Réunion - Playlist

Like many other aspects of its culture, the music of La Réunion is a mixture of different influences - whether it's the traditional ballads and chansons of France, or the mesmerising maloya rhythms of Africa, or the fusion of different traditions in séga, with its hints of the Indian subcontinent.

Over the past couple of months, I've been listening to a range of musical artists from Réunion and I've put together this playlist of the songs I liked most, so you can get a flavour of what Réunion has to offer.

1. Mon île by Jacqueline Farreyrol

This is a beautiful song with lyrics that could have been written by the Réunionnais tourist board!  It's very much a traditional ballad, in French style and was first performed by Farreyrol on local television in the 1970's.  It describes the beauty of Réunion and celebrates the positive unity of the people who live on the island - a really good anthem, which I'm sure has been sung at many a party!

I found this video on YouTube, which also has the lyrics, so you can hear for yourself.

Here are some of the lyrics, which I found interesting, as they also mention Réunion's relationship with France:

Mon île 
Tu as réunis dan ton coeur
des gens de toutes les couleurs 
Comme un défi au monde entier
pour le pire et pour le meilleur 
Tu as choisis comme âme soeur 
le pays de la liberté

My island
You have reunited in your heart
people of all colours
Like a challenge to the entire world
for better or worse
You have chosen as your soul mate
the country of liberty

2. Koundy by Firmin Viry

At the other end of the cultural scale from French chanson is maloya the music of the former slaves - very much rooted in African traditions and similar to the music of Madagascar.  Maloya uses percussion instruments like the caïambe and string instruments like the bobre, a kind of musical bow which is very similar to other instruments found throughout the south of Africa.

Maloya is the music of the sugar cane fields and through its rhythm you can picture the workers busy cutting and stacking the sugar cane, calling out to each other in repetitive phrases, as they while away the working day.

The French authorities were so threatened by the power of maloya that they banned it in the late 1950's, at a time when African independence movements were in full swing.  It wasn't until much later, in the 1970's, that singers like Firmin Viry championed this musical tradition, now recognised by UNESCO as part of the list of Intangible cultural heritage.

I've embedded this video from YouTube, so you can hear maloya with your own ears.




3. Soleye by Granmoun Lélé

Another great maloya singer is Granmoun Lélé who was born in Réunion in 1930 but, sadly, passed away in 2004.  I like this video because you can see the music, singers and dancing.  As well as being the music of work and protest, maloya has its roots in a spiritual tradition and I think this really comes across in the songs of Granmoun Lélé.

Like other maloya artists, Granmoun Lélé sings in Kreol - unfortunately, I haven't yet been able to find any translations of the lyrics of these songs, although with a knowledge of French you'll get the gist of the odd sentence here and there!

4. Batarsité by Danyèl Waro

No blog post about the music of Réunion would be complete without reference to Danyèl Waro, a native of the island with a great passion for Kreol language and maloya.  Danyèl Waro is probably more well-known in France and outside Réunion than any other maloya artist and he seems to do quite well on the world music scene.

Waro's music sounds quite bluesy and reminds me of the music of the southern United States.  I think this is a deliberate technique of linking African traditions with the music of African-Americans.

This video from YouTube shows Waro playing the caïambe at a concert in France.




5. Bato Fou by Ziskakan

I really love the music of Ziskakan, who mix maloya with European-style instruments and a distinctive Indian beat.  They've been around since the late 1970's and have played all over the world - Paris, New Delhi, London and the United States.




6. Flèr Malèr by Ousa Nousava

More easy-listening than frenetic African drums, I nevertheless enjoyed listening to the group Ousa Nousava - their name is Kreol for where are we going (in French, Où allons-nous).




7. Alon dansé by Baster

I'm not sure if I fully understand the difference between maloya and séga - although maloya seems to be specific to Réunion, whereas séga is more widespread across the Indian ocean islands.  Séga also seems to be a lot more 'chilled' and I really liked this song, by Baster which I think means Let's dance.

Baster's music reminds me a lot of the music of Caribbean countries like Barbados and I'm sure there is a musical connection between Réunion and French Caribbean territories like Martinique and Guadeloupe.

This video from YouTube is a live performance and, although the sound quality isn't perfect, it's great to see everyone dancing and having a good time!




