RFI Musique: You weren’t in Haiti on 12 January, as you were touring Guadeloupe. What was your experience of the earthquake from afar?
Bélo: I’d left for a week to play in Guadeloupe and Martinique, in early January. Since then, I haven’t been back home. In the first four days, I couldn’t get in contact with Haiti from where I was. So it was very tough to be hearing snatches of news and seeing images on TV. I live in  Pétionville, one of the neighbourhoods that was worst hit. I was afraid for my family, but fortunately they’re OK. A lot of people thought I was dead. My brother received a lot of messages of condolence, and had to announce on the radio that I was safe and sound, on tour outside Haiti. In fact, since December 2008 we worked a lot at the Montana, a beautiful hotel in Port-au-Prince. Every Thursday we ran the Comet Lounge, where Haitian artists could come and perform for free. So I was often there to meet artists and for meetings. The hotel completely collapsed, there’s nothing left. People thought I was underneath the rubble.

Since 12 January, you’ve preformed in around 20 concerts to support the victims…
Yes, for the moment I think I can be more useful outside Haiti than inside. I’m not a carpenter, I’m a musician! So I’m trying to raise funds for my country. But in Haiti… everything I did there was destroyed by the earthquake. I had just built a studio in my home for artists to record in, but there’s nothing left now. The evenings we’d organised at the Montana are all cancelled, but the Havana, a café where musicians played until the early hours of the morning after the Comet Lounge, reopened for business last week. We have to rebuild our society. And music can play its part. In Haiti, music accompanies everything. We work to music, we love to music, and traditionally we die to music. Artists like Mikaël Benjamin are playing in the refugee camps. My track Ayiti Lévè [arise Haiti] gives people strength. Haitians need water, medicine and hope. We’re all traumatised by what has happened.

What have the events taught you about your country?
People have remained level-headed. Haitians are very resilient, they hang on to life. They found survivors in the ruins seven days after the earthquake. Today, Haitians are mourning their dead, but tomorrow, they will start again, building new foundations to their society, I’m sure of it. The quake affected all levels of society: the rich, the poor, members of government, employees, Port-au-Prince, the countryside. And everyone, without discrimination, was helped afterwards. This solidarity is something that we’d lost, and something that also shook the world. For me, it’s a new start, as if Haiti had suddenly woken up. Nothing will ever be the same again. We have to rebuild Port-au-Prince, but we also have to decentralise the country. Before the earthquake, absolutely everything, from dentists down to every single administrative function, was centred on Port-au-Prince.

After the earthquake, the whole world came out in support of Haiti, notably several African countries. What are your thoughts on this show of solidarity?
Frankly, it didn’t surprise me. Haiti is the backyard of Africa. The first time I went to Africa, on a visit to Cameroon, I knew I was home. And when I went to Benin, for the first time, someone said to me: “All the world’s black people are our cousins, but the Haitians are our little brothers.” That’s powerful! In Haiti, we use a lot of expressions that come from Africa. For example, a brave man is a "Nèg Dahomey" [black man from Dahomey, a great empire in Benin], a voodoo practitioner will say “I’m a real Guinean”, meaning “I practise the pure, original voodoo.” Africa is there, part of us.

What are your future projects?
I’m staying in France for six months, in residence at the Cité des Arts in Paris. It wasn’t planned at all. I’d started work on my third album in Haiti, but I lost everything. I had to start from scratch, adapt to the situation. My musicians have stayed in Haiti; they all have important responsibilities and families to look after. So I had to start a new group to work on the album. But I don’t usually spend lengthy periods away from home; I hope to get back there as quickly as possible.