In recent times, musicians and song writers over the world have put their talents to serve social causes, to express political statements, to voice the plight of the repressed. And it did. Woodstock wasn't far away, neither was Jimi Hendrix' warped rendition of the U.S. national anthem, reflecting what he thought of his country then. Little did he know then that on a cold December night, the warmth of a gun would take his life. In the Caribbean, drenched in sun and music, the Jamaican reggae cum rasta phenomenon propelled Micheal Manley to power.
Few nations can boast having such a great number of creative musicians as Haiti.
Such a small country, so much talent. But one legacy of the past regimes was that political comment in songs was stifled, unless it stood for one or the other of the Duvaliers. The author-composer had been asked by the Catholic Church run Radio Soleil to write a song that could be used as identification to the station. He did, and the song became an instant hit, a rally symbol for the opposition and for the courage displayed by Radio Soleil in fighting off the Duvalier regime. Previous to that, several artists had written songs depicting social problems in Haiti, but had been seen with a bad eye by the authorities.