Berger Agathe

Many thought, when they heard the song “Zom Ki Faim” that it was Kaya as the song had the same passion. However it wasn’t Kaya it was this new seggae singer Berger Agathe, originally from Rodrigue Island, who lived in Roche-Bois. He became a close friend of Kaya that was also responsible for naming his band Ovajaho.

The band released the album “Vanite” that also included the hit “Pena Pu Kui” that means “nothing to cook” symbolising the state of poverty the people of Roche-Bois and other areas in Mauritius. He was also responsible for introducing the band “Zot Sa” that had a huge impact on his albums such as “Nou tou ensam, en chantant La vérité”. His last album was entitled “Non La Violance” that means “No to Violence”.

Berger Agathe was shot dead by the police in February1999 as Riots broke on the Island following the death of musician Kaya while in custody.

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Ras Ti-Lang

Ras Ti-lang (small tongue) was the natural successor of seggae after the death of Kaya (king of seggae). His popularity was based on the fact that his music was about the Mauritian people every day struggle.

The singer was victim of a car accident where he had his tongue cut. Everyone around him thought that his career as a singer was over as he couldn’t speak for several days. However driven by his passion and determination for music everyday he would play his djembé (African drum) by the river while practicing his vocals which he would regain successfully. Ti Lang used of music was the only way he could express his emotions as he couldn’t read or write. His music was loved by all communities however he speaks to the Creoles about the value of education, friendship, injustice and the poverty faced by many.

In June 2004 he was arrested and jailed on allegation of theft. In July he was transported to hospital after complaining of chess pain in prison, he died in hospital and the coroner confirmed that he died of natural causes. His two albums Evolusion and L’édikasyon remain seggae classics.

Père Laval

Father Jacques Desiré Laval (known locally as Père Laval) was born in France in 1803 and brought up in strict religious atmosphere, qualifying as a medical doctor before becoming a priest. In 1841, he arrived in Mauritius as a missionary converting thousand of recently freed slaves to catholism. But his popularity amongst the Mauritian people was based on his campaign for better working and living conditions to the Creoles becoming known as the Apostle of the blacks. He lived with the Creoles, learned the language, fasted when supplies were short, and slept in a packing crate. His medical training was useful to his ministry, as he worked to improve conditions in agriculture, sanitation, medicine, and science.

He died on 9 September 1864 and was beatified in 1979 and is regarded as the Island national Saint. He is venerated by followers of all faith who attribute miraculous healing power to his name. Throughout September people of all around the world flock in Sainte-Croix to join the yearly pilgrimage in his honour.

Jean-Claude Gaspard

Jean-Claude who is now among the doyens of Mauritian séga singers, said he has séga in his blood, being the son of another séga great, late Roger Augustin. He has graced the international stage in cultural shows in Vanuatu, New Zealand, Canada, Austria, China and Australia.

Stéphan Buckland

Stéphan Buckland (also written Stéphane Buckland; born January 12, 1977) is a retired Mauritian athlete competing in the 100 and 200 metres. He is one of the country's best sportsman and is regarded as a hero for his sporting achievements and his contributions to fighting poverty.

Buckland is one of the few athletes who has reached a World Championships Final three times in a row. He did so in 2001, 2003, and 2005. Buckland came sixth in the 200m final at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He went on to represent Mauritius at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He competed at the 200 metres where he placed third in his first round heat in a time of 20.98 seconds. He improved his time in the second round to 20.27 seconds, but only finished fifth in his heat. His time was still enough to advance to the semifinals, but he was unable to make it to the finals. In his semifinal race he placed sixth with a time of 20.48 seconds.

Le Négrier

The Negrier is a fleet designed for the trading of black slaves across America, the Carribean and the Indian Ocean which included the transportation by sea of African slaves to be sold for a value.

The Dodo

The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) was a flightless bird endemic to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. Related to pigeons and doves, it stood about a meter (3.3 feet) tall, weighing about 20 kilograms (44 lb), living on fruit, and nesting on the ground.

The dodo has been extinct since the mid-to-late 17th century. It is commonly used as the archetype of an extinct species because its extinction occurred during recorded human history and was directly attributable to human activity. 

