Boukan Ginen (Guinen)

Updated December 31, 2012 6:41 PM

A music band from Haiti, the group Boukan Ginen or sometime spelled Guinen became serious and came together in 1990. It was started by lead vocalist Eddy Francois. Boukan means bonfire or fire pit while Ginen evolved in Haiti as the name for the ancestral home of enslaved Africans, probably originating from the country Guinea.

Eddy Francois, along with percussionist Evens Seney and guitarist Vladimir Jean-Felix all came to Boukan Ginen from the band Boukman Eksperyans. Proud of their Haitian heritage, Boukan Ginen were the winners of best carnival song at Haitian Carnival in 1991, for the song Pale Pale. They ushered in the presidency of Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a huge change for the country as a whole with a song which was later released on their debut album, Jou a Rive. The song title means "talk" and included lyrics widely interpreted as supporting the presidency of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The group Boukan Ginen was radical and liberal and was suppressed by the military authority of the junta led by Raoul Cédras that ruled the country from 1991 to 1994.

In 1994, Boukan Ginen became the third Haïtian musical group to receive the Prix Découverte from Radio France International.

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