Boukman Eksperyans

Boukman Eksperyans announce their radicalism in their name, an allusion to Boukman the slave who initiated the island's 1804 independence uprising. Always aware that freedom and culture go hand in hand, this ten-member band sing in the sporadically outlawed creole tongue and blend African religious motifs and street slang into a wild, syncretic celebration of Haitian voodoo culture. To sing out so boldly in Haiti, however, is to invite repression; although the band's "Wet Chenn" (Remove the Chains) won first place in a 1989 musical contest, their 1992 entry was banned. In an e...