57 f
Christine Salem
Department Story
La Réunion’s local music scene is thriving, and now promoting itself worldwide. Bastiaan Springer visited the annual IOMMA event for a bit of maloya therapy.
L
anding on the tropical island of La Réunion after a more than ten hour night flight from Paris is an unforgettable experience. The welcoming breeze from the Indi- an Ocean on this beautiful island, east of Madagascar and west of Mauritius, over- whelms your senses. The first impression is of having arrived in southern France in summer. The official language is French, although most of the islanders speak Cre- ole. The roads and streets are an exact
replica of those in France and in the cafés French coffee and croissants are served, you can eat typical French cuisine and pay with Euros. This is not really surprising when you take into account that distant La Réunion is nevertheless still part of France, one of the five departements d’outre mers (overseas departments). But even though French culture is every- where, La Réunion is actually a fascinat- ing mix of European, African and Indian cultures and religions.
A short history: La Réunion was colonised by the French in the latter part of the 17th Century, long after it was original- ly discovered as an uninhabited island by the Portuguese in 1513, and came briefly under British rule in the early 19th Century. The present-day population of 781,000 inhabitants is a mix of French, Africans, Chinese, Malays and Indians. La Réunion is a modern and prosperous island that is largely dependent on tourism. Major attractions are the beautiful coastline and
Photo: J Noel Enilorac
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