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The Haitian music icon and politician would have celebrated his 76th birthday on April 14, 2024.
Joseph Emmanuel Charlemagne known as Manno Charlemagne was born on April 14, 1948 in Carrefour, on the southern outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Carrefour is the town in which he grew up but also the town where he died on December 10, 2017 at the age of 69.
Born to an absent father and an expatriate mother in Florida, he was raised in Haiti by an aunt. During his childhood, he sang in the Catholic Church choir, but he also enjoyed listening to the music of voodoo ceremonies near his home.
At the age of 15, he was arrested and tortured by the Tonton Macoutes, a militia serving the dictatorship led by Duvalier, who terrorized the population with alleged magical powers.
Through his songs, this artist depicted the living conditions of the working classes, unequal social relations, bad governance and international interference.
His musical career took off under the dictatorship of Jean Claude Duvalier, with the release of the disc entitled “Manno and Marco”published in 1978 with the artist Marco, they denounce the poverty and injustice in the country.
After an album recorded in 1978, Charlemagne went into exile in the United States, then in Montreal in Canada where he lived for a long time. From this period dates Mal du Pays, one of his rare songs in French.
In March 1986, in the weeks following the fall of Jean-Claude Duvalier known as Baby Doc, the last tyrant of the Duvalier dynasty, Manno Charlemagne returned to the country where he was acclaimed. He founded a choir in the form of a konbit (cooperative): “Koral Konbit Kalfou”. His most famous disciple, the singer and composer Beethova Obas, came from there.
Democratic structures attempt to establish themselves in a chaotic environment, where settling of scores multiplies. Manno Charlemagne himself was seriously injured in a shooting during a concert.
This situation inspired the title “Ayiti pa Foré”, a chronic acid of the post-Duvalier era: “If Haiti is not a jungle, why are there so many animals there?”
And Manno Charlemagne's commitment does not stop at the texts of the songs. Jean Bertrand Aristide returned to the country in 1994 (his first mandate had been cut short by a military coup) and he chose his friend Manno who became mayor of Port-au-Prince in 1995 for a four-year mandate. An experience that will leave him with a bitter taste.
Exhausted, he returned to the United States, settling in Miami where he performed on the stage of the restaurant “Le Tap Tap”, the epicenter of the cultural life of Little Haiti. He also plays at universities and records new records.
Suffering from lung cancer, and wanting to end his days in his country, his last wish which could not come true due to his death in a Miami hospital.
Manno Charlemagne is no more, but his songs are more relevant than ever.
Read also :
April 14, 1907: Birth of François Duvalier
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