Latin American Centre

Main Seminar Series - 23 May 2022

HAITIAN SONIC ENGAGEMENTS IN (AND OUT OF)

BRAZIL DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC:

LISTENING TO THE (NECRO)POLITICAL AESTHETICS OF

MIGRATION THROUGH MIGRANT UTTERANCE, SONG,
AND SILENCE

Caetano Maschio Santos

[email protected]

DPhil candidate at the Faculty of Music, U. of Oxford

Clarendon & Stuart Hall Foundation Scholar at Merton College
Introduction

▪ Covid-19: Syndemic scenario for migrants and refugees (Bojorquez et al.

2021)
▪ Racism and xenophobia towards migrants (Clissold et al. 2020; Elias et al.
2021)
▪ Right-wing populism, dis/misinformation, and scientific denialism
▪ Covid-19’s “palpable cultural materiality” (Harsin 2020)
▪ Ethnographic relevance of noise, sound (and silence) in making
powerfully audible the issues at stake (Wong 2004)
Migrant utterances, silence, music, and
the (necro)political aesthetics of migration

▪ Michael Cronin ‘Translation and identity’(2006)

▪ Migrants as translated beings
▪ Translator audibility
▪ Foucault’s (1990): silence as form of oppression
▪ Philip Bohlman (2011): political aesthetics of migration
▪ Haitian popular music and power - mizik angaje, mizik sosyal
(Averill 1997, Dirksen 2020): dynamic articulations of citizenship
from below
▪ Achille Mbembe (2003): necropolitics
I. The president and
the Haitian giant
Haitian: Yes, I have question, sir [supporters repeatedly cry [“Myth!”]. Don’t
you receive the messages your sons send you?
Bolsonaro: What is your nationality?
H: I come from Haiti, but I am Blazilian [sic]. President, you must choose.
You know pretty well that [incomprehensible] fingerprints…
B: I’m sorry, I don’t understand.
H: Yes, you do, I’m speaking Blazilian [sic]. Bolsonaro, it’s over, you’re
receiving messages on your phone, all Brazilians are receiving them,
you’re receiving the messages your sons send you. You’re no longer
president [twice]. You must give up. [Supporters intervene, silencing the
Haitian]

After hearing other supporters, Bolsonaro turns back to the Haitian migrant
and says:
“Go back to your country man, go back to that den!”
Brazil’s Trending Topics
(03/17/2020)
#Bolsonaroacabou
(Bolsonaro, it’s over)

#Vocênãoépresidentemais
(You’re no longer president)

#Somostodosohaitiano
(We’re all the Haitian)
‟The Haitian giant…” © Alisson Afonso
‟The Haitian giant…” © Alisson Afonso
II. Transforming migrant utterances into
sonic protest: panelaços and musical
re-mixes
 Brazilian cities record pot-banging
against Bolsonaro 15 days in a row
https://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2020/0
3/31/cidades-brasileiras-registram-panelaco-
contra-bolsonaro-pelo-15o-dia-
seguido.ghtml

Social movements call new

pot-banging with the motto
“It’s over Bolsonaro”
https://www.estadao.com.br/polit
ica/movimentos-sociais-
convocam-novo-panelaco-com-
mote-acabou-bolsonaro/
‘It's over Bolsonaro
Pot-banging for the defence of life
For the defence of SUS’

People without fear & Popular Brazil

Front
III. Pandemic crossroads of silence
and mobility: the necropolitics of the
Haitian exodus from Brazil to the US
Migrants & refugees in Brazil during
Covid-19
▪ Economic recession: devaluation of
the Brazilian Real (BRL), soaring
inflation, increased cost of living,
unemployment
▪ Barriers in accessing healthcare: lack
of appropriate information, language
barriers.
▪ ‘Statistical invisibility’ (Bersani et al.
2020) – Statistical silence
▪ Racism and xenophobia in the public
health system (Branco 2020)
Crossroads (Kalfou/Kafou)

▪ Iconic place within Vodou cosmology,

the domain of Papa Legba.

▪ A place of decision making, collision,

but also a vantage point (Lipsitz 1997).

