I’ll stick to popular music from south-eastern African islands for one more post.

When I was at the 2003 All Africa Games in Abuja, Nigeria, one of my most memorable spectator moments was at a long-distance men’s swimming event. This guy from Seychelles had made it to the final round against all odds. He was competing against Olympic-class swimmers from South Africa, Egypt and other swimming powerhouses. Needless to say he was, excuse the pun, blown out of the water. He was at least two full lengths behind every other swimmer by the end of the race.

Despite his obvious super-loss the Seychelles swimmer picked-up speed during his two last solo lengths, giving it his all right until the end. The crowd initially found this funny but then started to cheer like crazy as they realized that this guy didn’t care that he’d been badly beaten. By the time he finished everyone was cheering and chanting. In a fittingly classy move he got out of the pool, smiled and raised his hands to the crowd as if he had just won.

The Seychelles is a collection of 115 little islands north-east of Madagascar. While it’s not in as much trouble as the Comoros, it holds the rather depressing title of “world’s most highly indebted country” according to the World Bank. At least they have a somewhat democratically elected president, good health care and a growing economy. ..and some beautiful beaches. Must inspire those swimmers.

The Seychelles also has some fun pop music from the 50s and 60s. You probably know by now that there’s nothing I love more than early, Africanised pop rock. Especially when they use whacked-out organs like in today’s first track. And check-out the title of that second track.. they just don’t name songs and bands like they used to.

I grabbed these two tracks off the 2002 Buda Musique compilation, Musique Populaires des Îles Seychelles. The photo on today’s post was taken by Heribert Hufnagl of www.foto-traum.de.

Thomas Alexie – Mon Dorina
Georgie “Pye” Romain – Tir sa Lanmour dan mon lecoeur