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Before travelling to Réunion Island, I wrote a blog post on my expectations of the island; that I'd heard it was culturally, ethnically, racially and religiously diverse. However it wasn't until I really settled in here that I realised to what extent this statement is true.
I am in awe of the tolerance and celebrations toward different peoples origins and religious beliefs. This is present in everyday life whereby its noticeable to see the huge sense of community here. Not only in the celebrations of religious events like Diwali, but also simply on the bus (where strangers spark up conversations fairly quickly) or at the markets. At the weekends especially, I always see large groups of people having picnics together and celebrating birthdays, with balloons, music and lots of food which they all share with one another. These families gather anywhere and everywhere; in the mountains, by the sea, on the beach, in the parks, and alongside the rivers and waterfalls!
This cultural diversity is also clearly prominent in the fact that more than one language is spoken here. Coming from a country that is infamous for being monolingual, and hearing about this small island that celebrated more than one was quite astonishing. Creole is the prominent unofficial language of Réunion but due to the diverse population a large number of other languages are spoken, such as as Comorian language varieties, Mandarin by the Chinese community and there is also a significant number of speaker of Indian languages. I find it fascinating that Creole is able to co-exist alongside French, despite French being the more dominant language, and yet, the fact it does co-exist proves how diverse and different the culture of Réunion Island really is.
I've also never lived in a such a small area and been presented with a variety of different religions co-existing in harmony. This religious tolerance is fascinating; walking down the street it's easy to find a church next to a Hindu temple, or a Chinese pagoda next to a mosque. It's actually quite refreshing to see people celebrating this tolerance - there's no tensions between people, and no religious dominance either.
What's sad is, though this is normal for Réunion, this is quite rare for the rest of the world. Seeing this celebration hands-on has given me perspective on how slow other countries are with accepting a variety of cultures, ethnicities, races and religions. Especially since these other countries, like the UK, are possibly more evolved in other sectors. It could be said that, in the UK, we need to follow Réunion's lead, and not only be more tolerant of different cultures but also celebrate them.
