| * Are Mauritians proud of their country?* Some are and some are not. It also depends on the occasion. Like every country, Mauritius has its positive and negative points. Youngsters tend you focus on the negative points only, possibly because they [we] are still young and wanna get a real life. A lot of us admit that we have a very good standard of education compared to other countries [e.g. comparing Aussie Universities to the Mauritian one] but at the same time we complain that it is way too competitive and selective [which is true] We are proud of out beaches but at the same time we pollute it. No wonder the hotels make their beaches private! We are supposedly proud of being a hybrid country. I don�t know the stats on mixed marriages but it is quite common, except that of course it�s against the will of parents most of the time. That�s the paradox, we are a hybrid country, we eat all types of food, listen to all types of folk music but we do not accept the other ethnic groups. Mauritius is a racist country to a certain extent. We are independent and I asked a couple of people how we came to be independent. When the population was asked to vote back in the late 60�s, Indians made up more than 50% of it. [it�s still the case today] Anyway, I learnt that most of the other ethnic groups voted against independence. The Indo-Mauritius [of Hindu faith for the large part of them] were the ones who voted for [probably because the new Government happened to be Hindus themselves] independence. So I suppose they are proud of their country. * What's the most popular band there?* First of all, I should say a few words on the folk music of Mauritius, the Sega. Its origin is from African music but while African music is a mixture of beats to me, Sega has tunes. Sega is sang in Creole mostly and has a dance of its own. There are other types of music which are spin-offs of Sega, namely the Segae which is Sega mixed with Reggae. Don�t ask me the difference cos I don�t listen to either Sega or Segae. Ragga, which is a sort of Raggae is also becoming popular, it�s a sort of hip hop borderlining Raggae [that�s what it sounds to me anyway!]. There are also a few heavy metal bands. And of course oriental music is very much present: Indian and Chinese music. Teenagers listen to pop and rnb/hip hop music and a minority of them listens to rock and it�s likes [punk, goth, alternative, grunge etc] and an even minor minority listens to classical stuff. The Sega is not very popular among teenagers [or so it seems] but other types of local music are. The most famous local band is probably Cassiya who are also successful overseas, they are a Sega band. There are other Sega bands that are successful too but hey, I�m not into Sega so I don�t know them. Other names I have picked up from Dad [he listens to �local teenage music�are the OSB [Otentik Street Brothers, Otentik = Authentic], System R and Blakayo. Kaya, is definitely the best known artist over the region. He was a Raggae singer who was killed by the police in 1999. This ended in severe riots which freezed the country [no school!] for at least a week. One of the most appreciated singer at the moment is Jean Marc Volcy who is a Seychellois and who became famous with the song Bake Yaya [if you call that a song!] and don�t ask me what it means, I don�t know. Looks like Seychellois� Creole is slightly different from the Mauritian one. Haha. Next Question � Back to Island |