From the Laboratory to the Presidency: a unique perspective on the global chessboard
Mauritius’s first female president on power, diplomacy and Africa’s next chapter
Ameenah Gurib-Fakim is more than a former head of state revisiting old battles.
During a Global Power Shifts conversation with Suzanne Kianpour and Jim Stenman, Mauritius’s first female president speaks like someone still fully engaged with the pressures bearing down on small states, African leadership and the fight for credibility in a rougher world. Her starting point is simple and striking: “There is a global reckoning that the world is changing.”
A non-traditional path to power
Her own path into power bypassed convention. She avoided party structures and the usual political apprenticeship, entering politics instead through science, academia and entrepreneurship.
“There never has been any plan,” she says. “It has all been a series of opportunities,” shaped by risk-taking. That history gives her voice a different kind of authority. She speaks less like a career politician and more like someone who has spent years connecting ideas, institutions and public life.
The “three hats” of African leadership
Since leaving office, she remains “very passionate about Africa,” travelling widely and speaking on women, science and public life. She neatly describes herself as wearing “three hats”: academic, entrepreneur and political figure.
So she grounds her arguments about Africa in reality rather than sentiment, rooting her views in institutions, education, capital and trade. This is the long work of building states that actually deliver.
Mauritius: the “chess board” of the Indian Ocean
Mauritius sits at the heart of this argument. Gurib-Fakim describes it as “a very small country” but also as “the star and the key of the Indian Ocean.” She speaks of an ocean once seen as peaceful now turning into “a big chess board.”
While multiple powers manoeuvre, Mauritius sits “right in the middle.” That takes the country out of the ‘postcard’ category and places it inside one of the most contested strategic locations today.
The strategic weight of Diego Garcia
This also explains why the row over the future of the Chagos Islands and Diego Garcia now carry more weight than a narrow sovereignty dispute. The base serves as a vital “unsinkable aircraft carrier,” a joint UK-US military facility that allows the West to project power across the Middle East and South Asia.
However, the ground beneath the base is shifting:
The 2025 treaty: In May 2025, the UK signed a treaty to return sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius. The deal includes a 99-year lease to keep the base operational.
The 2026 missile strike: The stakes turned lethal on March 20, 2026, when Iran launched ballistic missiles toward Diego Garcia. While U.S. forces intercepted the attack, it proved the base is now a primary target in a live global contest.
The Trump-Starmer fallout
The planned return of the islands has sparked a rift between U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Trump has condemned the deal as an “act of total weakness,” arguing that Mauritian sovereignty could allow rivals like China to set up surveillance outposts on the surrounding islands.
The fallout has even bled into other territories. Trump has linked the UK’s “surrender” of Chagos to his renewed pressure to acquire Greenland, citing the deal as a reason the U.S. must expand its own strategic footprint. This leaves Mauritius caught in a diplomatic crossfire between its Western partners while trying to secure its own territorial integrity.
Diplomacy over theatre
What stands out is Gurib-Fakim’s restraint. She speaks firmly about sovereignty, yet her instinct drives her to call for diplomacy. Asked what she would say to Donald Trump, she avoids dramatic statements: “Let’s encourage discussion and let’s get back to the table through diplomacy.”
Smaller states gain little from noise. They gain from steadiness, patience and a clear reading of the room.
The myth of the “Mauritian miracle”
For decades, economists have pointed to the “Mauritian miracle”: the island’s rapid leap from a struggling, sugar-dependent colony to a high-income, diversified economy. It is often cited as the gold standard for African development.
But Gurib-Fakim pushes back on the cliché.
“There has never been a miracle,” she says. “There has only been strategic decisions taken.”
That applies beyond Mauritius: it suggests that African progress requires more than branding or “luck”; it requires governments that make better decisions, deepen regional ties and create conditions where talent can actually be used.
Science as a tool for sovereignty
Her scientific background sharpens her argument. In linking science to food security, water, energy and land rights, she argues that women need not just representation, but “the tools of science” to solve the continent’s hardest problems. She notes that 600 million people in Africa still lack electricity, a major hindrance to economic progress.
The “thirst for truth” in modern media
The media section of the interview is perhaps the most timely. Gurib-Fakim argues that trust in mainstream sources has weakened badly.
“There is a thirst for truth,” she says. “There is a thirst for credible information.” She links this hunger to a digital environment where people doubt established institutions. Her message is clear: Credibility is not separate from statecraft. It sits close to it.
Final thought: leadership as a choice
Ultimately, Gurib-Fakim’s message is one of agency. Reflecting on years spent in male-dominated spaces, she notes that there comes a point where you must decide to “stand and be counted or sit and be counted.” She is not just talking about gender; she is talking about the responsibility of leaders and nations to enter the room and do the work, even when the seat isn’t handed to them. In a world where old habits are failing, her story is a blueprint for how to hold your nerve, lean on the facts and make the strategic choices necessary to survive a global reckoning.
Watch or listen to the full interview below and follow Global Power Shifts for more conversations like this.