Harrowing experience of Haiti – the “unluckiest country”
Context of the catastrophe, and of the culture
The tragedy of Haiti has gripped our attention. The commentators have commented, the reporters have reported, and the stars and entrepreneurs have done what they do when there is an international catastrophe. This “unluckiest” country has been pitied – and in several quarters criticised – for its economic and social plight. The photographs, the words and the film show a harrowing experience. Yet there has been little attempt to put the current situation in its historical and current context, or to explain the country’s decline for its days of riches.
Yes, Haiti was once very rich. Its sugar – and coffee – funded Western European affluence. It was once the richest colonial jewel in the crown of France. The pressures which ripped that land apart in the French Revolution of 1789 found their match in the slave uprising in Saint-Domingue, as the country was then known. (Franco-phone Haiti shares the island of Hispaniola with the Spanish-speaking Dominican Republic). Napoleon Bonaparte, heir to the French Revolution, sought to re-impose slavery. In the struggle against their former colonial masters the Haitians became the first state to be established as the result of a slave revolt – there was a similar successful uprising in Brazil but that was not permanent.
Haiti was riven by revolt and war as sections of society were played off against each other. Toussaint L’Ouverture was betrayed and died in exile, Jean-Jacques Dessalines was assassinated, and Henri Christophe shot himself. Less colourful, Petion and Boyer negotiated a way round hurdles. Yet what was gained by arms and politics was lost by the crushing economic burden which France imposed on Haiti to ensure its independence. The country was free but without the freedom to make free choices.
In the last hundred years Haiti was suffered from the predicament ascribed to Mexico of being “so far from God and so near to the U.S.A.”. Whether it has been in the occupation of the country from 1915-1934, upholding the dictatorship of the Duvalier dynasty, to intervention after the election of recent president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the Americans have been as much big bother as big brother. As the view most people has been tinted by the sinister, voodoo ambiance of the James Bond film “Live and Let Die” and the Graham Greene novel/film “The Comedians” of the Duvalier years it is perhaps easy to understand why Haiti has not had a favourable “press”.
This outline is indeed only an outline. The New African monthly magazine (issue February 2010), however, carries a feature - "Why is Haiti poor" - which does give the context of the catastrophe and the culture – the painters, in particular, are among the foremost in the world. It hasn’t been the fault of the Haitians alone that their land has become the “unluckiest” country.
Clayton Goodwin
5th February 2010
