The More Sibyl Podcast Presents: The One with Selena: The Girl from Mauritius – On Island Living
Let’s explore an African country together in this episode. And no, it’s not Nigeria, haha.
Welcome to the Island, peeps! This African island boasts of enviable beaches for destination weddings. It is a religiously diverse nation, with freedom of religion given as a constitutional right and the only African country with a Hindu majority. As Hawaii is seen drifting away from the continental US, so is this country relative to Africa when viewed on a map. It’s also a country close to Madagascar and the only known habitat of the now-extinct bird – dodo.
Mark Twain once quipped that Heaven was copied after this country and Lewis Carroll was inspired by the dodo to write his famous book “Alice in Wonderland” in 1865. Life expectancy here is well higher than the world average and is well above the average for African countries.
Welcome to Mauritius – one of only four countries in the world with no involvement in ongoing international or domestic conflicts and no tensions with neighboring countries. The others being Botswana, Chile, and Uruguay.. As a result, Mauritius does not maintain a standing army.
I invited Selena – who I describe as a spunky, ethnically-ambiguous, culturally-rich, cosmopolitan, Mauritian gal - to talk about her country’s history, its unique aspects, and what her identity and nationality mean to her.
We also talked about her overcoming body image issues, experiences as a US immigrant, and how she responds to questions about her origin.
Read More