Baco: the Mayotte rasta who made the Indian Ocean vibrate

In 1977, in Mayotte, a ten-year-old boy stopped in front of a Bob Marley poster¹. Thirty years later, Baco Mourchid is one of the most unique faces in francophone reggae, singing in four languages and blending gabousy guitar with Jamaican chords. From Moroni to Paris, from the subway to recording studios, this artist is a cultural nomad who has reconnected the threads between the Indian Ocean and the world.

In brief

Key dates

From Mayotte to Paris: the roots of a rebel

Baco Mourchid was born on January 1st, 1966 in Bandrélé, on the island of Mayotte. His Mahoran father sold strings and his Malagasy mother transmitted Bantu culture to him. He grew up cradled by Swahili, Arab, and Malagasy influences that shaped Comorian identity. At ten years old, he discovered Bob Marley on a poster⁵. Reggae entered the repertoire of local dance halls, and Baco grabbed a guitar whenever he could.

In 1979, at thirteen years old, he left Mayotte for Ngazidja (Grande Comore) after his father’s death. His life in Moroni was hard: he dropped out of school and sold water to the bourgeois⁶. At the Moroni Rotary Club, he played Marley with the tax director’s band, frequented by Kenyan and Tanzanian cooperants. This place also opened up English and a new musical universe to him. After one year in Réunion, he arrived in France in 1985 and sang on the Parisian subway. In 1990, he settled there definitively and met Manjul, a child of Barbès who became his musical accomplice.

Building his musical empire

Baco released Karakalala in 1998, followed by Questions in 2000. These afro-blues albums revealed an artist inspired by the Comoros forests and the city of Paris, but reggae remained discreet—four songs against the grain by the Cobalt record label. In 2003, Baco and Manjul released their secret garden with Martyr’s Blues, an album with deep roots sound⁷.

But Baco didn’t just sing. He trained as a sound engineer at the Paris Opera, learned computer-assisted production. In 2004, he founded his label Hiriz Records⁸. He signed several artists and produced recordings that resonated throughout the Indian Ocean.

The seventh album, Hadisi (2006), was entirely devoted to Indian Ocean currents⁹. The title refers to the palabre, to dialogue between the islands of the archipelago. He played the gabousy (small Afro-Arab guitar), the marovany (Malagasy cithara) and the ngoma (drum), while inviting artists like Keziah Jones, Yungchen Lhamo and Wally Badarou.

In 2010, the Baco Hiriz Band released Kinky Station, recorded over two years¹⁰. Fourteen tracks, one for each line of the Parisian subway. Reggae met the cosmopolitan influences of the capital, hailed as authentic “Parisian reggae.”

His most ambitious project, Rocking My Roots (2020), is a seven-year reflection trilogy¹¹. He fuses rock, reggae and rap with the African drum, in a quest for roots that “brings Chuck Berry home” and “brings Afrika Bambaataa back to Africa.”

Major works

Legacy

Baco has become a reference name for Comorian music in France¹². His commitment to training young artists and founding his own label makes him a model for an entire generation. The “hoarse voice” that resonated in the corridors of the Parisian subway now inhabits albums acclaimed from Paris to Mayotte.

His multilingual repertoire continues to celebrate the mixing that is the strength of the islands of the Indian Ocean. The artist, “child of pirates” as he likes to define himself, has never stopped crossing musical seas.

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