Ziskakan

Fronted by Gilbert Pounia, Ziskakan are one of Reunion's best known groups. They formed in 1979 and their style is maloya, to which they add modern techniques as well as some Indian instruments. They have toured abroad extensively: USA, UK, Belgium, India, Mauritius, Seychelles, as well as mainland France.

Here they are yesterday playing one of their most famous songs: Bato Fou.

Maison Morange music museum

Inaugurated in Hell-bourg, Salazie, in November 2015, Maison Morange is a museum about Indian Ocean music and musical instruments. Located in a traditional Creole house (built in the 1920s by the former mayor of Bras Panon, Henri Morange), it displays over 400 instruments (from a selection of almost 2,000 collected over forty years by François Menard and Robert Fonlupt), it is France's third richest music collection. The museum itself took four years to see the light of day, and covers 450m2.

Reunion is of course remarkable by the diversity of its people, and this is reflected in the music and instruments displayed, which - like the Reunionese people - come from Africa, Madagascar, India (both Tamil and Gujarati) and China.

A small audioguide allows you to listen to the sound made by various instruments without disturbing other visitors, and all written texts have been translated into English, German and Spanish.

Indian processional handcart, on display in the entrance

The local music genres that have been born of the mix of this diversity, principally maloya and sega, has not been forgotten either. For information, in 2009 maloya was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Some maloya musical instruments on display: three drums, a piker at
the back, a kayamb at the front, and a bobre musical bow at the far left.

a selection of sega and brass band instruments

Each region has a room or rooms devoted to it. For China drums, gongs and cymbals are on display, amongst other instruments, and there is also a section on Tibetan music (religious and profane).

Part of the Chinese display

bronze Bianzhong? bells, Chinese display

In ancient China music was believed to be of divine origin, and it was thus granted great importance. It was a discipline that every gentleman, educated according to the Confucian tradition, would practice.

recreation of the boudoir of a Chinese man of letters

In the corridor the four divisions of musical instruments are shown: membranophones, chordophones, idiophones and aerophones. Even if instruments were made in different geographical regions by people of different cultures they are all based on the common principles of sound production, and can thus be classed into one of the above groups. 

This Chinese gong belongs to the idiophone group

Drums are part of the membranophone family

The festive aspect of African music in Reunion often overshadows its ritualistic origins.

part of the African display

Hindu Indian indentured workers arrived in Reunion to work on plantations after the abolition of slavery in 1848. Like the Chinese, Indians also attribute a mythical and divine origin to their music, and many deities of the Hindu pantheon are represented playing instruments. From the 16th century onwards Mughal princes in Hindustan developed a refined courtly lifestyle, and until the early 20th century princes and Maharajahs maintained groups of musicians and had music rooms where the latter performed.

Private music room of a Maharajah

Due to its size India has a wide diversity of cultures, and the musical instruments created by its people reflect various social and religious traditions. Animals and family life feature strongly amongst these themes.

Tribal Indian instruments

In the museum a small Indian luthier's workshop has been recreated. He and his assistants would have worked sitting on the floor, surrounded by tools and half-made instruments.

part of the workshop of an Indian luthier

Madagascar is itself an island that has been influenced by East Africa, the Arab world, Indonesia and Europe, but its music is nevertheless original. Malagasy have local versions of lutes, zithers, and brass bands, but it is the valiha - a bamboo tube zither - which has become the 'king' of Madagascar's instruments. Maybe that explains why I found the display of valihas one of the most beautiful exhibits in the whole museum.

display of valihas

Practical info:

• Open Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 6pm (closed Mondays).
• Price €7, free for children aged 8 and under.
• Website: http://www.maisonmorange.fr (French only)

© Maison Morange

© Maison Morange

© Maison Morange

© Maison Morange

You might also like :

• Back to Salazie
• Hiking the three cirques
• Hike from Le Belier to Hell-Bourg
• Some tasteless humour

Reunion on BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4's From Our Own Correspondent programme is billed as "Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world". First commissioned in 1955, it takes the format of a half-hour programme in which five correspondents each broadcast 5-minute monologues on topical current events from countries outside the UK. No music or interviews are included, and it gives the correspondents the chance to offer a personal account of events that can be epoch-making or inconsequential. 

It's a programme I've enjoyed listening to for the past few years, either live, or more often as a podcast, and I was pleased to learn there would be a report from Reunion in the programme broadcast on October 3rd 2013. 

You can listen to the programme here; the part about Reunion was made by journalist Robin Denselow and starts at 11'38". There's a year left to listen.

Although broadcast in October it was obviously made in early June when Denselow visited the annual Sakifo music festival. In it he talks about maloya music - how it was banned until 1981, and what it represents now. Unfortunately the impression given by the report is of a strict local vs mainland French division of wealth, which was probably true in the 1970s, but is no longer the case (division of wealth still exists, but not along local vs mainland lines). Denselow does however correctly remark on the rising popularity of maloya on the global world music scene.

Maloya has its origins in the music of slaves and along with sega, is one of Reunion's two major music genres. It has mainly African origins, but possible influence from Tamil drumming has been identified, making it a hybrid genre - not very surprising on the melting pot of Reunion. Maloya is slower and more reflective than sega, and like blues music has a chant-response structure. Song themes are often carry a political and social protest message (e.g. slavery, poverty, search for cultural identity, independence, links to the Communist Party of Reunion) which explains why maloya was banned for being too subversive until 1981. Traditional instruments used include the kayamb, a type of flat rattle made of sugar cane flower stems and filled with seeds which is shaken horizontally, and the roulér which is a cylindrical hide-covered drum.

Christine Salem with a kayamb (source)

Some of the most well-known maloya musicians are Firmin Viry, (credited with having stopped maloya from becoming extinct), Danyel Waro, Gramoun Lélé, Nathalie Nathiembe and Christine Salem. Groups such as Ziskakan, Baster, Granmoun Baba, Rwa Kaff and Ti Fock have also mixed maloya with other genres such as sega, zouk, reggae, jazz and rock.

Here's the Firmin Viry performance at Sakifo 2013 that Denselow refers to in his report:

Maloya was inscribed in 2009 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO for France. The video below about maloya was uploaded by UNESCO onto Youtube following this inscription.

Further reading:

• Christine Salem: bringing the devil's music to Womad - article by Robin Denselow in The Guardian, Thursday 18th July 2013 (includes links to listen to Christine Salem's music)
• Maloya: The protest music banned as a threat to France - article by Robin Denselow on the BBC website.