By Voegeli Juste-Constant, Ph.D

On January 12^th, 2010, Haiti was hit by a horrible and merciless earthquake. An outpouring of sadness and compassion was directed towards this victimized society, from all over the world. Haiti, a country which knows and uses music in all occasions found itself so stricken, so overwhelmed that, I thought, it would become voiceless, dumbstruck. In fact, it was not a very accurate and definite ethnomusicological perception.

All in all, it is difficult to have all the facts, in spite of the internet. Even though I spent a few days in Haiti at the beginning of July, I could not have all the necessary information to form a definitive opinion on the matter. We need more time and distance to rid us of emotion and subjective mood. So, right after the disaster, I had the feeling that very few local Haitian composers came with new compositions inspired by the earthquake. I could see and hear by the magic of new media that a lot of foreign friends of Haiti felt the urge to compose, or to readapt songs used in the past in other circumstances, mostly to raise funds geared to help the earthquake victims. We have in mind the song: “We are the world video remake for Haiti.” The original was made in 1985, 25 years ago. Right off the bat, in this new video, a kid is seen dancing on top of the ruble. It is outrageous, and almost shameful, for a suffering Haitian who lost close relatives to have to watch such video. Fixated on this dancing boy, I felt it was unbelievable, and heartless to show such an image. For me it was akin to piling up the bodies of all these victims, setting them on fire, and while they were burning, boys and girls were rejoicing around the bonfire.  In this video, among others, Wyclef Jean is the Haitian superstar, who put a few Haitian creole words in this song.

Later on, I was quite cynical. I was revolted to see the estate of some other dead scholars trying to revive their work, by taking advantage of the sad Haitian situation, releasing their old material. For example we witnessed the resale of “Alan Lomax in Haiti (1936 – 1937), a unique boxed set containing 10 CDs and two books.” No doubt about it, no Haitian plays music like this, nowadays. However, since it is partly folklore, we can have the people and the rest of the world experience anew this piece of the Haitian patrimony. When I try to be less subjective, I do not find this act, as despicable as I perceived it at the beginning.

In the meantime, I read an article written by Jennifer Kay, Associated Press, published on March 30^th, 2010. She depicted with a wealth of details the Alan Lomax stay in Haiti. This ethnomusicologist was 21 at the time.

“He recorded its citizens making music – songs about Voodoo, carnival politics, children’s games, and the first airplanes crisscrossing its Caribbean skies in the late 1930s.

He preserved the sounds on aluminum discs for the library of Congress, but they were largely forgotten for seven decades as they sat in the library’s archives. Recently discovered, they were compiled into a box set released last fall. Haitian music scholars called it a “cultural archive” that documents the daily triumphs that get missed whenever a crisis in Haiti makes the news.

The catastrophic earthquake last January that killed more than 200,000 people was the latest crisis. Now, the set’s curator hopes “Alan Lomax in Haiti” will teach people that Haiti’s culture remains intact, even when so many of its arts institutions have collapsed. Music from the 10-disc box set, released by Harte Recordings, is featured in three radio public service announcements seeking aid for Haiti.”

Jennifer Kay quoted Gage Averill, a Haitian ethnomusicologist, who said: “It’s too easy for people to just periodically feel sorry for Haiti. Very few people except those who travel to Haiti understand just how much Haiti has to offer, how lovely a country it is, how generous a country it is.”

As I can see Alan Lomax stayed in Port-au-Prince for his recording sessions. Even though, according to the journalist, he avoided to record “polished performers”, since he was in search of “ordinary people”. However, the truth is that the rest of the country was neglected. People/scholars have the erroneous idea that Haiti is so small that we can stay in a small corner of Port-au-Prince and have a complete view of the Haitian culture. It is a big mistake. Even when these scholars have resources, they are in general too ill-advised to think that Haiti is small, when in reality Haiti is large and diverse when we think about its culture.

Being a former student at INIDEF, Caracas, Venezuela, I know that this organization, along side my own recordings underwent a thorough recording of Haitian music in 1974, which consisted principally folk music. The Alan Lomax estate promised to return his recordings to Haiti. I hope that INIDEF, Venezuela, or whoever is currently steward of this music, would consider sending a copy of their research back to the Haitian Universities.

CARNIVAL IN HAITI

Haiti is a country for which carnival represents two lungs (rural aspect: rara [African origin] and urban aspect: traditional carnival belonging to the cities [European origin]), that allow it to breathe, to escape poverty and hardship through song and dance. The former Haitian dictator, François Duvalier, knew it so well, that he took advantage of any occasion to organize a carnival festival. But after his departure and the overthrow of his son: Jean-Claude Duvalier, natural Haitian carnival tradition did not incorporate these countless carnivals that were improvised to keep the masses calm, among others: carnival of flowers, summer carnival, kids carnival.

