While post-Black vapors have intoxicated contemporary culture, many of our favorite books of 2011 were part of a wave of scholarship that re-evaluated the Black Arts Movement and the Black Power era and took a second look at a long-ago time when “black” was still Black. In Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and […]
Monthly Archives: December 2011
Punta de Maisí, Guantánamo, Cuba, 25 December 2011
“Cuban military searches for survivors after 38 Haitian migrants die on boat,” The Telegraph (25 December 2011) Image: Cory MacDonald, Haitian Refugee Boat on the Beach at the Naval Station Key West (1970s). World Digital Library.
Monestime and Mattawa
One morning in 1951, Dr. S.F. Monestime, a Haitian-born surgeon, sped along the highways of northern Ontario enroute to a new practice in the city of Timmins. Becoming hungry, he decided to have breakfast along the way. The stop-off he chose was a place called Mattawa, and the decision changed his life. “Doctor gets call […]
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The Société Congo of the Ile á Gonave
These societies bear individual names and operate separately. In fact there is no central organization and the term Société Congo only designates the kind of society. The purpose of these organizations is fourfold. First, they are cooperative labor groups; second, the members are afforded protection; third, they are mutual benefit societies; and fourth, they provide […]
In the Dominican Republic the cause is the consequence: you are Black because you are Haitian; you are Haitian because you are Black.
On December 2, 2011, the Supreme Court of the Dominican Republic upheld a racist law denying citizenship to the children of Haitian immigrants born in the country. Two days later, Sonia Pierre, the indefatigable activist forthe human rights of those Dominicans of Haitian descent denied citizenship under the law, died suddenly at the age of […]
Haiti: The Aid-Industrial Complex
…most of the money has either not yet been spent or has not been efficiently used to rebuild the country… Ilio Durandis, “Haiti’s Aid-Industrial Complex,” Caribbean Journal (5 December 2001) Image: Airmen airdrop relief supplies to Haitians: A Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., C-17 Globemaster III airdrops approximately 14,000 bottles of water and 14,500 Meals, […]
Surrealism and Haiti
Jean Duché: It seems you had a hand in the Haitian revolution. Could you comment on exactly what happened? André Breton: Let’s not exaggerate. At the end of 1945, the poverty, and consequently the patience, of the Haitian people had reached a breaking point. You have to realize that, on the huge Ile de la Gonave […]