Feb 4/08
Mauritius Week: Kaya
Yeah, well, it happened. Hey from Vienna. I’ve managed to line-up some music for this week afterall.
The more I read about Mauritius and listen to music by its musicians the more interesting it becomes. Indian Ocean sega meets reggae meets island’ed bhangra. What a wild mix of influences. I guess it’s to be expected given its location. I can’t say it enough: African island music. Amazing.
Yesterday I mentioned a style of Mauritian music called “seggae”. As the name suggests it’s a mix of sega and reggae. Joseph Reginald Topize, otherwise known as “Kaya”, was easily Mauritius’ most famous seggae musician. He basically invented the stuff from what I can tell and remains (posthumously) one of the islands most famous musicians.
Like Menwar yesterday, Kaya is a minority Mauritian creole… with a big thing for Bob Marley. Admittedly the tracks I’ll post today aren’t his reggae’est, but I’m over it. It’s what I like best, hope you do too.
Much of his other material is a lot like the Jamaican, post-rocksteady Bob Marley reggae that our ears are used to. While that’s fine, what really grabs me are his other tunes that mix a little reggae chant with some acoustic guitar and heavy southern African rhythm. Great stuff.
In 1999 Kaya was picked-up by the police on a drug charge. Like many of his reggae contemporaries and heroes, Kaya wanted to get marijuana decriminalized. While in police custody he died under mysterious circumstances.
No one knows for sure what happened, but the creole population of Mauritius cried foul and started rioting. In the confusion that followed another famous creole musician, Berger Agathe, was shot dead. In just a few days Mauritius lost two of its best contemporary musicians.
I picked-up a couple Kaya albums from FNACMusic.com (of all places) since I couldn’t find them in the local record shops. They’re worth a listen, particularly Zistwar Revoltan. Both of today’s tracks are off this release.
Tommorow we Indian.. ocean.
Kaya - Gran Ter
Kaya - Allelujah
February 5th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
amazing! you said it: island music, african style. must admit that i’m only familiar with swahili styles from that part of the continent, so thanks for (once again) expanding my musical horizons.
by the by, i was at this year’s Festival au Desert & it was absolutely fantastic. bringing it up here because i first heard about it on this blog (i think on a post about tinariwen), & back then never dreamed i would someday be able to attend. i’m definitely returning & hopefully will meet you at a future edition!
February 7th, 2008 at 2:27 am
good stuff, as usual
February 15th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Hi,
I’m a Mauritian living in the South of France. I got here searching for some info on Kaya. You made some great posts on Mauritian music. Hallmarks are surely Kaya, Ti Frère, Bhojpuri Boys and contemporary mix styles such as Monaster which I feel is heavily influenced by French rap groups like Iam (speaking of the album “l’école du micro d’argent”).
Anyways, in my opinion some of Kaya’s best songs are ’simé la limier’, ’sa nou la misik’ and ‘ras kouyon’. Ti Frere wrote the best sega there ever was and I would tell everybody to listen to “Roseda”.
Great article
February 24th, 2008 at 11:21 am
hey,
the rest have been mentioned already.. yeah, i do believe “sime la limiere”, “ras kouyon” are kaya’s greatest songs.. 
i’m mauritian as well.. what you wrote on mauritian music is beautiful. kaya was indeed one of the best mauritian musicians ever.. his death was a tragic event.. i believe Cassiya is a very famous mauritian group as well!!
April 15th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
great info and great tragedy
guess the police is the police is the police everywhere you go
May 18th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
i no kaya was great singer i wil never 4get him he was the next bob marley of seggae i love every music of kaya n the police of mauritius are wicked n jealous of jah works creation i wish he was here today im a british mauritain living in london blessings to kaya family n friends n fans kaya music lives on just like bob robert nesty marley selassie i rastarfari blessings to all my creoles kaya didnt desever to die he had a hole life in front of him im a dj and i will always play his music im a reggae dj in london check me out on vulive.co.uk tuesday midnite til 7am wednesday reggae music mr delmonte rasta music blessings to all nations and colour