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Books on Haiti and the
Caribbean
Hubert Cole. Christophe: King of Haiti. New
York: The Viking Press, 1967.
C.L.R. James.
The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution
(1938)
Edourad Gissant.
Caribbean Doscourse (2004)
/ Barbara Harlow.
Resistance Literature (1987)
Josaphat B. Kubayanda.
The Poet's Africa: Africanness in the Poetry of Nicolas Guillen and Aime
Cesaire
(1990)
Myriam J. A.
Chancy.
Framing Silence: Revolutionary Novels by Haitian Women (1997)
Paul Laraque and Jack Hirschman. Open
Gate An Anthology of Haitian Creole Poetry (2001)
David P. Geggus, ed.
The Impact of the
Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World.
University of South Carolina Press, 2001.
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Dessalines' Dream for Haiti
By Ezili Dantò
The Haitian
Lawyers Leadership Network
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I
want the assets of
the country to be
equitably divided.—Jean
Jacques Dessalines |
Dessalines fought so that
Haitians would live free,
politically sovereign and
economically independent. He
united the enslaved black masses
with the free blacks and
mulattoes and, AS ONE, they
looked outwards together,
blocked the divisions the
differing white settler tribes
were fostering amongst these
black folks, of different hues,
shades, economic and legal
standing.
|
Jean Jacques Dessalines fought
for the dignity of all Africans—liberty,
equality, fraternity for all—no
matter their skin color or
economic class. He accomplished
what no Haitian leader has been
able to do since his
assassination in 1806. Because
of his military strength and
fierce and unwavering courage,
he had been able to bring
together two Black classes with
diametrically opposed ideologies
- the masses who wanted to end
slavery and colonialism, live
free in a society where there
would be an equitable sharing of
resources; and the free blacks
and mulattoes who felt they were
superior and entitled to the
properties and assets of their
beaten white French fathers and
the assets they had accumulated
under the brutal slavery system.
After independence, as the
former freedmen tried to
reassert the old status quo,
Dessalines firmly declared, on
behalf of the long-suffering
Black masses of Haiti:
"Je
veux que les biens
de la nation soient
équitablement
partagés"—"I
want the assets of
the country to be
equitably divided."
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For this, Dessalines was
assassinated by the
mullatoe/Affranchi economic
elites. Dessalines' October 17,
1806 assassination was the first
coup d'etat in Haiti's and it
was organized by the
mullatoe/Affranchi elites to
assure their wealth and keep the
masses contained-in-poverty the
better to exploit them as they
had under the slavery system.
Moreover, even within the ranks
of the ex-slaves, particularly
with the generals and powerful
soldiers, emerged a small
oligarchy who were barriers to
the desires of the masses for
inclusion (fraternity) and to
share equitably in the bounty of
the Island recently liberate
from France (See, "La
Constitution de 1805...deux
cents ans après: Les chants de
resistance" by Bell Angelot, p.
76).
The recent February 29, 2004
coup d'etat continues the tragic
Haitian story by pushing back
the democracy the masses hoped
would bring better standards of
living to them and less
exploitation by Haiti's economic
elites and the neocolonialist
whites.
In 1806, with Dessalines'
October 17th assassination, the
cycle of violent overthrows of
duly elected or recognized
governments in Haiti had begun.
Haiti's latest, the February 29,
2004 coup d'etat, not only
oustered the Aristide/Neptune
government, but trashed the 1987
Haitian Constitution.
|
Accordingly, here's how Haitian
legal scholar, Bell Angelot puts
this in his new book: "The
October 17, 1806 coup d’état did
not merely put an end to the
life of a man, it also meant the
end of a constitution, of a true
social contract. It also marked
the end of the alliance between
two classes ideology
diametrically opposed. These
differences were manifested
throughout the colonial era.
Dessalines, for the common good,
had agreed to a historical
compromise with Pétion. Colonial
history reveals that every time
the interests of the class
composed of “previously
freedman” were threatened, the
freedmen negotiated compromises
either with the slaves against
the colonists, or compromises
with the colonists against the
slaves . . .
Thus, on
October 17, 1806, the era of
coup d’états and political
instability was inaugurated in
Haitian history. From October
17, 1806 to February 29, 2004,
thirty three coups are recorded.
And, “it is always the same
water flowing. Always the
people’s blood flowing. Always
the same song that bring tears
to the masses” (from "La
Constitution de 1805...deux
cents ans après: Les chants de
resistance" by Bell Angelot, p.
125).
