A slave in Haiti called Francois Makendal

By Professor Gilbert Morris:

THIS IS DESPERATELY IMPORTANT!

In my Smithsonian Lectures in 1998 - together with Professor Katya Vladimirov and Pulitzer Prize winner Professor Jeffrey Stewart, I emphasised a slave in Haiti called Francois Makendal.   At 13, he was a chemist and physician before being captured and sent to St. Domingue.

He was Muslim, with a mastery for instructional communication and his skill in chemistry would have made him equal to any expert anywhere in Europe or Asia at the the time of his capture in the early 1750s.

It should be noted that he wrote well, could read music and knew biblical scripture with expertise.

Makendal (Macandal) was a master of poisons.   And in the 12 years leading to the great Haitian Revolution in 1791, he taught slaves how to poison their master’s food, clothes and animals to ensure death at different rates; days, months etc.   Why is this important?

Because even slave representations by Blacks, like Alex Haley’s “ROOTS”, depict slaves as ignorant.   But the West African coasts from which slaves were sold, were the sites of mighty empires that had traded with Europe and Asia - before Christopher Columbus!

For example, Cotton Mather tells the story inoculation for small pox, which he learned from a quite young African slave named Onesimus in 1706; who described to him in detail how he had been inoculated in Africa before being sold as a slave, in a procedure of inoculation (then known as variolation) and how it worked!

What I mean to show is that Blacks and Whites alike, depict the slave as sweet but ignorant and deserving of the mercy one shows to pets; when in fact, many slaves were intellectual superiors to those who held them captive; as was the case for instance with Demosthenes in Greece, who was so talented he was made Prime Minister as a slave.

In Mackendal’s case, he is rumoured to have poisoned nearly 25,000 French before the Revolution!

The narrative of Omar Ibn Said below is testament to what I have rendered above!

source


How the autobiography of a Muslim slave is challenging an American narrative

Haiti's two unfinished universal and national revolutions... ...The one of 1804 destroyed for itself and for humanity the gangrene of slavery of man by man ...and the revolution of 1986, which brought an end for itself and also for humanity the stronghold of the dictators... ...As such, the Revolution of 1804 and the one closest to us in 1986 will be no more vain conquests, an incomplete rupture; Haiti will experience its golden age -- the one it has been tackling for over five hundred years!

Haiti: An unfinished revolution

By Jean H Charles


Haiti had two unfinished universal and national revolutions. The one of 1804 destroyed for itself and for humanity the gangrene of slavery of man by man and the revolution of 1986, which brought an end for itself and also for humanity the stronghold of the dictators. After 1986, the non-violent mass movement that forced the departure of Duvalier has educated those in the Philippines, Poland and Nicaragua. It continues to educate today in the Arab world, where Tunisia gave the signal to eradicate almost all Arab dictators, while the Syrian people today continue to fight to unseat their dictator.

However, after 1804 and twenty five years after the end of the Duvalier era, Haiti is still a flop, to use the language of a colleague who has nostalgia for a former Port-au-Prince.

"The former Champ de Mars, the place of choice for families to relax and stroll, this place of my youth when I studied every night for years ... is no more. It is handed over to dealers (badly) boucanés, to car scrubbers, to thieves and phone robbers, it is hard not to remember the effective management of the city by the mayor Franck Romain in the early 1980s during the Duvalier era.”

In an essay published recently in Caribbean News Now and reproduced in the Nassau Guardian, “Haiti’s failed 25 years experience with democracy,” I decried the failure of the democratic era in Haiti. The achievements of the Revolution of 1986 were as short-lived as the Revolution of 1804, when the revolutionary experience ended in 1806 after the assassination of its founder, Jean Jacques Dessalines.

The signatories of the Act of Independence of 1804 did not agree to build a nation that would be hospitable to all. Those who had in mind to remove the settlers to settle themselves had the upper hand in 1806. They built a Haiti close to their vision. They used education or the non access to education as a barrier to prevent the masses from getting into the path of civilization.

The mass of slaves who took refuge in the hills of Haiti in 1804 is now, two hundred years later, the peasants, uneducated and without economic support from the state of Haiti. Now they rush to the gates of the capital and the provincial towns, occupying any empty space and compromising any planned organized urban development.

The Revolution of 1986, with the new 1987 Constitution, should have put Haiti on the true course. It was different. The organic institutions of Haiti such as the Catholic Church, the army, the Voodoo and even the press have failed the country.

