He grew up in a “karo kann”, on the Réunion side of Floréal, opposite a sugar factory converted into a textile factory in the 1980s. He was educated at the Lycée La Bourdonnais in Forest-Side. Ryan Noordally, of mixed origins marked by slavery and indentured labor, took the stage at TEDx La Rochelle, in France, a week ago. In 17 minutes, the Mauritian lent, to the public and to the world – via a broadcast on YouTube -, one of his views through the eyes of the “Frontier Soldier”, that he was and who served France and the Kingdom -United, i.e. the two countries which colonized theirs.
A Mauritian on the TEDx La Rochelle stage to show the world through the eyes of the “frontier soldier” that he was, it’s like bringing out the heavy artillery for someone who was born and raised in a small remote spot in the middle of the Indian Ocean?
Heavy artillery (Laugh)she is a good fighter. I don’t know how participation in a TEDx is perceived but for me, it was neither a goal nor a marker of success, it was above all a wonderful opportunity which was offered to me by the team of volunteers at the TEDx La Rochelle, and my reward is the friends I made with the extraordinary people I shared the stage with.
How did someone who has a master’s degree in history from a French university, who was a journalist in his country, a college teacher in Mozambique, a legionnaire in France and a soldier in the British armed forces, get to this point?
You answer it by detailing my journey which is more chaotic than anything else. But, to paraphrase Édouard Baer, I would say that it is above all meetings, people who trusted me and gave me a chance. I think of Vincent Montocchio from Circus who gave me the opportunity to make a living from my writing at one time, for example. But the trigger came from one of my superiors, Major Bell, who encouraged me to go on Twitter (X todayEditor’s note) before it became an organ of Nazi propaganda and to talk about tactics, strategy and international affairs. From there there was the team of The Wavell Roomthe best British forum for thinking on defense issues, which asked me to participate in the Land Warfare Conference of Royal United Services Institute in 2019 to speak about military ethics in front of an audience of very senior officers from 29 different countries, then to write articles for them. This suddenly attracted the attention of the Collimateur team, the best French-speaking defense podcast on which I spoke quite regularly on subjects as diverse as my articles, my career and often, often, cinema. And this caught the attention of Thierry Lepesant from the TEDx team in La Rochelle and his amazing and adorable team of volunteers.
What are the repercussions of your “talk”?
I don’t really have a way to measure the impact, and it’s a little early for the impact that concerns me. The goal of a TEDx is to offer listeners new perspectives and give them the opportunity to change their perspectives. I’ve had people come up to me at the exit to tell me that my “talk” had shaken up certain certainties and that’s fine with me. We’ll see what happens to the video on YouTube, if it finds its audience. I have no illusions about the positive repercussions, it brings me nothing, neither financially nor professionally, on the contrary. I have just, through my speech, painted a nice target on my back for all the xenophobes, the racists, the intolerant, and God knows they are on the rise at the moment.
You don’t forget your roots. Tell us about your mixed family.
My family is the world. Doubly so. Because my family, alone, is the history of the Indian Ocean, its merchants, its settlers, its slaves, its coolies, it is globalization through the creolization of Édouard Glissant in progress. And then, the world is my family. I placed my life in the hands of kids from Birmingham or the valleys of the Brecon Beacons barely out of childhood, with backgrounds the opposite of mine, strangers, and they placed the same trust in me Me. But to answer the heart of the question, everything I’ve accomplished, everything I’ve survived, I did it because I knew I was loved. To have, somewhere, always, someone who prayed for me.
-Why did you choose expatriation?
I seized opportunities, I chased after chimeras who don’t live near us, that’s what kept me away. Now, I have family reasons even if Maurice lives in me as a nagging lack. But this nostalgia is more and more illusory, the country is changing so quickly that it is no longer the country of my childhood, for good or bad it doesn’t matter (and probably a bit of both in fact). My country is no more. Whoever is attracts me, and I have very good friends who returned from Europe for the quality of life but my obligations and my career keep me under gray and inhospitable skies for the moment.
You also made a name for yourself after the sad Wakashio episode. Why should or should the authorities have been attentive to your proposals for “realistic” solutions to the structural causes of the systemic bankruptcy of the Mauritian security apparatus?
I’m going to put a downside. The authorities never heard of my ideas. I had a good time judging a situation a posteriori, with hindsight. I do not think that my analysis loses its relevance, but the problem is too deep for the examples of possible solutions, and not these solutions as they are, to be applied. Starting with a cultural problem in infrastructure management. We do not manage risk in Mauritius, we wait for disasters to react, for everything. This is a sign of good democratic health because politicians are afraid of popular vindictiveness. But that means that each lesson comes at a high cost, in terms of biodiversity and even human lives, and this is a cost that could be avoided.
Now, what are your plans?
None. I have just returned to civilian life, I am learning to live for something other than my job as a soldier which was a demanding priesthood. I refocus on myself, my close family and my friends. I have a few more appearances on the Le Collimateur podcast planned, and I encourage anyone interested in international security and military history to subscribe. Maybe a few articles for specialized publications, when I have time.
Watch Ryan Noordally’s “talk” here:
