This project is part of ‘Indian Ocean Historical Sound Archive: collecting, safeguarding and sharing musical heritage’. It is co-financed by the Interreg VI Indian Ocean 2021-2027 programme, the French Embassy in the Seychelles, the Regional Council of Reunion, the Directorate of Cultural Affairs, and the Departmental Council of Reunion. It follows on from organological studies conducted in Mayotte in 2022 and Reunion in 2023. Building on this work, the PHOI team carried out a collection mission in the Seychelles during October and November 2025.

These accounts, gathered mainly from musicians and instrument makers, aim to celebrate Seychellois musical practices as well as raise awareness of them, ensuring their transmission and longevity for future generations. They offer the general public a chance to rediscover — or indeed discover — traditions, both past and present, as well as the instruments that enrich the region’s varied and diverse identity.

In these podcast episodes, the musicians also share insights into their professional journeys and the day-to-day realities of their work. They provide an overview of cultural life across the Seychelles, touching on ongoing dynamics as well as the difficulties and challenges they face. These testimonies thus shed valuable light on the current state of the music sector in the Seychelles.

In this episode, Joennise Juliette (born 1971), reflects on her career and her advocacy to safeguard the Seychelles’ musical heritage. A singer of sega, moutya, and French-style romans ballads, she began playing at the tender age of 17 with the Servis Nasyonal Lasanblez. She later joined the Seychelles Youth League, performing with ‘Les Berrets Rouges’ then ‘Footstep’. For the last fifteen years or so, her full focus has been on traditional Seychellois music with the group ‘Léko’, playing in hotels and on public stages. Léko’s current line-up features a guitarist, a bassist, a keyboardist, a drummer, and a tanbour moutya player as well as dancers. Juliette fondly recalls her youth, which was steeped in the traditions of tsinge and sokwe: song and dance repertoires performed as a community by the adults, at night, after a long day’s work. The sokwe dancers would dress up in banana leaves, perpetuating movements and rituals that carried the weight of the past. Joennise is renowned for her renditions and covers of songs by David Philoé and John Wirtz, and is now turning her attention to songwriting. In addition to her artistic career, she is also a cultural custodian, collecting traditional romans ballads from elders, transcribing them, and passing them on to younger generations, thus taking an active role in preserving the Seychelles’ cultural legacy for the future.

Fanie Précourt