RARAM (Pou La Patrie) - Haiti Kanaval 2003

Raram video co-produced and edited by Kevin Pina

This is one of Haiti's most political and in your face ensembles blending traditional 'bann a pye' with rap and hip hop influences.

These folks were and continue to be terrific. They suffered tremendously from the repression of the US-installed Latortue regime. The list of human rights abuses committed against the group Raram includes the killing of several of its members following the coup of 2004 and the false arrest and punitive incarceration of the group's drummer.

for starters see:

The UN's cleansing of Bel Air ahead of elections

http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/n...

"This is a great day. Here I am the President of a large Haitian bank, standing, at sunset, in the middle of Bel Air," he crowed. Just then, the popular and radical Bel Air band Raram, which recently had two of its members killed and three more jailed in MINUSTAH/HNP "stabilization operations," came marching down with great fanfare from Rue Macajou, playing their horns and drums.

The Damage Done: Canada and the Coup in Haiti

http://citizen.nfb.ca/node/6760


Yvon Antoine "Zap-Zap" is a famous Haitian musician and grassroots activist in Haiti. Several days after the 2004 coup d'état, he became a political prisoner: he was arrested without a warrant and held for two and a half years. When he finally got his day in court, there was not a single witness or a single piece of evidence against him, and he was acquitted of all charges. The original charges were based on an allegation that he had participated in an incident at the State University in 2003. The university rector had accused Mr. Antoine, but admitted under questioning that his accusation was based on information he had seen on the Internet.