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Dessalines understood the
Haitian masses and their
democratic desires for social
and economic inclusion. He was
one of them. He spoke for them
and was able to make a tactical
alliance with the
Mullato Affranchi, Alexandre
Petion, the mulattoes' leader of
that time, and with the Black
Affranchi, Henri Christopher, to
defeat Napoleon Bonaparte’s
armies, which had come back to
either re-enslave them or kill
them all. Napoleon's orders to
his brother-in-law, General
Lerclec, was to kill all Black
men, women and child over the
age of ten years old. He
intended to root out, once and
for all, Haiti's rebellious
seeds.
Dessalines
knew that Napoleon had already,
with great black bloodshed
returned the rebelling
Guadeloupe back to slavery in
1802. Martinique’s' revolution
was also squashed by Napoleon's
troops. Leclerc was heading to
Haiti to do the same. Dessalines
vowed he would not be
re-enslaved. He vowed
"Liberty
or death"
and succeeded in beating
Napoleon in combat to create the
nation of Haiti. Jean Jacques
Dessalines did what Spartacus
couldn't.
But, as soon as the mulattoes
and free blacks had, under
Dessalines' brilliant
leadership, attained Haiti's
independence from France, they
started trying to regain the
same economic standing they had
in the time of slavery, also
claiming for themselves the
lands of their French fathers.
This, the cultural and
ideological roots and
similarities of Haiti's economic
elites with Haiti's mortal
enemies, the former colonists
and enslavers, has made it
impossible for the poor Haitian
masses with their roots in
Africa, their fathers in Africa,
to bring to fruition a nation of
Blacks united in brotherhood and
dedicated to liberty and
equality for all, no matter the
class or Black skin hue.
The assets of Haiti, have since
never been equitably shared. The
Black masses struggle to this
day to gain their fare share.
|
L'alliance tactique
conclue entre les
anciens et nouveaux
libres ne fut pas
durable, elle fut de
nature meme fragile
et chimerique. Vite
et très vite après
l'independance les
anciens libres
revendiquèrent la
saisine des
privilèges des
anciens colons et la
réédition du status
quo ante, et meme
dans la caste des
nouveaux libres de
petites nouvelles
oligarchies furent
émergées et
constituèrent de
véritables barrieres
aux action
émancipatrices
réeles des masses,
véritables acteurs
de la revolution de
1804 . . .
("La
Constitution de
1805...deux cents
ans après: Les
chants de
resistance" by Bell
Angelot, p. 76) |
Brotherhood
means Haitians must look
outwards together, and stop
allowing foreigners to divide
and polarized Haitian society.
If the goal is and independent
and free Haiti, as dictated by
Haiti's founding father. If, as
Dessalines' swore Haiti would
never again allow a colonist or
European to set foot on its soil
as master. Then, the answer is
the same as it was in the time
of Dessalines: Haitians, no
matter the hue or class, need
unite for the nation's common
good and development. It means,
we stop being the architects of
our own destruction in ignoring
the sufferings of the masses.
For we honor
Dessalines and fulfill his
revolutionary dream, setting an
unprecedented world example if
we Blacks unite—L'union
Fait La Force; and give
substance to this, the reason
Jean Jacques Dessalines was
assassinated, for he dreamed and
he declared: "Je veux que les
biens de la nation soient
équitablement partagés"—"I
want the assets of the country
to be equitably divided."
13 October
2006
Source:
MargueriteLaurent
* * * * *
Noam Chomsky: US role in Haiti
destruction /
Ezili Danto live in Miami
* * * * *
On Sarkozy's visit to Haiti, the
first ever visit to Haiti
by a French president and the
Independence Debt
President
Jean Bertrand Aristide, the
Constitutionally and duly
elected Haitian president,
was the first President
in Haitian history to, as a
matter of honor and justice,
demand that France repay the $22
billion Independence Debt it
extorted, at gunpoint, from
defenseless Haiti with the
approval and complicity of the
other Euro/American settlers and
countries.
In 1825, under the threat of
re-enslavement and with 12
warships armed with 500 canons,
France blackmailed Haiti into
agreeing to pay a bounty of 150
million Gold Francs for the lost
of men, women and children they
had deemed to be "French
property" (slaves)—Open
Letter to the People of France.
|
The case for
restitution was
launched by
President Jean
Bertrand Aristide on
April 7, 2003 during
the Bicentennial
commemoration of the
death of Toussaint
Louverture. This
demand, formulated
in the presence of
the people of Haiti,
the dignified heirs
of our ancestors,
and in front of
MUPANAH (Musèe du
Panthèon National
Haitien—The
Haitian National
Pantheon Museum)
where the immortal
souls of the Black
race repose in
respect and dignity.