In the year 1598 AD, Portuguese sailors landing on the shores of the island of Mauritius discovered a previously unknown species of bird, the Dodo. Having been isolated by its island location from contact with humanity, the dodo greeted the new visitors with a child-like innocence. The sailors mistook the gentle spirit of the dodo, and its lack of fear of the new predators, as stupidity. They dubbed the bird "dodo" (meaning something similar to a simpleton in the Portuguese tongue). Many dodo were killed by the Dutch during their brief occupation of the island, and those that survived man had to face the introduced animals. Dogs and pigs soon became feral when introduced to the Mauritian eco-system.

The phrase "dead as a dodo" means undoubtedly and unquestionably dead, whilst the phrase "to go the way of the dodo" means to become extinct or obsolete, to fall out of common usage or practice, or to become a thing of the past.

George "le colonel" Corette - RIP

George “le colonel” Corette died at the age of 58 on the 21st of August 2010 after a battle against cancer that lasted for months. However he leaves a long lasting legacy on the Mauritian music scene. He was a demanding character when it comes to his music and as he confirmed himself, he was never a person that could take any type of criticism, as he was confident in his choices which attributes is also characteristic of his regimented character that earned him the nickname “le Colonel”.

He always trusted his own instinct when it comes to the artists he worked with which would immediately recognised his unique talent. Many of those artist he worked with rose to stardom such as Otantik Street Brothers (OSB), Blakkayo and many more.

He was a man that was always researching for the perfect sound. Not happy of the musical development in the country he left Mauritius at the age of 42 with the group Blue Star to venture new musical and cultural horizons which led him to France where he would join the musical school of Saint Ouen and where he also joined the army. Still eager to contribute his knowledge and experience acquired to the local scene he travelled back to Mauritius. At that time their was a buzz in all the citée about Kaya who was the new local sensation fusing the local sega with reggae delivering lyrics of peace and unity. George thought he could work with him to develop the sound in terms of the recording, mixing and production and he proposed Kaya to work together which led him him to arrange and produce the album L' Experience, which was a re-mastering and re-recording of some of Kaya's hits. Despite this effort L’Experince lost some of its originality that had gained Kaya and Racin Tatan their fame on the island. However George would continue to work with young artists and helped to shape the Reggae and Seggae sound on the island that influences can still be heard in today's music.

Check George Corette on percussions on the Ras Ricky performance

The East India Company

Between 1715 and 1764 the island was under the supervision of the French East India Company which had been created in 1664 by Colbert, principal adviser on commercial matters to Louis XIV. Since the introduction of coffee crops in Bourbon (Reunion), the sister island was considered to be more of a commercial success and, with no-one interested in her fate, Mauritius had to await the arrival of La Bourdonnais, as governor, before any improvement could be made in conditions here. As it was, the Company’s unique objective was the successful establishment of trade with Asia to the advantage of the Crown. Thus important administrative powers were delegated to its representative.

So, what exactly do we mean by a “Compagnie des Indes?” It was a “privileged association” of traders who had been granted the monopoly for trade between a European country and distant lands in America and Asia. From their trading posts (Canton in China, Pondichery in India for the “Compagnie des Indes Orientales”) the merchandise sought after by the Western world was shipped. There were several ports of call along the route—such as the Ile de France—Mauritius.
A typical homestead of the colonists of the time consisted of a small agricultural holding called “habitation”—granted to the white population for exploitation but whose produce went mainly to supply the company’s fleet. If the holding was unproductive it could be given to another person.
Some goods have retained an association with the Compagnie des Indes to this day—one thinks of some cotton prints still called “Indiennes” and of the much prized blue and white Chinese porcelain, and the sculptured furniture.

Code Noir

The Code Noir was a decree passed by Louis XIV of France in 1685, affecting all the French colonies, such as Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) and other French colonies in the Indian Ocean that were involved in the sugar trade.  It essentially codified slavery, eliminating slaves’ rights and defining them as property, eradicating all traces of African cultures by banning African drums and chants which the Mauritian slaves replaced with the Ravanne and the "Sega" was born.

Although there was some humanitarian intent, any benefit to slaves’ lives was minimal.  The decree remained in force until 1789 and the French Revolution.  The slaves of Haiti rebelled in 1791, gaining their freedom in 1804.

Alexandre Dumas père (1802-1870), author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers, is connected to Haiti.  His father, a famous general, was born there in 1762 (to a French soldier and a Haitian slave woman).  Despite his success, Dumas was the victim of racism throughout his life.  He tackled the subject of colonialism only once, in a short novel Georges (1843), which he set in Mauritius. The cartoon below is titled: "The Quadroon Chef: Dumas concocting his bouillabaisse of romance."

