Lindey Collen: Indoceanic Solidarity

• Main Author: Hand, Felicity
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2024
• Subjects: Class; colonial history; commitment; environment; Indian Ocean; Mauritius
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/kk/vol1/iss41/15; https://archium.ateneo.edu/context/kk/article/2057/viewcontent/KK_2041_2C_202023_2015_20Forum_20Kritika_20on_20Rhizomatic_20Communities_20Myths_20of_20Belonging_20in_20the_20Indian_20Ocean_20World_20__20Hand.pdf
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

The 2020 oil spill in Mauritius and the fictional events portrayed in Lindsey Collen’s novels both point to the major issues that recur in her work: the struggle for class equality, environmentalism, women’s rights, and the struggle for a communal-free society. In this article, I explore Collen’s novel Boy in order to tease out the concerns that link Mauritius to a larger Indoceanic community. The novel maps out the geography of Mauritius by which the local landscape is foregrounded as an active participant in the colonial history of the nation. Likewise, Collen underscores the importance of human contact and commitment as essential ingredients for self-fulfillment. Boy exemplifies the interface between the local and global as the novel reaches out beyond the shores of Mauritius to the outside world while at the same time dealing with specificities that characterize the rhizomatic society of the South-West Indian Ocean.