When Haitians discovered that carnival would not be held in 2010, they felt, in Haiti itself as in the diaspora, as if they had lost their soul, their “raison d’être”. Important centers of the urban carnival: Port-au-Prince and Jacmel were devastated, under ruble having lost count of their dead, most of them unidentified till today. Leogane, the center of the rara, the rural carnival was pulverized. But the feeling was mixed. Nobody in his/her right mind would think about masks, music and dance, after such devastation and principally the dead. There were so many of them, but they still felt that the carnival was an obliged step that we were forced to skip.

From my own study of the carnival, I discovered that putting on a mask is quite meaningful. For example: Some people, as penitence, in order to pay the vodou gods, thank them, or search for forgiveness, can vow to disguise during carnival time for seven consecutive years. So I can appreciate how distressful it has been for these people to have to break their vows, even if it is for a single year.

THE GODS FACING VODOU AND WESTERN RELIGIONS

Even though, during the disaster, religions of western origin materially suffered more than the vodou temples, by seeing their churches and their places of worship destroyed completely, several of their dignitaries dead, some of their leaders dare talk about what happened in Haiti, as a malediction attached to the African cultural heritage of Haiti. In fact, it is pushing the envelope a little shamelessly. Even abolishing slavery was won by the vodou way of thinking of the Haitian people: “We need justice, we need freedom, we want them now, and we will have them, no matter what by destroying the oppressors. We need to cut their heads and burn their houses.” Music helped the slaves to stay alive. It prevented them to be so desperate, that they would become self-destructive. Vodou music gave them courage and a reason to think that they would soon be back to Africa and regain the freedom they once enjoyed.

A lot of critics perceive some of the Haitian Vodou music lyrics as being minutes of what happened and not much of a catalyst that would change anything. This sentiment can be totally misleading. Some texts in fact, have subtexts. What we hear is not what the author wants us to understand. The double entendre is very common in popular music not only in the Haitian vodou. However, we had so many dictators in Haiti who were afraid of words and hated the truth that the Haitian popular composers learn at birth how to say something different from what they intend to say. We have to read between the lines to enhance comprehension.

SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT NATURAL DISASTER AND MUSIC:

1) This unfortunate natural event: the earthquake, what did it do for Haiti musically speaking? We can answer that since compassionate people became interested in helping this earthquake stricken country, a lot of new compositions took birth, and innumerable concerts were organized. In this sense, several of these musical compositions were set by non-Haitians, and everybody organized benefit concerts, including a lot of Haitians. So we can say that this phenomenon is not folklore per se, since it did not involve spontaneity in the Haitian people itself, but the professional performers took over the act of composition. This new normal was not born from anonymity, which disqualified it to be labeled folklore, however that does not prevent it being studied by ethnomusicology. This is popular music at its best.

2) Music became painful for the Haitian people. After losing 250 000 people, seeing them rot in the sun, buried in mass graves, survivors being amputated, sometimes for no valuable reason, and not receiving the help they hopelessly needed, the Haitian sambas, these popular composers were num. Very few people in Haitian society felt like singing and dancing even three months after the earthquake. The gruesome pictures imposed on their eyes cut their inspiration. Death and devastation put music on the back burner.

3) The awakening is slowly coming to light. People will not soon forget what happened. But, we hear more and more dances announced. People have started living again after months of survivors’ guilt, because so many of their brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, countless relatives, friends and neighbours lost their lives. They started feeling that they were allowed to enjoy themselves. Music and dance are more and more in the picture. We cannot keep on punishing ourselves for being alive.

4) Music and its therapeutic value were overlooked right after the earthquake. The carnival, that nobody felt the courage or the will to hold, was not able to help solve this kind of disenfranchise towards musical activity per se. Mourning is silent in some layers of the Haitian society. They associate it to classical music broadcast the whole day, to religious hymns. Right after the earthquake, we saw spontaneous choirs rise, improvising in the streets and praising God for being alive after all.

We encounter in the Haitian society more and more resistance toward celebrating the life of a dead person instead of his death. Haitians living abroad for a long time have difficulty accepting these new trends.

