Haiti travel guide

Haitian Créole is the product of the transformation of French in Saint Domingue by African slaves who needed a common language, one that the slave-owners were forced to learn in order to speak to their slaves.

Nigel Gallop writes: The poorest nation in the western hemisphere is among the richest when it comes to music. Its most popular religion worships the deities through singing, drumming and dancing. The prime musical influence is African, and, while European elements are to be found, there are none that are Amerindian. Music and dance can be divided into three main categories: Vodou ritual, rural folk and urban popular. Vodou rituals are collective and profoundly serious, even when the loa is humorous or mischievous. The dance is accompanied by call-and-response singing and continuous drumming, the drums themselves (the large manman, medium-sized seconde and smaller bula or kata) are regarded as sacred.

During Mardi Gras (Carnival) and Rara , bands of masked dancers and revellers can be found on the roads and in the streets almost anywhere in the country, accompanied by musicians playing the vaccines (bamboo trumpets). Haitians also give free rein to their love of music and dance in the so-called Bambouches, social gatherings where the dancing is pou’ plaisi’ (for pleasure) and largely directed towards the opposite sex. They may be doing the Congo, the Martinique or Juba, the Crabienne or the national dance, the Méringue. The first two are of African provenance, the Crabienne evolved from the European Quadrille, while the Méringue is cousin to the Dominican Merengue. Haitians claim it originated in their country and was taken to the Dominican Republic during the Haitian occupation of 1822 to 1844, but this is a matter of fierce debate between the two nations. In remote villages it is still possible to come across such European dances as the Waltz, Polka, Mazurka and Contredanse.

Haitian migrant workers returning from Cuba, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere in the region brought musical influences from elsewhere (as well as exporting its own music to Cuba’s Oriente province in the form of the Tumba Francesa). One important external influence was that of the Cuban Son, which gave rise to the so-called ‘Troubadour Groups’, with their melodious voices and soft guitar accompaniment. Jazz was another intruder, a result of the US Marines’ occupation between 1915 and 1934. In the 1950s two equally celebrated composers and band leaders, Nemours Jean-Baptiste and Weber Sicot, introduced a new style of recreational dance music, strongly influenced by the Dominican Merengue and known as Compact Directe (compas) or Cadence Rampa. Compas dominated the music scene until the past few years, when it has become a much more open market, with Salsa, Reggae, Soca and Zouk all making big inroads.

A number of Haitian groups have achieved international recognition, notably Tabou Combo and Coupé Cloué, while female singers Martha-Jean Claude and Toto Bissainthe have also made a name for themselves abroad. Also highly recommended is the set of six albums titled Roots of Haiti, recorded in the country. Finally, no comment on Haitian music would be complete without reference to the well-known lullaby Choucounne which, under the title Yellow Bird, is crooned to tourists every night on every English-speaking Antillean island.

Vodou is a blend of religions from West Africa, above all from Dahomey (present-day Benin) and the Congo River basin. Like Cuba’s Santería and Brazil’s Candomblé, it uses drumming, singing and dance to induce possession by powerful African spirits with colourful personalities. These spirits, called loas in Haiti (pronounced lwa), help with life’s daily problems. In return, they must be ‘served’ with ceremonies, offerings of food and drink, and occasional animal sacrifice in temples known as ounphors. The essence of Vodou is keeping in harmony with the loas, the dead and nature. Magic may be used in self-defence, but those in perfect harmony with the universe should not need it. Magic in the pursuit of personal ambitions is frowned upon. The use of black magic and sorcery, or the use of attack magic against others without just cause, is considered evil. Sorcerers, called bokors, exist but they are not seen as part of Vodou. The loas punish oungans (Vodou priests) or mambos (priestesses) who betray their vocation by practising black magic. Many Haitians believe in the existence of zombis, the living-dead victims of black magic who are supposedly disinterred by sorcerers and put to work as slaves.

Vodou acquired an overlay of Catholicism in colonial times, when the slaves learned to disguise their loas as saints. Nowadays, major ceremonies coincide with Catholic celebrations such as Christmas, Epiphany and the Day of the Dead and lithographs of Catholic saints are used to represent the loas.

Haitian handicraft and naive art is the best in the Caribbean. Even such utilitarian articles as the woven-straw shoulder bags and the tooled-leather scabbards of the peasant machetes have great beauty. The rada (Vodou drum) is an object of great aesthetic appeal. Haiti is famed for its wood carvings, but poverty has pushed craftsmen into producing art from such cheap material as papier maché and steel drums, flattened and turned into cut-out wall-hangings or sculpture. Haitian naive art on canvas emerged only in response to the demand of travellers and tourists in the 1930s and 40s, but it had always existed on the walls of Vodou temples, where some of the best representations of the spirit world are to be found. Weddings, cock fights, market scenes or fantasy African jungles are other favoured themes. Good paintings can range from 100 to several thousand dollars. Mass-produced but lively copies of the masters sell for as little as US$10. Negotiating with street vendors and artists can be an animated experience, offering insights into the nation’s personality.

