This incident would never have happened if the band had respected the island’s customs. The only thing people are talking about on the internet is the brawl between members of the group Joker Kartel and the Rodrigues audience during a concert. Several videos are circulating with half-truths. Le Matinal Media looks at the facts from a police source.
Hénry Rotile
The evening of Saturday 5 August at Les Cocotiers discotheque in Rodrigues got off to a good start. The evening’s headliners were none other than the group Joker Kartel.
After warming up the crowd with their hits, police sources tell us that things started to turn sour when one of the band members behaved badly on stage: “The people of Rodrigues are very modest by nature. What’s more, at events like this, people often travel with their families. So when one of the members of Joker Kartel went bare-chested with his trousers down to his buttocks, some people in the audience asked him to dress properly. He didn’t like this, claiming it was his style. Faced with this refusal, a handful of people chanted the name of the group 666 Armada – Joker Kartel’s rival. Joker Kartel’s best response was to give the audience the finger, which escalated matters. A member of the band then went down into the crowd to explain. That’s when a fight broke out,” we learn.
Our source also refutes a video in which the members of Joker Kartel explain that one of their members was hit several times in the head with a bottle: “There was certainly a fight, but no bottle was hit. If that had been the case, the victim would have had to go to hospital. However, the hospital did not treat any members of the group, just as no report was made to the police either.”
The incident has also stirred up unease among the people of Rodrigues: “With the videos circulating on social networks, many people are making derogatory comments about the people of Rodrigues. We see this as a kind of racism. And we don’t take it well, because as a proud people we don’t like being looked down on. This incident would never have happened if the group in question had respected the customs of our island. How many other artists more famous than them have performed on Rodrigues without the slightest problem?” explains our contact, who wished to remain anonymous.
