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La Reunion is a rainbow island, where all sorts of races and traditions mingle (Malagasy, “Cafre”, Indian, Muslim, Chinese, “Malabar”, “petits blancs”…). This blend, born from a painful past (the importation and exploitation of slaves), has given a multicultural population where different nations co-exist in peace. Maloya is a kind of music that brings all these traditions together around a poetry full of images and diverse traditional instruments.
Zarboutan is one of the groups that contribute to the survival of this music and to its popularisation. With their laments, they describe life in la Reunion, with its joys and deceptions… so as traditions are not forgotten.
Photograph: Philippe Dupuich
Frank Mangue, singer and Kayamb, founded the group Bamaba Kreol with the great Dalon Herman Virandriken, “rouleur” and “tambouryer”, towards the end of the 1970s and during Maloya’s rise to recognition. Right from the start the group drew upon the island’s heritage and its demands: Maloya Kabarer, Maloya Maroner, Time Blues Maloya. Despite quick local recognition the group found it hard to survive. It was not until the end of the ‘80s that their aura started to grow, in parallel with the western world’s growing enthusiasm for World Music. The group grew and ended up with seven male musicians and singers and three female backing-girls and dancers. Zarboutan (it means the big beam made of black wood which supports the roof of Creole houses) was created in 1987. They first of all recorded a cassette in 1990, before recording a CD in France in 1996 on Label Bleu.
Following in the footsteps of Granmoun Lélé and Danyel Waro, Zarboutan perpetuates a historic (via slavery) and social (the poorest) memory, hidden until recently in la Reunion: the memory that founded the rituals and celebrations of the famous “services Kabarés”, which permitted exiled slaves to communicate with the dead and the elders.
Go to :
Firmin Viry ; Granmoun Lélé.
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