The music of Mauritius

Mauritius

Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

is known for sega music

Sega music

Sega music or Séga is the major music of the Mascarene Islands: Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues as well as of the Seychelles. Sega is similar to the Réunionnais music genre maloya. Another form of dance similar to the sega is the Seychellois moutya. Sega music originated among the slave...

, alongside the nearby Réunion

Réunion

Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...

 island, though reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

, zouk

Zouk

Zouk is a style of rhythmic music originating from the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe & Martinique. Zouk means "party" or "festival" in the local Antillean Creole of French, although the word originally referred to, and is still used to refer to, a popular dance, based on the Polish dance, the...

, soukous

Soukous

Soukous is a dance music genre that originated in the two neighbouring countries of Belgian Congo and French Congo during the 1930s and early 1940s, and which has gained popularity throughout Africa...

 and other genres are also popular. Sega was originally introduced by the African ancestors and originates from East and Southern Africa. Today it has been infused with local rhythm

Rhythm

Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...

s and instruments.

Well-known singers from Mauritius include Ti Frére, Serge Lebrasse, Cassiya

Cassiya

Cassiya is one of the most popular sega music groups from Mauritius founded in 1988.They were most popular in the mid-1990s. Their influence was not limited to their home island; they also influenced sega musicians on Réunion...

 and the France-based Clarel Betsy.

Sega

The sega is the most typical native dance of Mauritius

Mauritius

Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

. The traditional instrumentation includes the ravanne

Ravanne

The ravanne is a large tambourine-like instrument used in sega music of Mauritius. It is made out of goat skinand before playing, it needs to be heated up. The instrument itself is of african origin. No-one knows exactly but it is likely to be from swahili people of kenya or from the west of africa...

, a goat-skin covered drum, the triangle, and the maravane.

The sega evolved among slaves, and is primarily a fusion of African music

Music of Africa

Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations have distinct musical traditions. The music of North Africa for the most part has a different history from sub-Saharan African music traditions....

.

Popular sega

Les Windblows is a well-known sega band from Mauritius

Mauritius

Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

, though Cassiya

Cassiya

Cassiya is one of the most popular sega music groups from Mauritius founded in 1988.They were most popular in the mid-1990s. Their influence was not limited to their home island; they also influenced sega musicians on Réunion...

, before many of its original members moved on to pursue solo careers, was probably the most popular group ever to have graced the island. Other well-known performers include Marie-Jose Clency, who often sings in duo with her husband Roger Clency. Their combined careers started over three decades ago with popular songs such as Ortensia and Reprend Mo Mari Anglais.

Over the past twenty years, Mauritian music has been revitalized by a fusion of reggae and sega, known as seggae

Seggae

Seggae is a fusion genre of sega, the traditional music of the Mascarene Islands, and reggae. Seggae is one of the most popular music genres in Mauritius.-Origin:...

. This new wave emerged from one of poorer suburbs of Port Louis

Port Louis

-Economy:The economy is dominated by its port, which handles Mauritius' international trade. The port was founded by the French who preferred Port Louis as the City is shielded by the Port Louis/Moka mountain range. It is the largest container handling facility in the Indian Ocean and can...

, known as Roche Bois, with the musician Kaya

Kaya (musician)

Kaya was a Mauritian musician and the creator of "seggae", a fusion of sega and reggae, two of the most popular music genres in Mauritius....

 (Joseph Reginald Topize) and his group Racinetatane as the first major proponent. It gained much popularity among Rastafarians

Rastafari movement

The Rastafari movement or Rasta is a new religious movement that arose in the 1930s in Jamaica, which at the time was a country with a predominantly Christian culture where 98% of the people were the black descendants of slaves. Its adherents worship Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia , as God...

 and then more widely among the youths of Mauritius in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Kaya died in murky, and still unexplained, cicumstances while in police custody in 1999. He was being held at the time for allegedly smoking a joint at a (pro-marijuana

Cannabis (drug)

Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...

) public rally organised by an aspiring politician. Kaya's death sparked a three-day riot, with widespread looting and a news-blackout that only fuelled the wildest rumours and threatened the social fabric of Mauritius. Amongst the widespread damage caused by these events, another talented seggae musician, Berger Agathe, was shot and killed by the police, then by dealing a double-blow to the Mauritian music scene within a few days. Despite all this, seggae music survives as one of Kaya's legacy and is often viewed as a voice exposing the angst and hopes of many of the poorest Mauritians.

Asian music in Mauritius

India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n immigrants have brought many of their own styles of music and dance, along with instruments like the sitar

Sitar

The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...

 and tabla

Tabla

The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...

. Mauritian-based Bhojpuri music has always been popular with people of Indian-descent, but is now gaining mainstream appeal through the work of artists such as The Bhojpuri Boys

The Bhojpuri Boys

The Bhojpuri Boys are a musical group from Mauritius. They are famed for their revival of Bhojpuri music in Mauritius.Their lead singer, Kishore Thaukory, was unsuccessful at his attempt at Bhojpuri in the 1980s. The band was formed in the late 1990s and were also unsuccessful during their earlier...

 and Neeraj Gupta Mudhoo. Their fusion of bhojpuri lyrics, sega beats, and more traditional Indian, as well as Bollywood-style, music has won the hearts of many Mauritians and given rise to major hits such as Langaroo (by The Bhojpuri Boys) and, more recently, Dragostea Din Te. Chinese

Overseas Chinese

Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....

immigrants have also infused Mauritian culture with elements from distinctly Chinese musical traditions.

Rock music in Mauritius

Rock music has recently become very popular in Mauritius, many bands have become famous, including XBreed Supersoul, Skeptikal, and Reborn Orlean which is nearer to metal/hard rock.

Opera music in Mauritius

Since 2009 there is an Opera Festival in Mauritius
Opera Mauritius and The Friends,