Sir James Mancham

James Richard Marie Mancham was born on Mahé in 1939 into a prosperous merchant family, with Chinese ancestry on his father's side and French on his mother's. He was educated at Seychelles College and then read law in England and at the University of Paris, was called to the Bar in London in 1961, and returned home to practise. Charismatic and outward-looking, he entered politics as the champion of a Seychelles tied closely to Britain and open to the world.

In 1964 he founded the Seychelles Democratic Party. As Chief Minister he bet the country's future on tourism, and the opening of the international airport in 1971 proved him right, turning a remote colony into a destination. When independence came on 29 June 1976 Mancham became the first president, with his rival France-Albert René as prime minister.

His presidency lasted less than a year. On 5 June 1977, while he was in London for a Commonwealth meeting, René's supporters seized power. Mancham began an exile that lasted until 1992, spent largely in London, where he wrote and did business. His book Paradise Raped told his side of the coup.

His return is the part that defines him. Rather than nurse the grievance, Mancham came home in 1992 and worked with the man who had overthrown him to write the 1993 constitution and rebuild a multiparty democracy. He ran for president and lost, but he spent his later years as an advocate of reconciliation and, increasingly, of world peace, founding a centre in his name. He was knighted, and he died suddenly in Victoria in January 2017, mourned as the founding father of the nation.

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