ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the national narrative of Mauritius, a small island state in the Pacific Ocean, and the context for the life history narratives of a class of secondary school students. There are probably three things that characterise the island of Mauritius: first, it is small and isolated, second, it is uniquely multicultural, and third, it can claim both the successes of a diversified and growing economy. Mauritian culture is literally a fact of colonialism, with all its first inhabitants coming from elsewhere. Cultural policy in Mauritius retains a particular conception of national identity. The government of the Republic of Mauritius describes the country's culture as Mauritius has a cosmopolitan culture. Unlike other islands, where policies around multiculturalism were an attempt to deal with an indigenous mono-culture, Mauritius was de facto multicultural, a fact that would shape the policy and practice of the island's identity and education system.
