Karayib Focus: Kassav

Two years ago, I did my #streamcaribbean #wednesdaywith Kassav on my personal IG page. For two years, I’ve been planning to write my Karayib Focus on them. For two years, I've been procrastinating because I didn’t think I had the words to do them justice. For two years, I’ve been telling myself that I should write this article before it's too late...

Kassav cofounder Jacob Desvarieux died on July 30th 2021. Since then, many messages have been flooding social media. Messages from anonymous people from all over the world, from artists of all horizons. Everybody pays tribute to him. A tribute that extends to what the members of Kassav have accomplished as cultural ambassadors of the Caribbean. A tribute that also asks a question: what to do with their legacy? This article isn’t about giving an answer. I just want to share 3 lessons I learned with Kassav.

#3 - Kassav = creating with intent

In my first special edition in French titled “Can the 21st century Zouk be an international Kréyòl pop music?”, I draw a parallel between the similar trajectories of Zouk and K-pop. I demonstrate why Kassav is really a blueprint AT ALL LEVELS. At the time, I thought marketing was the area needing upgrading. I still think so, but now I also see the paradigm of a strong, self-sustaining cultural industry to be developed on the foundation they have laid. The key to their success is to create with intent.

#2 - Kassav = art expressing self-love to express love for others 

I wasn’t born with Kassav but I grew up with them. Their discography puts words on the ordinary joys and sorrows of life, on the woes that my failing Kréyòl cannot express, on my reading of the world. Here is what I wrote in May 2019:

I’m slowly recovering from the concert for Kassav’s 40th anniversary. On May 11th 2019, I saw artists who have been punctuating the lives of every black community in the world for longer than I’ve been alive. I saw artists doing the SHOW in all humility and simplicity. 

A young woman found herself next to me during the last hour of the concert. During a few seconds of transition, she turned to me and said, "this is so beautiful, I feel like I'm in another galaxy." And I think she summed up those few hours in a daily life of shared struggles.

@kassav_official creates the synergy of a painful past and a promising future we need to build in our dark present. This band used their voice to open up the paths for us to become ourselves and assert our place in the world. Thank you. 🙏🏾🙏🏾

#1 - Kassav= being unapologetically Caribbean

There’s just one sun

There’s just one moon

And there’s also just one Kassav

(Let it be known!)

While the wind is blowing the other way

Zouk took another direction

To explode, to flood the entire world

Ni an sèl solèy

Ni an sèl lalin

É ni an sèl Kassav' osi

(Qu'on se le dise!)

Pandan van-la ja ka touné

Zouk-la pran an lòt dirèksyon

Pou èksplozé, pou inondé le monde entié

It is an anthem. A manifesto. Is it a prophecy? This song says who we are, where we come from, and where we intend to go. The world can no longer ignore us.