Akiyo, a music group and cultural movement, was born in Guadeloupe around 1978/1979, in the wake of independence demands. The Nankin brothers, or "Vélo" (real name Marcel Lollia), fans of gwo ka, a Guadeloupean percussion-based musical style, wanted to reappropriate carnival celebrations and reintroduce traditional masks and outfits. With his group, Akiyo aims to bring Guadeloupe's historic cultures up to date, and quickly wins over audiences at the festivities. After Vélo's death, the group reorganized as an association and declared itself a cultural movement. While the troupe used carnival to denounce colonial oppression, their outfits were criticized by the authorities and banned from performance in 1985. A few years after these setbacks, Akiyo developed Akiyo Mizik and began performing in 1988. A first album, Mémoires, was released in 1992 and enjoyed considerable success on the island. Promoting gwo ka, Akiyo put the spotlight on Guadeloupe's traditional percussion and performed in Angoulême and Nîmes. Naturally, the group followed up with Mouvman (1993) and Dékatman (1996). As recognition climbed, leading them to perform at the opening ceremony of the 1998 World Cup, Akiyo gradually became an emblematic group of Guadeloupe's musical heritage. After numerous tours (the Théâtre de l'Odéon in 2002, the Stade de France in 2009 and the Olympia in 2012) and compilations, the movement unveiled Mastodont in 2013 on its own production structure, Mouvman Kiltirel Akiyo, and continues to defend the origins of carnival.
