- Thread starter dave6
- Start date
rara music of Haiti
The shakers are definitely derivative of Indian culture. The chants sounf to be somewhat hybrid, but hear more African. Also, I seem to hear something Indian from the wind instrument used. Rara is similar to Cuban rumba, i.e., Rumba Columbia, Dominican Palo, and Puerto Rican Bomba, i.e., Cua. Nice work.
Last edited:
I get people arguing with me that Haitian music has no other influence from other cultures its just " Haitian" or "creole" creole means its a mixed culture but I have given up arguing with these types. I am glad you can see all of the influences within it. someone from Trinidad told me that rara reminds them of soca music.
thanks for watching i am glad you like it.
Kompa guitar lines sound similar to Soukous from Africa. I dig Kompa. Will have to check out some Rara.
thanks man. Its great i have a reason to use all of this footage i built up over the years
right they always send this hypnotic rally war like cry through out the city. they never get old.
Its interesting you mention that. one time while in the Boston mass i was listening to the radio and came across a african radio station and i loved the music coming through it was a long guitar solo and break section of the song and i was convinced i was listening to Kompa and then the vocals came in and I was shocked it was african.
i really enjoy many forms of african music especially the rock influenced stuff from places like senegal and south africa.
Well konpa is older than soukous, and africans have adopted and adapted various sounds from the americas....including from Haiti.
I don't think anyone is arguing that there are no foreign influences in Haitian music.
It is this insistence on assigning things to indians that we have a problem with.
For all Haitian cultural intent and purposes, these natives never existed.
You are equating use of a musical tool that may have been adapted from a native tool as musical influence.
We Haitians had no knowledge of Arawak rythms and sounds, so there was no arawak influence to be absorbed.
1. "Percussion instruments, especially drums, existed as long ago as the Stone Age.
Maracas may have originated among several ancient civilizations at almost the
same time. African tribes are known to have played drums and a wide variety of
rattles and similar instruments from the traditions that have been carried down
through the ages. South Pacific Islanders also developed a wide range of rattles
by using plants that produced gourd-like seed pods; rattles without handles were
even made from coconuts that had been dried out. In South America, maracas
linked music and magic because witch doctors used maracas as symbols of
supernatural beings; the gourds represented the heads of the spirits, and the
witch doctor shook the gourds to summon them.
Just as maracas are
essential to today's Latin and South American ensembles, the history of the
maracas is best traced through the artwork of pre-Columbian Indians, especially
the tribes in Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, and Paraguay. The word maraca is
believed to have been given to the instrument by the Araucanian people of
central Chile. It is used for all gourd rattles although some also have more
specific names. In the region of West Africa along the Atlantic Ocean called
Guinea, native people tell the legend of a goddess making a maraca by sealing
white pebbles in a calabash, a hard gourd that is also shaped into cooking
utensils. Natives of the Congo in Africa and the Hopi Indians in America share
the tradition of using turtle shells and baskets for rattles; when settlers
brought European goods to America, native Americans collected empty shell
cartridges, metal spice boxes, and cans to make rattles."
2. "There are various opposing positions on the origin of the
g?ira (a percussion instrument that is played by rasping a rod against the
rough surface of the instrument). For some researchers, it was used by
aborigines under the name "guajey". Others maintain that it is a
Dominican or Puerto Rican creation."
Haitians also adopted from influences from Dominican Merengue, especially regarding Kompa music. Whatever Taino influences were probably introduced via the DR. Also, don't forget that until the beginning of the 20th Century, much of what today is the Centre department was Dominican territory and while sparsely populated, it still had a Dominican population; a number of whom probably didn't moved further east when the border jumped over them.
The g?ira has been documented as a Taino instrument; not just in the DR, but also in Puerto Rico and even in Cuba. In Puerto Rico they still use the original version of the g?ira in some of their folk music, unlike what happens in Dominican music with the widespread use of the industrialized g?ira.
The g?ira has been documented as a Taino instrument; not just in the DR, but also in Puerto Rico and even in Cuba. In Puerto Rico they still use the original version of the g?ira in some of their folk music, unlike what happens in Dominican music with the widespread use of the industrialized g?ira.
There is NO TAINO influence in anything Haitian.
The central region has contributed practically nothing...it is considered a cultural wasteland.
Haitian music is a very simple combination of west and central african and northwestern france components. (Contre danse, Meringue, Cadence, Konpa Direk, Cadence Konpa)
Vaudou inspired ( vaudou, rara, rasin, vaudou rock)
Some latin influence from Cuba on the music front. (Twoubadou)
And lastly american influences. (MiniJazz Konpa) (Vaudou Rock)
The Arawaks left no culture or music for Haitians to absorb.
No one is saying that the Haitians were directly influenced by the Tainos, that is practically common knowledge since the whole island was under Spanish rule for practically 200 years before the French landed on Tortuga island. Plus, the encroachment of the French on the western fringes of the main island started after Governor Ovando had ordered the depopulation of the entire western and northern part of the island, moving practically the entire population within easy reach of Santo Domingo. This is why its expected not just for Taino influence to be greater in Dominican Republic than in Haiti.
But, what I'm saying is that whatever Taino influence, as small as it may be in some aspects of Haitian culture, probably arrived via the Dominican Republic, considering that the early Kompas musicians did borrowed some aspects from Dominican merengue. Furthermore, you yourself mention that Haitian music has some Cuban influence and guess what? There's Taino influence in Cuba too.