First of all, the army seized the Revolution, not to bring Haiti to where milk and honey abound but into anarchy and a democratic spree, with people who could neither read nor write and could not understand that with rights also come responsibilities. Neo-liberalism, with its doctrine that growth can happen without personal wealth for all, was installed as the ruler of the economic game. The local economy, under immeasurable international influences, soon collapsed under a blitz from the Americans, the Chinese and now the Dominicans. Most of the local industries were closed, to be relocated in the Dominican Republic. The Haitian rice industry, freshly rebuilt by Taiwan, was destroyed by imported rice from Arkansas.

The Catholic Church, Breton in its origin that had accompanied the young Haiti in 1860 to the table where the bread of education and training was delivered in the towns, is now in the hands of the native clergy. It should have extended to the rural counties the mission of continuing the civilizing action started by the Breton clergy.

Instead it gave a rather poisoned apple, packaged with liberation theology and the venom of the social power of dissension, hatred of one against other and a race to the bottom, where the sense of ethics, lack of patriotism, organized theft of state assets are now the rule of the game. From the kingdom of meritocracy we went to the realm of the mediocrity of meritocracy. The government, which includes the executive, the judiciary, the legislature and the public service, confuses the brazen search of self-interest to service to the public good.

Voodoo, still underground, has not yet found its St Patrick to transform this rich cultural heritage into a national and universal mythology to enrich the imagination of young Haitians, as would be the world's youth, and as the Iliad and the Odyssey did by transforming those seeking great human values that are called courage, resilience, friendliness and brotherhood and joie de vivre.

And the people who believe in voodoo as an act of faith would be endowed with true antidotes that are called education, health, and training and economic development, freeing the devotees from the opium of the pseudo-religious constraints.

Finally, the press has become the country's image, a press bidonvillisée, rising one above the other, not to help each other to go higher but following the experience of Rwanda, where violence has led an entire nation to tear each other apart without even asking the question why?

This essay is not part of a series to lament once more about the troubles and the misfortunes of Haiti. It is rather a call to action for Haiti to return to its civilizing mission of yesteryear. It seeks men and women who want to add value in building a Haiti fit for Toussaint Louverture, Jean Jacques Dessalines and Henri Christophe. A Haiti that cares first for those most in need of relief and support: the peasant masses confused and uneducated.

They are now at the door of the cities in rags and tatters, under-capitalized by neo-liberalism, recklessness national governments, and the revenge of nature that was not protected by a benevolent hand. Uneducated and untrained, they doubt even their own humanity as they seek shelter anywhere in defiance of the human sense of self-preservation.

I propose that:

• The ONI (the Office of National Identification) should be found in all communal sections providing to each farmer a Haitian national identification.

• the Haitian government, through the Department of Agriculture, Planning, Interior, the Ministry for the Status of peasant and the Ministry of Extreme Poverty, the Ministry of Environment and Social Affairs and Fayes accompanies the myriad of NGOs to initiate a massive operation of jobs, literacy and training in all areas and all communal sections directed mainly to agriculture, reforestation, livestock and crafts.

• The program of literacy, basic education and continuing civics becomes not only a responsibility for the state but also of the elite. Man and women must become Haitian citizens, aware of their rights but also aware of their civic duty to pay their taxes and provide for the common good.

• The government should engage in its kingly responsibility to transform the state into a nation where Haiti would provide sound institutions and good infrastructure throughout the republic from the city to the countryside.

• The elite, those who have succeeded in spite of the unfavorable national conditions, reach out to those who are left behind to create a nation where living together is an experience shared and supported by all.

• The Haitian Diaspora must stop or rather amplify its vocation of monthly subsistence to commit to a partnership of nation-building and sustainable endogenous industries.

• The NGOs in general and MINUSTHA cease their particular industry that exists for itself, not for those under their mission, and funds to serve.

As such the Revolution of 1804 and the one closest to us in 1986 will be no more vain conquests, an incomplete rupture; Haiti will experience its golden age -- the one it has been tackling for over five hundred years!

December 08, 2012

Caribbeannewsnow

Bahamas Blog International

The British Caribbean and its history

By Franklyn W Knight:


The English-speaking population of the Caribbean represents less than 20 per cent of the conventionally defined region. That definition describes a Caribbean composed of the island chain from the Bahamas and the Dutch ABC islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao plus the mainland enclaves of Belize, Guyana and Suriname. Sometimes Bermuda is included although its 68,000 additional souls hardly change the proportion.

