Ti Frere

Who is Ti Frere?

Ti Frere, born Jean Alphonse Ravaton on 22 April 1900 in Quartier Militaire, was a Mauritian singer widely honored as the father of modern sega music. His father, of Malagasy descent, was himself a singer who hosted informal Saturday-night gatherings known as "bal bobesse," and Ti Frere grew up immersed in Creole quadrille and Afro-Mauritian sega traditions, singing in Mauritian Creole, Malagasy, and Bhojpuri. He performed his first recorded sega, "Tamassa," in 1925, drawing on a folk tradition rooted in the songs of enslaved and later indentured laborers on the island's sugar estates. Despite his growing renown, he lived much of his life in poverty, working successively as a sugarcane cutter, bus driver, rock breaker, forest guard, hunter, and horse supervisor to support himself. In the 1960s he released a series of 45 RPM records that carried his music beyond Mauritius to Reunion, Rodrigues, and the Seychelles, and in 1964 he was crowned "King of Sega." Later in life his health declined and he became blind, yet he continued to be celebrated as a cultural icon; he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his contribution to Mauritian music. He died on 17 June 1992, remembered as the guardian of an authentic, unamplified sega tradition.

Sources: Wikipedia (French), "Ti Frere" (biographical summary, retrieved 2026) · Otayo.com, "Ti Frere: The Father of Mauritian Music" · Histoire(s) Mauricienne(s), "Alphonse Ravaton, le roi du sega"