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Seychelles: The Saga of a Small Nation Navigating the Cross-Currents of a Big World
One of the most beautiful places in the world, Seychelles is an island nation off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean that received its independence from the United Kingdom in 1976. Abandoned by England and betrayed by France, its founding president lost power in a communist coup spearheaded by the Prime Minister the following year. Following the collapse of communism and its own bankruptcy, Seychelles has been finding an exemplary path to political stability and economic development under the leadership of current president James A. Michel and with the help of the U.A.E.As that founding president, Sir James R. Mancham is in a unique position to tell the story of this transformation, details of the current nation on the move, and thoughts on the way forward to a peaceful and prosperous future. Mancham shares a goldmine of political wisdom learned in his wide-ranging global experiences that have taught him lessons about economic development, governance, geopolitics, friendship, and most importantly about not giving up when it seems the entire world has gone against you. The pristine islands that Mancham describes in this tropical paradise will make the reader want to visit the Seychelles.
464 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 25, 2018
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3107984.html
The book is mainly about the geopolitics and economics of the Seychelles, but that is a subject deeply entangled with its author's life. He became President of the Seychelles when the islands became independent in 1976, and just a year later was overthrown by his own prime minister (while he himself was in London attending the Queen's Silver Jubilee celebrations). He was still pretty sore about that, but on the other hand had relished the opportunities opened up by his return from exile in 1992 to promote the interests of his homeland, particularly since the invitation to return came from his usurper.
The Seychelles is a really small place, with a population of less than 100,000, but that clearly leaves plenty of room for local politics and palace politics; Mancham hints at the effects of high net worth individuals coming in to buy individual islands, a phenomenon he himself was sanguine about. He's much less sanguine about what he still sees as his betrayal by the British and Americans in 1977, facilitated by the French and culminating in the islands becoming a Soviet satellite. (It would be interesting to read an account of those events from another source.) I was amused to realise that I know most of the EU officials he mentions in the relevant chapter.
I doubt that this is the best book ever written about the Seychelles, or even the best book written by Sir James Mancham, but I learned more than I had expected from it.
The book is mainly about the geopolitics and economics of the Seychelles, but that is a subject deeply entangled with its author's life. He became President of the Seychelles when the islands became independent in 1976, and just a year later was overthrown by his own prime minister (while he himself was in London attending the Queen's Silver Jubilee celebrations). He was still pretty sore about that, but on the other hand had relished the opportunities opened up by his return from exile in 1992 to promote the interests of his homeland, particularly since the invitation to return came from his usurper.
The Seychelles is a really small place, with a population of less than 100,000, but that clearly leaves plenty of room for local politics and palace politics; Mancham hints at the effects of high net worth individuals coming in to buy individual islands, a phenomenon he himself was sanguine about. He's much less sanguine about what he still sees as his betrayal by the British and Americans in 1977, facilitated by the French and culminating in the islands becoming a Soviet satellite. (It would be interesting to read an account of those events from another source.) I was amused to realise that I know most of the EU officials he mentions in the relevant chapter.
I doubt that this is the best book ever written about the Seychelles, or even the best book written by Sir James Mancham, but I learned more than I had expected from it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review