StapleRéunion
Riz, Grains et Brèdes
Rice with lentils or beans and a plate of stewed greens, the frame every Réunionnais meal is built on. A carry is added on top; this is what sits underneath.
Serves 6 · 1 hour
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.
Food & Recipes
Every dish the Atlas publishes for Réunion and Mayotte, at national rather than community level — 12 in all: the staple a household eats daily, the dish the country names as its own, street food, what is cooked for a wedding or Eid, regional specialities and a drink. Quantities and method are given for every one, so these are recipes rather than descriptions, and each has a photograph from Wikimedia Commons. The Food page carries the whole continent, searchable by country and by ingredient.
Réunion
6 dishes
National dishRéunion
Cari Poulet
Chicken braised with turmeric, thyme, garlic and tomato, the dish that defines Réunionnais cooking. Every family has a version and each considers the others slightly wrong.
Serves 6 · 1 hour
Street foodRéunion
Samoussa
Small crisp triangles of tuna, chicken or cheese, sold from every bakery and beach kiosk on the island and eaten by the handful with a beer.
Serves Makes 24 · 1 hour
Festival & feastRéunion
Massalé Cabri
Goat cooked with massalé, the Réunionnais spice blend of Tamil origin, made for Sunday gatherings and for the Cavadee and Dipavali festivals.
Serves 6 · 2 hours
Regional specialityRéunion
Rougail Saucisse
Smoked sausage stewed in tomato, ginger and chilli, the most-cooked dish in Réunionnais homes. Fast, cheap, and made in enormous pots for beach picnics.
Serves 6 · 50 minutes
Drink & sweetRéunion
Rhum Arrangé
Cane rum steeped with vanilla, fruit and spices for months and poured after dinner. Every household keeps a bottle going and every household's is different.
Serves Makes 1 litre · 10 minutes, plus 3 months steeping
Mayotte
6 dishes
StapleMayotte
Riz au Lait de Coco
Rice cooked in coconut milk, the base of the Mahorais table. Mayotte imports most of its rice, which is one of the more visible facts about being France's poorest department.
Serves 6 · 35 minutes
National dishMayotte
Mataba
Pounded cassava leaves in coconut milk with fish, eaten with rice at almost every Mahorais meal of consequence. The same dish as the Comoros, made on the island that stayed French.
Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes
Street foodMayotte
Brochettes de Zébu
Zebu skewers grilled at the roadside and eaten with cassava chips, the standard evening street food of Mamoudzou.
Serves Makes 12 · 30 minutes, plus 2 hours marinating
Festival & feastMayotte
Poulet au Coco
Chicken braised in coconut milk with ginger, turmeric and lime, cooked for weddings and for the manzaraka processions that go with them.
Serves 6 · 1 hour 15 minutes
Regional specialityMayotte
Mkatra Foutra
Coconut flatbread cooked on a griddle and eaten at breakfast with tea or with curry. The same bread as the Comoros, still made at home rather than bought.
Serves Makes 8 · 2 hours
Drink & sweetMayotte
Trembo
Coconut palm sap drunk fresh or fermented, tapped in the villages of Mayotte as across the archipelago. Fresh in the morning, wine by the evening.
Serves Varies · Tapped daily
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