Don Kato - Haiti Observer Blog

Once, President Michel Martelly with his anti-establishment voice made himself one of the country's most sought after musicians; he raised his voice against every government throughout his music career. However, during the second year of his Presidency in 2013, he was accused by some musicians like Don Kato from the band 'Brothers Posse'. Kato complained their group was not invited to perform at the Mardi Gras Carnival because some of their songs attack Martelly's administration.

In response, the President had said, there is no doubt that music has definite power to overthrow a government, but he is not bothered at all by the music of 'Brothers Posse', even at the slightest. A carnival is a party, not a platform to stage street protest. No artist has an inborn right to perform during a particular celebration. Selecting a group to perform was an administrative decision of an appointed committee.

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Did you believe that Don Kato would not take advantage of his public conflict with the Martelly government for not allowing him to take part of several Carnivals in the past, you were wrong. Did you believe that Fanmi Lavalas would be the political party he would likely run under, once again you were wrong.

Brothers Posse lead singer Antonio "Don Kato" Cheramy finally made it official. He registered his candidacy for Senator of the West Department under the Verite banner, a party created by former President Rene Preval

Now, I am totally confused. Some peoplle have been saying that the Verite party of Rene Preval is working closely with Michel Martelly. If this is the case, what is Don Kato doing there?

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Brothers Posse's lead vocalist, Don Kato, is queasy about accepting an invitation to perform at this year's carnival. In 2013 and 2014 Kato was shunned by the National Carnival (NC) committee, which had something to do with President Martelly interfering in the selection process.

The reason behind the two-year ban was Kato, along with other musicians in 2013, sang songs at carnival that were unfavorable toward the Martelly government. Martelly, although signaling he was not annoyed by the anti-government lyrics, nonetheless indulged in some double-talk during a radio interview. He made an invalid comparison between the songs' attacks on his government to the carnival theme, environmentalism. He said the critical lyrics were out of place with such a theme.
Ironically, Martelly, known as former singer Sweet Micky, himself was prone to attacking the Haitian government at carnival time.

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The Haitian president Michel Martelly has received criticism for his move to censor carnival songs from Don Kato and others.

Carnival songs have in the past been performed to denounce bad governance and moon politicians. Carnival songs have also in the past been used to predict the political future of Haiti.

Martelly is now against carnival singers who are against his own governance. In his move Martelly has banned some artists from participating in this year's carnival festival, one of which is the popular musician Don Kato.

Before being a president, Martelly was himself a carnival singer; criticizing every poor government. Now the president is being accused of contradicting himself by trying to censor artist for doing what he did in the past.

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