Brown Lentil Seraz

I have previously posted about the history of the Chagos Islands, as well as the Chagossian people (also known as the Ilois).  They lived on the islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean for centuries. They developed their own language, music, traditions and, yes, they even created their own cuisine. 

Still, life on those small islands was hard, especially those who worked on the coconut plantations.  Workers labored for food, rum and housing.  None of the  Chagossians owned their homes.  They lived in company housing. And. as far back as 1883, it was one company that owned all of the land.  It was a French-backed, Mauritian company known as Societe Huilere de Diego et Peros. That company continued to operate the plantations until 1962, when it sold everything to a Seychellois company, Chagos-Agalega Company.  The new owners began to bring in contract employees to work the plantations, which started an exodus of Chagossians from their home islands. Within two years, nearly eighty percent of the islands' populations were Seychellois.

Meanwhile, world events soon changed everything.  The United States (U.S.) and the United Kingdom (U.K.) decide that, because of the Cold War, they needed a base in the Indian Ocean. The U.S. did not have any territorial possessions; however, its partner had a bunch of islands dotting the ocean. All eyes turned to the Chagos Islands.  The U.K. established the British Indian Ocean Territory on November 8, 1965, which basically consisted of the Chagos Islands. The British then purchased all of the land from Chagos-Agalega Company, and, leased it back to the company to continue operating the coconut plantations.  The company continued to do so until 1967.

That was the same year that the U.S. and the U.K. entered into a formal agreement to establish a military base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands.  Not only did the two allies decide to build that base, but they decided to expel all of the inhabitants of the Chagos Islands.  That decision was embodied in what is known as BIOT Ordinance Number Two. The decision was wrapped in overtly racist tones.  The British Colonial Office head, Dennis Greenhill wrote the following to the British delegation at the United Nations: 

The object of the exercise is to get some rocks which will remain ours, there will be no indigenous population except seagulls who have yet got a committee (the status of women committee does not cover the rights of birds).  Unfortunately, along with the Birds, go some few Tarzans or Men Friday whose origins are obscure, and who are being hopefully wished on to Mauritius etc.

Thus, a white imperialist power made the decision to evict men and women of brown and black skin color from the islands where they (and many of their ancestors) lived so that there could be a military base from which the pre-eminent democracies could fight communism around the world. 

Yet, these democracies were keen on ensuring that those principles did get in the way of their military plans. In another correspondence from the British Colonial Office, 

The Colonial Office is at present considering the line to be taken in dealing with the existing inhabitants of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). They wish to avoid the phrase "permanent inhabitants" in relation to any of the islands of the territory because to recognise that there are any permanent inhabitants will imply that there is a population whose democratic rights will have to be safeguarded and which will therefore be deemed by the UN to come within its purlieu. The solution proposed is to issue them with documents making it clear that they are belongers to Mauritius and the Seychelles and only temporary residents of the BIOT. This device, although rather transparent, would at least give us a defensible position to take up at the UN.

It was a position the British took and, by 1973, all of the inhabitants of the BIOT (that is, those who lived on the Chagos Islands) had been relocated to Mauritius, the Seychelles and elsewhere.

For decades thereafter, the injustice remained.  It is estimated that nearly 426 Ilois familes, consisting of more than 1,000 people, had left the islands between 1965 and 1973.  That number is now more than 4,000 when taking into account their descendants.  

With any injustice, there is the fight to end it.  The fight in this case led to a decision of the British High Court ruling that the Ilois had a right to return to the Chagos Islands. The wheels of justice grind slowly and, sometimes, in reverse. The U.K. appealed the ruling and, when it could not get it overturned, the government went to the House of Lords, which overturned the High Court's ruling and which reinstated the ban on anyone returning to the Islands. 

The fight continues to the present day because no one has been allowed to return.

Despite the struggle, the Chagossian people have maintained their identity, their culture and their food.  I have previously made Serrage Poulet (Chicken in Coconut Milk), a main dish of the Chagossian people.  At the time, I wanted to find a side dish that the island's inhabitants could have served with this chicken dish.  

The side dish is Brown Lentil Seraz. I could find very little about the provenance of this dish, but, it is appears to be based upon a rougaille, which is a tomato-based dish from Mauritius. A rougaille is basically a combination of spices with those tomatoes to make a sauce.  This dish seemed appropriate given the close history of the Chagos Islands and Mauritius (which were governed together by the British empire for decades), as well as the fact that many Chagossians were forced to leave their homes for Mauritius. Given the foregoing, the ingredients, cooking techniques and, indeed, entire dishes from Mauritian cuisine would have made their way into Chagossian cuisine over time.

The particular spice mix for this rougaille is rather simple, beginning with onions, garlic and ginger, along with the use of bay leaves and fresh thyme. Once the base is prepared, then one can add protein. While they were living on the islands, they may have used chicken, fish, or even lentils, which Chagossians cultivated on the islands.

While I am not the biggest fan of lentils, I have to say that this dish turned out better than I expected.  My previous experience with lentils has been in the context of Indian cuisine, which usually involves the use of more substantive spice mixtures.  However, I had to keep reminding myself that the richness of ingredients that may be found on the subcontinent was most likely not present in the Chagos Islands.  The islanders had to make the best of what they had.  With that perspective, this recipe hits the mark.  

 BROWN LENTIL SERAZ

Recipe from Travel by Stove

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of brown lentils
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 1 large onion sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon ginger, finely diced
• 3 large tomatoes, diced
• 1 spring fresh thyme, crumbled
• 3 bay leaves
• Salt to taste

Directions:

1.  Cook the base.  Cook the onions in hot oil until they are soft, then add the ginger and garlic and keep cooking for one or two minutes.  Add the tomatoes, thyme and bay leaves and continue to cook, stirring, until the tomatoes are soft.

2. Add the lentils.  Add the lentils and enough water to cover.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover.  Simmer for one hour to one and one half hours, topping up with water as necessary.  The finished dish should be more of a thick stew than a soup.  Add salt to taste. 

One final note, an option is to add coconut milk to the seraz.  The author who provided this recipe declined to do so given the amount of coconut milk used to make the Serrage Poulet.  I also decided that it was a good idea to leave the coconut milk out of the recipe.  

ENJOY!