The birth of Mafate : volcano and erosion
Important collapses of the massif of the Piton des Neiges (the highlight of the island 3069 m) accompanied with a powerful erosion were at the origin of the formation of the cirque of Mafate (but also cirques of Salazie and Cilaos).
- Collection Archives Départementales (Roussin 1869) - Source : www.ville-lapossession.re
Origin of the name "Mafate"
The name " Mafate " comes from a leader "marron" Malagasy slave of origin who would have elected place of residence in the cirque. Until today, Mafate stay the symbol of the marronnage. The "Marron" qualifier given to the slaves would come from Spanish " cimarrón " significant wild
The word Mafate would result from the Malagasy which would mean " the one who kills ".
The populating of the cirque
The first inhabitants of Mafate were slaves : marrons. At the end of the 18th century, the cirque was populated with some colonists and, in particular, those whom one call, in Reunion, the " Small white of the heights "or" yab of the heights ". Numerous Whites, deprived of fertile lands because of the demographic development, of inheritance rules and the abolition of the slavery, preferred to settle down in the heights and sometimes in the cirques of the island.
At the time of the colonization, certain families obtained concessions, the others not, but settled, except the law, thinking of being protected reprisals by ramparts and isolation. In 1874, the Forest Service wanted to hunt the inhabitants of the cirque to proceed to its reafforestation. Nobody had the right then to burn a branch, even dead, at the risk of seeing its house destroyed or to be sent to dig the port of the Pointe des Galets. Irritated, Mafatais succeeded in hunting, short of stones and of sticks, the foresters, after many years of sufferings.
It is that in the middle of the 20th century which the attitude of the authorities of the island changed and that fate of the inhabitants of the cirque was able to improve. And from 1980s, the modernity penetrates gradually into the cirque. The tourism was able to slow down the exodus of the mafatais young people there.
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