8. Zalouzie by Lindigo

Lindigo is a more modern maloya group and I really liked this song from their recent (2012) album Maloya Power.  It's interesting to note the presence of the accordion in this track - definitely a French influence, as traditional French music has some great examples of accordion-playing!




9. Mi Ème a Ou by Faham

I was actually a fan of Faham long before I started blogging about Réunion - I came across their music through a fantastic world-music magazine called Songlines.  Faham has four members, three from Réunion and one from Mauritius.

They all grew up in La Creuse, in the French region of Limousin and there is a very well-known scandal around children from Réunion who were brought up in Limousin, a kind of 'stolen generation' like the case of the Aboriginal children in Australia who were forcibly removed from their parents.

I think Mi Ème a Ou means 'where are you taking me' and I assume it's a reference to this stolen generation, who were brought up in France, far from the island of their birth. Faham is a type of orchid found on Réunion and I see a reference there to an exotic flower which is transported far away from its origins.

10. Ti Fleur Fanée by Georges Fourcade

I thought it would be appropriate to finish with Ti Fleur Fanée, the unofficial anthem of La Réunion. It's been sung many times by many different people down the years, but I found this wonderful video on YouTube which features the original singer Georges Fourcade and shows some really old footage of the island.

The song dates from the 1930's and the title means Petite Fleur Fanée or 'Little wilted flower'.  I guess it captures a lot of French colonial nostalgia for the colder climate of Europe, as opposed to the heat of Réunion, where the little flowers wilt?

I hope you've enjoyed this playlist - if you have any other favourite songs from Réunion, please post links to the videos in the comments below.

Réunion - The Call of the Mermaid

I could only find one movie which was set on Réunion Island, François Truffaut's 1969 La sirène du Mississippi (in English, Mississippi Mermaid) starring Catherine Deneuve and Jean-Paul Belmondo.

I've realised I definitely don't know enough about Truffaut and that I need to see more of his movies. His 1959 film Les Quatre Cents Coups (The 400 Blows) was a defining moment in French New Wave cinema and he seems to be a kind of French Hitchcock, telling stories of passion and crime, filled with intensity and romanticism. 

La sirène du Mississippi was no exception. It's based on a novel published in 1947 called Waltz into Darkness by the U.S. writer Cornell Woolrich, who wrote under various pseudonyms. Waltz into Darkness was written under the pseudonym William Irish and is a kind of Noir fiction, telling the story of a wealthy man who is duped by a beautiful woman, but he persists in loving her and being duped even more, even if it means he will lose everything. 

One of the big themes of the novel and the movie is mundane stability versus momentary pleasure. The wealthy man has a good life and wants for nothing except female company and adventure. When the mermaid appears on the scene, in the guise of a woman answering a lonely hearts column, he can't resist the call and plunges headlong into financial ruin. 

Truffaut's 1969 film La sirène du Mississippi 

Truffaut's movie is well worth seeing - Belmondo and Deneuve put in fantastic performances and the premise of the original story is enhanced by an international setting which includes not only Réunion island, but also Nouvelle Caledonie, Djibouti, the Côte d'Azur and Switzerland. 

Truffaut's choice of Réunion is an interesting one and I couldn't help but wonder why he chose to use the island as his setting for this histoire noir. The first part of the movie gives the viewer a brief overview of Réunion's geography and history, so I thought perhaps Truffaut wanted to increase public knowledge about Réunion in France, perhaps a politically motivated choice? 

However, I think the main reason he chose Réunion was because of its exotic location, which gave the story an additional dimension that was quite Gothic in its nature. I've been interested in Gothic fiction for quite some time and a common theme of Gothic literature is an innocent young virgin, held hostage by a wealthy but cruel man in a faraway castle, on a remote mountain top or deep in the forest. 

Cornell's novel turns the Gothic theme on its head, as it's the 'not so innocent' and 'not so virgin' young woman who takes advantage of the wealthy man. Whilst Cornell's novel was set in the culturally remote Gothic landscape of New Orleans, Truffaut cleverly uses Réunion as an exotic, faraway, frightening back-drop for the main part of the story. 

It was my first time to see the island on film and I thought it looked amazing - gorgeous plantation houses deep in the jungle, Belmondo wearing a see-through white shirt and driving around the island in a 60's car. It's very much a movie of its time and stylish in a way that would be difficult to replicate nowadays.