And last but not least, some Haitians that have been genetically tested are registering Taino DNA. Yes, they are very few Haitians with this DNA, especially compared to Dominicans and especially to Puerto Ricans; and yes, the DNA is practically negligible since none thus far has registered more than 1% (the figures I've see are usually around the 0.5%). But what this points to is that the depopulation of the western end of the island, despite being successful enough to allow the French to settle there with relative ease, was not 100%. Some people probably managed to escape the reach of the officials and hid in the mountains. Another possibility are runaway slaves (even in Jamaica, where Taino DNA is non-existent in most Jamaicans tested and they, along with the Haitians, are among the more African people on this side of the Atlantic; Jamaicans that descend from the maroons that hid in the Blue Mountains are registering some traces of Taino DNA), who would had hid in the mountains and there mated with whatever number of Tainos or mestizos or whatever they found there. If DNA is present, then some cultural aspects had to survive too. Yes, the DNA appears to be absent from most Haitians and the few that have it, its barely there; but, a similar situation could had happened with the Taino cultural influence. It may be few and far between and, in fact, ambiguous, but it could be there and easily confused for something else.
My point is that while Haitian culture is overwhelmingly African, this doesn't mean its 100% African. Some Taino influence, as small as it may be, has to had survived and could possibly, due to its ambiguity within such a heavy African influenced country, be confused for African origin when it may not be African.
Hence the case of the g?ira...
There are not many Taino musical instruments used today anywhere in the Greater Antilles, but especially in Cuba-DR-PR, which is where the Taino legacy is strongest of the major islands. But, the few instruments are clearly identified, have been studied, and its beyond a reasonable doubt that they are of Taino origin. That Haiti has the g?ira as one of its musical instruments in a region where such instrument exists and is known to be of Taino origin, should be reason enough to suspect that it too is of Taino origin. Who knows, it might be the only legacy of the Tainos in Haitian culture, but its a hypothesis that can't be so easily discarded.
But, what I'm saying is that whatever Taino influence, as small as it may be in some aspects of Haitian culture, probably arrived via the Dominican Republic, considering that the early Kompas musicians did borrowed some aspects from Dominican merengue. Furthermore, you yourself mention that Haitian music has some Cuban influence and guess what? There's Taino influence in Cuba too.
And last but not least, some Haitians that have been genetically tested are registering Taino DNA. Yes, they are very few Haitians with this DNA, especially compared to Dominicans and especially to Puerto Ricans; and yes, the DNA is practically negligible since none thus far has registered more than 1% (the figures I've see are usually around the 0.5%). But what this points to is that the depopulation of the western end of the island, despite being successful enough to allow the French to settle there with relative ease, was not 100%. Some people probably managed to escape the reach of the officials and hid in the mountains. Another possibility are runaway slaves (even in Jamaica, where Taino DNA is non-existent in most Jamaicans tested and they, along with the Haitians, are among the more African people on this side of the Atlantic; Jamaicans that descend from the maroons that hid in the Blue Mountains are registering some traces of Taino DNA), who would had hid in the mountains and there mated with whatever number of Tainos or mestizos or whatever they found there. If DNA is present, then some cultural aspects had to survive too. Yes, the DNA appears to be absent from most Haitians and the few that have it, its barely there; but, a similar situation could had happened with the Taino cultural influence. It may be few and far between and, in fact, ambiguous, but it could be there and easily confused for something else.
My point is that while Haitian culture is overwhelmingly African, this doesn't mean its 100% African. Some Taino influence, as small as it may be, has to had survived and could possibly, due to its ambiguity within such a heavy African influenced country, be confused for African origin when it may not be African.
Hence the case of the g?ira...
There are not many Taino musical instruments used today anywhere in the Greater Antilles, but especially in Cuba-DR-PR, which is where the Taino legacy is strongest of the major islands. But, the few instruments are clearly identified, have been studied, and its beyond a reasonable doubt that they are of Taino origin. That Haiti has the g?ira as one of its musical instruments in a region where such instrument exists and is known to be of Taino origin, should be reason enough to suspect that it too is of Taino origin. Who knows, it might be the only legacy of the Tainos in Haitian culture, but its a hypothesis that can't be so easily discarded.
Last edited:
I hear you Nals but....
Not every style of cuban music has taino influence. There has been exchanges between French St-Domingue and Eastern Cuba for a long time. Haitians took some of their rythms to Cuba and brought some back. It was an Afro-European exchange.
A few haitians having a minute amount of Arawak gene is not the same as cultural influence. You could have a 100% negro african person...if born and raised in russia among russians would have no african cultural traits. Genes are inherited while culture is aquired.
The use of a musical instrument does not equate musical influence. let's say some haitians found a form of an Arawak instrument laying around and started using it.....they would be attempting to resonate their own culture's rythms...since they have absolutely ZERO knowledge of or exposure to the Arawak's music/culture.
We have way more Haitians with Polish and Arabic ancestry than Arawak, yet you see the almost nil cultural influence of these two living cultures.
To talk of Arawak influences on anything Haitian (from a people/culture who disapeared before the start of our history as haitians) is stretching it beyond reason.
I was probably one of the biggest defender of that belief based on what was written in the history books. It didn't made sense for Haitians to even have a trace of Taino DNA, but some apparently do have such trace and if its there in the blood, something from its culture had to survive.
I think its best to keep an open mind regarding these things, especially now that certain findings are putting established "truths" on the revision phase. That's all I'm saying.
Nothing wrong with keeping an open mind.
I have always believed that one would find some Arawak genes among haitians especially in the last areas to be settled...the deep south. It is reported that the Ciboneys were pushed to western hispaniola and eastern cuba by the tainos.
It is the cultural part that is nonexistant...either because of their small number...or the extremely primitive stage of their culture which was no match for the european and african onslaught.