| dc.description.abstract | The thesis presents and discusses the contemporary exile or displacement of a diasporic community who between 1965 and 1973 were expelled from the Chagos archipelago in the centre of the Indian Ocean. Their majority, some 5000 Chagossians, currently live on the outskirts of the Mauritian capital Port Louis. In reaction to the Chagossians experiences upon the expulsions and their prevailing difficulties in Mauritius, a widely shared vocabulary which contextualizes these experiences within meaningful cultural frames, has developed. Constituting their cultural identity, this vocabulary form part of an intelligible narrative furnished with moralities and values ascribed places and past events on which the narrative draws its content. Chagossians expressing this narrative when representing their history, the places involved, Chagos and Mauritius, are communicated in radical oppositions where Chagos comes to represent the solutions to current problems, and in turn forming the foundation for a prevailing longing for home . Inhabiting Mauritius whose Independence was granted in the course of secret political negotiations in the mid sixties that led to the expulsions of the Chagossians, the Chagossians historical representations conflict with the myths on which the post-independent Mauritian nation is based. Contested versions of the same historical events, including central characters associated with them, makes it difficult for Chagossians in Mauritius to align with myths constituting the imagined community of Mauritian citizens since this would contradict the essential content constituting their cultural identity. Exiled or displaced in Mauritius, the Chagossian community is reproduced in a constituent dialogue with the Mauritian over-ethnic nation, and positive identification of their community draw on material outside the time/space limits of the Mauritian state. Revitalization of Chagossian Culture and reproduction of their cultural narrative of roots and uprooting is crucial for their struggles to change their situation; however, in turn it reproduces resentment among other Mauritians who question their loyalty on the part of the nation , and therefore also | nor |