Today it was about traditions and culture. We got up early to visit a local farm. We visited the kitchen and drank local coffee together. We were given an explanation of how pineapple is eaten (with salt or sugar) and we were given a tour of the farm where there were many chickens, pigs and bees. We also walked around the sugar cane fields and tasted sugar cane (juice). In this region, sugar cane is used, among other things, to make rum.

Then we went into the slavery past on this island in a museum. This has made a great impression. We looked around a former plantation and looked into a real slave master's house. It is a special thought that slavery was abolished so recently. Unbelievable that people were able to treat other people like this.

Finally, we looked at the sea turtle shelter. The sea turtles are natural heritage in many cultures. They are common in stories and many types of products are made. Now they are fortunately protected. This is now the tradition: dealing well with nature.

 

One of the visited places today that closely conects to the topic of social practices as cultural heritage was Kélonia, a public aquarium and observatory specialising in Marine turtles. 

Vezo people, the sea nomads, respect the rules passed through generations:

Sea turtles are not animals to be killed very frequently, for they have power. They can be killed once a month or once a year. It is forbidden to kill the turtle by cutting its throat, chest muscles or let any blood drip on the sand, to roast the meat or to cook it with the salt, the meat must be cooked by men and distributed to relatives and friends, it is strictly forbidden to sell the meat. These restrictions are meant to be signs of respect to the turtle. If the rules are broken, the people on the canoe which caught the particular turtle will never see another one again until the canoe’s owner makes appropriate acts of compensation. 

The museum is a heritage site. It highlights the prosperity of a well-known landowning family who influenced the history of La Reunion in the 18th and 19th centuries. This was an era when the development of cotton, coffee and sugar cane plantations was at its height.

Madame Desbassayns is an emblematic and controversial figure of Reunion's history, who managed the Villèle estate with a firm hand. The estate relied on servile labour born on the island, or taken from Africa, Madagascar and India. From the beginning of the 19th century to 1848, over 740 slaves worked on the plantation. After emancipation, and until 1974, various descendants of the family managed the estate. This trip really helped to understand the history and social differences that has been established on this Island in the past. 

— Jonah Goldberg

Today we started on a traditional farm. After a solid cup of local coffee, the farmer showed us the sugar cane plantation and we were able to taste fresh sugar cane.

After the tour of the farm we visited the slavery museum. An old sugar cane and cotton plantation turned into a museum. It is terrible to see and hear how people used to be used as machines to produce. For the former masters, the slaves were nothing more than utensils. Yet slavery, or rather the abolition of slavery, has had much influence on the culture of the island. Think of the language, Creole, the food, the first settlements and the music.

It is important not to forget what has happened, but at the same time to recognize that it has also produced an important part of the island's traditions and culture.