Kaya

To the world, he is known as Kaya but his real name is Joseph Réginald Topize. He was born on the 10th of August in 1960 in Roche Bois, Port Louis. He came from a family of five children. His father who was a fisherman was not able to sustain his needs and help him complete his studies thus he was under the wings of his uncle. Kaya’s childhood was not the best one. He had to find himself small jobs at the age of 8 years as he was a victim of racism and also bullied for being a Mauritian Creole.

Kaya played hits from artists such as Mike Brant, Santana, Deep Purple at the age of 16, when he learnt to play guitar. He started playing in weddings with his first band “Wind and Fire” and he was also hosting dances. He renamed himself Kaya after coming across Bob Marley and after listening to reggae music in tribute to Bob. He was influenced by Bob Marley, in terms of his music and his political views as well.

After his journey with Létou Menwar, Kaya created his own group, “Racinetatan”, along with his friends from his hometown, Roche Bois. The group name comes from a Malagasy Prince’s name who was exiling in Mauritius. Kaya realised that the concept of “root & culture”, like the Jamaican culture is not valued in Mauritius. The Mauritian Creole people were happy to have this mix of local music and reggae music in their life.

Kaya lost his life in the cell of the Port Louis line barracks while trying to depenalize the marijuana in Mauritius. He was killed because he accepted that he smoked weed during one of his events on 16th of February 1999. He spent the weekend of 20th to 21st February 1999 in the cell and was found dead that very morning in his cell.