THE DEATH OF "SEGGAE" SINGER IN POLICE CUSTODY SPARKS REVOLT IN MAURITIUS


By Silja J.A. Talvi





	In late February, the death in police custody of a Rastafarian
singer and marijuana decriminalization advocate sparked three days of
rioting and looting which temporarily left the Mauritian capital Port
Louis paralyzed and another popular singer dead. 
	Joseph Reginald Topize, 38, known to his community as Kaya, was
the pioneer of a style of Mauritian music known as "seggae," a fusion of
reggae and sega, the traditional folk music of the island nation. 
	On February 18, following a decriminalization rally and smoke-out
attended by many Rastafarians and local musicians, Kaya and several others
were arrested under the country's strict Dangerous Drugs Act. According to
Gilbert Ahnee, Editor-in-Chief of Le Mauricien, the nation's leading
independent daily, Kaya was inexplicably held for several days in High
Security Quarters although his criminal infraction was minor, and should
have warranted a quick bail-out. 
	Several days later, word of Kaya's sudden and suspicious death in
police custody sent shock waves of grief and outrage across Mauritius,
particularly among the nation's poorer Creole population and within Kaya's
suburb of Roche Bois. Newspapers reported that Kaya, who was known as a
peaceful community figure, had died as a result of a fractured skull. A
police statement dismissed this allegation, announcing in vague terms that
Kaya brought about his own death in the early morning hours on February
21. 	The ensuing rioting in and around the normally calm capital city
was intensified when another popular Rastafarian singer, Berger Agathe,
was shot to death by police while protesting Kaya's death. The outpouring
of anger, suggests Ahnee, was not surprising considering the status that
these two musicians held in the country. "What would have happened in
Jamaica if Bob Marley had died in the same conditions? What would have
happened if, during eventual riots in some Kingston suburb, Jimmy Cliff
had been shot by a police officer?"
	Although Ahnee believes that the decriminalization rally was
premature and would have been better debated in "a more serene and serious
forum," he joins many other Mauritians in questioning the circumstances of
Kaya's death and the way in which ensuing riots were handled by the police
and by the government. 
	Speaking from the Embassy of Mauritius in Washington, D.C.,
Ambassador C. Jesseramsing explains that things have subsequently calmed
down in his native country. "The Mauritian way has always been to work out
our differences, and that is exactly what has happened."
	Where marijuana is concerned, however, Ambassador Jesseramsing
reiterates that there is little tolerance on the part of the Mauritian
government for public smoke-outs such as the kind Kaya participated in,
although he acknowledges the opposing views of Rastas and other
sympathetic groups: "We are known to have very strict laws and
penalization of even a little bit of marijuana ... This is our policy."	
	Once an uninhabited island, Mauritius now consists of over 1.1
million residents. Located in the Indian Ocean and to the east of
Madagascar, Mauritius gained independence from successive years of Dutch,
French and British occupation in 1968. Now a parliamentary republic,
Mauritius has been headed since 1995 by Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam's
Labor Party/Militant Mauritian Movement alliance and presided over by
President Caseem Uteem, who holds a largely ceremonial position.
	In recent years, as the sugar, textile and tourist-centered
economy has improved steadily and Mauritius has evolved into a remarkably
high-tech nation of well-educated citizens, Ahnee believes that many
Creoles have "been kept away from the spectacular economic development."
He adds that "Kaya's death was perceived by ... [the] Creoles as another
injustice inflicted on them." 
	 Representing 27 percent of the population, the Creoles are
descendent from former African slaves, indentured Indian workers and the
French. The majority of the island's inhabitants are of Indo-Pakistani
heritage, with 51 percent of the population identifying as Hindu. 
	But the Mauritian government has downplayed the ethnic dimensions
of these riots. Praising his country's ability to support both a free
enterprise economy and a social welfare system (which provides free
education up to the university level, housing loans and food subsidies),
Ambassador Jesseramsing also admits that social inequalities do exist.
"But we are very conscious of it," he insists. "We keep looking at how to
contain the negative aspects of this kind of competitive atmosphere."
	An independent autopsy conducted on March 8 ultimately confirmed
that Kaya died from traumatic head injuries that could not have been
self-inflicted. While it's unlikely that Kaya ever set out to become a
martyr for the cause of decriminalization or a symbol for the societal
marginalization of Mauritian Creoles, his death has unquestionably ushered
in a new period of self-reflection for the 31-year-old island nation.