INSTRUMENT OF REDISCOVERY Founded in 1982, the NGO Abaim has become the spearhead of Creole culture and language, with the creation of Lekol Ravann in the underprivileged district of Barkly (Beau Bassin), and then the music group Abaim, who composed the cult songs Ti Marmit and Tizan. “Over and above the group, playing the ravanne is part and parcel of our teaching. It takes us back to our past and forward to the path ahead. It encourages us to pass it on, to develop and embrace it,” says Marousia Bouvery, manager of the group and coordinator of the association. “The ravanne, like a security blanket, is a transitional object capable of resurfacing hidden emotions. Playing it can be a cathartic outlet. It is an instrument of discovery and rediscovery of one’s identity,” adds Alain Muneean, co-founder of Abaim. His former pupil, the anthropologist Daniella Bastien, is also a poet and a ravanne player: “Slavery is a dark page in our history, which gave rise to a language, a music style and an instrument. They are the results of this dehumanisation. Sega Tipik and the Creole language are bearers of sorrow. But paradoxically, the dance is lascivious, voluptuous. The whole is a harrowing beauty.” A SOUND THROUGH THE AGES Sega originated in the history of the great slave plantations on Isle de France. In the eighteenth century, thousands of slaves sent from Madagascar and East Africa by French colonialists worked themselves to death to transform the 4 : Daniella Bastien, a former Abaim pupil, poet, ravanne player and anthropologist. Daniella Bastien, ancienne élève d’Abaim, poète, ravannière et anthropologue. 3 4
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