Sélection : HOUR - Limbé Limbo - Montreal hip-hop artist hosts benefit concert for Haitian hometown
Cette semaine, Rapforum a sélectionné pour vous le site Hour.ca de Montréal et vous présente un article de ce site rédigé par Stefan Christoff sur Vox Sambou. Limbé limbo
Stefan Christoff
Hip-hop artist Vox Sambou hosts benefit concert to buy chairs for his former school in HaitiLimbé is a small city on Haiti's northern coast, and the impoverished hometown of Montreal hip-hop artist Vox Sambou, a member of Nomadic Massive.
"As a young boy we use to play soccer in the school yard at Lycée Jean-Baptiste Cinéas in Limbé - the memory is very clear to me," says Vox Sambou, who recently received a letter from the director of the school calling for his help and solidarity.
"There are around 3,000 students who literally don't have seats at the school, which will cost around $3,000. So we are trying to raise the money here to pay for the students' seating. Without chairs, how can students sit to learn?" says Sambou.
It is this lack of basic resources and opportunity in his hometown that convinced the hip-hop artist to spearhead a local fundraising concert for the school this Friday, April 24, at La Sala Rossa. Called Sit to Learn, the concert will feature local hip-hop acts Nomadic Massive, Iraqi artist Narcicyst and members of Kalmunity Vibe Collective.
"We are trying to give back and create opportunities though education at home, to encourage real development in Limbé."
In recent decades, emigration has had a massive impact on Limbé and on Haiti in general, explains Sambou, who fled the island nation for Canada with his family in 1995. Abetted by the U.S.- and Canadian-backed coup in 2004 against the elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Limbé continues to face political turmoil and economic hardship.
"The unemployment rate is very high, and due to
general instability, anyone who has the opportunity to leave flees by boat to Mexico, Miami and Montreal." Countless thousands from the new generation leave the island nation seeking survival in other nations, often departing on dangerous boats from northern port cities such as Limbé, says Sambou.
For Sambou, it's tough to know the hardship is ongoing in his hometown, which has a storied history and played a key role in Haiti's independence struggle. Limbé was the birthplace of Haitian revolutionary leader François Mackandal, who united slaves from across the island nation against French colonials in the 1700s (he was later captured and burned alive by colonial forces only a few decades before Haiti successfully won independence from France in 1804).
"Today, Limbé is home to around 60,000 to 70,000 people and there is only one main paved road - the rest of the streets aren't paved. There are two hospitals in the city, both of which don't have X-ray machines or other serious equipment, so for advanced medical treatment people have to travel to Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second largest city."
Sit to Learn, a benefit concert for Limbé's Lycée Jean-Baptiste Cinéas, takes place Friday, April 24, at 8 :30 p.m. at La Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent). Tickets are $15. For more info, visit www.nomadicmassive.ca.