Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 islands with a landmass of 445 square kilometers (172 square miles) scattered around more than 1,374,000 square kilometers (530,000 square miles) in the southwestern Indian Ocean, about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) east of Kenya. In 2004 the estimated population of the country was 80,832. Seychelles has a relatively homogeneous and predominantly Christian population of mixed African, Asian, and European ancestry. Its literacy rate is estimated at 87.5 percent.

Seychelles was a French colony until the Treaty of Paris of 1814 gave Britain formal control of Seychelles and Mauritius. The people of Seychelles exercised some degree of involvement in self-governance before independence in 1976.

In 1964 two pioneering political parties emerged in the country: the Seychelles Democratic Party (SDP) led by James Mancham (b. 1939) and the then Seychelles People's Unity Party (SPUP) led by France Albert René (b. 1935). Negotiations with Britain resulted in Seychelles's independence on June 29, 1976. With independence, Mancham took office as the first president...