Seychelles

History

The Republic of Seychelles or Repiblik Sesel is a group of 115 islands which lies in the middle of the Indian Ocean and has a population of roughly 94,500. It is an archipelago of timeless beauty, tranquillity and harmony that is famous for its world-beating beaches and for its great diversity which rolls from lush forests down to the warm azure ocean.

The Seychelles were uninhabited throughout most of recorded history. Some scholars assume that Austronesian seafarers and later Maldivian and Arab traders were the first to visit the uninhabited Seychelles. The earliest recorded sighting by Europeans took place in 1502 by the Portuguese Admiral Vasco da Gama, who passed through the Amirantes and named them after himself (islands of the Admiral). The earliest recorded landing was in January 1609, by the crew of the “Ascension” under Captain Alexander Sharpeigh during the fourth voyage of the British East India Company.

A transit point for trade between Africa and Asia, the islands were occasionally used by pirates until the French began to take control starting in 1756 when a Stone of Possession was laid on Mahé, the main island of the group, by Captain Nicholas Morphey. The islands were named after Jean Moreau de Séchelles, Louis XV’s Minister of Finance.

It was officially settled in 1770 by the French, leading a small party of whites, Indians and Africans which landed on Sainte Anne Island.

The French controlled the islands between 1794 and 1810. Jean Baptiste Quéau de Quincy, French administrator of Seychelles during the years of war with the United Kingdom, declined to resist when armed enemy warships arrived. Instead, he successfully negotiated the status of capitulation to Britain which gave the settlers a privileged position of neutrality.

Britain eventually assumed full control upon the surrender of Mauritius in 1810, formalised in 1814 at the Treaty of Paris after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. Seychelles became a crown colony separate from Mauritius in 1903.

Under the British, Seychelles achieved a population of some 7,000 by the year 1825. Important estates were established during this time producing coconut, food crops, cotton and sugar cane. During this period Seychelles also saw the establishment of Victoria as her capital, the exile of numerous and colourful troublemakers from the Empire, the devastation caused by the famous Avalanche of 1862 and the economic repercussions of the abolition of slavery.
Seychelles achieved independence from Britain in 1976 and became a republic within the commonwealth.

It now has a multi-party political system with an executive President as head of state and government. The President heads a Cabinet of 11 ministers. The Legislative power is vested in a National Assembly of 33 members of whom 25 are elected directly in constituencies with the balance on proportional basis based on the results of the National Assembly elections

Geography

The Seychelles’ 115 granite and coral islands extend from between 4 and 10 degrees south of the equator and lie between 480km and 1,600km from the east coast of Africa in the western Indian Ocean. It occupies a land area of 455 km² and an Exclusive Economic Zone of 1.4 million km².

Of these 115 islands, 41 The Inner Islands constitute the oldest mid-oceanic granite islands on earth while a further 74 form the 5 groups of low-lying coral atolls and reef islets that are the Outer Islands.

Climate

The Seychelles’ climate is one which is always warm and quite humid, often around 80%. The temperature rarely drops below 24°C or rises above 32°C. It generally feels warmer during the North-West monsoon during the months of November to March. The sea is generally calm and the weather warm and humid. The South East monsoon which blows during months of May to October brings drier, cooler weather, and livelier seas which is ideal for big game fishing.

All but the remotest southern coral islands lie outside the cyclone belt making the Seychelles a year round destination for sun worshippers and beach lovers.

The People and its culture
(Seselwa ek zot kiltir)

The citizens who live in the Seychelles Islands are called Seychellois or Seselwa in Creole. There is no endemic Seychellois; hence there is no culture indigenous to the Seychelles. However, from 1770 the Seychelles started welcoming people from different parts of the world. They were slaves and freed slaves from East and West Africa, Mozambique and Madagascar; European settlers from Mauritius, Reunion and France; political exiles from the British Colonies; adventurers and traders of Arab, Persian, Chinese and Indian origin. They brought with them their respective cultures, food and recipes, religions, ideas and traditions and many other things which have since been assimilated into a cohesive whole to become a larger culture that is uniquely Seychellois.