In the 1980s a new political definition became popular. It added the Central American states but omitted Cuba, displaying more the political bias of the United States of America rather than the reality of Caribbean affairs and the peculiar history of the region. The driving force behind the conventional definition of the Caribbean was a certain uniformity of history. The states of the conventional Caribbean were inordinately influenced by the interrelated sugar revolutions that convulsed the region between the 17th and the 19th centuries.

These sugar revolutions radically transformed the political, social, occupational, economic, demographic, and environmental structure of most of the Caribbean islands. Sugar was the principal driving force but it was not the only one and not all the islands succumbed to those revolutions. The massive importation of Africans - more than 10 million between 1518 and 1870 - made possible the transformation of the vast region between the northeast of Brazil, the Antilles, the Magdalena-Cauca river valleys of Colombia and a huge swath of the southern part of what today is called the United States of America. But African slavery affected every country in the Americas to some degree.

Slavery, of course, existed long before Christopher Columbus and his ill-fated caravels wandered into the Caribbean. Slaves constituted an integral part of Roman expansion and colonisation of most of Western Europe. The preferred slaves of Romans came from the region that today comprises Germany. But the word itself derives from the Slavic peoples who formed the greater proportion of people who were traded in the slave markets of the Mediterranean. Europeans continued to enslave one another until the middle of the 19th century, although mostly in Russia. And Muslim states enslaved captured Europeans in the Mediterranean until the Napoleonic Wars.

African and indigenous American peoples also enslaved one another. Throughout the continent of Africa, stronger states subordinated weaker states and subjected their conquered peoples to some form of slavery. Among other occupations, male slaves were employed as warriors or protectors of harems and religious sites. In Mexico a system of slavery called Tlacotli existed until the arrival of Hernán Cortés in 1521.

Slavery in the Americas reconstructed by the Europeans and their slaves finds no precedence anywhere else in the world. Neither in Europe, Africa nor among the indigenous societies of the Americas did the practice demonstrate the rigidity and suffocating mutually reinforcing cleavages developed after 1518. Only in the European American colonies were race and colour essential aspects of enslavement. Only in the Americas did slavery perform a vitally important economic function, assets that could independently generate wealth. The American slave society and the American slave-holding society were fundamentally different.

Nevertheless, the way the history of the Caribbean is taught, especially in the British Caribbean, leaves much to be desired. It tends to be excessively centred on the British Caribbean experience and neglects the integral connection with the non-Anglophone Caribbean or with the wider Americas.

To begin, not all Africans arrived in the Americas as merchandise. Several Hispanised Africans arrived with the Iberians in the first century of conquest and colonisation. Columbus recruited travel companions such as Juan Garrido and Pedro Alonso Niño from among the large free black population that lived in Andalucía, in cities from Málaga to Huelva. Nuflo de Olano who accompanied Vasco Nuñez de Balboa across the Isthmus of Panama was probably a bought African slave. Juan Valiente who accompanied Hernán Cortés to Mexico was described as black. So was Estebanico who wandered for 10 years with Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca from Florida to Mexico by way of Louisiana and Texas.

These free blacks, like their fellow adventurers, spawned a large, free, mixed population wherever they went. There were blacks and descendants of blacks all across the Americas who were never enslaved. They formed pockets of free population in cities, especially port cities like Havana, New Orleans, Vera Cruz, Porto Bello, Cartagena, Lima, Salvador de Bahia and Buenos Aires. And the town of El Cobre in eastern Cuba had a town council of freed and semi-free residents between 1680 and 1780.

During the 19th century another group of free Africans arrived along with Chinese and Indians from the Asian subcontinent to assist in the transition from slave labour to wage labour across the Caribbean. While smaller than the imported numbers of the commercial transatlantic slave trade, these immigrants are a part of the history that should not be neglected.

The massive importation of Africans was necessary because, unlike the narratives of Bartolomé de las Casas, the population of the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean in 1492 was not as large as the friar supposed. The Caribbean islands may have had a combined population of just about one million. That population could not support the increased labour demands of export-oriented plantations. The decline of the Native American population between 1500 and about 1650 was extremely complex and not the result of the single or simplistic explanation of Spanish genocide. Indeed, genocide is an inappropriate description for the decline of the Tainos of the Antilles.

