By Mel Cooke, Freelance WriterWESTERN BUREAU:
A DRUM that was placed front and centre at the Neville Hall Lecture Theatre on Friday afternoon stood unattended to for most of Arthur Newland's presentation.
Its central role to the graduate student's presentation on 'Re-Sounding The Haitian Revolution in an Age of Science and Technology: From Bois Cayman to Boukman Exksperyans' was made clear near the end, when Mr. Newland explained that it was a voodoo drum, called a segun.
"It have a license. It have the name of the drum-maker, the province and so on," he said.
He then answered his own question as to what technology, what means of communication Boukman Dutty would have used in sparking the Haitian Revolution. "This would have been one of the primary technological tools. The other was the abeng," he said.
Mr. Newland's talk connected the Bois Cayman, a gathering convened by Maroon chief and Voudun high priest Boukman, who lived in Jamaica, in Haiti on August 14, 1791, with the Haitian group Boukman Eksperyans. He illustrated by word and image how the band of musicians had continued the work of the man whose name they bear.
And the connection from Jamaica was still maintained, as Newland related that in an interview with Dermott Hussey, members of the Boukman Eksperyans had said they were inspired to do for Haiti what Bob Marley had done for Jamaica.
Just as how the Bois Cayman was the core of the Haitian Revolution's beginnings, Boukman Eksperyans' music has sparked real change in Haiti on more than one occasion. One was in 1986, when the Haitian people were rising up against the last remnants of 'Baby Doc' Duvalier's regime. The other was in 1991, when Boukman Eksperyans' song that "my heart will not bleed" was the rallying cry of thousands of protesters.
DRUMS
The connection with the drums was also made, as Newland introduced the group to the persons gathered inside the lecture hall with the 'groundation style' song Give Glory to God (as translated from the Haitian language the language they record in). And, keeping the Jamaican connection as always, the group has recorded in Jamaica, at Tuff Gong studios.
Using the technology of a laptop and projector, Newland showed an artist's recreation of the Bois Cayman of August 14, 1791, then leaped 213 years today to show a news clip from January this year, with the leader of the Boukman Eksperyans in the forefront of a mass protest against current Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
"It is a part of the resounding," Newland said of the image of the Bois Cayman, which comes from the website of a US based university, stating that many such images of historical Haiti are posted on the Internet.
And, just like over two centuries ago, Newland said, "Haiti remains in the hotseat of contention with the Euro-American hegemonic power, with the rest of its neighbours unable to stand with it, isolated because the rest of us are too complacent, unwilling to risk those crumbs of privilege from the table that Haiti does not benefit from".
However, as Haiti tries to help itself, "213 years later the name Boukman reverberates with significance, to offer hope, to offer strength, to offer courage".
Noting that "we need to recreate the magic, the ability to bring about unity - solid unity" which Boukman Dutty used to mould over 100 ethnicities into an unstoppable force, Newland said what took place was the Haitians utilised the spiritual technology of the most advanced of their society. "They drew on their place," he said.
Newland also showed a clip from the movie Sankofa, which features Mutabaruka. As the audience looked at the image of a pregnant woman being lashed to death he commented: "Anyone who stan' up agains' the system must be punished - just like Haiti".
But "we no have dem guns, we no have dem bombs, we no have dem ships, but we have ourselves".