The process of assimilation of all these diverse influences into this melting pot has given rise to a new nation whose people live a harmonious life in a vibrant yet tranquil society, who are friendly and are glad to have any reason to throw a party.

The Seychellois are proud of their culture and now freely enjoy the following aspects of that culture and many more:

The Creole Cuisine of the Seychelles Islands
(Lakwisin kreol Sesel)

The Creole Cuisine of the Seychelles Islands has developed essentially from the fusion of French, African, Indian, Malagasy and Chinese cuisine.

It is a cuisine that is unpretentious and “heureuse”, influenced by the marrying of fresh natural produce with the local spices, finding simple harmonies and enhancing the flavour of each ingredient to produce a distinct complementary flavour. It is based not only on the treasures of the rich, tropical soil of the islands – mango, paw-paw, coconut, pineapple, breadfruit, cassava, bananas, coco-yam and a host of other exotic fruits and vegetables – but also on the bounties of the surrounding warm blue Indian Ocean – red snapper, barracuda, octopus, sea turtle (although now forbidden), sharks and countless other creatures.

The Seychellois Kreol Language
(Lalang kreol Seselwa)

The Seychellois Creole Language, known as Kreol is used in everyday conversation, in schools and in shops, and is the mother tongue of the majority of Seychellois. It is one of the three official languages of the Seychelles, along with French and English. It is a French-based Creole and in its written form, is far more phonetic than French. Despite the fact that it is French-based, Creole is a functional hybrid of more than one language. It has words that have been borrowed and simplified from French, English, Hindi, Bantu, Malagasy and other languages.

The Seychellois Creole language was formed from contact and communication between French colonizers and the African people they enslaved. The history of the language which started as pigin French was born when the first French colonizers set foot in Seychelles in 1770. The slaves attempted to speak the French of their masters and in that attempt they simplified it and added their own dialect and language and conceived the Kreole pigin French that developed into an official language.

In 1811, the Seychelles capitulated to British rule. This means that the creole was also influenced by the English language. Nevertheless, the French influence persisted and dominated in the Seychelles. Even today the indigenous culture is considered to be French-inspired and 70% of the population have French-sounding names.  In 1976 the Seychelles finally gained independence. Since that period, the government of the Seychelles has worked to promote Seychellois Creole. Today, the Seychellois Creole language has its own grammar, as well as its own script and in order to standardise its spelling and the grammar,  the Creole Institute of Seychelles or  Lenstiti Kreol was established in 1981. Despite the fact that English still remains as the official language of the government and business, Seychellois Creole is considered to be the most widely used language of conversations.

All Seychellois communicates in three languages, ie: Kreol, French and English and the Nation local newspaper is always published in the three official languages.

Seychellois music and dances
(Lanmizik ek ladans Seselwa)

Music and dance have always played a prominent role in Seychelles culture and in all types of local festivities. Rooted in African, Malagasy and European cultures, music is played to the accompaniment of drums such as the tambour and simple string instruments. The old instruments such as the Bonm, Zez and Makalapo have faded into Seychelles history.

There are three kinds of music that are associated with the Seychellois culture: the sega, which has strong African influence, moutya, a style that originated in slavery, and contredanse, a style of music and dance with French and British origins.

The Sega

Sega originated among the slave population of Mauritius and Reunion before spreading to the Seychelles and the other islands of the Indian Ocean. In its most authentic form, sega is performed exclusively with simple instruments such as rattles, hand drums, gourds and musical bows. It is used as accompaniment for a form of traditional dance in which the feet stay firmly rooted to the floor while the rest of the body moves. Sega usually had lyrics about the oppression and longing for freedom felt by the slaves who composed it. The current sega covers almost every aspects of life, including love.

