KAPITENN 95, a celebration of sega tipik in memory of Michel Legris

KAPITENN 95 is a celebration of sega tipik, in memory of Michel Legris, “KAPITENN” (1931 to 2015).

Every year on 11 August his family gathers to mark the day he was born. This year, for his 95th, the Michel Legris Trust and BABANI come together, supported by KRÉOL ART, and the gathering moves inside the theatre. Sega tipik in its raw state. No distance, no filter. The ravann an arm’s length away, the call and answer of the voices, a drum tuned by fire. A unique and magical way to experience the music he carried all his life.

Michel Legris was born in 1931 at Rose-Hill. A ferailler at the Mon Loisir sugar estate, he won the Sugar Time laureate prize in 1972 with “Mo Capitaine”, and went on to carry Mauritian music to the world, performing for La Francophonie at the United Nations in 1993 and touring China, India, France, Réunion, Rodrigues and Australia with his group Étoile d’Or. He built the ravann, the goatskin drum at the heart of sega tipik, with his own hands, and he championed the recognition of sega tipik as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2014. In 2007 the Mauritian state named him a Member of the Order of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean.

From 17:00 the exhibition is open: archival photographs tracing his life, and works by local artists made in homage to KAPITENN. At 20:00 the theatre fills up. At the heart of the evening is Groupe Étoile d’Or · Zeneration Michel Legris, his own group, now carried by the new generation of the Legris family. Around them, everyone playing that night either played beside Michel or learned from him, and they are all here for the same man.

Come for a first taste of the root of it all, an appetiser for a KAPITENN that, from this year on, will be celebrated every year.

KAPITENN 95 · Tuesday 11 August 2026 · exhibition 17:00, concert 20:00 · Caudan Arts Centre, Port Louis

The Michel Legris Trust & BABANI, together this year · supported by KRÉOL ART