But slavery is not the only theme in which moving the boundaries beyond time and space offers rewards. Hispaniola had a relatively early sugar complex - as early as 1512. The distillation of rum has a history preceding the English arrival in Barbados. Rum was distilled in the 13th century by Benedictine monks in Lebanon. Maroons were not really instrumental in the process of disintegration of the Caribbean slave society, and their role in the Haitian revolution seems highly exaggerated. Finally, the peasant society in the Caribbean goes back to the 16th century.

July 07, 2010

jamaicaobserver

Bahamas Blog International

Port au Prince, Haiti: Nou Bouke! We are exhausted!

By Jean H Charles:

This graffiti is now covering most of the remaining walls of Port au Prince, Haiti.  During election time, candidates commandeered slogans and graffiti on the walls for a price.  This slogan Nou Bouke (pronounced key) has nothing to do with politics; it is the cry of exasperation of a people that have endured misery, deception, earthquake, hurricane and ill governance constantly for the past sixty years!

I received last week a challenge from a brother from Jamaica now living in the Turks and Caicos asking me to clarify or expand on the issue of governance and democracy in Haiti, the relevance of the demise from Haiti and the forced exile to South Africa of Jean Bertrand Aristide and last but not least the issue of redemption to Haiti from France.  I welcome the challenge hoping neither of us will be a winner but the larger community will benefit in knowledge and understanding from the exchange.

On the issue of redemption for past slavery, one will be surprised to find out I have single-handed initiated the process for putting on the table the issue of redemption for Haiti.  It all started during a cursory visit to a bookstore in downtown Port au Prince.  I came upon an issue of Paris Match where I read that a legislator from Martinique has succeeded in having the French Parliament pass a resolution condemning slavery as an act of cruel and inhuman treatment inflicted by France upon million of slaves.  My legal mind told me that France has opened a hole that will make it liable and vulnerable to demand for compensation from former colonies in general and from Haiti in particular.

In a follow up conversation with my father, a retired chief judge of Haiti Civil Court and past Dean of a law school, I revived the discussion concerning the pros and cons of such an approach.  On a strict construction of the law, the doctrine of clean hands and the doctrine of viability of an action in criminal matters are in full force.  France cannot continue to benefit from the billion of dollars in retribution paid by Haiti while it has enjoyed the forced labor and the sweat of generations of slaves enriching named French citizens individually and the nation as whole for several centuries.  Haiti has conquered its freedom on its own, paying a price in gold to have that freedom recognized by France is unconscionable morally and it is illegal now, considering the resolution passed by the French Parliament.  There was a guest in my home at that conversation; he was a personal advisor of Jean Bertrand Aristide.  He brought the issue to the President, the rest was history.

President Aristide could have called upon the best legal minds of the world, including those from France to make the legal case for Haiti for retribution in light of this new development.  He chose instead to pursue a political and demagogic road poisoning for ever the legal advantage.  At the other end of the spectrum France and Belgium owe the rest of their former colonies an obligation to help extract the virus of distrust, dissent and internal fratricide injected into the ethos and the culture of most of the former French and Belgium colonies.  From Congo to Madagascar, from Haiti to Gabon and from Senegal to Tunisia, the story is the same with some variances, France meddling and the sequels of French culture is at the heart of the poor governance, the internal fighting and the robbing of the natural resources depriving the citizens of enjoying in peace their God given national endowment.

Should President Aristide have been deposed from power and sent to exile?  This debate will continue for generations yet the truth of the matter is Aristide was deposed by a popular movement of the people of Haiti led by students who found his policies of dividing the already disjointed Haitian family too much to endure.  As usual, France and the United States have come at the end to claim the paternity of the movement and lead the transition to their own advantage.  Sending Aristide to exile was a small price to pay to bring about solace to million of Haitian families.

Under the Duvalier regime, the repression was codified and led by uniformed tonton macoutes, under Arisitide, the repression, the kidnapping and the killings were done by thugs, hired renegade paid by the government with not even a uniform to claim the appearance of a state enterprise.  His complete disregard for law and order was putting the nation at its core into the path of disintegration.  This axiom enshrined in the Preamble of the, Constitution of the United States is of value to the people of Haiti as well as the people of the world:

“All men are created equal; they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute a new government.  It is the duty of the people to rise and to defend themselves against that tyrant.”