Moutya

The Moutya was created by the slaves around 200 years ago, and these very slaves were of African descent. The rhythm of the moutya is of African origin but the lyrics are specifically of the Seychellois Kreol language. It is musically similar to sega, but the dance it accompanies has more suggestive movements and the dancers freely move about the floor.
Traditionally, the dance takes place around a campfire and starts slowly to the beat of a single drum, then gets faster and more suggestive as the tempo increases. The drum is made of goatskin and is tuned by heating it by the campfire, a process that must be repeated periodically. Female moutya dancers often wear brightly colored dresses with festive, flowered patterns to enhance the visual aspect of the performance.

Moutya back then was not just a dance, after a hard days of work labouring in the plantations or fishing out at sea the moutya was the perfect playing field to let go of the pressures of a harsh life, entertain oneself, sing, lament and socialize. Moutya was a creative tool for survival; for voicing the stories that the masters tried hard to silence. A tool of emancipation from slavery; even if it was just for a Sunday night or a Saturday afternoon.

In fact, during the colonial days, the moutya was banned in the town districts because it was considered by the church to be too erotic a dance and the English lords said it kept them awake at night.

Contredance
(Kontredans)

Contredance or kontredans with its intricate movements has its origins in the French court. To dance the contredans you would usually have a small band made up of a banjo player, triangle player, a drummer and a guitar player. Other instruments customarily added to the band include the violin or fiddle Everybody dances to the instructions of the Komander or Commander who calls the sets while playing the triangle. Basically he instructs you on your next move. This exactly what Brian Matombe , a very well known Seychellois musician , image on left, is doing.

The Contredance is always performed by men and women in pairs, the kavalye and the danm. There are quite a few types of contredanse and these include: An Avan 2, An Avan 3, An Avan 4, Galo, Final and a few more.

The Kanmtole

As far as I know the Kamtole is not a dance it is a body of dances including the waltz, polka, Scottish, “jazz,”. Nou pe al bal kamtole means we are going to dance event where we can dance all the traditional dances including the Kontredans, Vals, Kotis Senp, kotis doub, kotis Anglez, kotis an glisan, Mazok, Polka, Berlin, Kosez , Polonez, Men gos Men drwat, karyon, Dyaz, padkat, Tango, dozado, laboulanzer etc. The only dance that was not included would be the moutya which is performed in the open air. The kamtole band was made up of of a banjo player, triangle player, a drummer, a rhythm guitar player and a violin or fiddle player.

Other types of music and dances that have more or less disappeared are the Sokwe, Tinge and Madilo

Two new new types of music that are gaining popularity with the young are the seggae and mougae. The seggae is a fusion of the reggae and the sega and the mouggae which is a fusion the moutya and reggae.

The Romance
(Romans)

The romance is in essence love songs written and sang by the French settlers who got nostalgic of France or Reunion and who could have left loved ones behind  and started missing them. They have now been accepted as part of our musical tradition and mainly sang at weddings. Some of these romans include: La délaissée, Sous les cieux. Je suis à ta puissance, Beau papillon, Charles, Véritable amour, Allons voltiger vers le ciel, La rose et le papillon, Le lys et le papillon, Vole ma colombe and La grise hirondelle.

Folklore
(Folklor)

The folklore of Seychelles is rich. This is mainly because for about 150 years after settlement one of the only way to disseminate traditional art, literature, knowledge, and practice was through oral communication and behavioral examples. Some were written down but many Seychellois at that time could not read or write and therefore relied heavily on verbal instructions and demonstration.

We will endeavour, in this blog, to cover aspects of our oral traditions such as tales, proverbs and jokes. Some tales we would like to post on include characters such as Soungoula who is renowned for his cleverness and resourcefulness in solving life’s problems, as well as other colourful personalities such as Frer Zako, Kader, Tizan and Kousoupa. Some of these tales were presented by lantern mazik. Any body still remembers this?

Other traditional activities –
(Lezot aktivite tradisyonnel)

Many more traditional activities that will be described in full in this blog including the traditional wedding, etiquette in the dining room, the courting procedure, sharing of zedmo or riddles etc…and any contribution will be greatly appreciated.