Ernie's African Odyssey Pt 34 - Mauritius

Before we get to the post proper, a public service announcement. An anonymous commentator on the last African post asked "when you've completed this musical odyssey, how or where will we be able to find the complete 27 Leggies African playlist?". 

I promised them I would put up a link to the audio clips for the whole series when it finally ends. But that is a still a long way off so if you want to catch up in the meantime you can find the first 34 instalments here.

Now on with the tour. We leave the sun-drenched deserts of Mauritania on the Atlantic coast in the west and head to the eastern-most country in Africa, the equally sun-drenched Indian Ocean tropical paradise that is Mauritius. 

Today's post is heavily dominated by 'sé​ga', a traditional music that is believed to have originated among the slave populations of Mauritius and Réunion back in the 19th century. It is thought to be a fusion of music from Madagascar and Europe, and the shuffling beat is certainly reminiscent of dances like the waltz and the polka.

By the 1970s, when we pick up the story, sé​ga was being further fused with other styles like soul, jazz and zouk. There is even a variation called 'seggae' - you can probably work that one out by yourselves. 

The first I heard of sé​ga was back in early 2016 when my friend and former colleague Tulsee, a model Mauritian, tipped me off to a newly released compilation on Strut Records called "Soul Sek S​é​ga". It then briefly seemed to become a thing. A few months later the Bongo Joe label put out "Soul Sega Sa! Indian Ocean Segas From The 70s" and then followed it up with a second volume in 2019. 

We start with two tracks from the Strut compilation, including the one that gave the album its name. It is a tribute to James Brown delivered in fine style by Ti L'Afrique (Roland Fatime), one of the pioneers of the funky sé​ga scene. Dig those crazy moaning keyboards (or at least I think they are keyboards).

He is joined by one John Kenneth Nelson who, according to Strut, "called heavily on séga's rural roots for his guttural vocal style and folk arrangements and was a part of a leading Mauritian musical family alongside two brothers, Harold and Eric (who was known as the local Jimi Hendrix)". I assume that is Eric wrangling away from the 1:42 mark.

Now we hop over to the second volume of the Bongo Joe series where we find Cyril Labonne with this cover of a song by Ti Frere, considered by many to be the father of Mauritian music. I have not found out much about Cyril other than that he was born in a place called Curepipe and released his first record in 1969 at the age of 18. 

There is a lot of overlap in the artists on the three compilations. Cyril is also on Strut and John Kenneth and Mr L'Afrique both pop up on Bongo Joe Volume 1, where we also find ace percussionist Lélou Menwar (real name Stéphano Honoré). Later in his career he chose to be known just as Menwar, which apparently means 'dark hands'. This comes from his 2016 album "Vwayaz Ar Mwa". 

We finish things off with two fine slices of Mandatory African Reggae - or more correctly Mandatory Mauritian Seggae - one old and one new. The old one can be found on yet another Bongo Joe compilation and comes from Ramone whose T-shirts are inexplicably popular with the Mauritian youth. Disappointingly it doesn't start with either "Gabba Gabba Hey" or "1-2-3-4". 

The new one comes from a band called Zilwala. At least that is what they were called in 2017 when they recorded their album "Idantite". It seems they have had some line-up changes since then and these days are known as Zilwala Renesans. Either way this track is a tribute to the late Joseph Reginald Topize (known as Kaya), the seggae pioneer who died while in police custody in 1999.

"Soul Sok Séga" - Ti L'Afrique

"Z'Enfant Misère" - John Kenneth Nelson

"Roseda" - Cyril Labonne

"Ti Lele" - Menwar

"Soul Reggae Prisonnier" - Ramone

"Seggae Mo Lamizik" - Zilwala

We'll sign off now with many thanks to Tulsee and Bongo Joe, without whom etc etc.