We often tend to follow the politics that the mice are smaller than the rats, as such we can live with the mice.  Duvalier’s son was better than Duvalier therefore we can live with him. Arisitide was better than Duvalier fils therefore he is acceptable.  Preval is better than Aristide, we should give him a chance.

The principle of democracy is a simple one.  I have often called upon Ernest Renan as my preferred prophet for spreading the message.  You shall defend your frontiers and your territory with all your might!  You shall instill into the souls of your citizen the love and the admiration of the founding fathers! You shall take all the necessary measures to insure that no one is left behind!

In Haiti today the people are crying nou Bouke! nou Bouke! We have enough of this government that is interested in perpetuating itself while playing a scant view of the welfare of its people.  Confirmed reports have informed me that before the earthquake some 900 projects vetted by Haiti’s own service of business promotion that would bring jobs for the Haitian people have been blocked by the Haitian government because graft has not been tendered for a final approval.  After the earthquake the only reconstruction firms that can obtain a permit to start demolition projects are those introduced by or retained with the first Lady of Haiti.

It might be time for Haiti and for the friends of Haiti to plan regime change in Haiti, if the country should enjoy free and fair elections leading to democracy.  The Haitian people did have their Friday of Crucifixion for too long it is time now for them to have their Easter Sunday.  It is also the quickest way to bring about a minimum of coordination to the avalanche of help brought about by the international community to the gallant people of Haiti averting as such a second disaster.

It was a brother from Jamaica who sparked the Haitian revolution changing the world for ever and for the better! His name was Bookman.  Would you, my dear brother from Jamaica, lend a hand again?

March 20, 2010

caribbeannetnews

Bahamas: Conspiring to destroy Haiti: Past and present

By NOELLE NICOLLS
Tribune Staff Reporter
nnicolls@tribunemedia.net:

THE transformative power of the spoken word has been proven throughout the centuries, but one wonders if declaring The Bahamas a Christian nation through constitutional declaration and use of the public pulpit is sufficient to make it actually so.  The nation's claim to Christian credentials is probably most questionable when sifting through the public perception of Haiti and Haitians.

The word "Haitian", once a symbol of black liberation, has morphed into a derogatory insult in the Bahamian psyche, parallel only to the likes of racial epitaphs like "nigger" or "boy".

Former Member of Parliament, Keod Smith, furiously refuted claims of his Haitian heritage probably as a strategy to preserve his political career.  He could very well have manufactured signs reading: "Not a Haitian."

Young Haitian-Bahamians go to great lengths to hide or subdue their Haitian heritage to increase their chances of gaining basic social acceptance.

Unfortunately, it is clear that public perception of Haiti is heavily influenced by what Sir Hilary Beckles, pro-vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI), calls "imperial propaganda".  It is no surprise that some people like Tony, a Bahamian with Haitian heritage, are rendered speechless by the "ignorance" of people.

Someone like Tony could wonder where the context, the perspective, the truth went in the debate about Haiti.  It is telling how an American news reporter says with full self-assurance, "Haiti's government was incompetent at best, even before the earthquake", and some Bahamians believe this to be a fact.  There seems to be no formulae to break the stranglehold on the Bahamian psyche from this lingering colonial mentality.

Haiti was battered by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake striking 10-miles off the coast of Port-au-Prince on January 12.  The quake reduced the capital to rubble and dust.  Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives; almost as many lost their limbs in a wave of sweeping amputations, and even more lost their homes and livelihoods.  Just two years ago, Haiti was battered by a series of four hurricanes in the space of two weeks.  The damage was so severe that there was enough international goodwill for Haiti to secure $1.2 billion in debt relief from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other creditors.

In the wake of the quake, the international community is pushing for total debt relief for Haiti.  Most of the country's remaining debt is owed to Taiwan and Venezuela.

Just last week, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez announced the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) plan for Haiti, including debt relief, a $20 million donation for the health sector and further investment funds.

"Haiti has no debt with Venezuela, just the opposite: Venezuela has a historical debt with that nation, with that people for whom we feel not pity but rather admiration, and we share their faith, their hope," said Chavez after the meeting of ALBA foreign ministers.

The case of Haiti is far from black and white, although it is easy to apply labels such as ungodly, corrupt and backwards to account for its status as the most economically impoverished country in the western hemisphere.

Superficially, it would appear that Haiti is doomed, even cursed, but the natural disasters in Haiti's history barely match the political, socio-economic earthquakes that have been engineered by external forces for centuries; those seeking to undermine Haiti's ability to be a beacon of light for African people.

