babani
babani
The artist behind KAYA's visual universe — album covers, the official logo, FET KAYA posters. Born in Mauritius, educated in Cape Town, painting from Grand Baie.
Every sleeve, every poster, every logo associated with KAYA carries the hand of Henry Koombes. The official KAYA logo — inseparable from the seggae movement — is his drawing. The covers of Seggae Nu Lamizik, La Paix Universelle, Seggae Man and Racine Pé Brilé are his work.
Koombes' bold, luminous lines — with clearly defined outlines and vivid colours — gave seggae a visual language as distinct as its music. His drawings are the face of KAYA's catalogue, and remain part of BABANI's archival and reissue programme.
The FET KAYA visual identity is a direct continuation: the same energy, the same hand, the same spirit — carried into the present.
Henry Koombes was born in Mauritius in 1948 into a poor family. His education took him to Cape Town, South Africa, where at the height of apartheid in the 1970s he opened the country's first multisexual, multiracial establishment — a corner of liberty for many years, a militant act at the heart of apartheid.
He returned to Mauritius for the peace and solitude that he missed, to devote himself entirely to painting. Airy and clean, on the sea near Grand Baie, his house-cum-workshop is brimful with paintings and drawings. In 1990 he established a contemporary art gallery in Grand Baie, exhibiting works by Mauritian artists.
Since 1998, he has illustrated the children's book series Les Aventures de Tikoulou (Éditions Vizavi) — bold and luminous works that have touched generations of Mauritian children. His paintings and drawings have been exhibited in Mauritius, Réunion, South Africa, London and Tokyo.
The FET KAYA visual — designed by Henry Koombes — is the poster of this year's event at Caudan Arts Centre. The same hand that drew KAYA's first sleeve draws the stage for his celebration.