This week in Haiti
Grupo Vocal Desandann Breaks
Miami's Cultural Blockade
by Kim Ives
The beloved Cuban-Haitian vocal group Desandann finally toured Miami earlier this month, thanks to the efforts of a feisty coalition of arts activists who took Miami officials to court and overturned a regulation effectively banning Cuban groups.
Since the early days of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Miami has been the seat of Cuban counter-revolution. The "gusanos" (worms), as the counter-revolutionaries are called in Cuba, have waged a terror campaign against many Cuban artists who have performed, or attempted to perform, in Miami. For example, in 1996, intimidating mobs attacked concert-goers entering a recital by renowned Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba. A few months earlier, musician Chucho Valdez had to cancel a concert due to bomb threats. In 1998, terrorists fire-bombed a club where Manolin "Medico de la Salsa" was scheduled to play. Last fall, 5000 "gusanos" rioted, throwing rocks and bottles, when the Cuban musical group Los Vanvan performed.
So frenzied were the Cuban counter-revolutionaries that in 1996 they had Miami-Dade County enact an ordinance to deny county funding to any organization doing business with Cubans, with Cuban businesses, or even with people doing business with Cubans or Cuban businesses.
So when Beth Boone wanted to bring Desandann from Camaguey, Cuba to Miami, she had a problem. The Miami Light Project, her non-profit cultural organization, receives about 10% of its annual budget from Miami-Dade, which today amounts to $80,000. To receive the support, the Light Project, like any other fund-seeker in the county, had to swear in writing that it would respect the ordinance against doing business with Cuba.
"I wanted to bring Desandann to Miami when it was making its first U.S. tour in 1997, but we had to explore if we would be penalized by the county," Boone explained. "We found ourselves in a situation where the county was forcing us to sign an affidavit in order to receive our grant money, and yet it was in conflict with our constitution and with Federal foreign policy."
It was comparable to a McCarthyite "loyalty oath," Boone said, which was in conflict with the Miami Light Project's constitution because "as the artistic director of this organization, nobody gets to tell me what I can program." And in conflict with U.S. Federal foreign policy because, even though Washington has maintained an embargo against Cuba for the past 40 years, exchanges of art, culture, education, and religion are exempt.
Boone says the "moment of truth" came in 1999 when a local film festival had a $50,000 grant revoked because they showed a film made in Cuba, and a critical one at that. "That put them in conflict with the affidavit," Boone said. "The arts community kind of freaked out."
But the county only tightened its controls, faxing out to groups a notice that they would be ineligible for funding unless they signed the affidavit first.
"So I said forget it," Boone explained. "They were strong-arming us. We took it to the board, and it unanimously decided to sue the county in federal court."
The Light Project got together with two other groups, Gable Stage and Teatro La Ma Teadora, as well as two commercial music promoters who wanted to use county facilities, Debbie O'Haniann and Hugo Cancio. They consulted the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which had also been itching to take a crack at the ordinance.
They challenged it on several grounds. 1) That local governments cannot conduct foreign policy 2) That the ordinance was redundant given the Federal embargo already in place on Cuba 3) That the Federal embargo excludes cultural exchanges and most importantly 4) it was an infringement on the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of expression.
The suit was filed in Federal court in April 2000, but only two months later was settled when a Federal judge in Massachusetts ruled that a Boston ordinance, which barred dealings with Myanmar (formerly Burma), was unconstitutional since local governments cannot determine foreign policy. The judge in the Miami case prudently concurred.
The court victory rendered the county's ordinance unenforceable, and Boone immediately set about planning Desandann's Miami tour.
The result was a series of magnificent concerts. When the group of five-male, five-female vocalists, arrived at the Miami International Airport on June 6, they held an impromptu concert in the terminal, crooning songs in Creole, Spanish, and English. Over the next five days, the singers, all Cubans of Haitian ancestry, performed for Miami's Haitian community at Libreri Mapou, the Notre Dame d'Haïti Church, and on the airwaves of WLQY and WLRN. They also played for a mostly Cuban crowd at a congregational church in Coral Gables. Mixed audiences also hailed the singers at the DASH High School in the Miami Design District and the Colony Theater in Miami Beach. The grand finale was in the giant auditorium at Barry University, located in the heart of Little Haiti. Over 1000 people - Haitians, Cubans, and North Americans - filled the hall to cheer the chorale as it rendered traditional folk songs like "Dodo Pitit Mwen," political anthems like "Haïti Libéré," and more recent compositions from groups like Boukan Ginen and RAM.
Backed by drums and often wading into the audience, the singers also performed Cuban songs, as well as an old-time spiritual and a song by Nat King Cole in English.
"Cuba is a great mosaic of people," Emilia Diaz Chavez, Desandann's director explained to the audience. "Haitian, Chinese, Arab, and many other heritages contribute to make Cuban culture and music as rich as it is."
Most of the group's members are consummate professionals who have studied music theory and singing. This expertise was apparent in their precise, complex harmonies and skillful melding of different rhythms such as meringue and rasin. Their dancing was as accomplished as their singing, and often marked by joyous improvisation.
In the end, Miami-Dade County felt compelled to present the group with an honorary key while the city of Miami awarded them a silver plate.(However, Miami Mayor Joe Carollo said that the plate had been presented to Desandann as "a Haitian group," the Miami Herald reported).
But the awards of Miami officialdom paled next to the warm accolades the group received from audiences everywhere it went. They even drew sustained applause from the harried travelers at Miami International when they held another impromptu concert at the airport on their way back to Cuba.
