Montreal hip-hop band talks disaster relief

While waiting to conduct an interview with TVA News, members of Nomadic Massive hang out. PHOTO RILEY SPARKS
Montreal hip-hop band talks disaster relief
Nomadic Massive is holding a concert for Haiti, but worries about what will come next

by Stefan Christoff

As world attention turns to Haiti in the wake of the massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince, hip-hop ensemble Nomadic Massive has come into focus for many in Montreal searching for a cultural expression of solidarity with the victims.

Montreal is home to the largest Haitian diaspora population in Canada. A city-wide wave of artistic solidarity with Haiti was launched in the hours after the quake hit; hundreds of artists and cultural workers have taken to stages and to the airwaves appealing for people to extend support towards relief work.

Among them was celebrated Montreal hip-hop ensemble Nomadic Massive, who launched Artists for Haiti, aiming to extend the current outpouring of support for Haiti towards long term solidarity projects lead by artists focused on the island nation.

“We need planned and structured long term solidarity projects, not just immediate aid,” said Vox Sambou, a vocalist in Nomadic Massive. “Continuity is key, as hundreds of thousands of Haitians are being moved around Haiti, from the capital to smaller cities. Often the places that people are going to don’t have proper infrastructure to tend to [their] needs.”

As a progressive hip-hop ensemble, Nomadic Massive has long extended support towards grassroots community-based projects in Haiti and the burgeoning hip-hop scene in that country. Members from Nomadic Massive with roots there organized a trip to the island nation last year. They held a concert in Port-au-Prince and distributed their music by hand across the country.

In Limbé, Sambou’s hometown, the Jean-Baptiste Cinéas High School has been a concrete local project that Nomadic Massive has focused on. Offering tangible and direct support, choosing to lend solidarity to a community-based education project rather than towards large international aid organizations, the group helped the school get new chairs and desks.
“[The high school has] approximately 2,000 students, boys and girls and 100 staff but no funding, no library, no cafeteria, no computer labs, no court to play in,” said Sambou.
In the shadow of the current crisis Nomadic Massive is again working to lend its support towards the high school. Their concert at La Sala Rossa on Feb. 1 will go to benefit the high school.

As Haiti’s government ministries have largely been reduced to rubble, schools outside the capital will see little or no state funds in upcoming months. The public infrastructure in Haiti was already seriously weakened in recent years by a Canadian-backed military coup in 2004 against left-leaning, populist then-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the first democratically elected leader of Haiti.

“The coup undermined all public institutions in the country, weakening the government and the ability of public institutions ability to respond to the recent catastrophe,” said Yves Engler, author of The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy.

“The destruction of the government-subsidized bus company was carried out by the Canadian-backed paramilitaries in the wake of the coup in 2004 and the UN military forces occupied the only medical school in Haiti, reducing the number of trained doctors in the country,” continued Engler.

Beyond the charity that has poured in across Canada, serious questions as to how Haiti will rebuild after the quake remain—often absent from mainstream media coverage. International politicians converge this week for the first major international reconstruction conference—not in Haiti, but in Montreal.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, French Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive met in Montreal Monday to map out a reconstruction plan with representatives from major corporations.

“It is great to see all the support that people have been giving to Haiti, it is as if the earthquake touched a sensitive nerve across the world,” continued Sambou.
“But the people in Haiti are suffering and not involved in the conference in Montreal,” Sambou pointed out. “We have to stay vigilant to keep the focus on supporting the people in Haiti [...]. Haitians must be in control of their own destiny.”

Artists for Haiti will be holding a benefit concert at La Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent Blvd.) on Feb. 1. Nomadic Massive will attend.