How gang violence has impacted local musicians in Haiti

For months now, violent gangs have taken increasingly more control in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. Going about daily life can be a life or death decision for some people. 

While the Caribbean country has been politically fragile since before the devastating earthquake in 2010 that killed over 200,000 people, the assassination of president Jovenel Moïse combined with another earthquake just a month later sent Haiti into a state of political turmoil that has been spiralling out of control ever since. 

Ariel Henry, the acting president that replaced Moïse, has been viewed by many as illegitimate as he wasn't democratically elected. When he cut fuel subsidies last September, prices doubled. 

The turmoil has been impacting Haiti's music industry. Artists are cancelling tours, music festivals are moving out of the country and other local musicians are getting caught in the middle of the conflict. 

To tell us more on how the impact of gang violence on the music industry in Haiti, host Elamin Abdelmahmoud is joined by Miami Herald reporter Jacqueline Charles. 

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast on your favourite podcast player.

LISTEN | Today's episode on YouTube:

Elamin: We've seen armed gangs that have taken over huge parts of Haiti's capital. That means right now, going to work or just to the market can be a life or death decision for some folks, and in some cases, so can making music. Haiti's artists are constantly caught in the middle of this conflict, and sometimes that looks like cancelled shows. But for some artists, it means being kidnapped or forced to perform for a gang or held for ransom. To tell us more about what's going on, Jacqueline Charles is here. Jacqueline is an award winning journalist with the Miami Herald, and a few months back she wrote about the Haitian artist Bourik The Latalay who was arrested in Port au Prince. I think Bourik's story gets to the dilemma that some artists are facing right now in Haiti. Here's what Jaqueline had to say.

Jacqueline: So he and his co-artists, according to them, were on their way to go film a video shoot. And on their way, they were stopped by the police and they ended up getting arrested. And the allegation from the authorities was that they had ties to gangs. And where they were headed was this kidnapping lair called Village de Dieu, a huge slum, where a lot of people live. But it's also gang controlled and where victims of kidnappings are often taken by a particular gang and they're held there and the police actually have absolutely no access to it. The last time the police went in, several of them were killed. So this really raised a huge question about artists and what their roles and responsibilities are. 

But it also showed how on edge the security force was, because this was at a time when we were starting to increasingly see gangs become more powerful. I mean, this crisis that's happening this week has actually been unfolding for years, even before the assassination of the Haitian president in 2021. Now, it's hit this crescendo. 

Elamin: Bourik's story to me gets at this larger problem that we're talking about, which is the idea that Haitian police could arrest this person because they think that this person, this artist is making a choice. Some of the artists in Haiti are saying, "We don't really have a lot of choices right now." What is the dilemma that artists are facing right now?  

Jacqueline: We have to remember two things. These armed groups are made up of mostly young men. There are some women. Increasingly we're starting to see reports about that, but they're young, disaffected youth who are in these ghettos, slums, working class neighbourhoods, but they are part of the society. They're living in these communities. 

But so are the artists. They're living in these communities and they're writing about things that are unfolding, that are happening in these communities. And so what you start to see, though, is this intersection. Before this particular incident happened and became this whole public debate, we were seeing incidents where very well-known, established Haitian artists were basically being asked to go and perform inside these gang controlled neighbourhoods. And some of them started to lose fans because people are like, "They're paying them with blood money. They're paying them with money that they collected as part of the ransom." And what we started hearing from some of these artists or their promoters are, "But we didn't have a choice. You get a phone call and they tell you that you got to be here. What can you do?" 

And then the other argument is that the people who live in these communities deserve to have music too. They deserve to have entertainment. They shouldn't be held hostage by this crisis. So this is when you started to see artists going and playing and not really standing up. And in a country where the artists are so powerful and have such a powerful voice, how do you do it? So in this story about Bourik The Latalay, that was the issue that I wanted to explore. Here you have the police arrest an artist on suspicion of their gang ties. But at the same time, this was part of a larger debate and discussion about artists who have been forced to play either because somebody in their team got kidnapped or they live in these communities and literally had an invisible gun to their head and had no choice. 

Elamin: So what happens if these artists say no or speak out against these gangs?  

Jacqueline: What some of the promoters have told me is that no was not an option. And that on the other end of a phone call, you're being told where your mother is at, you're being told where your sister or wife is. They know where you live. And people do not feel like they can say no or somebody in their entourage is kidnapped and held for ransom. And sometimes they're told, "We don't want you to pay any money. But what we want is for you to come play. 

So this is not a black and white situation. Often you have some individuals who are just using their affiliation with gangs to make money. I think in the very early stages of this, that was what the debate or the criticism was. But as this crisis has deepened and has expanded, we're seeing artists now being pulled into it and being affected in different kinds of ways. 

Elamin: In your piece, you talked to music promoters as well as artists. So let's talk a little bit about the music promoters, because they're caught in the middle in a different way. I think one of them told you, "Working in the business is like walking through a ring of fire." How is that for them? How do music promoters navigate this space? 

Jacqueline: You're a music promoter, you promote a particular artist and then you get this phone call. And at the end of the day, it's up to that artist and whether or not that artist is going to perform. But sometimes, the promoter doesn't even know who the client is on the other end until the artist shows up. Because that artist may or may not live in Haiti.  They may just be on tour in the country. But promoters —  

Elamin: — know that something has been scheduled for them. They don't know where they're going.

Jacqueline: Exactly! So that's what I talked about. The difficulty is, if you are going to have a huge concert and you have to go through gang territory someplace, what do you do? There was a story that was shared with me where a particular artist was on tour and gang members who were fans stopped the bus. What do you do? Because again, no one wants to be billed as somebody who is tight with these gang members. But at the same time, you have to function. You have to survive, to eat and live in this society. So how do you find that balance and where do you find that cushion that is this arm's length?

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview produced by Amelia Eqbal