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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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Haiti on the UN Occupation
on the 92nd anniversary
of the first US occupation of Haiti (1915- 1934)
July 28th 2007
marks exactly ninety-two years since our country was
first invaded and occupied by the United States. Since
then the country is officially been under total
domination by American Imperialism.
In 1492 the
Spanish colonial power came to this part of the world to
amass a vast quantity of our wealth. They killed the
first Indigenous people—the Indians. After this horrible
massacre of the Indians they went out and snatched the
Africans to make them slaves. But after long centuries
of struggle, the rebellious slaves finally defeated the
French and kicked them out of Haiti. In spite of their
well-earned victories, the French colonial powers and
their allies systematically demanded that the new
Haitian authorities pay them for a so-called "debt of
independence."
The plundering of
our natural resources, the paying of that so called
debt, ninety two years of American domination upon the
country taking all types of forms; all of that brought
about extreme difficulties for the country. All of that
constitutes real barriers to have and enjoy real and
durable independence.
They also put in
jeopardy all tentative by the popular sectors to
establish a different kind of society, free of
domination and exploitation.
In 1915, U.S
imperialism invaded Haiti to encourage big capitalist
enterprises to make the rich richer; they came and
seized our gold reserve in the Central Bank. The biggest
resistance they faced came from the peasant sectors.
Under the direction of Charlemagne Perate and Benoit
Batraville, the peasants were able to organize
themselves into the Caco guerillas resistance against
the occupation. The American military massacred many
hundreds of peasants that were the integral part of that
army of the resistance through treachery and deception.
In October 1994,
the American military invaded the country a second
time to bring about the return of Aristide and at the
same time apply the nefarious neo-liberal plan. After
Aristide mandate, Preval came to exactly continue the
same plan. Under the second occupation, Preval started
to liquidate the state enterprises. Meanwhile the
Haitian government sold out the Minoterie d' Haiti
(National Flour Company) and the Ciment d' Haiti (The
National Cement Company).
Nowadays many other
state Enterprises are being threatened and are underway
to be sold under the government of President Preval and
his Prime Minister Alexis.
In 2004, at exactly
the time of the 200th Celebration of Haiti's
Independence, American, French and Canadian troops
invaded our soil. Several months later the Minustha
(United Nations) forces took over to continue the
occupation.
It is the Minustha
that is taking care of Police reforms, it is also them
that is reforming Haitian Justice. They are present in
all sphere and important institutions of the State in
order to continue carrying their plan to push projects
that liquidate the State Holdings or keep it under
imperialism domination and the rule of the corrupt
bourgeoisie.
In this historical
crossroad we are facing today, we the undersigned
organizations are making this important historical
call to all progressive forces to fight in unity for the
defense and the autonomy of this country, We essentially
ask all popular organizations and progressive forces to
come forward and unite in that fight. We do not want an
occupied country where foreign diplomats and U.N
soldiers are the arrogant caretakers. We want a free
country that exists for those that live in it. We want
an autonomous state that exists in the interest of the
masses of people.
To come to the
realization of that autonomous state, we ask that the
current government in place.
1) Stop renewing
the Minustha mandate in Haiti.
2) Stop engaging
Haiti in neo-liberal death policies, "free market," the
privatization of the state enterprises. These policies
only bring more misery, unemployment, and insecurity to
the country.
3) Stop paying the
I.M.F and World Bank loans and debts and use the monies
to provide health, education, and other services to the
population.
4) Immediately
address the crisis of the management of the State
Enterprises. Get the State Enterprises to function
properly and keep them as the property of the country.
To come to the
realization of that autonomous state, we ask that the
current government in place.
1) Stop renewing
the Minustha mandate in Haiti.
2) Stop engaging
Haiti in neo-liberal death policies, "free market,"
theprivatization of the state enterprises... These
policies only bring more misery, unemployment, and
insecurity to the country.
3) Stop paying the
I.M.F and World Bank loans and debts and use the monies
to provide health, education, and other services to the
population.
