Hi! Welcome to my blog! I started this blog because I didn’t really find the information I wanted to find about the music I love. ‘What’s Zouk?’ is a question I asked a friend almost a year ago. He said ‘I think it’s African music but with French vocals’. Ok, makes sense. But is it? I started asking around a bit.



Bonnefooi / Michel van der Meer, a Dutch DJ who works at Rush Hour knows a thing or 2 about Zouk music & recommended the book ‘Zouk: World Music in the West Indies’. Ordered it on Amazon. Didn’t arrive. Ordered it again. This time I received an empty envelope. Classic Timo, still no book. 3rd time I ordered the book it finally arrived. And then shortly after I received it twice more haha. Lucky it dit arrive 2 more times coz I forgot it on the plane once as well 😀



Super random but anyway, I’m starting to understand a bit about the origins of Zouk after reading a couple of pages in the book & doing some online research. This blogpost is a compilation of information, useful links, videos, songs I like and my personal journey. It’s part of a series about African music & political movements and I’m sure another on Zouk will follow because this one is long enough as is and I’m only scratching the surface here talking about Kassav’.

To talk about Kassav’ & Zouk we need to learn a bit of history & geography first (at least I had to do so when writing). Please correct me if I’m wrong. I’m absolutely no history expert. Wikipedia, Youtube, a museum visit or 2 and memory from (biased, Euro-centric) high school history lessons from 15 years ago are the basis of my knowledge here.

Europe at one point in history started taking over the world. Spain claimed most of the newly discovered islands in the Caribbean sea – called the Antilles – starting with Columbus’ exploration in 1492. France, the Netherlands, UK and other European countries claimed what was left.

Genocide & slavery happened on a scale I can’t even imagine. Dark times in our history books we just don’t learn enough about. Massive amounts of African people were sent to the Antilles to work as slaves. Music was one of the ways they tried to keep their heritage. Native & African cultures got mixed.

You can watch a short summary in a Crash Course World History lesson here:

And an animated map of the Antilles through time here from Wikipedia, as you can see everything swapped around a bunch. Imperialism FTW:

Current map:



As you can see on the map, France still ‘owns’ some Antillean islands. Guadeloupe is an archipelago which consists of 6 inhabited islands and is an ‘overseas region of France’. Even though slavery is abolished, the colonial past is noticeable in a lot of aspects of recent/present island life. White French people still occupy positions of power and racial tension is still present. Almost half a million people live in Guadeloupe. Antillean Creole (Wikipedia article here), from my limited understanding, is like a mix of languages (including French) spoken by the people that live there now as a result of the history & mixture of cultures from France, Africa & Caribbean. Please do correct me if I’m wrong, also not a linguist. 😀



Ok, so back to Zouk!

In the first chapter of ‘Zouk: World Music in the West Indies’, I learned that Zouk is essentially a bit like Disco. It’s dance music. It’s not only a musical genre but has a second meaning as a verb (just like Disco has a second meaning – discotheque).

On Wikipedia you can read:

The Creole word zouke, sekwe, or zouke, etc. from the French verb secouer meaning “shake intensely and repeatedly” was used by Haitian artists who toured the French Antilles during the late 1970s and 1980s.

The word zouk has, over time, come to mean “party” or “festival” in the local Antillean Creole of French.

Sounds a bit like Caribbean Disco to me 😉

Zouk was born on the lesser Antilles (part of the West Indies) with Kassav’s music which became hugely popular in the eighties. Kassav’ is a band from Guadeloupe and in the book the origin of the name is explained:

The word kassav refers to a cake made of manioc (Cassava), a dessert that needs to be prepared carefully. If the juice of the manioc is not extracted properly, the result can be toxic.

… this refers to the kind of music Kassav’ plays, a careful blend of musical influences.

This French documentary on Kassav’ also mentions where the name came from:



Pierre-Edouard Decimus wanted to create music a bit like Disco but by and for the people living on the Antillean islands (which include Guadeloupe). He reached out to Jacob Desvarieux and that’s how the band was born.

