Emily Wayman Music 1040 Music & Culture Instructor: Barbara Shelton Cultural Semester Project

The Music and Culture of Haiti

Most people only know about the country of Haiti because of the disastrous earthquake that struck in 2010. However, Haiti is a country that has overcome many struggles, natural and political. Besides becoming the world's first independent black republic, it has developed a rich culture that reaches deep into the arts. Its music has influenced musical styles across the

Caribbean and has gained huge popularity in the southeastern United States.

Haiti makes up about one third of the island Hispaniola in the Caribbean, while the rest of the island consists of the Dominican Republic. Originally the entire island was claimed by the

Spanish, but in 1697 the part that became Saint­Domingue was released to the French, in the

Treaty of Ryswik.1 While under French control, the entire purpose of the colony was to produce commodities such as coffee and sugar on plantations. Thousands of African slaves were brought across the sea to work these plantations, and soon the slaves outnumbered the white settlers four to one.2 This imbalance in numbers eventually led to slave revolts, and on January 1, 1804, Haiti became the world's first independent black republic.

Since its foundation, the government of Haiti has struggled. Leaders come and go through assassinations and military and civil coups at an alarming rate. In just the seventy­two year period between 1843 and 1915 Haiti was ruled by twenty­two different leaders. Only one of

1 Haitian Pearl, “History of Haiti: Parts 1­3” 2012. 2 One World Nations Online, “History of Haiti” 2014. them served his full term of office.¹ Even though most chose titles such as emperor, king, or president, the majority of them have been dictators, ruling with terror and force. It became commonplace for the new leader to rewrite the country’s constitution to give himself more power whenever he pleased.

Without proper support from its government, the country’s economy has fallen into dire straits. Only a few of the presidents ever bothered to work on building the infrastructure that an economy needs to function. Because of this most of the Haitian people live in poverty. It took a nineteen year occupation by U.S. forces for Haiti to finally build a workable system of roads, hospitals, and schools. After the end of World War I, however, the U.S. could no longer justify occupying Haiti and had to pull out before the country could truly become stable.¹

Constant political conflict and poverty has driven many Haitians to leave their country to look for a better, more stable life. Four of the biggest waves of immigration to the U.S. occurred in 1915­1934 during the U.S. occupation, 1957­1986 during the Duvalier rule, in 1991 after the overthrow of president Aristide3 and in 2010 after a major earthquake hit the island.4 Especially during periods of terror and unrest, Haitians would attempt to flee to Florida by boat. Some would be picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard, some would be turned back, some would slip in unnoticed, and many would die at sea. It was a risky and dangerous voyage, but offered the chance at a better life, away from dictatorship.

Now, the most concentrated populations of Haitians in America are in New York City,

Miami, Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles and Boston.³ Though life in America is generally better and safer than it would be in Haiti, Haitian immigrants still struggle with issues such as

3 Perrin, Richard E., and Felix Eme Unaeze, “Haitian Americans,” 2014. 4 Batalova, Jeanne, and Chiamaka Nwosu, “Haitian Immigrants in the United States,” 2014. poverty and racism. Father Thomas Wenski, director of Pierre Toussaint Haitian Catholic Center in Miami, commented on the racism that Haitians face saying,

“One must ask: will the Haitians be able to assimilate into American society as other immigrant groups of the past? Again, Haitians are black and can Haitians hope for a 'piece of the American pie' while native­born American blacks still fight for crumbs?”³

America still struggles with its own issues of racism. Until we can learn to mend the issue for our own people, we will never be able to truly accept those who immigrate here, like the Haitians.

The Haitian people in America still have great cultural pride. They resist acculturation by continuing to speak in their native Haitian Creole, worshiping their voodoo loas, and by celebrating voodoo and Haitian holidays. However, they are also big believers in the “American dream.” One of the main goals of most Haitian Americans is to become respectable citizens.

