René Noyau
René Noyau
René Noyau: Detailed Biography
The Mauritian writer and poet of African and European descent, Joseph René Noyau, was born and raised in Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius. The date of his birth is uncertain—either 14 April 1912, as recorded in his passport, or 6 November 1911, as he claimed on different occasions. René had a twin brother, Jean Reno, who died in early childhood. He also had a half-brother, Emilien, and a half-sister, Gabrielle Noyau (married name: Manuel), who were 16 and 12 years old, respectively, at the time of his birth.
His schooling ended at fourteen.
He tried his hand at several jobs: first as an apprentice sailor, then a lawyer’s clerk, before settling at the docks—initially as a rust remover from ships, then as a stocktaker, and finally as a bookkeeper-accountant. In 1950, at the age of 39, he retired from the docks to be free to write, unimpeded by the shackles of employment and employers. He primarily wrote in French, but from 1970, he also wrote in Kreol Morisien.
In 1934, he married Jane Moorghen, the mother of his three children: Ginette, Nicole, and Gérard.
In 1940, he left the family home after his affair with widow Véronique Bahadoor, a very close friend of Jane, came to light. This led to a divorce in 1942. That same year, René married Véronique, but they separated in 1950. Véronique left Mauritius for England in 1954. In the late 1950s, René sought reconciliation with Jane and his children, but his request was considered too sudden. In the early 1960s, Jane became terminally ill, and René visited her almost daily.
From the late 1950s, Tatane and Rosie Joyce Bahadoor (pseudonym Rosieb Ahjo), Véronique’s mother and step-daughter, lived with him as he felt they needed support. Joyce, an exceptional woman, worked hard as a milliner and supported René.
Early Apprenticeship in Literature
Reading and writing were René’s passions from a young age. After leaving school, he spent his non-working hours at the Mauritius Institute, a public library in the centre of Port Louis, studying despite hunger and exhaustion. A docker lent him books by Romain Rolland, and a Post Office employee introduced him to Baudelaire’s Fleurs du Mal. He credited this immersion in literature—classical, romantic, symbolist—as giving him the confidence, at age 22, to launch surrealism in Mauritius with his poetry collection The Angel with Feet of Bronze.
Extant Publications
René's writings span over 50 years. He wrote under his own name as well as several pseudonyms: Jean Erenne, Jean-Claude Bouais, Michèle Bouais, Madeleine Thomas, Louis-Aristide Sylvain, Observateur, Coeur de pierre, R., N., R.N., and J.E. His commercially published works were limited to three signed as Jean Erenne, including two poetry collections: The Angel with Feet of Bronze (1934) and The Labyrinth Revealed (1939), and a book of aphorisms and reflections, The Crystal Punch (1942). He also published a collection of short stories, Gateways (1936), under the name Jean-Claude Bouais. In 1940, he edited Frontiers, a collection of various authors’ works, including two of his own: The Letter, a short story signed Jean Erenne, and an essay Pathway, signed Jean-Claude Bouais.
In 1964, Bucktowonsing Press published The Bissoondoyal Trial, signed Jean Erenne, later republished as Episodes from Our History (undated) and India and Mauritius (1976). In 1971, René published Beware Crocs About, a political fable in Kreol Morisien, with a French version There Will Always Be Caimans, both signed René Noyau.
In 2012-13, René’s son, Gérard Noyau, with editorial collaboration from Robert Furlong, edited four volumes of his works under the title René Noyau: L’Œuvre, with support from the "Culture and the Future" department, attached to the office of the Prime Minister of Mauritius. In 2021, Two Rivers Press published Earth on Fire, a bilingual collection of his poems translated by Gérard Noyau and Peter Pegnall.
Publications in the Media
René contributed to several newspapers, including Action, Advance, Le Cernéen, Le Mauricien, The Nation, the weekly Le Dimanche, the monthly The Lantern, and the fortnightly Zamana, where, in line with the newspaper’s policy, his articles were published anonymously. Around 350 of his articles and chronicles have been recovered.
The Parisian magazine Le Musée Vivant published two of his essays: Europe and Asia Meet in a Painting by Lapicque (1955) and The Presence of Africa in Mauritius (1956). The magazine also featured three poems: Earth on Fire (1955), Trees Fly and Birds Fall (1957), and Sega of Freedom (1959). Except for Trees Fly and Birds Fall, these writings are part of a cycle René called “African.” In 1962, he expressed his strong pro-independence views at a conference celebrating the 250th anniversary of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s birth, to an audience largely opposed to independence. His speech, Jean-Jacques Rousseau or Of Independence, was published in Dyanane Conhea's biannual magazine Amaranth in June 1963.
Wanderings: An Ambassador for His People, Abroad and at Home
Many of René’s works, especially after 1950, were not printed commercially to avoid censorship. Instead, they were circulated among family and friends in Mauritius and abroad. These included The Friends of the People Are Watching (1965 and 1968), the first and only Mauritian political poem on the riots of 1965 and 1968, and The Fear Complex (1968), a short essay deploring the absence of British royalty at Mauritius' accession to independence.
In 1950, thanks to a British Council grant, René spent three months in England and France. Despite experiencing “the sadness of an immigrant” in London, “capital of thinly veiled colour bar” (The Friends of the People Are Watching), he met many artists, including Henry Moore, Jacob Epstein, Celia Bertin, Roland Penrose, and Léopold Sédar Senghor, future President of Senegal. He described a memorable encounter with the Senghor family, recalling how a kiss from their youngest child put him in direct contact with his African heritage. In the 1960s he visited several African countries including Ghana and Mali, China and the USSR.
At Home: Constantly Questioning
Before 1950, René aspired to make a name for himself and perhaps live abroad. Upon his return from Europe, after years of reflection in his modest shack, he began to understand his true vocation as a writer and poet—to serve his country, its inhabitants, and the poor and destitute. His African-themed poetry, such as Sega of Freedom (1959), explores themes of memory, pain, and the rhythm of the drum as a call to African heritage. Notably, he celebrated his African origins at a time when they were not widely acknowledged in Mauritius.
René Noyau passed away on 18 September 1984, with news of his death spreading only three days later. In keeping with his wishes, his death went unnoticed by the public, as he had written: “If I die and the people is steeped in mud, no wheel should turn around my corpse…No waste of time and useless funeral.”
Despite this, René Noyau remains a vital part of Mauritius' post-colonial literary tradition, a legacy that continues to inspire future generations. It is up to his descendants to carry the flag stitched with his name.