Culture of Seychelles

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1 History
2 Music
3 Religion
4 See also

[edit] History

The Arab sailors were the first to navigate themselves around the waters of the Seychelles in the 9th Century.

The French officially claimed the island in 1770. A group of 27, consisting of French pioneers and their slaves, sailed into the what is now known as the Sainte Anne Marine Park on the 26th of July of that year and landed on an island facing what is now Victoria and named it Sainte Anne. The settlers later moved to the main island of the Archipelago and named it Mahé, after the Frenchman Mahé de la Bourdonnais. They a possession stone (Pierre de Possession) to officiate their claim on the islands of the Archipelago. The place where they built the first settlement is the location of present day Victoria, which was originally called L'établissement du Roi (Establishment of the King).

[edit] Music

Folk music incorporates multiple influences in a syncretic fashion, including English contredanse, polka and mazurka, French folk and pop, sega from Mauritius and Réunion, taarab, soukous and other pan-African genres, and Polynesian, Indian and Arcadian music. A complex form of percussion music called contombley is popular, as is montea, a fusion of native folk rhythms with Kenyan benga developed by Patrick Victor.

[edit] Religion

Some 90 percent of the population was Roman Catholic as of 1992. The initial white settlers in Seychelles were Roman Catholics, and the country has remained so, despite ineffective British efforts to establish Protestantism in the islands during the nineteenth century.

Approximately 7 percent of Seychellois are Anglicans--most coming from families converted by missionaries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Some 2 percent of the population are adherents of other faiths, including Hinduism, Baha'i and Islam.

Although clergy and civil authorities disapprove, many Seychellois see little inconsistency between their orthodox religious observance and belief in magic, witchcraft, and sorcery.