They have a saying that, “respectable people don’t rent.”³ Many Haitian families own shops in the hopes of one day accumulating enough wealth to purchase a house.

Another way the Haitian people maintain their cultural identity is through their music. In their culture music plays a major role in their religious ceremonies. Most voodoo rites utilize drums, and on holy days you can hear them wherever you go. During celebrations such as

Carnival or Mardi Gras, wandering bands roam the streets playing dance music, picking up revelers as they go.

Traditional music of Haiti has many influences: French from its European settlers,

African from imported African slaves, and Latin from the neighboring Dominican Republic.

When asked, most Haitians would say that méringue is their “traditional” music. Méringue is dance music that results from a combination of French contredanse and Afro­Caribbean music.5

5 Wikipedia, “Compas,” 2014. It is played on acoustic string instruments, and the lyrics are most often written in Haitian Creole.

Overtime, méringue has lost its popularity, however. Artists are usually anonymous, just playing at small festivals or on the streets.

Compas (also known as kompa or konpa) is a fusion of méringue and western (American) jazz, created by saxophonist Nemours Jean­Baptiste.⁵ It is now the most popular music style in

Haiti and much of the Caribbean. It is characterized by improvisation over a steady rhythm section, while keeping the traditional méringue dance beat. The band’s composition is similar to a typical jazz band, consisting of brass, saxophone, piano, electric guitar and bass, and vocals, but with a more traditional Haitian style rhythm section, mainly using congas and tymbales.

Recently, electronics have found their way into compas, with some bands using MIDI keyboards to expand the band’s range of sound.⁶ Influences of compas and méringue can be seen in most

Caribbean and some African music including: zouk, coladeira, cadence­lypso, kizomba, and soca.⁶

Haiti is a small country struggling with rampant poverty. Because of this, most “big” musicians make most of their money touring out of the country. In the United States alone there are annual compas festivals in many cities including; New York City, Miami, Boston, and

Orlando. Some of the more successful bands have even moved to the U.S. such as Tabou Combo and DP Express. Tabou Combo’s biggest hit was even entitled “New York City.”

As with most music, compas often addresses social issues such as love, religion, and politics. Ti Manno of DP Express was specifically known for his passionate songs about issues such as sexism, discrimination, and abuse of political power, which the people of Haiti are all too familiar with. The song “Verite” is a surprisingly optimistic song about overcoming the struggles that emerge from living under an unstable government.6 Roughly translated, it talks about working together to break free from their fate of being beaten down. It says, “We’re all headed in the same direction,” that they “work to have something better,” and that we all walk together.⁵

Haiti’s political history has been a rough one. From its origins of slave revolts to its constantly changing leadership, the people have faced many hardships. Despite this, the Haitian people have developed an amazing musical culture that remains upbeat. They know the adversities they face, and discuss it in their music. They remain optimistic, however, knowing that if they continue to work hard and resist giving up, they can make something better for themselves, even if their government doesn’t quite get it.

6 DP Express, “Verite,” 1979. Bibliography

Batalova, Jeanne, and Chiamaka Nwosu. “Haitian Immigrants in the United States.” Migration

Information Source. 29 May 2014. Migration Policy Institute. 30 Oct. 2014.

http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/haitian­immigrants­united­states

“Compas.” Wikipedia. 29 Oct. 2014. 30 Oct. 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compas

DP Express. “Verite.” Pale Pale ou. CD. Superstar Records and Super Music, 1979.

“History of Haiti.” One World Nations Online. 1998­2014. Library of Congress. 30 Oct. 2014.

http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/History/Haiti­history.htm

“History of Haiti: Parts 1­3.” Haitian Pearl. 2012. 30 Oct. 2014.

http://haitianpearl.org/learn/history­of­haiti/part­3/

Perrin, Richard E., and Felix Eme Unaeze. “Haitian Americans.” Countries and Their Cultures.

2014. 30 Oct. 2014. http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Du­Ha/Haitian­Americans.html