Maloya is a popular music genre on Réunion, originated in slave communities. Banned until the sixties due to its strong association with Creole culture and political engagement, it is now one of the two major folk genres on the island. It is usually described as based on a call and response structure, and uses traditional instruments like roulé, Kayamb, piké and bobre. Very often compared to Séga, though more reflective and slower.
Maloya is one of the two major music genres of Réunion
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Maloya is a popular music genre on Réunion, originated in slave communities. Banned until the sixties due to its strong association with Creole culture and political engagement, it is now one of the two major folk genres on the island. It is usually described as based on a call and response structure, and uses traditional instruments like roulé, Kayamb, piké and bobre. Very often compared to Séga, though more reflective and slower.
Maloya is one of the two major music genres of Réunion, usually sung in Réunion Creole with a purely percussion accompaniment. It has origins in the music of slaves on the island, as has the other folk music of Réunion, sega. It is compared to the American music, the blues.
Compared to sega, maloya is slow and reflective. Like the blues, maloya is based on a chant-response structure.
Instruments:
roulé - cylindrical drum
Kayamb - rattle
piké - bamboo ideophone
bobre - musical bow
Themes:
Maloya songs are often politically oriented and their lyrical themes are often slavery and poverty.
Origins: It is often presented as having purely African origins. However, recently, possible influence from the sacred drumming in Tamil religious festivals has been identified, making maloya a hybrid genre, not just African but also incorporating Indian elements.
History: Maloya was banned until the sixties because of its strong association with creole culture. Performances by some maloya groups were banned until the eighties, partly because of their autonomist beliefs and association with the Communist Party of Réunion. Nowadays, one of the most famous maloya musicians is Danyel Waro who resists the addition of non-traditional instruments into his repertoire. His teacher, Firmin Viry, is credited as having stopped maloya from becoming extinct. According to Françoise Vergès, the first public performance of maloya was by Firmin Wiry at the founding of the Communist Party Maloya was adopted as method of political and social protest by Creole poets such as Waro, and later by groups such as Ziskakan. Since the start of the 1980s, maloya groups, such as Ziskakan, Baster, Firmin Viry, Granmoun Baba, Rwa Kaff and Ti Fock, some mixing maloya with other genres such as sega, reggae, jazz and rock, have had recognition outside the island.
Cultural signficance: Maloya was inscribed in 2009 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO for France.