We received countless images of these numerous buildings which fell. We could visualize and hear, in Port-au-Prince, all these military marching bands passing in front of them, which along the years, animated countless parades on behalf of one national festivity or another, honouring one Haitian dictator or another. Talking a lot about folklore or popular music, we often overlooked that the written music of Haiti is mostly military. Most Haitian composers of the past, once belonged to the national palace orchestra. Their music is practically unknown, although it is a huge part of Haitian musical creativity. Most of these compositions took their inspiration directly from Haitian Vodou, the local religion. We have some big names, Occide Jeanty, the father who opposed the American occupation of Haiti in the beginning of the 20^th century. We have to single him out from his son who wore the same name. Then we have Bruno, Jean-Baptiste, etc. They were all, director of the National Palace orchestra. And they were military men.

When we talk about popular music, we have to think about “Choucoune” a text of a Haitian poet Oswald Durand who lived in the nineteenth century. Set in music by Michel Mauléart Monton, a Haitian composer of the nineteenth century too (1855 – 1898). This song was translated into English and became “Yellow Bird”. A lot of people shamelessly claimed its paternity. A nineteenth century Haitian song, with a known composer, sometimes is called a folk song from another country. It is one of the strangest twists of history. Songs from Venezuela, Mexico and other countries suffered the same fate. They were recomposed and renamed with brand new composers. To put it simply, it is intellectual thievery.

Edwige Danticat, a well known Haitian writer, living in the United States, recommended some books and music that people interested in Haitian history and arts could seek out:

• “The Black Jacobins” by C.L.R. James: A groundbreaking account of the Haitian revolution of 1791 – 1804.
• “The Rainy Season : Haiti Since Duvalier,” by Amy Wilentz: This nonfiction book documents the period between 1986 – 1989 when Haitian dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier was forced to flee the country and mass strikes sponsored vigilante groups, and other kinds of chaos swept though the streets.
• “Love, Anger, Madness: A Haitian Trilogy” by Marie Vieux-Chauvet: This triptych of novellas, recently published in English with an introduction by Danticat, was initially suppressed when it was first released in French in 1968 during François “Papa Doc” Duvalier’s Haitian reign of terror.

In music Danticat gave examples of Haitian groups:

• Boukman Eksperyans: A “mizik rasin” band from Port-au-Prince that combines elements of Haitian Vodou and folk music with rock and roll. First formed in 1987, its albums include “Vodou Adjae.” The group weaves themes of rebellion into its music, and its 1990 song “Kem Pa Sote” was banned on Haitian radio.
• Ram: Another mizik rasin group from Port-au-Prince. Formed in 1990, one of the band’s singles, “Fèy” was banned by the military because it was seen as an anthem of support for exiled Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide.

We have other examples of how the Haitian Earthquake inspired artists:

A lot of other artists recorded old songs to help. For example: “Everybody Hurts,” Charity Single for Haiti Earthquake Relief, on BBC Radio 1. Bill Lamb of About.com, Guide to Top 40’Pop, wrote about it. We learned that Simon Cowell organized the re-recording of R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts”. It was available in stores in the UK on February 8, 2010. This recording features more than 20 stars including Susan Boyle, Mariah Carey, Michael Buble, Cheryl Cole, and Robbie Williams. It seems that the former UK prime minister Gordon Brown encouraged Simon Cowell to put together this charity effort.

New Haitian compositions are full of realism. They reflect the fact that when all the media are gone, and Haiti is no longer under the lime light, everything stayed as bad as it was after January 12th. What was done after all these fund raising activities, music playing, voices singing, money

pouring into coffers?  The Haitian people is still facing its problems all by itself. Its misery did not waver.

Now that all these benefit concerts are silent, what is left? Nothing more than the real people placed in front of the reality. So far, nothing is really done for them, despite the millions of dollars gathered during countless fund raising activities. Numerous artists from all over the world raised money for Haiti. Several months separate us from the devastation of this earthquake. Where is Haiti? It is still at the bottom of its despair.

“When all seems lost, we, Haitians, still have our culture”, as Danny Laferiere, a Haitian writer put it. Will the culture be able to feed the people? How? When? Music industry for the all people to depend on, does not sound likely.

Leogane, this city in the south of Port-au-Prince, the cradle of rara, the rural carnival, is under debris. Many peasant composers, the sambas, died. They are all the natural defenders of the Haitian culture. They were killed by an act of God. That means the natural attack against Haiti, was not only against material goods, it was also against mental wealth, against the culture, against the music.

It is futile to blame nature for not sparing us grief. However, I don’t think that it’s pleasant for a believer to imagine that God was present and left the natural forces to pound a country down like this, to bring more suffering on people who, in fact, have already more than their share of sorrow.

