kapitenn
the annual gathering for michel legris. it falls on the day he was born, but it is not a birthday. it is for the life he led and the music he left behind.
one night a year, for one man
in 1972 he won sugar time, the competition between the sugar estates of mauritius, singing for mon loisir, the estate where he worked as a ferailler. the song was "mo capitaine". the island took the word and made it his name.
every year on 11 august, the family of michel legris, kapitenn, gathers to mark the day he was born. he was a pioneer of séga tipik and a master maker of the ravann.
one night a year the ravann comes back to a stage, played by the people who played beside him and the ones who learned from him. the drum he played he also built, and the making is carried on today by his family.
kapitenn is organised by the michel legris trust, supported by babani, and it happens every year.
not a memorial, a night of playing
the music he made was never meant to be kept behind glass. so kapitenn is not a ceremony about him, it is an evening of the music he played, performed live by the people who carry it.
the people on the stage each year are the ones who lived alongside him and the ones who came up after. that is what makes the night what it is: séga tipik as something still being played, not something being commemorated.