babani
back to babani
babani
back to babani
one of the great voices of mauritian roots music — master of the ravann, creator of sagaï, one of the eldest living voices of sega.
one of menwar's closest inspirations. the rhythm and stories will transcend.
kenzi bar • flic en flac • mauritius
music by babani — entre gratis.
the drum at the centre — the heartbeat of sega tipik, carried in his hands.
poetry born in the street — injustice, poverty, identity, sung with lived authority.
his own rhythm-language — acoustic, percussive, built from peanut shells and sugarcane stems.
stéphano honoré — menwar, "dark hands" — was born in cassis, port louis, in 1955. a self-taught master of the ravann, he put the drum at the centre of the music — today he stands as one of the eldest living voices of sega, still carrying it.
his first 45s came out in 1977 under his childhood name, lélou. in 1982, a young rasta named kaya played guitar on his record létan lenfer — years before seggae had a name. from kiltir dé zil to leko rivyer nwar he invented sagaï — a rhythm-language of acoustic and percussive sound.
his road runs from the ravann school he founded in port louis to the stages of angoulême, sakifo, paléo and the london 2012 olympics — alongside danyèl waro, papa wemba, gilberto gil, cesária évora, calypso rose.
in october 2025, zour menwar marked his 70th year — a night of rhythm, memory and passage, curated by menwar with babani and kréol art.
we preserve and reissue the musical heritage of the indian ocean — sega, séggae, maloya — and we put the elders back on the stage, on the record, in the room.
the archive is the roots. the labels are the branches. every night like this is the tree breathing.
from mauritius to the world.
