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About Mauritius

Republic of Mauritius Coat of arms and Flag

The island of Mauritius is renowned for having been the only known home of the dodo. First sighted by Europeans around 1600 on Mauritius, the dodo became extinct less than eighty years later.

The population estimate for the whole republic is 1,264,867. Mauritian society includes people from many different ethnic groups. The republic's residents are the descendants of people from continental Africa (Mauritian Creole people usually known as 'Creoles'), India (Indo-Mauritian), France (Franco-Mauritian) and China (Sino-Mauritian), among other places.

Language

The Mauritian Constitution makes no mention of an official language and its one million citizens speak either English, French or Mauritian Creole, a French-based creole. It is only in the Parliament that the official language is English but any member of the National Assembly can still address the chair in French. However, English is generally accepted as the official language of Mauritius and as the language of government administration and the court business. The lingua franca is Creole.

Culture

The sega is a local folklore music. Sega has African roots and the main traditional instruments for producing the music are goat-skin percussion instruments called ravane and metallic clicks using metal triangles. Men are usually at the instruments while women perform an accompanying dance which is more often erotic.

In 1847, Mauritius became the fifth location in the world to issue postage stamps. The two types of stamps issued then, known as the Mauritius "Post Office" stamps, consisting of a "Red Penny" and a "Blue Two Pence" denomination, are probably the most famous and valuable stamps in the world.

When it was discovered, the island of Mauritius was the home of a previously unknown species of bird, which the Portuguese named the dodo (simpleton), as they appeared to be not too bright. By 1681, all dodos had been killed by the settlers or by their domesticated animals. An alternate theory suggests that the imported wild boars that were set free destroyed the slow-breeding dodo population. The dodo is prominently featured as a supporter of the national coat-of-arms