Zouk borrowed elements & rhythms from Cadence-lypso from Dominica & Compas from Haiti. Due to similar origins in Afrikan folk music (pre-slavery), Zouk also has similarities with Makossa (from Cameroon) & Congolese music for example. The schematic below (from the book) shows these relationships between the different Antillean music genres and their origins and influences from other continents. The book goes really in depth about social, political, economic & other relations & influences between the different genres, so if you’re into that, definitely get a copy!

I got to know Kassav’ through the reissue of their album Love And Ka Dance (Discogs link).

On the Rush Hour website you can read:

Unavailable for years, the reissue of Kassav’ legendary first album released for the RSD. Founding album of the modernization of Guadeloupe music, it will give birth a few years later to the global zouk phenomenon. This version gathers for the first time the original version as the American version of the album (4 different tracks).

The album features the amazing song ‘Kassav’ that I fell in love with after hearing Hunee play it somewhere. Can’t remember exactly where or when, but I think the Antal & Hunee all nighter in De School in December 2018.



Another great song from the album is ‘Nouvel’

Kassav’s popularity exploded in the Antilles in the mid 80s thanks to ’Zouk La Sé Sèl Médikaman Nou Ni’. The title means ‘Zouk is the only medicine we have’ which refers to the struggles people on the islands faced:

It’s the first Antillean gold record, selling 100 000 copies!

When writing this blogpost I stumbled upon 2 more great Kassav’ songs. Sye bwa and Se Dam Bonjou. You can find both 12” for a couple euros on Discogs 🙂

Core members of Kassav’ are Jacob Desvarieux (who lived in Senegal for 2 years when he was 12), Patrick St. Eloi, Claude Vamur, Georges Décimus, Jocelyne Béroard, Jean-Philippe Marthély and Jean-Claude Naimro. These last 3 are from Martinique which shows Kassav’ has a message of unity across the borders of the islands.

I already knew some of Kassav’s band members through other ‘world music’ I liked (at the time not knowing the difference between the genres or even countries – one of the reasons I started researching and learning about Zouk & other genres).

Aveou Doudou (written by George Decimus & Jean-Claude Naimro)

Shoutout to DJ Boats for showing me Jacob Desvarieux – Sweet Florence of which Kuniyuki made an epic edit:

And to my friend Jan-Willem aka Spontaneous Booty who showed me ‘Nayanka bell – Nabobi’ which features Kassav’ band members as well

I also bought Jean-Philippe Marthély’s album without realising he was a Kassav’ member. Wé Lè is a great song:

Kassav’ was at the forefront of a technological revolution in African & Caribbean music, pioneering the use of new technology & instruments like synthesisers & drum machines just like what happened in other countries with the birth of House & other electronic music.

I would love to see Kassav’ play live someday as they are still active and even doing a 40 years anniversary tour in 2019! Check out this video of one of their live shows #vibes

Just learned last week they’re coming to Amsterdam this fall woohoo

In 1985, Kassav’s popularity grew almost worldwide & they started touring in Africa in Ivory Coast & Angola, pulling huge crowds and uniting people through music. Kassav’s songs use Antillean Creole which used to be seen as a language of lower socio-economic status but recently it’s more a symbol of national pride & unity on the Antilles. Zouk helped form an identity for the Antillean people in a time where the colonial past & influence is still present in daily island life.

In an interview with Jacob Desvarieux, he says

“In the rainbow you’ve got a lot of color and all these colors make the rainbow beautiful. The world is the same; a lot of people, different, think different and all these people make the world beautiful”

Which I think is a nice quote to finish this blogpost on 🙂

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Some sources I used for writing this blogpost:

Interview with Jacob desvarieux regarding kassav’s new cd – 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5r3E1eelS8

Le Guadeloupe des Arts de Jacob Desvarieux https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkL8ger67KQ

Interview with Jacob Desvarieux: https://afropop.org/migrated-uploads/2016/11/Beat55-6zouk.pdf

Zouk: World Music in the West Indies https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zouk-Indies-Chicago-Studies-Ethnomusicology/dp/0226310426

French documentary on the history of Kassav’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL00o4BzA8k

Edit: After publishing this blogpost someone in the Can’t Stop Dancing group recommended this article on Zouk as well: https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2015/12/zouk-feature?fbclid=IwAR1B3psWrXRJgtIQGtXdDwKci8yetA7FbWjeBfE5Xhiv2q_cZ8EREFW5bxU



