Maloya designates a type of music, a song, a dance specific to Reunion. Brought by slaves from East Africa and Madagascar, it became creolized on the sugar plantations during the period of “engagism”. Long linked to ceremonies of ancestor worship, and confined to the sphere of the plantations and the housing for farm labourers and sugar-factory workers, it has been gradually moving into the public domain since the 1970s. It was used to convey political demands during the 1960s-1980s, and has (…)