A Kalfou vèvè (ritualistic drawing

of the Vodou religion).
 If we had to choose one motto amongst those that
modulate Haitian lives, it would be the following: don’t be
still, keep moving in the search of a better life (chache lavi
miyò). In Haitian landscapes, to be stuck, restrained from
movement, is synonymous with the absence of life, as in the
extreme cases of enslaved people in plantations or those
dead by magic, what forbids the deceased’s soul of
continuing its voyage to Ginen [Africa] or to paradise.
(Handerson and Neiburg 2020: 475)
Pran wout la: Haitian
mobility in the Americas
during the pandemic

▪ Terrestrial route used by Haitians leaving South

American countries (Brazil, Chile) since 2016
(Montinard 2020)
▪ Trump’s defeat + misinformation + Bolsonaro's
inconsequential handling during the
pandemic = surge in the Haitian exodus
towards the USA
▪ Pran wout la: a way of being and becoming
among Haitian diasporic subjects centred on
the pervasiveness of the constant movement
of searching for life (Montinard 2020)
Geographic crossroads: Haitians stranded at the
Integration bridge (Brazilian-Peruvian) border during
February 2021 (credit: Alexandre Noronha)
 The Darién
Gap

Haitians crossing the Darién

Gap in 2021 (AP/Fernando
Vergara & Arnulfo Franco)
Undocumented migrant traffic through the Darién Gap
(Source: Panamá Migración - https://www.migracion.gob.pa)

Haitians
2016 = 16,742
2017 = 40
2018 = 420
2019 = 10,490

2020 = 6, 653

2021 = 101,072
 Del Rio bridge encampment

▪ Circa 15,000 Haitians

▪ Texas/Mexico border

Adrees Latif/ Reuters

Julio Cortez / AP
 The Del Rio encampment began
as a site of hope. […] But as more
families gathered and the
processing lines became longer,
the truth emerged:
the U.S. government had trapped
Haitian migrants in an
encampment. The “processing”
most of them were awaiting was
for summary mass expulsion to
Haiti.

RFK / HBA report

Pandemic populist
regimes of mobility

▪ Trump – Title 42 – 1944 Public Health Act

▪ Continued use by the Biden administration
until last May 11 to deal with the augmented
flux of migrants
▪ More than 20k Haitians deported between
2021-22
▪ Necropolitics: spatial relations of colonial
heritage, the production of boundaries,
enclaves, zones, and the "right" bodies to fill
them
 The silence of death

King Kong Lion (Jeffrey Verilus,

in memorian)

&

Mal Adi (currently in

Delaware)

Photo: Facebook
‘search for a better life is invariably articulated to the
virtuality of death.’ (Handerson and Neiburg 2020: 475)

‘sometimes, when you search for life, you find death.’

(Beckett 2018: 69)
Grief and protest through music
composition
▪ Alix Georges
▪ 43, born in Marchand Dessalines
▪ Lived in Porto Alegre, RS, since 2006, now
resides in Montréal
▪ A computer engineer by formation, in Brazil
he worked in different areas, including as a
French teacher, DJ, performing artist,
translator.
▪ Many of his compositions dialogue with the
Haitian concepts of mizik angaje or mizik
sosyal, performing a critical view of Haitian
migration, politics, and history

(Photo: Fabio Winter)

 Qu’allez-vous faire? (Alix Georges)

L'immigration clandestine qui détruit nos familles Si la coopération est bilatérale

