Lindsay Pointu has spent his retirement writing books about the people he admires. Following a 2022 biography of Rémy Ollier—that exceptional Mauritian from whom our politicians would do well to draw inspiration—the author has devoted his research to a woman who is just as deserving but has been overlooked: Émilienne Rochecouste, the first Mauritian woman elected to parliament in 1948. Dominique Bellier
In 1948, for the first time, women were granted the right to vote and run for office under a property-based suffrage system—which was not yet universal. Denise de Chazal is often cited as the first female politician, even though she was appointed by the governor at the time, in accordance with the constitutional rules in effect. Émilienne Rochecouste was elected to the National Assembly that year.
Edgar Millien, the uncle who saw to her education until she earned her high school diploma—a journalist and member of the Labor Party—encouraged her to run for office. Putting her teaching career on hold, she threw herself into the very male-dominated political arena, armed with many ideas for improving the living conditions of the less fortunate and an inexhaustible energy for reaching out to the public and leading rallies.
Émilienne Rochecouste won these elections hands down under the Labor Party banner—without actually being a member—as the representative for the Plaines Wilhems/Rivière Noire district. Despite the respect and admiration sheinspired, she was not nominated by the party forthe 1953elections, as Edgar Milien had broken with the party. She nevertheless left her mark:private-school teachersowe their retirement pensions to her. After her term in office, she resumed her social activism—for example, working with incarcerated children at Borstal—and she devoted herself to her own children…her seven children ! Two of them, in fact, spoke at the book launch about the boundless courage of this generous and tireless woman.