Forty years ago today, as many as 150,000 Mauritians gathered in Port Louis’ Champ de Mars to witness the lowering of the British flag for the last time and its replacement by the new Mauritian national ensign. It was an emotional moment. Naval ships in the harbour, the scene of a rare and bloody defeat for the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic war, fired salvo after salvo.
Mauritians were treated to the sound of their new national anthem “Motherland”. Witnesses recall that Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, the nation’s first prime minister, and Sir John Shaw Rennie, its last colonial governor-general, were visibly moved.
