Mahorais of Réunion
Migrants from Mayotte to Réunion, moving between two French departments in the same ocean, and finding that a shared nationality does not prevent them being received as foreigners in a society that is itself entirely built from migration.
Identity
Population: Estimated 10,000 to 20,000, growing since Mayotte's departmentalisation
Location: Saint-Denis, Saint-André and the northern communes of Réunion
Language: Shimaore and Kibushi at home; French in public; Réunion Creole acquired by the second generation
Language family: Niger-Congo → Bantu → Comorian (Shimaore); Austronesian → Malagasy (Kibushi)
Traditional governance: French citizens with full rights of movement between departments; community associations and mosque committees provide the only distinct organisation.
Clans, Sections & Sub-groups (3)
Most African peoples are federations of named sub-groups — clans, sections, chiefdoms or sub-tribes — each with its own dialect, territory and traditions.
Family migrants
Households moving for schooling, health care and work.
Students
Young Mahorais at Réunion's university and vocational institutions, a principal channel of migration.
Second generation
Children born on Réunion, Creole-speaking, whose relationship to Mayotte is a visit rather than a home.
Culture
Clothing: Salouva and kishali maintained by women of the first generation; the msindzano face mask, which is highly visible on Réunion and marks the wearer immediately.
Food: Mahorais cooking of cassava, coconut and fish maintained at home; Réunionnais rougail and cari adopted quickly by the young.
Ceremonies: Islamic festivals, in a department where Islam is long established through the Zarabes; mbiwi and ngoma at weddings; the grand mariage where a family can manage it.
Marriage customs: Islamic marriage with matrilocal expectations from Mayotte, which sit awkwardly with Réunionnais housing and cost; increasing marriage into Réunionnais families.
Initiation rites: Quranic school where available; the French school system, which is the reason many families came in the first place.
Stories & Oral Literature
The Same Country, A Different IslandContemporary account
Mahorais are French citizens and can move to Réunion as freely as a Parisian can move to Lyon. They do so for hospitals, schools and work that Mayotte, the poorest department in the republic, cannot provide. On arrival many find themselves treated as immigrants in a department where nobody's ancestors were indigenous, which is a contradiction Réunionnais commentators have written about at length.
Islam Twice OverReligious account
Réunion has had a Muslim community since the nineteenth century: the Zarabes, Gujarati traders from India, who built the mosque at Saint-Denis in 1905, one of the oldest in France. Mahorais arrivals are Muslim too, and Shafi'i rather than Hanafi, African rather than Indian, poor rather than commercial. The two communities share a religion and not much else, and negotiate the shared space carefully.
Proverbs
“One passport, two receptions.”
Citizenship that does not settle belonging.
“The island of arrival was also an island of arrival.”
Réunion's own origin as a migrant society.
“The school is why we came and the child is why we stay.”
The ordinary logic of the move.
Mythology & Spiritual Beliefs
Creation: Islamic cosmology; the trumba and possession traditions of the Comoros carried across and finding a Réunionnais landscape that already has its own.
Beliefs: Sunni Shafi'i Islam; djinn and place spirits; on Réunion these meet the servis kabaré, the Tamil fire-walking and the Catholic saints in one of the more crowded religious landscapes anywhere.
Ancestors: Graves remain on Mayotte; repatriation of the dead for burial is a significant and costly obligation, and one families organise collectively.
Gods, Goddesses & Spirits
Allah
The one God
Trumba spirits
Possessing spirits of the Comoros and Madagascar, carried into a new setting
Djinn of place
Powers attached to sites, reattached to a different island
Architecture
Traditional settlements: Social housing estates in Saint-Denis and Saint-André; informal extensions and shared occupancy where housing costs exceed what work provides.
Building techniques: None distinct; the community occupies Réunionnais housing stock built to French cyclone standards, which is itself a change from Mayotte.
Village layout: Concentration in the northern and eastern communes, near the university, the hospitals and the cheapest housing.
Artifacts
Msindzano face mask
Cosmetic tradition
Sandalwood paste worn by Mahorais women, and the most visible marker on Réunion.
Mbiwi sticks
Instrument
Struck bamboo of the women's dance, performed at Réunionnais weddings.
Noor-e-Islam Mosque, Saint-Denis
Heritage site
Built in 1905 by the Zarabes, among the oldest mosques in France.
Inter-island ferry and air links
Infrastructure
The connection on which the community's family life depends.
Historical Timeline
1841–1976
Mayotte is French; movement to Réunion is limited and largely administrative.
1976
Mayotte votes to remain French while the other Comoros become independent.
2011
Mayotte becomes a department; free movement and social rights accelerate migration to Réunion.
2010s
Mahorais arrivals become a visible community in Saint-Denis and Saint-André.
2024
Cyclone Chido devastates Mayotte, prompting further movement to Réunion and metropolitan France.
Sources & Further Reading
Open sources
- INSEE: Réunion and Mayotte migration statisticsINSEE
- Britannica: RéunionEncyclopaedia Britannica
Premium & scholarly sources