Echoes of Africa: Zily showcases the cultures of Mayotte [Podcast]

 

Welcome to Echoes of Africa, an original series from Africanews Podcast that will take you on a musical journey across the continent, through the sounds of guitars, percussion, ancestral chants and modern beats that make up African music in the plural.

I am Pascale Keingna and in each episode I will explore various musical universes, from the spicy prose of Zouglou to that of Aïta, from the sounds of Makossa to the lockdrums of Amapiano, spending time with an artist.

Zily, an artist from Mayotte, is a singer-songwriter. She grew up in Mayotte, an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, at the crossroads of several cultures that form her identity.

She proudly embodies her identity in her lyrics written and sung in Shimaore and Kibushi, two of the languages spoken in Mayotte, but also in her mixed sounds which vary between Mahoran musical heritage on the background of the tari drum, and other more modern sounds like the amapiano.

Zily grants me a precious moment a few months before her concert at the Casino de Paris, where she will be the first Mahoran artist to perform, on May 22, 2026.