Specials DIVERSITY EMPLOYERS MAGAZINE Spring 2011 - Anniversary Commemorative Issue

Seychelles

The Seychelles are a group of small islands (about 115 in number) with a total area of 175 sq. miles situated in the Indian Ocean off the African coast, northeast of the island of Madagascar.

Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama, first touched on the Seychelles Islands in 1502 during his second voyage to India. In 1609, a British expedition visited the islands. The Seychelles Islands were claimed by France in 1756 as an uninhabited group of islands. Beginning from 1768 France sent a group 22 planters who brought African slaves with them to live and work on the islands.

The Seychelles became a way station for provisioning European ships on their way to India and other places. The British first lay claim to Seychelles in 1793 and blockaded the French bases there in 1794. In 1814, at the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the Seychelles Islands were finally ceded to Britain. The British introduced Indian laborers and some Chinese to work the plantations.

A measure of self-government was introduced in 1872 with the creation of the Board of Civil Governors. In 1888 the Legislative and Executive Councils were established. The first elections were held in 1948. Independence came on June 29, 1976 and James Richard Marie Mancham of the conservative Seychelles Democratic Party became president in a coalition government that included France Albert Rene of the Seychelles Peoples United Party (SPUP) as Prime Minister.

Almost a year after independence there was a coup d'etat on June 5, 1977 and President Mancham was ousted and went into exile. Rene became the president and began to rule Seychelles by decree. A new constitution in March 1979 established the country as a one-party state and Seychelles began to drift into a Marxist style political system. Several coup attempts, including one staged by foreign mercenaries in November 1981, failed. Rene was re-elected without opposition in 1984. His government made some economic and social progress for the country. However, mounting pressure for democracy led Rene to introduce reforms in December 1991. Multiparty elections were re-introduced in 1992. In June 1993 a new constitution supporting the multiparty system was introduced.

Though Rene's monopoly on power has been reduced, he has managed to retain the presidency -- and his party, the Seychelles People's Progressive Front (SPPF), retained control of the legislature -- in the elections of July 1993. In the elections of 1998 and 2001, Rene and the SPPF retained control but the opposition made progressive inroads into their lead.

In April 2004, after 27 years in power, President France-Albert René quietly stepped down, allowing his vice president, James Michel, who has been in the government with him throughout the 27 years, to assumed the presidency. Michel was re-elected as president of Seychelles in July 2006.