As we rode from Gonaives to Lakou Souvenance on the back of a pick up truck, the Artibonite Mountains emerged above us and the landscape became more high desert than tropical. We passed the kalfou or crossroads that went towards Soukri and Badjo and turned toward Souvenance as Rara bands filled the dusty road. It was March 21st, Good Friday on the Catholic calendar, and the height of Rara season. Our kamyonet which had been reaching high speeds on the bumpy gravel roads now halted to a snail's pace to maneuver through the formidable crowds that made up each Rara. The colonel with his whistle and whip kept everyone in order and flag bearers led the front. The "brides" followed wearing bright matching dresses and veils and danced grouyad -- winding their pelvises around as they lifted up their dresses to expose their hips. The musicians played their soldered metal horns called banbou and klewon, Petwo and European military drums, and various other percussive found objects, followed by a chorus of mostly female singers, followed by the rest of the crowd along for the "ride" dancing, singing, drinking Babancourt rum or kleren, or just participating in the flow of the crowd.
Rara refers to a practice, an annual festival, a season as well as individual processions or bands that move through public and private spaces. Rara appears at first to be a secular event but as Elizabeth McAlister describes in her ethnography of Rara there are more private elements that are closely bound to the African-based religion and spiritual practice in Haiti called Vodou. Rara, which could appear to be a raucous celebration and demonstration of "carnivalesque play," is a complex "public ritual."1
1 McAlister, Elizabeth. Rara! Vodou, power, and performance in Haiti and its diaspora. Berkeley & Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2002. p. 7.
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