[Bloquez l'empire!] [Montreal Mirror] Haiti: Liberation Songs

[Stefan Christoff]

Montreal Mirror: Liberation Songs

Politics, poverty and police actions form the backdrop to
Haitian folk-singer So Ann's Montreal arrival

by Stefan Christoff

http://www.montrealmirror.com/2007/012507/news2.html

In February 2004, rebel forces in Haiti launched a successful armed campaign to 
overthrow populist President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Anti-Aristide militias, 
comprised mainly of soldiers from the disbanded Haitian army, seized power and 
a wave of violence engulfed the country. As the coup unfolded, hundreds of 
activists and members of the pro-Aristide Lavalas political party were jailed 
without charge, according to Amnesty International.

On May 9, 2004, just months after the coup, a contingent of U.S. Marines 
entered the home of Annette Auguste after midnight, arresting one of Haiti's 
most well-known folk singers, community leaders and prominent Lavalas 
supporters. Auguste, also known as So Ann ("Sister Anne" in Creole) was 
apprehended on suspicion of "possessing information that could pose a threat" 
to the U.S. troops operating in Haiti under the umbrella of the UN intern 
force.

"U.S. Marines destroyed my home, killed my dogs and abducted me in the middle 
of the night," says So Ann over the phone from Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. 
"I was locked in prison for more than two years for my political beliefs and 
the conditions were terrible-a dozen women stuffed into a prison cell for two 
people."

So Ann, a 62-year-old grandmother, was released from jail in August 2006 after 
a major international campaign for her release, backed by Amnesty 
International. Next week, So Ann, considered a Haitian folk-hero, will be 
speaking and performing at a series of events in Montreal on one of her first 
international trips after prison.

Living the message

"I was just recently released from two years of prison without trial and I am 
going to Canada to tell the people about our struggles for freedom in Haiti," 
she says. "Montreal is going to hear about what the U.S. Marines did to me, the 
situation of Haiti's political prisoners and the coup against Aristide that the 
government of Canada supported." (Canada deployed 550 troops to the Caribbean 
island.)

"These are the simple reasons why I am coming all the way to snowy Montreal, 
even with my knees aching from my time in prison," she says. "I will also be in 
Montreal to play my music which tells of the Haitian peoples' long fight for 
justice."

So Ann's latest record, "So Ann, Political Prisoner: What else can they do to 
me?" was released in 2005 by the Manhattan-based Crowing Rooster Arts. With 11 
tracks, the album showcases the voices of her 19-singer women's choir along 
with percussion, guitars and keyboards. Most impressive about the release is 
that it was officially released while So Ann was behind bars.

"So Ann lives the message she sings," says Kim Ives, a New York-based 
documentary filmmaker and long-time friend of So Ann. "Last September, after So 
Ann was released from prison, I went with her on her first return to Cité 
Soleil (an impoverished district of Port-au-Prince); once word spread that So 
Ann was in the hood, thousands upon thousands filled the streets around her 
celebrating her release from jail."

So Ann's political history in Haiti stretches back beyond the 2004 coup to the 
brutal Duvalier era of the 1970.s. During the first years of the second 
Duvalier dictatorship, under Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, So Ann fled to 
the U.S., settling in Brooklyn, where she developed a heavy reputation within 
New York's Haitian Diaspora as a democracy activist and folk singer. She wrote 
Creole protest anthems against the Duvalier regime and the subsequent military 
juntas.

"My music tells of Haiti's struggle today and the story of our history," So Ann 
says. "From our independence victory over France in 1804 to the bloody years of 
Duvalier and the coups against Aristide, our story is full of suffering but 
also a strong will to struggle."

Prisons still full

Upon returning to Haiti in 1994, So Ann became a leading organizer within 
Aristide.s Lavalas party, forging a relationship of mutual respect with the 
president while becoming a heavyweight progressive political organizer in the 
country. Upon being released from prison, So Ann's political clout among 
Haiti's poor has grown. Today, her music, which reflects on the struggles of 
Haiti's downtrodden, who live in the most impoverished country in the Western 
hemisphere, has made her more popular than ever, even as she remains committed 
to affecting change in her own country.

"[Haiti's current president and one-time Aristide ally René] Préval is not 
using the power he was granted in the last elections to release all the 
political prisoners in Haiti's jails," she says. "Until all political prisoners 
are free, Haiti is not free."

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