Napoleon Bonaparte, French Emperor during Haiti's revolution, said of his colonial empire: "My decision to destroy the authority of the blacks in Saint Dominque (Haiti) is not so much based on considerations of commerce and money, as on the need to block forever the march of the blacks in the world."

In the minds of some, this endeavour has been successful, but there are those who see through the disparity, into the hope that is Haiti.

"Wake up Bahamas!  Ours is a country that has been built -- for literally the last 30 years -- on the strength, sweat and hard work of our Haitian brethren.  Many of us are descended from immigrants, recent or old, from Haiti, even though we may neither know nor admit it," said Dr Nicolette Bethel, COB lecturer and former Director of Culture.

Haitians may flee their country in search of better economic conditions, but their national pride is largely unshaken.  Prosper Bazard has lived in The Bahamas for 28 years.  The biggest thing that makes him proud to be a Haitian is the knowledge that his forefathers fought the heavily equipped French army with their bare-hands and won.

"Another thing that makes me feel proud is we are a nation that can fight for a living.  We don't have so much money but we can manage to find a way to live.  Even if a Haitian is very poor, they will find a way to survive.  He is not going to steal.  We believe in hard work, we prefer to suffer and not steal," said Mr Bazard.

Haiti is the second free republic in the western hemisphere following the United States, but the first black republic in the post-colonial world.  This might appear to be an historical footnote, even ancient history, but on the contrary, all progress in the modern world, particularly for people of African descent, rests firmly on the back of the ten-year war waged by Haitian freedom fighters for self-rule from the French.  The legacy of Haiti and the contribution of Haitians in shaping liberation consciousness in the modern world is more like a keystone, indispensable and perpetually relevant.

"Bahamians probably do not know much about Haitian history.  I don't think history is high on the list; neither is context.  Haitian people have been demonized as beggars of the Caribbean and I think that is what is ingrained in our psyche," said Fred Mitchell, opposition spokesperson on foreign affairs.

"It is nonsense, because first of all they bring their talents, expertise and skills as migrants to the country.  They helped us to build our country," he said.

Few Bahamians learn about the Haitian revolution, or the history of Haitian-Bahamian relations, because the standard Bahamian school curriculum does not feature Haiti.  Not surprisingly, with its roots still grounded in the colonial world view, "Discovery Day" is still celebrated in The Bahamas after all.  This is despite the fact that next to the United States, Haiti probably has the largest external influence on The Bahamas, for good and for bad.

Even Dr Gail Saunders, scholar in residence at the College of The Bahamas and former Director General of Heritage, said she was not well versed in Haitian history.  She welcomed the opportunity created by this latest tragedy to spread awareness of Haitian issues and history.  (Next week in Insight: an in depth look at The Bahamas and the world without Haiti).

"When Haiti became independent, no country on earth recognized Haiti, and they did so for practical reasons.  Haiti was a slave economy and the slaves threw off the slave masters.  Haiti's present day economic woes began back in 1804.  Haiti did not just become like it is now," said Dr Eugene Newry, former Bahamas Ambassador to Haiti.

"They won their independence militarily.  Psychologically it has a different effect than sitting around a table with someone coming back from London with some papers saying you are free," he said.

The audacity of the Haitian revolution was an unbearable embarrassment to the French.  It was threatening to the slave-based economy of the United States, which failed to live up to its promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all.  In its first constitution, Haiti declared it would grant automatic citizenship to any person of African descent arriving on its shores.  The world decided to starve the population with economic embargo and isolation instead of recognising its freedom.

"It was the most vicious example of national strangulation recorded in modern history.  Haiti did not fail.  It was destroyed by two of the most powerful nations on earth, both of which continue to have primary interest in its current condition.  The sudden quake has come in the aftermath of summers of hate.  In many ways the quake has been less destructive than the hate.  Human life was snuffed out by the quake, while the hate has been a long and inhumane suffocation -- a crime against humanity," stated Sir Hilary Beckles, in an article widely published by Caribbean news agencies.

The UWI is currently convening a major conference on the theme "Rethinking and Rebuilding Haiti" to dig beneath the rubble of public perception.

In order to gain access to international trade, in 1825 Haiti agreed to pay France reparations of 150 million gold francs in exchange for recognition and an end to the embargo.  French accountants and actuaries valued land, animals, former slaves, and other commercial properties and services.  Haiti borrowed money from American Citibank to service this debt.  It took more than 100 years to buy its recognition in the international community.

