Remembering the Forgotten: Chosen Traumas of Mauritian History Evoked in Sega Music

Similar to other former colonies that have achieved independence, the small island state of Mauritius emphasises certain elements of its history to maintain peace and identity cohesion in a heterogenous society. Such cohesion is achieved, inter alia, by the construction of the collective memory and inherent processes of remembering and forgetting. While certain events are remembered in the public, others are kept silent to avoid spurring conflict in a diverse society. This paper explores the relationship between the remembrance of traumas in official contexts and how these differ from the remembrance of traumas in unofficial settings, such as through local music. With the aim of uncovering the everyday, unofficial memory of history, the study uses sega songs, the national musical genre on the island. This discussion places itself within the wider study of silence as a strategy to keep the peace after an episode of violence in a heterogeneous society and contributes to the literature on collective memory and music studies in social sciences.