Overview:
For a second yr in a row, rara parades in Léogâne are formally banned as a consequence of insecurity. Nonetheless, bands proceed performing, maintaining alive the centuries-old Haitian custom rooted in Vodou, music ardour, resistance and communal identification, at the same time as gang violence threatens the nation’s socio-cultural life.
LÉOGÂNE, Haiti — For the second consecutive yr, authorities in Léogâne banned rara parades amid Haiti’s worsening safety disaster. However throughout this joyous coastal city, lengthy thought of the guts of rara, the music has not stopped.
As a part of carnival season, bands proceed to march, drums echo all through the city’s neighborhoods and crowds collect forward of Easter — in defiance of each concern and official restrictions to take care of certainly one of Haiti’s most enduring cultural traditions.
“We come out to have a good time as a result of we can’t let our custom disappear,” mentioned Raynold Laurent, a member of the ‘Ti Malice Kache’ band, named after a well-liked folks character.
“Rara is a part of our identification and our tradition — important to who we’re as folks,” Laurent added.
Greater than the music style it’s named after, rara is rooted in Vodou traditions and formed by Haiti’s African, Taíno and European influences. Carried out yearly throughout the nation between Lent and Easter, rara season kicks off with illumination, a lighting vigil honoring ancestors and spirits typically held at cemeteries, crossroads, waterfalls and different sacred websites.
Mixing music, spirituality and group life, rara processions function handcarved wood devices, resembling bamboo horns, drums and chachas, and steel trumpets and percussion up entrance. Name-and-response chants led by sambas — band leaders who compose and direct performances, guarantee revelers from all walks of life comply with as every band executes its theme and routes.
Students and cultural historians trace rara’s origins to each pre-colonial rituals and types of resistance throughout slavery, when enslaved Africans used music and procession to speak with one another and protect identification. Over time, the custom advanced right into a cornerstone of Haiti’s cultural calendar, carefully tied to carnival traditions and influencing fashionable genres like konpa.
In Léogâne, the weeks-long season had sometimes drawn tens of hundreds of holiday makers from throughout Haiti and overseas, boosting native commerce and tourism.
“Léogâne is the capital of rara,” mentioned Jean Carlo Désilus of the Léogâne Rara Union, an affiliation of native bands.
“This music is our cultural emblem,” he mentioned throughout a March 24 procession, explaining the choice to carry the festivities regardless of the ban. “The authorities should restore safety to protect this cultural.”
Concern of violence meets religion in custom
In 2025, municipal authorities suspended official rara festivities, citing the unfold of gang violence. Positioned simply 21 miles from Port-au-Prince, the place gangs run almost 90 p.c of the nation’s capital, Léogâne officers feared the violence would possibly attain them. They cited the repeated assaults on Gressier, a neighboring city lower than 10 miles from Léogâne, in banning the celebrations.
This yr, the officers maintained the ban. Armed teams have expanded past Port-au-Prince into surrounding cities — attacking communities, controlling roads and limiting motion. Areas as soon as thought of comparatively secure now face rising threats.
“This choice is about prevention and defending lives,” Mayor Ernson Henry mentioned.
Regardless of the restrictions, rara bands selected to proceed their actions — first with the normal illumination ceremony on Feb. 19, then with intermittent parades by Easter.
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Younger males watch the Rossignol Noir band’s colonel, Marvens Saint-Bot, lead the band by the streets of Léogâne on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Photograph credit score: Donj Michel -
Residents flood the streets of Léogâne as they’re carried away by the rhythms and festive ambiance. La Fleur de Rose band, Sunday, March 22, 2026. Photograph by Daniella Saint-Louis for The Haitian Instances. -
Rara followers management visitors on the Darbonne highway close to downtown Léogâne, Sunday, March 22, 2026. Photograph by Daniella Saint-Louis for The Haitian Instances -
Followers of “La Fleur de Rose” march alongside the highway from Darbonne to downtown Léogâne to assemble on the “Mande Granmoun” band’s base on Sunday, March 22, 2026. Photograph by Daniella Saint-Louis for The Haitian Instances. -
Led by the Rossignol Noir band, a crowd parades down the streets of Léogâne by way of the Darbonne Street on Sunday, March 22, 2026. Photograph by Daniella Saint-Louis for The Haitian Instances -
Rossignol Noir’s musicians parade the streets of Léogâne, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Photograph credit score: Donj Michel
On weekends, the teams — many with colourful names like “Ti Malice Kache” and “La Fleur de Rose” and “Mande Granmoun” — take to the streets. Over a number of hours, they draw crowds that comply with them round city, dancing and chanting to the rhythm of drums and bamboo horns.
Throughout one March procession, a whole lot moved by the streets, with distributors promoting drinks and snacks whereas hundreds of youth, kids and adults joined. For a lot of residents, the gatherings provide uncommon moments of reduction in a rustic grappling with every day violence.
“Insecurity can’t be used as a pretext to cease rara,” mentioned musician Whisky Pierre. “If gangs need to come, a ban on rara festivities gained’t cease them.”
Tradition endures in fragile ambiance
Nonetheless, the celebrations are noticeably diminished.
Residents say the absence of a number of competing bands — as soon as a trademark of rara season — has modified the ambiance.
“Usually, the entire group could be buzzing,” mentioned Johanna Lima, a resident of the Lapointe Cercey neighborhood. “Now it’s restricted.”
The dangers stay actual. In 2024 and 2025, armed teams tried incursions into Léogâne, triggering panic and, in a minimum of one case, the demise of a kid from a stray bullet.
Some bands have delayed or scaled again their actions as a consequence of security considerations and restricted assets.
For teams like Ti Malice Kache, based in 1916, rara isn’t just efficiency when instances are good. It’s legacy — a hyperlink between previous and current, spirituality and survival.
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Younger followers comply with Rossignol Noir band throughout the band’s parade within the streets of Léogâne, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Photograph credit score: Donj Michel
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Rossignol Noir, Marvens Saint-Bot leads the band’s parade by the streets of Léogâne on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Photograph credit score: Donj Michel
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A younger boy watches some La Fleur de Rose band’s drums in Léogâne earlier than the road parade on Tuesday, 24, 2026. Photograph by Daniella Saint-Louis for The Haitian Instances.
Band members recount how early musicians used improvised devices created from on a regular basis objects, constructing what would grow to be a multi-generational establishment. At this time, the group trains younger musicians and preserves conventional data.
Equally, La Fleur de Rose, based in 1895, stays one of many oldest and most iconic rara bands. Its leaders say the music helped form Haiti’s broader musical evolution, together with the event of the rasin, or roots, and konpa genres.
Because the season’s finish nears, extra teams are planning closing parades regardless of the ban, signaling a rising collective defiance. However at the same time as bands proceed to carry out, the absence of formal group — together with safety measures, phases and Easter Sunday finales — raises considerations about the way forward for the custom.
Willy Laurent, a sexagenarian and member of Ti Malice Kache, the safety disaster is an actual concern, however rara transcends all in Léogâne.
“The safety state of affairs has been an impediment for us,” Laurent informed The Haitian Instances. “Nonetheless, we’re ready to proceed making folks dance one season at a time, regardless.”