Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
granted a year later. Mancham became the first president of the Republic of Seychelles
and René the prime minister.
The flamboyant Sir Jim (as James Mancham was known) - poet and playboy - placed
all his eggs in one basket: tourism. He jet-setted around the world with a beautiful social-
ite on each arm, and he put the Seychelles on the map.
The rich and famous poured in for holidays and to party, party, party. Adnan Khashoggi
and other Arab millionaires bought large tracts of land, while film stars and celebrities
came to enhance their romantic, glamorous images.
According to René and the SPUP, however, the wealth was not being spread evenly and
the country was no more than a rich person's playground. René stated that poor Creoles
were little better off than slaves.
The Long Road To Democracy
In June 1977, barely a year after independence, René and a team of Tanzanian-trained
rebels carried out an almost bloodless coup while Mancham was in London attending a
Commonwealth Conference. In the following years, René consolidated his position by de-
porting many supporters of the outlawed SDP. Opposed to René's one-party socialist state,
these
grands blancs
(white landowners) set up 'resistance movements' in Britain, South
Africa and Australia.
The country fell into disarray as the tourist trade dried to a trickle. The 1980s saw a
campaign of civil disruption by supporters of the SDP, two army mutinies and more foiled
coup attempts.
Finally, facing growing international criticism and the threatened withdrawal of foreign
aid, René pulled a political about-face in the early 1990s; he abandoned one-party rule and
announced the return to a multiparty democracy.
Elections were held in 1992 under the watchful eye of Commonwealth observers. René
and his renamed Seychelles People's Progressive Front won 58.4% of the votes; Man-
cham, who had returned to the Seychelles, fielded 33.7% for his SDP and claimed the res-
ults were rigged.
René maintained his grip on power, while the SDP's star continued to wane. Even Man-
cham himself abandoned the SDP in favour of the centrist Seychelles National Party
(SNP) in 1999. In the 2002 elections, the SNP, led by Wavel Ramkalawan, an Anglican
priest, confirmed its stand as the main opposition party by winning over 42% of the vote.
