VICTORIA, Seychelles — Tony Mathiot, the Seychellois historian and writer whose encyclopedic knowledge of the islands’ recorded past made him a fixture of the country’s cultural life, died late on Wednesday afternoon at the age of 61. According to a police communiqué, he was found unresponsive on the footpath behind the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception in Victoria by a family member on the way home. He was certified dead at the scene by the police pathologist, and an investigation is under way pending the autopsy report.
The news prompted an immediate response from the country’s leadership. In a message of condolence, President Wavel Ramkalawan acknowledged the scope of Mathiot’s work and said his contributions to the preservation of Seychelles’ history and his extensive cultural knowledge would be sorely missed. Cecile Kalebi, permanent secretary within the Seychelles National Institute of Culture, Heritage and the Arts, said she was in a state of shock, and noted the recent death of Norbert Salomon as well. We lost Norbert Salomon a few weeks ago and now Tony. This is a huge loss, PS Kalebi said.
Colleagues remembered Mathiot as a quiet, generous presence at the National Archives, which he considered his second home. His desk there was always piled high with books and papers, and he wrote long hand, sometimes producing more than 2,000 words a day. He considered himself the adoptive son of the Ministry of Culture. Over the years, he contributed to the Air Seychelles in-flight magazine Silhouette, wrote for the Ghana-based New African, and became a regular presence in the daily paper’s pages, with a ‘Calendar of events: a year of dates in our history’ series that ran on page 4 for years.
In a 2012 interview, Mathiot described his work as a ‘pathological passion for writing and literature’. He said he always had something to do, with so many books to read and so much to write about, and the mist forests to explore. He never felt bored. His colleague Anne-Marie Banane summed up the response of those who worked with him in a single line. Tony was himself an archive, she said, recalling that he was always willing to share what he had gathered and was quick to encourage students to study history and to take the baton when his generation was gone.
Mathiot had emailed his first contribution of 2024 to the daily paper’s editorial team at 3.01pm on Wednesday, intended for publication in the Saturday January 27 issue. The colleague who received it said he was not sure if Mathiot had the chance to read the response sent at 5.02pm, and in case he did not, added only this. Adieu mon ami. Que ton âme repose en paix.