4) Immediately
address the crisis of the management of the State
Enterprises. Get the State Enterprises to function
properly and keep them as the property of the country.
Down with occupation!
Down with privatization!
Long live a free and sovereign Haiti!
Long live Haiti's State Enterprises!
We, the undersigned members of
M.D.P (Movement for Popular Democracy),
Tet Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen (Unity of poor/little Haitians peasants),
Chandel (Popular Organization for Popular Education),
Morap (Movement for Reflexion and Popular Action,
Move (Organized movement for Efficient Life),
SAJ/Veye Yo (Solidarity among the Youth/Vigilance)
are making this
unity call for general mobilization, all over the
country against the U.N occupying forces (Minustha)
in/our territory.
(Unofficial English Translation by Lionel O Legros,
Aug.3, 2007)
Source. E-mail:
TiLyon25@aol.com
) * * * *
* Marguerite 'Ezili Dantò' Laurent,
Esq.Founder and Chair, Haitian Lawyers Leadership
Network ("HLLN") (Dedicated to protecting the full
civil, human, economic and cultural rights of Haitians
living at home and abroad) April 15, 2007
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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 |
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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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Salvage the Bones
A Novel by Jesmyn Ward
On one level, Salvage the Bones is a simple story about a poor black family that’s about to be trashed by one of the most deadly hurricanes in U.S. history. What makes the novel so powerful, though, is the way Ward winds private passions with that menace gathering force out in the Gulf of Mexico. Without a hint of pretension, in the simple lives of these poor people living among chickens and abandoned cars, she evokes the tenacious love and desperation of classical tragedy. The force that pushes back against Katrina’s inexorable winds is the voice of Ward’s narrator, a 14-year-old girl named Esch, the only daughter among four siblings. Precocious, passionate and sensitive, she speaks almost entirely in phrases soaked in her family’s raw land. Everything here is gritty, loamy and alive, as though the very soil were animated. Her brother’s “blood smells like wet hot earth after summer rain. . . . His scalp looks like fresh turned dirt.” Her father’s hands “are like gravel,” while her own hand “slides through his grip like a wet fish,” and a handsome boy’s “muscles jabbered like chickens.” Admittedly, Ward can push so hard on this simile-obsessed style that her paragraphs risk sounding like a compost heap, but this isn’t usually just metaphor for metaphor’s sake. She conveys something fundamental about Esch’s fluid state of mind: her figurative sense of the world in which all things correspond and connect. She and her brothers live in a ramshackle house steeped in grief since their mother died giving birth to her last child. . . . What remains, what’s salvaged, is something indomitable in these tough siblings, the strength of their love, the permanence of their devotion.— WashingtonPost
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Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist
at Work
By Edwidge Danticat
Create Dangerously
is an eloquent and moving expression of
Danticat's belief that immigrant artists
are obliged to bear witness when their
countries of origin are suffering from
violence, oppression, poverty, and
tragedy.
In this deeply personal book, the
celebrated Haitian-American writer
Edwidge Danticat reflects on art and
exile, examining what it means to be an
immigrant artist from a country in
crisis. Inspired by Albert Camus'
lecture, "Create Dangerously," and
combining memoir and essay, Danticat
tells the stories of artists, including
herself, who create despite, or because
of, the horrors that drove them from
their homelands and that continue to
haunt them. Danticat eulogizes an aunt
who guarded her family's homestead in
the Haitian countryside, a cousin who
died of AIDS while living in Miami as an
undocumented alien, and a renowned
Haitian radio journalist whose political
assassination shocked the world.
Danticat writes about the Haitian novelists she
first read as a girl at the Brooklyn Public Library,
a woman mutilated in a machete attack who became a
public witness against torture, and the work of
Jean-Michel Basquiat and other artists of Haitian
descent. Danticat also suggests that the aftermaths
of natural disasters in Haiti and the United States
reveal that the countries are not as different as
many Americans might like to believe..—CaribbeanLiterarySalon
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Review and Interview by Kam Williams |
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13 January 2012
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