History of the Church in Africa Series
Church History: Mauritius
“What do you know about the Church in Mauritius?”
In 1856, George F. W. Kershaw preached in Mauritius, but no lasting Church presence was established at the time. The modern history of the Church in Mauritius began in the 1970s, when Mauritians who had joined the Church abroad felt a desire to “impart the word of God to their brethren [and sisters]” (Mosiah 28:1) and wrote to Church leaders, asking for missionaries to be sent to relatives living in Mauritius. In 1981, after the first missionaries were sent, Harold Essoo, Rowen Narraidoo, Gerard Goder, Alain Kheeroo, Jayprakash Mohabeer, and Jocelyn Lenette became the first Mauritians baptized on the island. In the 1980s, the first branch was organized, the Church received official legal recognition, and the first missionaries from Mauritius were called.
In 1988 Elder Marvin J. Ashton (1915–1994) visited Mauritius to offer a dedicatory prayer. “We know this land is a link between Western and Eastern cultures,” he noted in the prayer, referring to the melting pot of African, Indian, Chinese, and European ancestry and cultures in the country. “We dedicate this beautiful island . . . in accordance with thy present and future plans for not only the growth, but the prosperity and peace that the gospel can bring.” In 2017, with branches in Rose Hill, Phoenix, and Flacq, the first district in Mauritius was organized.