Kompa

Kompa – Overview

A Haitian social dance and music genre, read through diaspora settlement, tourism, and debates over popular music.

3 min read

Kompa: Etymology and Naming

Homonymy, diaspora geography, and the limits of the onomastic record

5 min read

Haitian Méringue Roots

How an African-rooted rhythm became the structural foundation of Haitian music

3 min read

Nemours Jean‑Baptiste and the 1950s: Foundations of Compas

How a Port‑au‑Prince bandleader turned méringue into Haiti's defining dance music

3 min read

Kompa Instrumentation and the Groove

Electric guitars, saxophones, and brass over a structured pulse in Haiti's modernized méringue

3 min read

Coupé Cloué: The King of Konpa Manba

The footballer turned guitarist who gave Haitian konpa a guitar-driven voice

3 min read

Nemours Jean Baptiste

The Haitian saxophonist who fashioned kompa from méringue, jazz, and Latin currents in the 1950s

4 min read

Skah Shah: Konpa of the Diaspora

The New York band that became a reference point for Haitian dance music

4 min read

Sweet Micky: The New Generation of Konpa

Michel Martelly's synth-driven konpa made him a superstar — and later Haiti's president

1 min read

Tabou Combo

Haitian konpa orchestra and self-styled "ambassadors of konpa"

3 min read

Webert Sicot

Haitian saxophonist, co-architect of compas, and pioneer of cadence rampa (1930–1985)

3 min read

Kompa and Haitian Identity in the Diaspora

How Haiti's national dance music travels with its diaspora as a marker of belonging

3 min read

Konpa and Haitian Identity

Haiti's national music — a unifier at home and across the diaspora, now UNESCO-recognized

4 min read

Kompa Zouk and the French Antilles

How Haitian compas was remade into zouk in Martinique and Guadeloupe

3 min read

Kompa: Common Misconceptions

Disambiguating a much-confused name across the Caribbean, West Java, and the diaspora

4 min read

Kompa

A glossary entry disambiguating the term's documented senses

4 min read

Bibliography and Sources

3 min read