Music
Seggae is the Mauritian music genre two artists are taking global
Ribongia and Australian-Mauritian artist Jason Heerah are putting an international spin on the sound of one island nation.
You might not have heard of seggae yet, but Ribongia wants to change that.
The Italy-via-Sydney producer now lives in Mauritius, a small island nation off the coast of Africa. There, he’s been “working on a million different projects” and exploring local sounds -- particularly one called seggae, a blend of reggae and a uniquely Mauritian style of music called sega.
He's paired up with Australian-Mauritian artist Jason Heerah and together they've begun covering global hits -- like Rolling Stones classic ‘I Can’t Get No Satisfaction’ -- in seggae style. Their aim, he says, is to reach as many ears as possible by releasing covers of widely-known tracks. As Ribongia says: "We want to try to export this sound abroad, and what better way to do it than with songs people already know?"
'Can't Get No Satisfaction' cover artwork
© Ribongia and Jason Heerah
For Jason Heerah, introducing new audiences to seggae is a passion project. “As an Australian-born Mauritian artist, my goal was to contribute to the local scene,” he says. “I’ve always wanted for other people abroad to be able to enjoy seggae music as much as I did growing up. Meeting Ribongia was a great opportunity to be able to export the sound internationally.”
To find out more about sega, seggae and the music scene of Mauritius, we emailed Ribongia a few questions. Listen to the ‘I Can’t Get No Satisfaction’ cover below and read on for the interview.
What's the music scene in Mauritius like?
It's fascinating. As the population is quite mixed, so too is the fabric of the music scene. Mauritians come from a range of different ethnicities and religions, and consequently of different tastes.
For live music, most of the gigs were happening in fancy resorts and hotels but now that borders have been shut for months, there’s no tourists. Economically, this isn't ideal but culturally, I feel like it’s a super exciting time for Mauritius. For the first time in a long time, artists are catering to their own people and new indie style events are starting to appear. Me and many other musicians are feeling it. I think we'll see great new art coming from this time.
As for the club scene, afrobeat has completely taken over. It's everywhere and it's fun.
So, what’s seggae?
Seggae is a style that is completely unique to Mauritius. It comes from sega, which in a nutshell is the music that came to Mauritius from slaves brought in from Madagascar and Mozambique. It's hypnotic, percussive and features a "terné" 12/8 groove.
In the 1980s, an artist by the name of Kaya mixed this style with Jamaican reggae that was quite popular amongst the Rasta and Creole community here in Mauritius. The blend makes for something so groovy. The first time I heard it I was blown away!
And can you tell me about Kaya?
Kaya was a Creole singer and guitarist that came from humble beginnings. He had started his career playing covers in hotels and at weddings, but eventually had the foresight of mixing the reggae that he deeply loved with sega. In his lyrics he advocated for the rights of Creole people and was very well-loved. His death in police custody in 1999 resulted in a riot.
Do you know if seggae has made it out of Mauritius before?
I can imagine some music would have travelled overseas and maybe some artists have toured internationally, but I can't imagine they would've broken out of the world music circuit. The songs are sung in Mauritian Creole, making it harder for the music to connect with audiences abroad.
For an introduction to the genre, what should we listen to?
Kaya’s ‘Seggaeman’, Ras Natty Baby’s ‘Nouvelle Vision’ and Blakkayo’s ‘Sanz Toi’ are classics and would be a good place to start. But today I would recommend checking out The Prophecy and of course Jason Heerah!