Les Africains qui fuient de la famine Pourquoi le traitement unilatéral
Pendant q'uils pillent les richesses qui sont dans nos pays Géopolitique internationnalle qui favorise l'homme
Pendant que nos dirigeants gapilles occidental
La jeunesse africaine se despère Dans nos pays ils sont tous bien traités comme des touristes
À la conquête de ses rêve Dans les leurs ont est tous maltraités par le racisme,
Beaucoup se noyent dans la mer xénophobie
Dans la régions de Sahel Persécutés par la police quelle injustice! immigration
Abandonnés dans le desert
Réfrain Salaam Aleikum
Aleikum Salaam
Négedef Maifi
Messieurs le président, le gouverneur
Qu'allez-vous faire? Mes sentiments de solidarité à la jeunesse haïtienne-
La jeunesse africaine se desespère africaine
Qu'allez-vous faire? À ceux qui se trouve au coeur de la région de la région de
Beaucoup d'entre eux sont abandonnés dans le desert Sahel
Qu'allez-vous faire? Abandonnés par les dirigeants africains au milieu du
Pour ceux qui risquent leur vie dans la mer desert
Qu'allez-vous faire? Leur vies dependent des sentinelles
Pour Les vies risquées dans la de Darien À la recherche d'un rêve, le rêve occidental
Qu'allez-vous faire? Courage mon frère courage ma soeur, je suis toi dans
Qu'allez-vous faire pour nos mères? cette lute
Qu'allez-vous faire pour nos père?
Qu'allez-vous faire pour nos soeurs?
Qu'allez-vous faire pour nos frère?
Qu'allez-vous faire?
The music of survival
▪ Wedler Celestin (A.K.A. B-Wade)
▪ 35, Born in Saint-Louis-du-Sud
▪ Lived in Chile before coming to Brazil in
2018, currently in Boston, MA
▪ Lived and worked as a factory worker
in Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul
▪ Self-styled as pastè rap la (‘rap’s
preacher’), his compositions are
notorious for addressing social issues
concerning Haitian affairs, in the spirit
of mizik angaje and mizik sosyal

It's a song that speaks about the

journey Haitians undertake, that speaks
about the difficulties and bad people
they meet on the way to get to the USA.
That I personally lived in my experience
along the way. It inspired me this song.

WhatsApp message, February 10, 2022 (Photo: Juliano Possebon)

Nou se ewo (We are heroes) – B-Wade
Si lakay te bon If home was good
Nou pa tap riske pou yon vi meyè We wouldn't risk for a better life
Si lakay te miyò If home was better
Nou pa tap riske poun fè rèv nou reyèl We wouldn't risk to fulfil our dreams
Si lakay te ankadre If home was organised
Nou pa ta pral imilye We wouldn't be humiliated
Si lakay te striktire If home was structured
Nou pa tap imigre We wouldn't immigrate

Chorus: Chorus:
Ayisyen frèm yo! Nou se ewo! Haitians my brothers! We are heroes!
Pou mizè nou pase We go through misery
Pou kafou nou janbe poun rive We pass through crossroads to arrive
Ayisyen frèm yo! Nou se ewo! Haitians my brothers! We're heroes!
Nou janbe dlo! Janbe janbe lanmè We cross the waters! Cross (2x) the sea
Nou pase mizè! Domi nan forè! We go through misery! Sleep in the forest!

Gen nan yo k’tonbe Some fall

Gen nan yo rivyè pote ale Some the river takes
Gen nan yo trepase Some die
Dlo yo fini swaf yo pa pase Water ends, their thirst never fades

Gen timoun yo vyole Children they violate

Gason kou fanm nèg yo kouche Men and women, they rape
Genyen ki fin rive Some at last arrive
Yo depòte yo And they deport them
 Final remarks

▪ Haitians in Brazil: precarious living

conditions, racism, blue collar
jobs - social invisibility/inaudibility
▪ Migrant utterances and their sonic
transformations by Brazilian society:
panelaços and remixing
▪ Manifold silences: statistical,
communicational, strategic,
biopolitical
▪ Necropolitics/necropower
(Mbembe 2003) in the shaping of
different regimes of mobility (Glick-
Schiller & Salazar 2013)
▪ B-Wade & Alix’s songs: music as
resistance to silence the political
Street art in Porto Alegre with the Haitian giant's utterances and Bolsonaro aesthetics of migration
(sloppily) wearing a mask (or hiding his face)
(Photo by the author)
References

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Audebert, Cedric. The recent geodynamics of Haitian migration in the Americas: refugees or economic migrants? Revista brasileira de estudos
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Bersani, Ana Elisa; Pereira, Alexandre Branco; Castelli, Andressa. (2020, July 8). A saúde de migrantes e refugiados no contexto da pandemia do
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Thank you/Gracias/Mèsi/Obrigado