ABSTRACT

Well hidden from the emulative eye of history, Madagascar, Comoros, the Mascarenes, and Seychelles recommend themselves, as islands will, to mankind's proverbial quest for sanctuary. In the vast ocean of affairs between landmasses, the people of the south western islands occupy an obscure but essential place. Later in the nineteenth century, Madagascar, Comoros, and even Zanzibar joined the seaward archipelagoes as territories of Europe, sacrificing in turn their principal identity within the oceanic and East African region. Nineteenth century industrial colonialism ended the autonomy which all the insular societies had enjoyed, whether as Afro-Asian polities or as exclaves of free Europeans. Any project for Indian Ocean integration beyond France's own quartier would have inevitably entailed consultations with the United States and United Kingdom over the role of the Francophone islands—an unwelcome concession for Gaullist policy. The islands of the proverbial Latin Quarter stand as a microcosm for Indian Ocean societies at large.