BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Migrated podcast image for: Commonwealth Connections

World on 3

Music

Music: World

Music: Folk

Radio 3's world music programme, with new CDs and studio sessions

World on 3: Creole Choir of Cuba

Creole Choir of Cuba

19/11/2010

BBC Radio 3 - World on 3, Creole Choir of Cuba

Lopa Kothari presents the latest music from around the globe and the Creole Choir of Cuba.

Lopa Kothari presents the latest sounds from around the globe and the Creole Choir of Cuba in session. Their music tells stories of ancestors who worked in near slave conditions.

Lopa Kothari with the latest sounds from around the globe and the Creole Choir of Cuba in session.

The Creole Choir of Cuba, in the UK for their appearances at the 2010 London Jazz Festival, tell the stories of their Haitian ancestors who were brought to Cuba to work in near slave conditions in the sugar and coffee plantations, through a vibrant mix of singing and percussion.

The Choir sing in Creole, Cuba's second language, spoken by almost a million people, a pragmatic fusion of African, French and other languages. It's the language of a people twice exiled: first to Haiti from Africa through the iniquitous slave trade; then from Haiti to Cuba tricked into second slavery by their French masters after the Haitian Revolution of 1790. Other Haitians arrived in the 20th century fleeing political upheaval, poverty and oppression during the barbaric regime of Papa Doc Duvalier which held power from the 1950s to 70s, marked by reigns of terror and the brutality of his private militia, the Tonton Macoutes.

The Choir - five men and five women - decided to re-forge the resistance songs and laments of their forebears, to celebrate the history of their Haitian descendents enslaved to the Caribbean from West Africa. To the songs that had been passed down in their families since the early 19th century, they added more modern Haitian sounds.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

World on 3

Creole Choir of Cuba

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3