A prodigal luxury was, indeed, the most striking feature of life. “Everything at San Domingo,” writes Moreau de Saint-Méry, “takes on a character of opulence which astonishes the European.” People dined “‘á la creole’ — that is to say, with profusion,” and their tables were served by such numbers of waiting-men as cut off the […]
Monthly Archives: February 2011
Mademoiselle Desgots de Saint Domingue et son nègre Laurent
Jamaica, Haiti, Anti-Haitianism
Quelle est l’image d’Haiti entretenue à travers le monde? Quelle est l’image d’Haiti qu’ont les Haïtiens? Ce sont les questions que je me pose depuis que la nouvelle du traitement infligé à notre équipe U-17 à la Jamaïque s’est répandue dans le pays. Nadève Ménard, “Une question d’image,” Tande (20 février 2011) The expulsion of the Haitian National U-17 football team from Jamaica has led to anti-Jamaican […]
Haiti, Menelik and Ethiopia
The Battle of Adwa, in which Ethiopian forces under Emperor Menelik II united to defeat an invading force of Italian troops, was one of the most significant turning points in the history of modern Africa. It occurred, in 1896, when the “colonial era” was well advanced on the African continent, and it served notice that […]
Collectif Paroles: Revue culturelle et politique haïtienne
Collectif Paroles: Revue culturelle et politique haïtienne (Montreal, Quebec, Canada 1979-1987). A digital archive of almost all of Collectif Paroles’ back issues may be found at the website for le Centre International de Documentation et d’Information Haïtienne, Caribéenne et Afro-canadienne (CIDIHCA).
Haiti: PEPPADEP and the Cochon Creole
Recognizing the threat that African Swine Fever constitutes for the United States and the rest of the Western Hemisphere, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has worked with countries that have suffered outbreaks. When an ASF outbreak occurred in the Dominican Republic in 1978, APHIS supported the country’s […]
To Toussaint L’Ouverture
Toussaint, the most unhappy of men! Whether the whistling Rustic tend his plough Within thy hearing, or thy head be now Pillowed in some deep dungeon’s earless den; – O miserable Chieftain! where and when Wilt thou find patience? Yet die not; do thou Wear rather in thy bonds a cheerful brow: Though fallen thyself, […]
Haiti: Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a former priest and liberation theologist who rose to become Haiti’s first democratically elected president in 1991, but was overthrown in a coup later that year. He returned to power from 1994 to 1996, won another election amid boycotts in 2000 and was then ousted again four years later. “Haiti opens door […]
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)