CARNIVAL HAITI ANRAJE ET ANGAJE

An onlooker cried out, "Is he dead?" The doctor stuck his stethoscope into Lafontant's groin, grimaced, then screamed, "No, his cock is still twitching!" This grotesque image was understood by onlookers as a warning not to underestimate the latent power of Duvalierism to "screw" the country.

In this small carnival street drama, Lafontant, strikingly like the figure of the traditional carnival king, was sacrificed to the crowd and then reborn. As the actor collected his props and passed a cup for donations, the carnival brass band Ozanna streamed down from the lower class neighborhood of Bel Aire heading to City Hall playfully singing,

"Nou mande nou mande, pou nou konyen kampe, Nou mande nou mande, lavalasaman"

(We're asking to fuck standing up, but we're asking in the spirit of President Aristide's Lavalas political movement: with the persistence and power of a deluge).

Carnival in Trinidad Pic

A wide range of obscene, exuberant, inverted, and debasing political tropes were Carnival is the most important annual musical event in urban Haiti. Read More Here

Haiti Carnival bottom pic