Indian Ocean & South Asia Research Network

Créolité in the Indian Ocean: How far can it go?

Créolité and creolisation are terms that are explicable in linguistic, historical and cultural terms. This discussion engages with Vergès and Marimoutou’s specific elaboration in a Réunionais context, while also tracing the Caribbean origins of the term and the movement. Associated with Bhabha’s cultural hybridity, the concept has had a particular function in postcolonial theory. The paper outlines the geographical distribution of the concept in the Indian Ocean, and hence the limits of its applicability.