While the reparations debate for African descendants is scorned by the West, and avoided by the descendants themselves, France stands proudly having lived large off the modern equivalent of $21 billion in reparations for losing land and human property while enslaving Haitians.

"Haiti was crushed by this debt repayment. It descended into financial and social chaos.  France was enriched and it took pleasure from the fact that having been defeated by Haitians on the battlefield, it had won on the field of finance," said Sir Hilary Beckles.

At the 2001 United Nations Conference on Race in Durban, South Africa, the Caribbean made strong representation for France to repay Haiti.  The Caribbean Community (Caricom) reaffirmed this call in 2007, during the anniversary celebrations for the two hundredth anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

Former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was a strong proponent of this initiative.  His tenure was heralded as a return to order for Haiti, until he was finally escorted out of the country in 2004, under armed guard by American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials.  Haiti became a United Nations protectorate.

Thousands of government officials under the Aristide-government were removed from office during the questionable coup.  The Americans claim they gave President Aristide a plane ride to the Central Africa Republic, where he now lives in exile. President Aristide maintains he was kidnapped.  The new Haitian government, still in power, wasted little time to withdraw the request from France to repay the reparations money.

America pundits in the mainstream media rarely, if ever, talk about America's involvement in Haiti, although America invaded the country in 1915 and occupied it for almost 20 years to secure its economic interests.  Americans oversaw the introduction of foreign land ownership to the Haitian constitution, never present since independence. During their rule, foreign economic interests in the country grew, and racial stratification between blacks and mulattos became more ingrained, akin to segregated American states.

Under American rule, Haitian financial reserves were managed from Washington.  Debt servicing accounted for 40 per cent of Haiti's annual income, primarily to service American financial institutions.  America's grip on Haiti's finances was so tight that they withheld the salaries of government officials on one occasion to coerce them to sign a bilateral agreement without modification, according to historians.

Even after the Americans left in 1934, they did not return control of the national treasury to Haiti until the 1940s.  The only stable public institution they left was the US-trained Haitian military.  A series of military coups followed for the next few decades, ending with the infamous Duvalier dynasty.

Former Haitian president François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, said to be born in The Bahamas to a father from Mayaguana and mother from Haiti, is blamed for many of Haiti's current social and economic troubles.  During his 14 year rule, he established the infamous secret police force, the Tonton Macoute, and crippled the Haitian national army.

He embezzled money and was responsible for political assassinations.  His presidency was supported by the United States because of his anti-Communist views.  He was succeeded by his 19-year-old son, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, who was just as oppressive.

Much of Haiti's debt, still being serviced today, was accumulated under the Duvalier regimes.  Rather than being used for national development, much of the borrowed money was squandered and outright stolen.

Massive deforestation in Haiti was another source of instability, particularly for the natural environment.  Most commentators attribute this to the "poor masses" cutting down trees to burn fire wood.  Dr Newry said this is only half of the story.  Haitian poverty has contributed to deforestation in modern days, but, he said, the problem began with the French, Spanish and other European countries, cutting down forests to grow coffee, sugar, tobacco and other products on a commercial scale.

In the 1940s, Haitians also endured the violent anti-Voodoo crusade of Catholic missionaries.  During this period, called the Rejete massacre, they killed Voodoo priests, destroyed sacred temples and burned forests with centuries-old trees that were honoured by the Haitians.

Haiti's history of triumph and tragedy is too complex to unravel in one article.  External forces were at play at the same time destabilizing internal forces that were at play.  The internal forces are not to be absolved.  The hands of many Haitian nationals are no doubt stained with the tears of many in the starving masses, from corrupt practices, mismanagement, incompetence and warfare.  These conditions appear to be ingrown defects of ancient and modern governmental systems, as many nations well know.  But to take a simplistic look at Haiti, as many seem inclined to do, and pass judgment on the nation without understanding or perspective is to be blinded by ignorance.

As the international community convened in Canada late last month to begin forming a strategic plan for the reconstruction of Haiti, many in the Caribbean community were watching keenly with an eye on the past and an eye on the future.  A major international conference is to be held in the spring to further the strategic planning agenda.