The United States eventually created its own Code Noir: the One Drop Rule, which meant that anyone with "one drop" of African blood had to be considered Black. This unofficial rule was invented in the "free" northern states of the U.S. between 1830 and 1840, before spreading south. It had to be invented since inter-marriage had by this point eroded perceptible differences between White and Black.

However if we look at the "code noir" , in order of importance, some of these rules  includes the  following:

– All slaves to have Catholic religious instruction, a fine to be paid by the owner who defaults.

– Slaves can only be married with the consent of the owners.

– Children born to slaves belong to the owner of the mother.

– Slaves are considered as “movable property” and are included in any list of possessions to be bequeathed or shared.

– Slaves are forbidden to gather in any numbers—the punishment being either lashes with the whip or branding with the iron (known as the “fleur de lys”).

– The owner must continue to look after his elderly, infirm or sick slaves.

– Corporal punishment or even execution are the penalty for theft.

– No slave shall sell sugar cane, for any reason whatsoever, under penalty of a lashing.

It should not be forgotten that slavery was a worldwide economic system. Unesco has created its educational programme “The slave route” in order to shed light on this tragic phenomenon. The Sugar Adventure was determined to collaborate in this programme in order to bring our contribution of remembrance.

Jean Paul "Bluey" Maunick

Jean-Paul 'Bluey' Maunick, born 19 February 1957 in Mauritius son of Mauritian Poet Eduard Maunick and Armande Mallet, is a guitarist, bandleader, composer and in-demand record producer. Since 1979, he has led the British band Incognito, being one of the pioneers of acid jazz, and releasing thirteen studio albums, three albums of remixes and two further albums by bands largely made up of the members of Incognito. Bluey was also a founder member of the group Light of the World.
As a record producer, his credits include, among others, household names such as Paul Weller, George Benson, Maxi Priest and Terry Callier.

Le Morne Brabant

Le Morne is a peninsula at the extreme south-western tip of Mauritius and the most windward side on this island. It is highlighted by an eponymous single standing basaltic rock with a summit of 556 metres above sea level which belongs to the most imposing sights on Mauritius …

Le Morne Cultural Landscape

A rugged mountain that juts into the Indian Ocean in the southwest of Mauritius was used as a shelter by runaway slaves, maroons, through the 18th and early years of the 19th centuries. Protected by the mountain’s isolated, wooded and almost inaccessible cliffs, the escaped slaves formed small settlements in the caves and on the summit of Le Morne. The oral traditions associated with the maroons, have made Le Morne a symbol of the slaves’ fight for freedom, their suffering, and their sacrifice, all of which have relevance to the countries from which the slaves came - the African mainland, Madagascar, India, and South-east Asia. Indeed, Mauritius, an important stopover in the eastern slave trade, also came to be known as the “Maroon republic” because of the large number of escaped slaves who lived in Le Morne.

Ti Frere

 

Jean Alphonse Ravaton, alias Ti Frere, was born on April 29th, 1900. His father was Madagascan ( Ravaton is a Madagascan surname) and a sega artist too, the art form being characteristically passed on from father to son, and groups often made up of members of the same family. A coachman to a well-to-do-family, his father not only performed the sega but also conducted a dance band, the kind prolific at the time with accordion, banjo, percussion, and sometimes violin. Such orchestras performed European dance repertoire like the "cottish", "mazok", "lavalse" and "quadrilles", dances which, although they have disappeared in Mauritius, are still popular on Rodrigues, the neighbouring island. Ti Frere learnt to sing the sega and ballads too through accompanying his father. Later he would sing with his own dance band, playing especially for " zarico" (z’haricot) (bean) dances. "Zarico" dances were Saturday night country affairs put on in the courtyards of homes and during which a cake containing a bean was shared out: whoever got the bean had to put on the next Saturday’s dance. These dances would always finish with a few segas, something that still happens today at marriages or parties and that harkens back to the time when the sega, frowned upon and sometimes forbidden, was only danced as the night would close and restrictions eased up a little.
The segas marginally never threatened its existence: Ti Frere has performed it all his life. He would be called upon for parties, beach picnics, drinks after shooting parties which he himself would participate as a beater and sometimes as hunter. His sega artist reputation was firmly established through veritable tournaments, "pariages sega", contests with no prize and no jury, put on from village to village, which would last all night long, even today into the next day with only judges being the dancers and their audience.