"It was ridiculous that a group like Desandann couldn't come to Miami,
the U.S. city where Haitian and Cuban culture are the most relevant,"
Boone said. "They were a little apprehensive when they arrived, but
what an outpouring of love and warmth they have received."
Raoul Peck's "Lumumba": A Tale of Human Suffering, Sacrifice, and Hypocrisy
by Elombe Brath
"Lumumba," the new feature film by Haitian director Raoul Peck, is a film that must be seen. It is a brilliant and majestic work which documents the extraordinary contributions and self-sacrifice that the 1960's Congolese leader Patrice Emery Lumumba made in attempting to safeguard the territorial integrity and tremendous wealth of the Congo against the greed and power plays of the United States of America and its allies.
Peck deals with a particularly nefarious part of U.S. history, which is still ongoing. "Lumumba" shows how the U.S. and its allies undermine democracy in African states, destabilize fledgling governments, and, after bringing down a government, help to create a mythical consensus that the people of the targeted African country were not yet ready for self-rule. Covert operations by Western "counter-intelligence" agencies stealthily undermine African governments and make them appear to be ungovernable, thus fostering the myth that once European colonialists left, Africans automatically slide back to atavism, stagnating until the "good white father" returns to rescue them through recolonization. It is of vital importance that people, particularly the black community, see "Lumumba" so that they become conscious of the real motivations of U.S. foreign policies and how the machinations to reach their objectives are accomplished.
What happened after the independence of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on June 30, 1961 is a classic case of such foreign intrigue. This subversion of the dreams and aspirations of the Congolese people still haunts the second Democratic Republic of Congo today. In my view, it is no coincidence that the DRC's late president, Laurent Kabila, was assassinated one day short of the 40th anniversary of the assassination of his mentor Patrice Lumumba. In time we will likely see that the forces behind the brutal murder of Patrice Lumumba, along with that of two of his closest aides, are the same as those which engineered Laurent Kabila's assassination five months ago. My premise is reinforced by Peck's revelatory new film.
Having been involved over the last 40 years with African liberation struggles in general and the Congo in particular, I can attest that Mr. Peck has directed a great and honest film. It reveals how Western nations concocted a communist bogeyman to justify their covert actions on behalf of Western capitalist monopoly interests.
Peck depicts how Lumumba and his Congolese National Movement (MNC), democratically elected in a "free and fair" election, were undermined by a conspiracy between the former Belgian colonial rulers and their longtime financial partner, the U.S. This alliance arranged the assassinations of Lumumba and his cadre and imposed a puppet to protect their vested economic interests: Col. Joseph Desire Mobutu, the moody, envious, self-serving opportunist who was co-opted -- and contracted -- by the U.S. to betray the Congo's national independence.
Mobutu's brutal reign was maintained by financial and material assistance from eleven U.S. Administrations As a result, according to several press reports, Mobutu would become second only to the Shah of Iran as the richest leader in the world, while the Congo had its precious natural resources sucked away and was reduced to an "economic basket case", leaving the Congolese masses wretchedly impoverished.
Eric Ebouney, a stage and film actor from the Cameroon with masterful oratory skills, delivers an exceptional and explosive performance as Patrice Lumumba. With equal gusto, Alex Descas, from Guadeloupe, plays Mobutu, Lumumba's former aide-de-camp turned nemesis, delivering a wonderfully believable performance.
"Lumumba," which is in French with English subtitles, is a tremendously moving film experience, with beautiful cinematography and a stupendous soundtrack. The casting of both African and European actors is outstanding, with exceptional performances throughout. Raoul Peck's directing exhibits as much finesse as a maestro guiding an orchestra. It is no wonder that the film has already won the Director Fortnight Award at Cannes last year and was the winner for best feature film at the Pan-African Film Festival in Los Angeles.
Shot in Belgium, and Zimbabwe and Mozambique for its African locations (the ongoing war in the DRC prohibited filming there), the film has astounded audiences in Europe, Africa, Cuba and Canada. It is a phenomenal depiction of the human suffering caused by the hypocrisy of Western "democracies."
As Lumumba wrote in his last message to his wife, Pauline Opanga, "History will one day have its say, but it will not be the history that Brussels, Paris, Washington or the United Nations will teach, but that will be taught in countries emancipated from colonialism and its puppets. Africa will write its own history, and it will be, to the north and to the south of the Sahara, a history of glory and dignity."
An essential part of that
history was written 10 years ago in Raoul Peck's award-winning documentary
"Lumumba - Death of a Prophet." That bio-doc has now been magnificently
complemented by this poignant and breathtaking film masterpiece, whose
screenplay Peck wrote with Pascal Bonitzer. "Lumumba" is a major contribution
to the reclaiming of Africa's glorious history in dignity. The puppeteers
are not likely to be happy with Peck's product. But all people who believe
in common decency, fair play, social justice, and redressing old grievances
by making right past wrongs, they will love Raoul Peck's "Lumumba."
"Lumumba" will formally
begin its U.S. national release with a premier performance on Wednesday,
June 27th at the Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, just
west of 6th Avenue in lower Manhattan. A celebration will follow the premiere
at S.O.B.'s, 204 Varick Street, featuring director Raoul Peck, an exclusive
African cultural program with La Troupe Makandal, and a surprise celebrity
guest host. To buy tickets to the film screening and/or opening night party,
call (212) 631-631-1189 or emailing het_heru@hotmail.com or visit: www.imagenationfilmfestival.org.
The author is chairman of the Patrice Lumumba Coalition and hosts Afrikaleidoscope on WBAI, 99.5 FM , broadcast Thursdays from 9 pm to10 pm.
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