Past and present
were intimately
linked for a
historic projection
to the future. (http://bit.ly/9IHVMK)
|
It took Haiti 122 years to pay
this mafia debt, the last
slave-trade payment was made by
tiny Haiti to the most powerful
country on earth, the United
States of America in 1947. This
endless debt permanently
impoverished Haiti.
 |
The Haitian people’s request for
restitution of the $22 billion
is part of the reason for the
second coup d'etat and the
current occupation of Haiti by
the US, France and Canada
through their UN military proxy.
(Read more about the
Independence Debt at—Demand
France Pay back the $22 Billion
Independence Debt and at
Campaign 7.)
On April 15, 2004, a mere month
after the 2004 Coup D'etat/Bush
regime change in Haiti,
ex-colonial authority and
enslaver of Haitian people,
France, sent their French
Minister of Defense as the first
French dignitary of high rank to
come to Haiti since the triumph
of the anti-slavery,
anti-colonialism,
anti-profit-over-people Haiti
revolution in 1803 to visit
Haiti.
As one Haitian lawyer
remarked at that time "All the
sons and daughters of Janjak
Desalin not suffering from
amnesia, all the sons and
daughters of the colonists
enlivened with a liberation
spirit, watched this shameful
French pageantry in shock and
horror." |
Most conscious Haitians saw it
as France's not too subtle
further pummeling of Haiti's
disenfranchised majority to
gleefully celebrate, on the
sacred year of Haiti's
bicentennial, their victory at
landing French soldiers on
Haitian soil, for the first time
since the African warriors of
Haiti beat them out of Haiti, in
combat, in 1803. The French
minister's visit was an
occurrence that had not taken
place in 200 years of Haitian
history and sovereignty. (See,
Haiti, The Rebel and
Vertieres—The
Greatest Battle ever Fought.)
During that bad-omen-visit,
Gerard Latortue, the US-imposed
Prime Minister to Haiti from Jeb
Bush's Florida, used the
inauspicious occasion to
publicly and pompously declare
that HE was voiding President
Aristide's and the Haitian
people's demand that France pay
back the Independence Debt.
At that point, Ezili's HLLN
wrote:
The bad omen continues for Haiti
with the first ever visit, on
February 17, 2010, by a French
President. Nicholas Sarkozy's
landed today in Western
quake-shattered Haiti and was
greeted by puppet Haitian
President Rene Preval as a brass
band played the Marseillaise. He
toured a French field hospital,
had a news conference on the
grounds of the collapsed Haiti
National Palace, and surveyed
the millions of suffering
descendants of the African
warriors who defeated his nation
in combat through the door of a
helicopter, like a flying
buzzard circling the air,
looking for a free meal down
below. (
French President Sarkozy arrives
in Haiti
(AP), Feb. 17, 2010 and
France's Sarkozy visits
earthquake-ravaged Haiti
.)
Source:
Open Salon
posted 17
June 2010
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Haiti: Coping with the aftermath /
Haiti's Enduring Creativity (video) /
Haiti Earthquake: The
Hidden Holocaust (video)
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You gotta
move
Lyrics by
Mississippi Fred McDowell
You got to move
You got to move
You got to move, child
You got to move
But when the Lord
Gets ready
You got to move
(guitar)
You may be high
You may be low
You may be rich, child
You may be po'
But when the Lord gets ready
You've got to move
(guitar)
You see that woman
That walk the street
You see the policeman
Out on his beat
But when the Lord gets ready
You got to move
(guitar)
You got to move
You got to move
You've got to move, child
You've got to
But when the Lord gets ready
You got to move. |
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* * *
Mississippi Fred McDowell—You gotta move
You Gotta Move" is a
song written by Fred McDowell and Rev. Gary Davis. Being a well-known song
of McDowell's, covered by The Rolling Stones in their 1971 album Sticky
Fingers.
The
album which included this song was recorded at McDowell's home in Como,
Mississippi in 1964, and in Holy Springs, Mississippi and Berkeley,
California in 1965. Personnel: Mississippi Fred McDowell (vocals,
bottle-neck guitar); Eli Green (vocals, guitar); Annie McDowell (vocals).
CD Release Date: November 30, 1993 / Label: Arhoolie Records
* * * * *
Alice Dunbar-Nelson:
People of Color in Louisiana, Part I. The Journal of Negro History
VOL. I., No. 4 October, 1916
The title of a possible discussion of
the Negro in Louisiana presents difficulties, for there is no such word as
Negro permissible in speaking of this State. The history of the State is
filled with attempts to define, sometimes at the point of the sword,
oftenest in civil or criminal courts, the meaning of the word Negro. By
common consent, it came to mean in Louisiana, prior to 1865, slave, and
after the war, those whose complexions were noticeably dark. As Grace King
so delightfully puts it, "The pure-blooded African was never called colored,
but always Negro." The gens de couleur, colored people, were always a class
apart, separated from and superior to the Negroes, ennobled were it only by
one drop of white blood in their veins. The caste seems to have existed from
the first introduction of slaves. To the whites, all Africans who were not
of pure blood were gens de couleur. Among themselves, however, there were
jealous and fiercely-guarded distinctions: "griffes, briqués, mulattoes,
quadroons, octoroons, each term meaning one degree's further transfiguration
toward the Caucasian standard of physical perfection."1
1. King, "New Orleans, the Place and the
People during the Ancien Regime," 333.
