Baco Mourchid to showcase fusion of Indian Ocean island sounds in Nairobi

Singer, songwriter & guitarist Baco Mourchid from the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte who will perform in Nairobi on Friday with his band Urban Plant. PHOTO | POOL

A veteran musician from a tiny Indian Ocean island is on a mission to share his music across Africa after decades of performing in Europe and the US Singer, songwriter and guitarist Baco Mourchid along with his eight-piece band, Urban Plant, will showcase an eclectic fusion of island sounds and contemporary rhythms in their first ever performance in Nairobi Friday night.

“We go to Europe and sometimes forget our homeland and that is why I am back home to share my music with Africans,” says Mourchid who has toured widely across the world over the last three decades.

“I feel at home here in Nairobi because we also speak a variant of Kiswahili in Mayotte.” During his interview with BDLife soon after arriving in Nairobi early this week, he was accompanied by the musicians from his band who hail from Mayotte and the neighbouring islands of Mauritius and Comoros.

Mayotte is a French territory located between Madagascar and the coast of Mozambique with a population of just more than 310,000 people, blending Arabic, Indian, European, Malagasy and East African cultures.

“Our rhythms are based on the drum, which we also call the Ngoma,” explains Mourchid.

“We have music for all ceremonies, sacred occasions, weddings, war and even death,” he says, alluding to the island’s rich tradition of music and dance.

Born on January 1, 1966, to a Mahorais father and a Malagasy mother, Mourchid was already playing the traditional stringed instrument Gaboussi by the age of 6, and then discovered the electric guitar, which he plays to date, at 10.

He moved to Ngazidja, the largest island in the Comoros nation, at the age of 13 after the death of his father, before relocating to Paris three years later, where his music career took off in earnest.

“I built my music from my culture first and then added other contemporary elements,” says the artist who studied music and audio engineering in France.

Singer, songwriter & guitarist Baco Mourchid from the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte who will perform in Nairobi on Friday with his band Urban Plant. PHOTO | POOL

His style is a fusion of rock and reggae, blues with traditional folklore, which he calls R&G (Rock, Rap, Reggae and the G stands for ‘goma’ shortened form of Ngoma). “This sound represents all the music that the black race has contributed to the world, from rock to reggae and rap, while the drum, the heartbeat of Africa, is played wherever you travel in the world.”

According to him, Africans can safeguard their musical heritage by combining the motherland and diaspora together.

Mourchid’s latest album Rocking My Roots has received rave reviews for the rich diversity in the 22 songs since it was released in 2020.

He explains that this is the first time that he has created songs consciously as R & G.

“I bring the rock to the ngoma with different concepts to the album, paying tribute to the legacy of stalwarts like Fela Kuti and James Brown and I have also included a live session.”

He sings in English, French and Shimaore, one of two indigenous languages spoken on the island, and Kiswahili.

While on stage strumming the guitar the dreadlocked musician bears an uncanny resemblance to his idol, reggae icon, Bob Marley.

“They used to call me Bob because I love him and his music saved me from the gangs I used to hang out with on the streets of Paris,” he recalls.

“I changed my life after listening and understanding the music of Bob and reading the works of influential thinkers like Marcus Garvey.”

Every day for several years beginning in 1989, Mourchid would set up his guitar in the Paris metro train stations and play Marley’s music for commuters who showed their appreciation by donating money to him.

At the end of each day, he would collect an average of 200 euros, which he saved and, in a few years, had enough money to pay for the production of his first international album.

To date, Mourchid has four international albums, and 10 albums released domestically in Mayotte.

“When I started my career, I had to talk to my people first and they gave me strength to bring the music out to the world. When I am on the island, I can take my Gaboussi and improvise a song, and when I am playing elsewhere, I can add pedals or other devices to change the sound.”

Mourchid wants to build on his visit to Kenya and the performance on Friday night at the Alliance Francaise, Nairobi, to meet and explore new ideas with Kenyan artists and producers.

“Let’s have more exchange between Kenyans and people from Mayotte which is just a two-hour flight from Nairobi,” he says.

“Let’s work together, let’s dance and sing and we’ll secure the future for the next generation of Africans.”

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