tag-mauritius-times","tag-pere-laval","tag-remy-ollier","tag-rev-jean-le-brun"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/MT-Logokk.jpg?fit=1200%2C880&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-17x","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}