Tag Archives: Duvalier
Jean-Claude Duvalier
Jean‑Claude Duvalier was Haiti’s “president for life” from 1971 to 1986, succeeding his father François “Papa Doc” Duvalier. The Duvaliers are estimated to have ordered the deaths of between twenty and thirty thousand Haitian civilians. The brutality of their government created the modern Haitian diaspora, driving hundreds of thousands of Haitians [...]
Posted in Haiti Also tagged 1957, 1971, 1986, 2011, americas, archives, democracy, dictatorship, Haiti, history, United States 3 Comments
Port-au-Prince
inside the car
françois and i
could see the light
coming from the
cigarette michelle
duvalier was smoking
her husband
declared president
for life looked like
a fat chauffer
sitting behind the
wheel
françois
and i smiled
the small
procession of cars
slipping past us
in the dark
we did not know
that a few miles
away people were
already celebrating
nor could we see
the joy on the faces
of the men who ran
holding knives [...]
Posted in Haiti Also tagged 1986, archives, dictatorship, Haiti, history, Port-au-Prince, representation 3 Comments
François Duvalier, Haiti and the Republic of Biafra
The vocation of the first independent Negro Republic in the world to secure everywhere the defence of the prestige and dignity of our race, its conditions of an extra-continental state added to the fact that it does not seek any personal advantage, put Haiti in a privileged position to cause the voice of right, wisdom [...]
Haiti: February 7, 1986
Twenty-five years after Jean-Claude Duvalier left power, scores of his alleged victims are still awaiting justice. This Amnesty International video from 1985 contains testimonies of the widespread arbitrary detentions and torture.
Amnesty International (7 February 2011)
Haiti: Jean-Claude Duvalier
But if the father had been awesome yet comprehensible, the son, inheriting power as a nineteen-year-old cipher, had gradually emerged as something else, something foreign and decadent.
Mark Danner, “Beyond the Mountains,” The New Yorker (November 27, 1989, December 4, 1989, December 11, 1989)
The paranoia of the Duvalier family … is surpassed only by [...]
Haiti: Joe Gaetjens
“Outside the lines: A Goal, a Ghost,” ESPN Soccernet (May 30, 2010)
Posted in Haiti Also tagged americas, football, Haiti, history, independence, soccer, United States, world cup Leave a comment
Haiti: Daniel Fignolé
Daniel Fignolé, promises F.D.R.-style New Deal. A Negro, he is allied with Louis Dejoi to break François Duvalier’s strength among Negroes.
“Chaos in a Caribbean Hotspot,” Life (June 3, 1957)
Pierre Eustache Daniel Fignolé has been alternately dubbed ‘a Communist,’ ‘a politial genius,’ ‘a vagabond’ and ‘the darling of the street mobs.’ He is proud of [...]
Jean-Claude Duvalier, February 8, 1986