The drums, the lambi (marine shell horn), the vaccine (bamboo trumps) will still brighten the days of the survivors. The famous resilience of Haitians, is not an empty word. After the earthquake, I was so sad myself, I could not figure a Haitian laughing and dancing. A few days later, I understood how wrong I was. Invited to attend a public dance in Toronto, a very popular group: Ti-Vice, would be in town. I flatly refused all participation. Philosophically, I was against the fact of rejoicing ourselves so early after such a devastating earthquake. But, if I can afford it, and deprive myself of an occasion to sing and dance, most Haitians cannot.

 New Music compositions and the earthquake

Most of the new compositions are sad, and prayer like. The composers are asking God to do something for the country. All these new compositions are full of hope and encouragement, despite the underlining sentiment of powerlessness and sadness.

If you think that vodou is both magic and religion, the vodou believers will not only pray to have improvement in their way of life and their means, but they will try to influence the Gods, through some magic ceremonies, where they will promise them to engage in some act of devotion to reward them, or do something harmful/degrading to them, until they consent to come to the rescue, and make palpable changes. If religion is devotion and prayers, magic will always try to change the ongoing phenomena and force the issues.

A review of one Haitian newspaper, Le Nouvelliste, from March 2010 to June 2010, constitutes a real enlightenment:

This rapid review gives us the total mental picture, post-earthquake. We see side by side, cadavers, tents, prefabricated offices, reconstruction, festivals and fairs. They are the principal themes that journalists and amateur journalists cover.

In an article written by Angie Marie Beeline Joseph and published on March 4^th, 2010, about a UNESCO meeting on Haiti, the journalist quoted the Haitian culture and communication minister, Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassègue stating: “To save Haiti’s material and immaterial patrimony, it is not enough to reconstruct buildings or protect museums and archives contents. It is also working to preserve the memory, the traditions and the know-how of the Haitian people.”

In the same edition, Teeluck Bhuwanee, UNESCO’s representative in Haiti, said: “If there is something Haiti could be proud of, it is its culture; because there is absolutely no other place in the world which is that rich.” He thinks “that in the ‘post disaster need assessment’, culture has to become an accepted and financed theme by everyone.”

Let’s look at another article written, in collaboration, by Angie Marie Beeline Joseph and Pierre-Raymond Dumas, and published on Thursday, April 22, 2010. It underlined the theme I talked about before in my own paper: “The various solidarity songs with Haiti.”

“In Haiti as abroad, artists mobilized themselves to provide their help, stated the journalists. It is proof that the musical industry does not remain insensitive to Haiti’s capital and its surroundings hit right in the heart by a violent seism.”

All the great television chains brought their contribution to make people around the world aware of Haiti’s misfortune. The very first video entitled: ‘Un geste pour Haiti Chérie’ (A gesture for beloved Haiti), was launched by the rap singer Passi, on a song by the group ‘Neg Marrons’, in collaboration with the great Charles Aznavour, Grand Corps Malade and Youssou N’Dour. Then came ‘Désolé’ (Sorry), a video-clip, written by Kery James, an artist of Haitian descent, living in France.

Rihanna, a native of Barbados, recorded a song to pay homage not only to the dead, but also to the survivors, who are fighting for their life in pitiful conditions. She readapted ‘Redemption song’, a well known Bob Marley hit. This song was recorded during Oprah Winfrey’s special broadcasting, in favour of Haiti’s survivors.

Wyclef Jean regrouped ‘The Fugees’. He is now surrounded by Lauryn Hill and Pras Michel aiming to record a single and play in concert, raising funds for Haiti’s sake.

Artists from Caribbean countries like Shaggy, Sean Paul, Bélo, Sean Kingston sang ‘Rise Again’ for Haiti. Telling Haitians they can get back on their feet, and Haiti has to live.

African artists united their voices and created ‘Haiti, on ne te laissera pas dans l’oubli’ (Haiti, we will not let you be forgotten), ‘Afrik for Haiti’.

The journalists, in their own words, concluded: “Disconcerting and exhilarating, the list of songs is very long. We would not finish on three pages, if we had to name all the songs composed and actions done on behalf of Haiti in the musical area.”

In an article written this time by Pierre-Raymond Dumas himself, and published on Saturday, May 8^th, 2010: ‘Le collectif des musiciens haïtiens en panne de solidarité’, one discovers that thirty songs written by Haitian musicians are currently played on the air in Haiti. One sees some titles: ‘One Nation… One Voice’ composed by the group Ti-Vice, ‘Leve kanpe’ (Stand up!) by Jean Roosevelt, ‘Hope for Ayiti’ by Wyclef Jean, and so on. Some Haitian celebrities produced their record very fast. But, so far, their solution has been individualistic, nothing collective came up.

