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Kamelit "Racine Mapou De Azor" Printer friendly page Print This
By Kamelit (Performers)
Directors JN Baptiste and Laurent Garry
Thursday, Jan 21, 2010

This Haitian Style of music is called Racine/Rara, this video has been filmed in Haiti and the song was performed by the group Kamelit.

The rhythms of Racine and Rara are very similar if not the same, Racine is mainly used in Vodou ceremony while Rara is considered to be the marching bands. From Vodou to Compas to Racine to Rara and Beyond: Haiti became the first black-ruled republic in the Americas in 1804, and music has mirrored, and at times shaped, the twists and turns of Haitis politics and culture ever since.

... Rara is a vibrant annual street festival in Haiti, when followers of the Afro-Creole religion called Vodou march loudly into public space to take an active role in politics.

During the six weeks between the eve of Lent and Easter Week, Haitian Rara bands take to the streets, offering the urban and rural poor of Haiti an opportunity to negotiate power under conditions of political and economic insecurity as well as publicly celebrate Vodoun religious culture. Through the performance of music, song, and dance during long parades of many miles, Rara bands serve participants and audiences by recalling to memory an oppressed and brutal past. Perhaps more crucially, these bands express much about the current realities of Haitian social, spiritual, and political life as they perform religious work for Voudoun spirits, solidify the notion of community through the patronage of local big men, and contest political oppression. In the Dominican Republic, this tradition is known as gaga". (more)

"Racine Mapou De Azor"
Filmed at Carnival 2007 in Haiti

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