⢠New Vision, Leve do mo pep reflected from the start this desire to be an activist for change
⢠“Free Diego Garcia†is a cry that Ras Natty Baby launched throughout an entire album dealing with the Chagos in 2013
More than an artist, Ras Natty Baby was above all a committed singer, a man of convictions and fights. A keen observer of Mauritian society and politics, he transformed his reflections into profound texts, intended to challenge, awaken consciences and shake up habits. An activist for many years, this dreadlocked soldier was interested in many causes and strove to train the next generation by transmitting to them the spirit of Enn Nouveau Vision.
The year is 2013. In Richelieu, the former Natty Rebels studio no longer has its former glory. But it doesn't matter: around twenty years after the group's beginnings, the same feeling still inhabits the beaten earth and the crumbling walls, refreshed by the shadow of a pie bred mouroum. Ras Natty Baby then prepares to celebrate his 60th birthday. Sitting on two blocks, his back against the wall of his house, he looks up beyond the clouds that obscure the seggae landscape. âI remain optimistic. Seggae will evolve. Otherwise I would have stopped, and I will return to Rodrig al plant patat.â
He was aware of this: “There is still a way to go. To move forward, seggae needs the involvement of artists and the media to popularize it.â
Seggae was no accident. It was to better make himself heard that he joined the movement inspired by Bob Marley's reggae. “This music has an international reach. It is music of protest that contributes to awareness. It has the power to touch both souls and hearts,” proclaimed this griot from the 90s, present on all fronts of the cultural, artistic and social revolution.
Uprising
In the shadow of the bred mouroum, he remembered: “I have been in music for around thirty years,” he said, thinking back to this first meeting in 1993, in these same places. The same keen outlook on society, the same convictions despite success, failure, prison, then rebirth.
On October 30, 1983, he went on stage for the first time in the same village, during a collective concert. He was already singing reggae in Kreol; another, whom some called Hervé, covered Bob Marley. This singer would later become Kaya. The Portlouis crowd will give him this nickname, inspired by a song by The Wailers that he performed brilliantly.
âWe had a parallel journey. We have evolved towards the same music. It had its musical color; I got mine. He released his album before me. Which makes Kaya the father of seggae. I arrived just after.â
Maurice had then been independent for twenty
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