The Haitian journalist concluded his long article by stating: “At every level and in all areas, selfishness is our big trouble, our sworn enemy. New groups are created in record numbers. And one inexorably witnesses their spectacular rupture. The most recent divorce is one of Nu Look-Gasman. If we are powerless and divided in this disastrous period, if our artists who, naturally, should play their scout’s role are not up to the job, of what tomorrow will be made?”

No doubt in our mind that the Spanish speaking countries manifested their solidarity with Haiti through music and dance, as everywhere in the world. But living in North America, one does not necessarily have access to the appropriate sources of information in this regard. An article found in the columns of Saturday, May 8^th ‘Le Nouvelliste’ filled this huge gap. The journalist Christina Guérin described under the title: ‘Un canto por Haiti’, how Juan-Luis Guerra, Juanez, Alejandro Sanz, Enrique Iglesias, and so forth, gathered more than 20 000 people in Santo Domingo’s Olympic Stadium, on April 18^th, for a concert organized on Haiti’s behalf.

After the presentation of a short video about the earthquake in Haiti, the concert started briskly by a simple sentence: ‘Hoy, estamos aqui para ti Haiti.’ (Today, we are here for you Haiti). Christina Guérin concluded: “… I shout out this new and promising solidarity, and also because it is more than time to erase these wounds of the past, to hold hands, to stick together, to mutually respect each other. I shout because despite the big gap existing between us, a solidarity initiative has been spontaneously initiated by a great name of Dominican music. I shout because it is human to shout. I shout for my friends who disappeared. […] I shout and I dance for Haiti. I sing me too, with our neighbours, ‘un canto de esperanza’ (a song of hope).”

In the classical music field, we saw announced in the April 22^nd  issue, of “Concert du renouveau et de l’espoir” (Concert of revival and hope), that will be played by the ‘Orchestre Philharmonique de l’Ecole Sainte-Trinité’ (Philharmonic Orchestra of Saint Trinity’s School) on Friday, April 23, 2010.

Music as therapy

Almost everyone agrees that the January 12^th earthquake left Haitians scarred and laden with psychological problems. However, some specialists easily see arts in general as therapy. But music therapy is not put first in the line of battle, if it is not ignored completely. In this sense we can take as example a Patrice-Manuel Lerebours’ article, published on Tuesday, May 4^th, 2010, in Le Nouvelliste, Haitian newspaper. He stated: “… Young participants to these programs succeed in expressing… their anguish and their frustrations sometimes by drawing or through poetic texts. According to several psychologists, it is an important step to reach healing. […] Dance and theater, more bodily, can be fabulous catalysts for those who are looking to regain their self-confidence”. Based on massive bodies of research, we know that music gives, in these regards, great results. Thus, we do not hesitate, in the wake of this terrible earthquake to recommend music as the main therapy, since it is so prevalent in Haiti.

The same journalist, Patrice-Manuel Lerebours, in another article in the same issue: ‘Marcher pour l’art… ou pour le business?’ (Walk for art… or for business?), talks about the march of the artists on Thursday, April 29^th. These artists wanted a resumption of the cultural life, put into abeyance, since the January 12^th earthquake. We noticed with satisfaction that singers and musicians responded in big numbers to this gathering.

Lerebours wrote about the organizers: “They wanted, for sure, to honour the memory of their friends and colleagues of the artistic world, who died following the January earthquake; but wanted also that night life resumes, that people start to dance again, that musicians start working again, that the mourning stops. Since it is easy to forget that what pleases some is other people’s job. Almost 4 months of unemployment, that hurts, and hurts badly, particularly when one has a family to feed. And musicians, as well as cultural operators, also live on bread, and need money.”

CONCLUSION

Going back to our title: ‘When music takes its inspiration from natural catastrophe’, one can clearly see now that it is not a mere catchy title. It is a reality, in any respect, new to human musical activities. From the beginning of the world to the present days, natural and man made disasters, had and continue to inspire artists of all the art spectrum: painters, writers, dancers, and, of course, musicians.

I favoured this subject for my new incursion in ethnomusicology, thanks to a request from Doctor Arturo Chamorro Escalante of the Music Faculty of Guadalajara University; this invitation is quite helpful and in every aspect relevant. It came just in time to allow me to make the recent Haitian tragedy part of my research in folk and popular music. Curious! but quite handy and convenient. Sleepy minds are always awakened by unexpected circumstances. And Doctor Arturo Chamorro’s intervention is quite welcome and even godly. It gave me the indispensable push I needed to come back to Ethnomusicology. 

Haitians are slowly waking up from their terrible ordeal, and restoring music to the honourable place it always occupies in their life: catalyst and prize catharsis. I am pleased to have chosen this theme: ‘the role played by natural disasters in music creation’.