Discovering Europe
How long will it last?
Gilbert Pounia and his group Ziskakan are still worshipped in Réunion. Ziskakan? From Creole means “How long will it last?” That’s the question artists asked themselves some thirty years ago when the pillars of popular culture were looked down on and the Creole language was banned in schools. Maloya music and dance were dismissed by the major production studios and the drum was cursed and seen as something close to savagery. Pounia is an iconic figure in his homeland, but he rarely uses “I” in conversation giving, modestly, the credit for everything he has achieved, created and changed to “one” or “we”. It’s more than mere modesty; it’s real style.
Pounia explains that Ziskakan is a musical wave that comes from about everywhere – India, Asia and Europe. As he says himself, “As with all of the islands, our culture is born of rape and violence, but what has emerged is nevertheless something beautiful, the fruits of suffering. In fact, different kinds of suffering side-by-side, which have combined together. Ziskakan is a reflection of this country.”
Ziskakan is more than just a group of artists. It is a movement. Established around 30 years ago, Pounia’s group began by playing local music - Sega and Maloya. This type of music used to be barely tolerated and was almost banned but thanks to widespread action has reached out to more and more Réunion islanders: “Our culture is no longer clandestine.” Three decades ago, it was a big deal to see the large drum up there on an official stage. It was seen as provocation.
In the beginning, the group played its gigs in the sugar-cane fields but Pounia and his friends went on to teach their music to the people and to raise their awareness of the outside world. They showed slides, for example, of the fight against apartheid in South Africa. As he explains, “the music gave backing to our cause, as did speaking in Creole, even to say ordinary everyday things like the mountain is beautiful.” The language itself was a victim of a kind of ostracism. Only the perseverance and enthusiasm of Ziskakan and other groups that followed in its wake countered and overcame this exclusion.
From the outset, Ziskakan worked in lots of different areas – the broadcasting and distribution of music, the editing books of poetry and traditional stories and the adaptation of traditional popular works for the theatre. Pounia himself quickly took advantage of independent radio at the first opportunity to give everyone the opportunity to express themselves, and to remove the gag which existed at the time on popular culture. He helped discover artists such as Joby Bernabé from Martinique, Toto Bissainthe from Haiti and Patrick Victor from the Seychelles.
The desire for a new approach to the country’s deep-rooted artistic folklore came to a head at a conference held on Réunion culture by Ziskakan in 1981. Then, after the left took power in France, the movement which was already in full swing, steadily gained momentum.As Pounia recalls, “When the left took power, lots of the groundwork had already been done. The victory of the left nevertheless gave lots of hope.”
So, had Ziskakan actually mounted a political experiment? “Yes, it’s more the Jimmy Hendrix’s experience,” jokes Pounia. “We are no more than guitar players. So we have continued to do our thing, to play our music, work in Creole and create more and more beautiful images in this wonderful language that is so rich in them.”
It is true that politicians dared approach to Ziskakan after 1981. Prior to that, only the Communist Party dared to do so. But from that point on, production studios opened their doors to him. As Pounia explains, “Philippe Constantin of Polygram liked our work and was the first to produce it on a large scale. His interest in us was surprising because I don’t fit into a mould and I did not want to format my music as three-minute tracks for radio.”
Thirty years on and Ziskakan is still enjoying the same level of success in Réunion. Pounia is still worshipped here. The great French actor, “our friend”, Richard Bohringer, is filming one of their storytelling performances, Ti Jan, created in Creole and adapted in French. Ziskakan also edits and produces for artists from in and around the Indian Ocean, such as the poet, Michel Ducasse, and the writer, Shenaz Patel, from Mauritius. Ever the creator, he is about to edit a book on Madagascan philosophy.
Las record of Ziskakan: “Banjara, Ziskakan, May 2008, Banjara. http://www.myspace.com/ziskakan
Contact France: lesboukakes@hotmail.com
Réunion: mkm.wazis@wanadoo.fr