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The Haitian Revolution, 1791 to 1804: Or, Side Lights On the
French Revolution
By Theophilus Gould
Steward
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This
book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or
blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were
either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the
scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important,
and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back
into print as part of our continuing commitment to the
preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your
understanding of the imperfections
in
the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable
book.—Amazon.com |
 |
The Haitian Revolution, 1791 to 1804. By T. G. Steward. Thomas Y.
Crowell Company, New York, 1915. 292 pages. $1.25.
Reviewed by J.R. Fauset. The Journal of Negro
History. Vol. I., No. 1,
January. 1916.
In the days when the internal
dissensions of Haiti are again thrusting her into the limelight such a book
as this of Mr. Steward assumes a peculiar importance. It combines the
unusual advantage of being both very readable and at the same time
historically dependable. At the outset the author gives a brief sketch of
the early settlement of Haiti, followed by a short account of her
development along commercial and racial lines up to the Revolution of 1791.
The story of this upheaval, of course, forms the basis of the book and is
indissolubly connected with the story of Toussaint L'Overture. To most
Americans this hero is known only as the subject of Wendell Phillips's
stirring eulogy. As delineated by Mr. Steward, he becomes a more human
creature, who performs exploits, that are nothing short of marvelous. Other
men who have seemed to many of us merely names—Rigaud,
Le Clerc, Desalines, and the like--are also fully discussed.
Although most of the book is naturally
concerned with the revolutionary period, the author brings his account up to
date by giving a very brief resumé of the history of Haiti from 1804 to the
present time. This history is marked by the frequent occurrence of
assassinations and revolutions, but the reader will not allow himself to be
affected by disgust or prejudice at these facts particularly when he is
reminded, as Mr. Steward says, "that the political history of Haiti does not
differ greatly from that of the majority of South American Republics, nor
does it differ widely even from that of France."
The book lacks a topical index,
somewhat to its own disadvantage, but it contains a map of Haiti, a rather
confusing appendix, a list of the Presidents of Haiti from 1804 to 1906 and
a list of the names and works of the more noted Haitian authors. The author
does not give a complete bibliography. He simply mentions in the beginning
the names of a few authorities consulted.— J. R.
Fauset.
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* * *
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Life on Mars
By Tracy K. Smith
Tracy K. Smith, author of Life on Mars has been selected as the winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. In its review of the book, Publishers Weekly noted the collection's "lyric brilliance" and "political impulses [that] never falter." A New York Times review stated, "Smith is quick to suggest that the important thing is not to discover whether or not we're alone in the universe; it's to accept—or at least endure—the universe's mystery. . . . Religion, science, art: we turn to them for answers, but the questions persist, especially in times of grief. Smith's pairing of the philosophically minded poems in the book’s first section with the long elegy for her father in the second is brilliant." Life on Mars follows Smith's 2007 collection, Duende, which won the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets, the only award for poetry in the United States given to support a poet's second book, and the first Essence Literary Award for poetry, which recognizes the literary achievements of African Americans. The Body’s Question (2003) was her first published collection.
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A Wreath for Emmett Till
By Marilyn Nelson; Illustrated by
Philippe Lardy
This memorial to
the lynched teen is in the Homeric
tradition of poet-as-historian. It is a
heroic crown of sonnets in Petrarchan
rhyme scheme and, as such, is quite
formal not only in form but in language.
There are 15 poems in the cycle, the
last line of one being the first line of
the next, and each of the first lines
makes up the entirety of the 15th. This
chosen formality brings distance and
reflection to readers, but also calls
attention to the horrifically ugly
events. The language is highly
figurative in one sonnet, cruelly
graphic in the next. The illustrations
echo the representative nature of the
poetry, using images from nature and
taking advantage of the emotional
quality of color. There is an
introduction by the author, a page about
Emmett Till, and literary and poetical
footnotes to the sonnets. The artist
also gives detailed reasoning behind his
choices. This underpinning information
makes this a full experience, eminently
teachable from several aspects,
including historical and literary—School
Library Journal |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
* *
* * *
Ancient African Nations
* * * * *
If you like this page consider making a donation
* * * * *
Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
* * * * *
The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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