Tag Archives: Haiti

International Day for the remembrance of the slave trade and its abolition (23 August)

This Saturday, 23 August, is UNESCO’s International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, which seeks to “inscribe the tragedy of the slave trade in the memory of all peoples”. The date coincides with the 1791 uprising in Saint Domingue, today the Republic of Haiti, that so heavily impacted the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. In regions like the Caribbean, northern South America, and Brazil, music and culture have been deeply shaped by the historical conditions of African slavery and fusion and syncretization that arose from European colonialism. Today, the Afro-Latin musical roots of genres such as salsa, Cuban son, Brazilian samba and bossa nova, Dominican merengue, and Panamanian and Puerto Rican reggaetón, among many others, continue to echo the enduring legacy of slavery in the Americas.

To observe the International Day, read the entry on slavery in Ilan Stavans’s Latin music: Musicians, genres, and themes, which traces the abhorrent practice globally, with a detailed section on the Haitian Revolution, the first and only successful slave rebellion to dismantle the plantation system and achieve political independence. The rebellion reverberated across the New World and sparked a wave of newfound consciousness and hope among Black populations throughout the Americas, while simultaneously triggering reactionary and often violent responses from European and criollo planters and other ruling elites.

Prise de la Ravine-à-Couleuvres (Capture of the Ravine-à-Couleuvres, 23 February 1802), by Karl Girardet, engraved by Jean-Jacques Outhwaite.

Latin music: Musicians, genres, and themes provides an in-depth exploration of the rich and diverse world of Latin American music, examining its history, cultural significance, and the wide range of genres it encompasses. Spanning five centuries and 25 countries, the encyclopedia, covers the evolution of Latin music from its roots in Indigenous, African, and European traditions to its contemporary global influence. It offers detailed profiles of influential musicians, including iconic figures such as Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Placido Domingo, and Carlos Santana, shedding light on their contributions to the development of Latin music and their lasting legacies. The two volumes delve into key genres like salsa, merengue, bachata, tango, and reggaetón, discussing their origins, stylistic characteristics, and cultural impact across different Latin American countries and communities. In addition to genre exploration, Latin music touches on broader themes of identity, migration, and the ways in which Latin music has become a vehicle for social and political expression. The encyclopedia’s 244 entries also include sociopolitical factors that have shaped Latin American music’s growth and dissemination. This is a key resource for music researchers looking to understand the musical traditions, key figures, and cultural contexts that have defined music in Latin America and its enduring global appeal.

Find the entry on slavery written by Ruthie Meadows in Latin music: Musicians, genres, and themes located in RILM Music Encyclopedias.

The first image is of Sexteto Habanero (circa 1925), an early Cuban son band from Havana, Cuba.

Related Bibliolore posts:

https://bibliolore.org/2021/10/04/cubas-tonadas-trinitarias/

https://bibliolore.org/2019/01/07/the-tigueras-of-merengue-tipico/

https://bibliolore.org/2022/10/14/breaking-barriers-in-latinx-musical-practices-an-annotated-bibliography/

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Filed under Migrations, Politics, Popular music, Resources, RILM, South America, West Indies, World music

Haiti’s celebrity president

 

With his country descending into its worst political crisis since the 2004 coup d’etat, and thousands of people demanding his resignation in the streets, in early 2016 Haiti’s outgoing president, Michel Martelly, went back to basics: He released a new song insulting and taunting in crude and sexualized terms a female journalist known to be critical of him.

Before becoming head of state in 2011, Martelly was a pop star known as Sweet Micky who performed Haitian compas (kompa direk). Micky was famous for saying or doing anything to get a reaction, and his genius was combining the image of the rock rebel with the anything-goes, upside-down spirit of kanaval, the Haitian equivalent of Mardi Gras—for example, one can find video footage of Haiti’s president performing in a halter top and miniskirt.

Bringing a similar strategy to his presidential run, he was the anti-politician who openly insulted competitors, critics, and the media. Before his election Martelly’s supporters argued that, because he was already so rich and famous, their candidate couldn’t be bribed or bought. The competition dismissed Martelly’s candidacy as a joke, at first, and the press did too, all the while giving him blanket coverage.

With support by foreign investors and the backing of the U.S., Martelly won a surprise victory. But after five years of stalled and canceled elections, rising insecurity and poverty, political violence, and accusations of corruption, Sweet Micky’s novelty wore off—and in his last weeks in power any vestiges of presidential restraint also wore off, as evidenced by the song referenced above. It may turn out that Haiti was, as it has been so many times, ahead of the historical curve, anticipating the rise of other populist celebrity political figures worldwide.

This according to “What happens when a celebrity becomes president” by Jonathan Katz (The Atlantic monthly 9 February 2016).

Below, the song in question.

BONUS: Sweet Mickey performs in drag.

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Filed under Curiosities, Performers, Politics, Popular music

Halka in Haiti

Halka in Haiti

Inspired and provoked by the title character in Werner Herzog’s film Fitzcarraldo, two artists and a curator decided to revisit the mad plan to bring opera to the tropics.

With an eye to undercutting Fitzcarraldo’s colonialist Romanticism, they decided to confront a particular set of historical and socialpolitical realities by staging Stanisław Moniuszko’s opera Halka, which is considered Poland’s national opera, in the unlikely locale of Cazale, Haiti, a village inhabited by descendants of Polish soldiers who fought for the Haitian Revolution in the early 1800s.

On 7 February 2015 a one-time-only performance of Halka was presented to a rapt local audience on a winding dirt road in Cazale. A collaboration between Polish and Haitian performers, the event was filmed in one take to be presented as a large-scale projected panorama in the Polish Pavillion at the 2015 Venice Biennale.

This according to Halka/Haiti: 18°48’05”N 72°23’01”W: C.T. Jasper & Joanna Malinowska (Warsaw: Zachęta: Narodowa Galeria Sztuki, 2015).

Above, a still from the film featuring a local extra (more stills are here); below, the Biennale installation (the music starts around 5:08).

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Filed under Curiosities, Opera