From Haiti to Columbia 3/30/2019

Beyond Borders's podcast

The studio team is joined by Guerchang Bastia a renowned artists, changemaker and political activists hailing from Hinche, Central Ayiti to talk about his music, fighting for rights in Haiti, the youth, and the opportunities to support changemaking.

Music as a cultural weapon to challenge patriarchy, colonialism, imperialism, etc is explored as well as the central role of Hinche as a center of political and popular challenge to the status quo.

Check out his music here.

2nd Hour

Beginning on March 10, thousands of people throughout southwestern Colombia took to the streets. The "Minga in Defense of Life, Territory, Democracy, Justice, and Peace" brings together people fed up with the government's empty promises and the continuation of a war that dispossesses and displaces them, as it simultaneously destroy the planet: Madre Tierra, Uma Kiwe, Mother Earth.

Over the course of three weeks, the Minga has been subjected to threats, attacks, and racist vitriol emanating from the Colombian nation-state. According to a recent statement from Pueblos en Camino: What is this Minga for? Well, it's to defend life, territory, justice, and peace for the peoples without owners. It is not a "direct action" to negotiate with an elected official currently holding office, if they are invited (and it's good to invite them). [The Minga] convenes us to understand, to rise up, to rescue our memory, to recognize a path without the state. That's right -- without the state -- because the state can't solve the problems it causes. Because the state exists to exploit and dispose of life; to destroy and exploit the territories; to commit injustices and cover them up in order to make war, which is its supreme instrument. The state is, well, the patriarchy. [...] So what does the Minga want? We want to live in peace. We want to live the good life in our territories. We want to sing and dance to the rhythms of Mother Earth. To learn more about the Minga, we are joined by Manuel Rozental, who is part of Pueblos en Camino (https://pueblosencamino.org/) and participated in previous Mingas.