I also watched the movie en français, but with French subtitles, which definitely increased my enjoyment of the language and the drama, although I did have to pause every now and then, to look something up in my French-English dictionary! 

Truffaut also makes references to Blanche-Neige et les septs Nains aka Snow White and the Seven Dwarves - a reference that I'm still mulling over. He also references sources I'd not heard of before, such as Jean Renoir's 1936 movie, Le Crime du Monsieur Lange and Balzac's 1831 novel, La peau du chagrin.

I guess I have a lot more learning to do!

Réunion - In the Kingdom of Sorcerers

As Réunion remained without any permanent human habitation until the 17th century, it's perhaps not surprising that the island's mythology relies heavily on the mythologies of neighbouring countries, such as Madagascar. 

When searching for a good book to read by a Réunionnais writer, I was lucky to come across La Grand-Mere Kalle by Yves Manglou (2006). Manglou has done a great job at bringing to life the story of Réunion, through the fictional eyes of its first inhabitants and under the spell of the witch Grand-Mere (Grandmother) Kalle. 

Whilst the myth is very strongly connected to Madagascar and the first part of Manglou's novel takes place there, I couldn't help but compare the witch Kala and her daughter Grand-Mere Kalle with the Indian incarnation of Kali, a terrifying aspect of the Goddess Parvati. I wonder if the 'myth' of Kali crossed the Indian Ocean to Madagascar, before being transplanted to Réunion? 

As far as I'm aware, this book hasn't been translated into English, but I was really happy to have an excuse to read a novel in French, as I don't get enough opportunities to re-connect with this language. 

Anyone who's learned another language will know that, no matter how much you learn, there's always more and it was fun grappling with a whole new set of vocabulary that covered the different parts of a ship, trade winds and the names of plants and animals specific to the southern Indian Ocean. 

Coming across words like clin-foc and artimon, I would find out the English translations (blink-jib and mizzen) and then have to look the words up again, this time in my English dictionary! As a result of reading this book, I've learned that ships have different names for the right-hand and left-hand side (tribord and bâbord in French, star board and port in English). 

I've also learned the words for the different masts on a ship - the complicated French names for beaupré, mât de misaine, grand mât and mât d'artimon and the more prosaic English terminology of bowsprit, fore-mast, main-mast and mizzen-mast! 

I noticed that some of the seafaring words in French look suspiciously English in origin and it made me think about the extent of words being borrowed from English and Dutch into French, rather then the more commonly acknowledged borrowing of French words into neighbouring Germanic languages. 

Jungle by Fabien Gelle

I also came across a lot of French words for birds and birds feature highly in the tale of Grand-Mere Kalle - the fouquet and papangue, which are birds associated with evil and the paille-en-queue (or straw-tail), the 'good guy' in the story, whose presence brings luck to the human settlements.

Much of the novel is like a 'battle of the birds' and it's interesting to see our feathery friends playing such a strong role in Réunionnais mythology. Birds play a strong role in Irish mythology too, particularly swans and it made me think of Irish stories like the Children of Lir. 

Manglou's novel has a strong ecological message and highlights the importance of teaching children about the need to preserve endemic species. When the children in the story are tricked by the witch and destroy the nests of the pailles-en-queue, a natural disaster happens and many people in the nearby village lose their lives. 

Grand-Mere Kalle and her mother Kala (who resides in Madagascar) are symbols of the destructive power of nature. Grand-Mere Kalle is born in a volcanic eruption and there is something in this myth that exposes the fear that early settlers had of living in such a geologically unstable environment. 

Sunset by Fabien Gelle

I also came across some Réunionnais Creole for the first time and the following sentence gives you a sense of what Creole on Réunion sounds like. When the birds meet their cousins on Mauritius, they say: 

Pé na problèm cousin, to nèk dire moi li pou kan to bizness! 

No idea what it means, but it sounds good! 

I also liked a phrase that was repeated several times in the novel: 

Dans la royaume des sorcières, le temps n'existe pas

(In the kingdom of sorcerers, time doesn't exist)

It gave me a feeling of the languorous nature of life in a small island like Réunion, adrift in the timeless ocean and far away from the bustle of human civilisation.

Image credits:

For this blog post, I wanted to highlight a couple of photographs of Reunion Island by Flickr member Fabien Gellé - thanks Fabien for sharing these images using the Creative Commons license.