Santé engagé (Morisyen: sante angaze) is a genre of Mauritian music which consists of singing and rapping protest songs.
The genre mixes traditional Mauritian sega with Indian, Chinese and Western influences.
[1] It has also been an indecisive period with regard to the cultural heirloom of the island with a deep reconsidering of the multicultural image.
The island is faced with a vertiginously high level of unemployment and people still had in mind the recent interracial tensions peaking in 1964 and 1968.
[4] Faced with such restrictions, youngsters (mostly university students) started to set up groups to debate on all ideological topics including politics and culture.
Freedom of culture was a fundamental element of their resistance, specially the fight for the recognition of the Mauritian creole as a full-fledged language.
[8] Along with this new form of resistance, young artists started to write songs reflecting their thoughts.
The very first santé engazé is believed to be "Montagne Bertlo" written and composed by Jooneed Jeeroburkhan in 1969 in Mauritius, after completing his higher studies in Canada (on a Commonwealth Scholarship).
Subsequently, other groups were formed: Fangurin, Kler de linn, Fler kanne, Flamboyant, Sitronel, Ebène, Grup kiltirel IDP.
Ram and Nitish Joganah created in the same year a new group, the Grup Latanier which would become the new symbol of sante angaze.
Due to the context during which it has been created and its relationship with militancy, sante angaze (at least in its early years) is closely related to politics.
Santé engazé has played a great part during general elections acting as the voice of the militant movement.
He began his musical career within the Grup kiltirel IDP before contributing to the albums of Siven Chinien (Soldat lalit) and Bam Cuttayen.
Even though many people today consider sante angaze as a revolved musical style, the latter still exists and much appreciated.
The militantly oriented protests of its origins have gradually evolved and broaden to other subjects, not specially related to politics.
[16] Their inspirations remain wide-ranging: poverty, injustice, social wrongdoings, war, cultural unity, etc.
However, the vast majority of them deny to be politically oriented preferring to remain neutral and denouncing through music.