Sega Genesis

In 2020, I decided to stop writing about my family’s homeland of Mauritius. After publishing two books on the African nation, located 1,100 kilometres east of Madagascar, I arrived at the opinion that I’d exhausted the subject with some descriptive competence. The idea that I might be forever associated with parochial island niceties held zero appeal, not least because I was also convinced that outside of a very small readership, no one genuinely cared about the material. (I remain uncertain whether, as time has gone by and Mauritian writers like Kama La Mackerel and Rhiannon Ng Cheng Hin have come into prominence, I have been proven wrong on this score.)

But recently I overcame these reservations when my friend and fellow Mauritian Canadian author Naben Ruthnum gifted me an album, Moris Zekler: Fuzz & Soul Sega from 70’s Mauritius. After listening to the collection of sonic rarities from the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean, I felt a renewed interest...