Although Ti Frere was reputed locally, he had to wait until 1964 to achieve fame on a national scale. On October 30th of that year occurred the famous " Night Of the Sega". Held on Mt. Le Morne, it was a musical and theatrical happening which Mauritians still remember. In some ways this happening was the official reinstatement of the sega and the first step towards an awareness of Afro-Mauritian cultural identity. Four years away from independence and cohabitating with Indian, Moslem, European, Chinese ethnic groups, the Afro-Mauritian, so called Creole community felt the need to assert its identity through a rediscovery and conservation of its roots. On that night a sega contest was organised after which Ti Frere was crowned " King of sega". From then on, he was in the public eye and recorded a series of 45’s which are unobtainable today. To the traditional ravanne, maravane , and triangle, Ti Frere would sometimes add the accordion, influenced by his father  (and his own) dance band instruments. Like other sega artist , Ti Frere has never been able to live from it. He has had many different trades: wood cutter, cane-cutter, " casseur roches" (boulder breaker), bus conductor, forester.

Ti Frere has artistry that is totally unique. This is in part due to his strong artistic personality but also to what has influenced his make-up. Ti Frere was initiated by his father, but the latter had already been triply influenced by the Bohjpuri language, his Madagascan birth ( Ti Frere still remembers the Madagascan songs his father taught him) and by his contact with the European dance music performed by his orchestra, music and in other towns no doubt also influenced his father. According to A.Pitot (1910), vestigates of this music still live on in the sega , just as in new Orleans, Blacks were imitating bands on parade.

This unique situation made Ti Frere a synthesis of African and European roots, and able, by assimilation away from the structure of African-inherited classical sega ( drumcall, soloist, choir), to adopt a form inspirited by European models: Sega’s with verse and a refrain sung from beginning to end by a soloist where melody counted above all. The " drawing room sega" followed similar lines but Ti Frere remained traditional without losing any of the rhythmic intensity and inspiration of the original rhythmic framework and ravanne sega instrumentation.

American bluesmen too left far behind them the songs of their ancestors, especially work songs, opting for newer European forms and instrumentation and creating unique new forms of expression- the old songs lived on nevertheless and evolved quite naturally into Negro Spirituals. Ti frere, without losing any of the rhythmic intensity and inspiration of the original sega art from has written superb melodies. This is how segas were born, even if their repertoire is now well-known to all Mauritians. Simple everyday things would take them off: words of advice to a drunkard, for a neighbours child, domestic rows...
Ti Frere tells great stories but then a sega artist cannot help but be a storyteller, a kind of chansonnier, piecing together over the years a musical patchwork of the events, the characters and the ups and downs of an entire community.

The Instruments

The ravanne: a goat skin drawn taut over a circle of wood to form a flat drum. The maravane: a kind of hanging rattle; branches of sugarcane flowers or a metal leaf perforated with tiny holes are fixed to a wooden rectangular frame. Grains or little pebbles are placed inside the rattle and sounded by moving it from side to side. The triangle: the classical instrument, a little iron rod which strikes the three sides of the triangle.

The Dance

The rules of sega dancing are quite specific. The dancers take short lateral steps with a suggestive swaying of the hips. They dance in couples, the man facing the woman. Sometimes, he turns around her or moves off seeming to have lost her, only to come close together again, brushing against one another without ever touching. Sometimes another man moves in between the dancer and his partner: this is called "cutting". The woman goes on to dance with him until it is her turn to be cut. The couple periodically crouch down before each other with a constant "shimmy of the pelvis": their bust meet and they lean over onto each other, taking it in turn to dip over backwards, until they touch the ground only to come back up to lean over their partner. This step, called "en bas en bas" ( down low), symbolises the sexual act. An act sublimated and transcended since the bodies never actually touch. Musicians and dancers communicate all the time, intense excitement being highlighted by the rhythm, onomatopoeia and short, snappy interjections ( alaila, mo vini, bouze to le reins, en bas et toi, bouze..... move it, get down there, go for it, your turn....)

Kaya King of Seggae

Kaya, alias Joseph Reginald Topize was a committed artist and much loved amongst the Mauritians. On 21^st February 1999, this popular singer and Seggae creator died tragically in a Mauritian jail. Both the music world and the whole country were deeply shaken by his death. Every year, numerous events are organised all across the Indian Ocean in order to pay tribute to him.

This artist wanted a better world...He fought for human rights and against injustice by exposing the lies of the government at the time, corruption and racism...

Among his hitss were "Seggae Man," "Simé la lumière," "Chante l'amour" and "Fam Dan Zil."