Abstract
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints emerged within the Mauritian landscape in the early 1980s after the arrival of foreign missionary work. With a population of Indian, African, Chinese, French heritage, and other mixed ethnicities, Mauritius celebrates multiculturalism, with many calling it the “rainbow nation”. Religiously, Hinduism dominates the scene on the island, followed by Christianity (with Catholicism as the majority); the small remainder of the population observes Islam or Buddhism. Although Mauritian society equally embraces people from these ethnic groups, it also has historically marginalized communities who represent a “hybrid” of the mentioned demographic groups. This article, based on ethnographic research, explores the experiences of Mauritian Latter-day Saints as they navigate the challenges and implications of membership in Mormonism. Specifically, it focuses on how US-based Mormonism has come to embrace the cultural heritage of people from the various diaspora and how Mauritian Latter-day Saints perceive their own belonging and space-making within an American born religion. This case study presents how the local and intersecting adaptations of language, race, and local leadership within a cosmopolitan society such as Mauritius have led to the partial hybridization of the Church into the hegemony of ethnic communities within Mauritian Latter-day Saint practices. These merging of cultures and world views prompts both positive and challenging religious experiences for Mauritian Church members. This article illustrates the implications and pressures of the Church trying to globalize its faith base while adapting its traditionally Anglocentric approaches to religious practices to multiracial, multicultural cosmopolitan communities such as Mauritius.
Highlights
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints emerged within the Mauritian landscape in the early 1980s after the arrival of foreign missionary work
A middle age Mauritian Latter-day Saint living in North America is of a mixed ethnic background. This quotation is an illustration of the tension members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints feel in Mauritius
I explore the challenges and implications to the Church arising from their embrace of the cultural heritage of people from the various diaspora
Summary
In Mauritius, we are proud of our multiculturalism society. Mauritius stands out for its unique blend of cultures, races, religions, and celebrations thanks to its ancestral lines that are very diverse. This quotation is an illustration of the tension members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints feel in Mauritius.2 They hear messages from the Church directing equality and color-blindness, but at the same time, in Mauritian culture with its ideal of a “rainbow nation”, ethnic and cultural difference is very important. The Church’s reluctance to embrace local Indian cultural adaptations is alienating Indo-Mauritians from the Church and undermining the diversity within the Mauritian Latter-day Saint community. The broader implication for Mormonism is that in cosmopolitan societies such as Mauritius, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ willingness to be open to the idea of consciously embracing local adaptations from every ethnic group will create a multicultural theology, where all of them are invited to “come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female . The broader implication for Mormonism is that in cosmopolitan societies such as Mauritius, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ willingness to be open to the idea of consciously embracing local adaptations from every ethnic group will create a multicultural theology, where all of them are invited to “come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female . . . all are alike unto God.”
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