Dominica’s Cultural Icon 'Ras Mo' Dies in the United States

ROSEAU, Dominica – Dominica's government has extended condolences to the family and friends of the cultural artiste, Desmond Delmance Marcel Moses, popularly known as “Ras Mo” , who died in the United States on Friday.

Ras Mo“Ras Mo was a cultural icon and community leader who made impactful contributions to the promotion and preservation of Dominica’s art forms and traditions as a musician, poet, and storyteller,” Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit wrote on his Facebook page.

Ras Mo began hand drumming at the age of five and excelled at rhythms from the Eastern and French Creole Caribbean.  He added folk styles and stories from other islands and Africa to his performance and teaching repertoires over the years.

Ras Mo, a cultural officer, who worked at the Cultural Division here for several years,  was described as a poet, composer, singer, storyteller, teacher, and facilitator who used performing arts for violence prevention, gender and race equality, community building, and social justice.

Ras Mo toured the Caribbean, USA, Canada, and England and his songs and poems are in English and French Creole in genres spanning World music reggae, hip-hop, and Gospel

His conducted Afro Caribbean hand drumming classes at La Peña through the California Arts Council’s Artist in Residence programs teaching in the Music Department at UC Berkeley California, Community Center, worked in schools, the SF juvenile jail, the San Francisco Juvenile drug court and youth and community programs throughout the Bay area.