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Origin of bouyon: Dominica first

Every bouyon road leads to Roseau, in Dominica. It is there, in the late 1980s, that Dominican musicians created a new genre from their own traditions. Knowing the origin of bouyon means understanding why Bouyon Shattaz repeats one simple phrase: bouyon was born in Dominica.

A unique Dominican context

Dominica is one of the rare Caribbean islands where Creole culture, the Kwéyòl language and traditional musics like jing ping and lapo kabwit stayed so alive. This richness, far from the industry circuits, gave Roseau’s musicians raw material that nobody else had.

1988, the year of creation

In 1988, WCK fuses cadence-lypso and jing ping with the technology of the time. Bouyon is born. The French Antilles, which share Creole with Dominica, adopt the sound very fast, then all of France. But the timeline is unambiguous: the creation is Dominican.

Why the origin is an economic issue

Today, a large part of the money of bouyon, certifications, distribution, big stages, is made in France and in the French Antilles. Defending the Dominican origin of bouyon is not nostalgia: it is a question of credits, rights and revenue for the island’s creators. It is the editorial mission of Bouyon Shattaz.

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