Despite the lack of wholehearted support in the USA, an occupation of Haiti by 20,000 US troops began on 19 September 1994. Aristide returned to the presidency on 15 October to serve the remainder of his term, aided first by a 6,000-strong US force, then by 6,000 UN troops who replaced the Americans in March 1995. General Cedras and his chief-of-staff, General Philippe Biamby, were talked into exile in Panama, while the third leader of the regime, police chief Michel François, fled to the Dominican Republic. Aristide set about reducing the influence of the army and police and the USA began to train recruits for a new police force, but by April 1995, the absence of a fully trained police force and of an adequate justice system had contributed to a general breakdown of law and order. Many people suspected of robbery or murder were brutally punished by ordinary Haitians taking the law into their own hands. ‘Zenglendo’ thugs, often thought to be demobilized soldiers, were involved in the killing of political figures and others.

The fear of violence disrupted preparations for legislative and local elections, held over two rounds in 1995. These gave overwhelming support to Aristide’s Lavalas movement in the Senate (all but one of the seats up for election) and the Lower House (71 of the 83 seats), but the turn-out was very low and the results were bitterly contested. Of the 27 competing parties, 23 denounced the election because of irregularities reported by international observers.

International condemnation of the coup was swift, with the Organization of American States, led by the USA, imposing an embargo. The EU and other nations suspended aid and froze Haitian government assets. The sanctions hurt, but not sufficiently to promote a formula for Aristide’s return; this was partly because of Washington’s misgivings about his radical populism. The election of Bill Clinton to the US Presidency in 1992, with the prospect of more decisive US action on restoring Aristide to power, prompted UN involvement. With Washington making it clear it was ready to step up sanctions, the UN envoy persuaded the army commander, General Raoul Cedras, to agree in February 1993 to the deployment of 250 civilian UN/OAS human-rights monitors throughout Haiti. Further UN pressure was applied in June 1993 with the imposition of an oil embargo and a freeze on financial assets. As a result, an accord was reached in July whereby Aristide would return to office by 30 October, Cedras would retire and Aristide would appoint a new army chief and a Prime Minister.

Presidential elections were held on 17 December 1995. René Préval, a close aide of Aristide’s, won a landslide victory with 87% of the vote, although only 25% of the electorate turned out and most opposition parties boycotted the event. He was inaugurated on 7 February 1996. Agreement on a structural adjustment programme was reached with the IMF in May but was hampered by a hostile Congress and not approved until October. Haiti was treated as a political football in the US Senate, which was absorbed in its own presidential race. Aid only dribbled in; civil servants and police were unpaid and there was mounting violence in the streets. The UN Peacekeeping Force was asked to stay for longer as the new police force was unready to take over. Some arrests were made as the Government attempted to move against widespread corruption but nothing could be done about the nationwide violence.

Rivalries within the ruling coalition, the Lavalas Political Organization, spilled into the open at the end of 1996 when Aristide launched a new group, the Lavalas Family (Fanmi Lavalas), which became a political party in time for the senatorial and local elections, held in April 1997, at which less than 10% of the electorate voted. The major opposition parties boycotted the poll, claiming that the electoral council was controlled by Aristide, and later called for the results to be annulled. The second round of the senatorial elections was postponed indefinitely. It was feared that if the Lavalas Family gained control of the Senate, the reform package would subsequently be blocked.

The much-delayed legislative and municipal elections were held in May 2000 and were won overwhelmingly by the FL. Foreign observers described the elections as flawed but credible, but opposition parties denounced the results. Murder and harassment of candidates and their supporters before and during the vote did not prevent the USA and the UN praising the generally peaceful voting process, but certain results were disputed.

Opposition parties boycotted the presidential elections in November 2000 because of the flawed May elections and for the same reason the USA, Canada and the EU refused to send observers. Six candidates were found to stand against Aristide, but none of them campaigned because of pre-election violence. Aristide himself was rarely seen in the years he was out of office, preferring to stay at his walled compound in Tabarre in the north of Port-au-Prince. Official results gave Aristide 92% of the vote and he was inaugurated in February 2001. His party gained 28 of the 29 Senate seats, over 80% of the seats in the Legislature and nearly all the mayoralties and municipalities. Violence did not stop, however. Despite post-election declarations by Aristide for peace and democracy, his supporters continued to carry out violent anti-opposition protests, while the opposition continued to question the legitimacy of the electoral process.

Crisis followed crisis and political instability was accompanied by violence and gang warfare which eventually became a full insurrection. Parts of the country were taken over by rebels, who gradually edged their way towards Port-au-Prince. The USA, France and the Caribbean backed a power-sharing deal, but neither side trusted each other enough to sign. Eventually, under US pressure, Aristide, the country’s first democratically elected president, resigned on 29 February 2004 and was flown out of the country on 1 March. Supreme Court Chief Justice Boniface Alexandre was installed as interim President, later replaced by Gerard Latortue, and a Multination Interim Force (MIF) of peace keepers arrived to quell the unrest. The MIF was replaced by a UN Stabilization Force on 1 June and a transitional government was put in place. However, despite the presence of 7000 troops, a year later there were still armed gangs of Aristide supporters who had joined forces with groups of ex-army militia, roaming the streets and terrorizing local people.