Barson, Benjamin
(2017)
"Return to My Native Land"
Vodou Jazz in Post-Occupation Haiti.
Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
This is the latest version of this item.
Abstract
The United States marines occupied Haiti from 1915 - 1934. During the occupation, US marines helped introduce and popularize jazz music to Haitian youth. By the 1930s, several Haitian jazz groups took root, often intermixing the imported American form with folkloric garb, songs deriving from the vodou cultures, and gestures to the anti-occupation indigénisme movement. In Caribbean countries (not unlike the United States), music often assumes what Gérard Béhauge has called “counterhegemonic strategies toward the elimination of political and economic subordination.” Despite the music’s arrival from United States armed forces, young Haitians identified the music as their own, and simultaneously as an expression of an African diasporic consciousness. Some even contrasted jazz to things foreign: One popular group, Jazz de Jeunes, asserted that “Jazz des Jeunes is the Haitian people’s treasured child. Their pride, their dignity, is to eat their own food. Living from their Garden, they love being ancient. By extolling the foreign, you betray only yourself.” This paper illuminates how these meanings of jazz took root for young Haitians in the interwar period, and the political valences of negritude and indigénisme that it became associated with. In doing so, it illustrates larger intra-national trends regarding the communicative and organizing powers of Black Atlantic music.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
14 June 2017 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
14 April 2017 |
| Approval Date: |
14 June 2017 |
| Submission Date: |
14 April 2017 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
105 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Music |
| Degree: |
MA - Master of Arts |
| Thesis Type: |
Master's Thesis |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Jazz, Music, Haiti, Vodou, Marines, Cuba, Danzon |
| Date Deposited: |
14 Jun 2017 14:25 |
| Last Modified: |
14 Jun 2017 14:25 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/32063 |
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"Return to My Native Land"
Vodou Jazz in Post-Occupation Haiti. (deposited 14 Jun 2017 14:25)
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