The heart of the matter is: Haiti is inextricably linked to The Bahamas, the Americas and the modern world.  Those who know this to be true are watching closely as the world mobilizes behind the latest international fad that is Haiti.  As donor fatigue will inevitably set in, those who know will be the ones still standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Haiti, embracing Haitians as their brothers and sisters, wondering if the rallying cry, "not without Haiti" will ever light a fire in the Bahamian psyche.

February 01, 2010

tribune242

The earthquake in Haiti requires the world's human response

By Wellington C Ramos:

Ever since the black people of this Caribbean country fought and defeated the French to gain their independence in 1804, this nation has been left by most European countries to just go downhill.

For the people who have no knowledge of the Haitian Revolution, they should take some time to study it.

During the era of colonialism, England, France, Holland, Portugal, Spain and other European countries roamed the planet earth, landed on different continents, slaughtered the indigenous people of most lands, made them slaves and took out all of their wealth and natural resources back to their respective homelands.

The landing of Christopher Columbus in this part of the world in 1492 set the pace for this exploitation to begin, with the approval of the Catholic Spanish Pope Alexander the V1 in the Treaty of Tordesillas signed by Spain and Portugal in 1494.

With the exception of Brazil, Spain was given all the land and people in the Americas and the Caribbean while Portugal had the continent of Africa for themselves.

England, France and Holland protested this bold move by the Catholic Pope and pledged to fight against this unlawful treaty.

The British formed a group called privateers, who were highly trained to navigate the high seas and look for non-British vessels, capture them, take their cargoes and kill all the sailors on board.

In addition, they signed agreements with Spain to temporarily occupy some of their illegal territories with the intention to stay on them permanently.

The French did this on the Spanish island of Hispaniola in the early 1600s which eventually developed into two countries, one by the name of Haiti and the other the Dominican Republic.

Today, these two countries are divided and their relationship remains strained up to this day because of their cultural and historical differences.

The British did the same thing in 1638 by getting permission to cut logwood and mahogany from the Spanish crown in one of their occupied territories in Central America that was under the Captaincy General of Granados, which capital was in Guatemala City and New Spain that had its capital in Mexico City.

The Mexican government, in a treaty with England, later renounced their claim to Belize.

While the Guatemalan government kept hanging on to their unlawful claim.

Like the French, the British had no intention of leaving because they said from the beginning that they will never honor the treaty that was signed between Spain and Portugal giving them both titles to the entire Americas, Caribbean and Africa.

Today, that settlement has led to the emergence of a nation called Belize that is struggling to maintain its independence but still haunted by a Guatemalan claim because of Europeans’ unlawful actions.

The Haitians were able to defeat France with the help of their ancestors and their powerful war god “Ogun”, one of the most powerful gods in the religion of the Yoruba people, who mostly live in the country of Nigeria on the African continent.

Most Haitians are descendants of various African cultures that were brought from the continent of Africa during slavery.

Many Europeans look down on African people with disdain as if they are uncivilized, backward and stupid even up to this day.

Yet they know that the first people on this planet earth were black people and great civilizations existed on the continent of Africa long before the Europeans set foot on the African continent.

In fact many African kings and queens sponsored expeditions and invasions of several territories in Europe, Asia and elsewhere.

The Empires of Mali like; King Askia Mohammad, Songhay and Ghana are typical examples.

The Haitians are still looked upon by many Europeans and some Caribbean people as evil people but this assertion is far from the truth.

They are entitled to practice whatever religion they chose to practice like everybody else to save their own souls. For me it is laughable for anyone to believe that the Europeans are interested in saving the souls of other people after all the atrocities they have committed upon the people of this planet.

Europeans must accept the fact that Christianity is not the only religion on earth.

Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and several other religions are common on this planet earth.

As a Garifuna person, it took me some time to accept and understand my own culture’s religion, which is also based on African ancestral rites called “Dugu”.

I have accepted it and will not depart from my religion just to remain a Christian.

This religion has provided me with solace and healing over the years.

The country of Haiti needs the entire world to be on its side at this current moment because a natural disaster can occur anywhere at any time.

If there are any people in this world who have suffered and been punished, enough they are the Haitian people and enough is enough.

Several people have died in this country and the structural damages and human suffering done nationwide is severe.

Looking at the news has brought tears to my eyes because as a human being, I have feelings and these people are all God’s children like me.

There is enough in this world to give every human being in this world who is in need of something but we have got to rid ourselves from this culture of greed and selfishness and just give.

We all shall die one day and everything we possess will remain here after we have departed this planet earth.

January 18, 2010

caribbeannetnews