Monthly Archives: December 2012

Radical Black Reading/Reading Haiti, 2012

Easily the most hyped Haiti-related book to come out in the past year was Purpose: An Immigrant Story (It Books), the memoir of rapper-turned-presidential-candidate Wyclef Jean. They say Purpose is actually not that bad, especially if you’re interested in either Clef’s take on the dissolution of the Fugees or his embittered account of his agonized […]

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10 Books For 2012

Ten books we read in 2012 that surprised us, stayed with us, and made us see the world in a different light. Listed in no particular order. William Alpheus Hunton, Decision in Africa: Sources of Current Conflict (International Publishers, 1960). Walter Rodney approvingly cites Hunton’s Decision in Africa in his How Europe Underdeveloped Africa but […]

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Michel-Rolph Trouillot on Sans Souci

In the northern mountains of the Republic of Haiti, there is an old palace called Sans Souci that many urbanites and neighbouring peasants revere as one of the most important historical monuments of their country. The palace — what remains of it — stands on a small elevation between the higher hills surrounding the town […]

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Politics, Security, Commerce: Wikileaks and Haiti

Guest Post by Ansel Herz: @ansel If you had free reign over classified networks… and you saw incredible things, awful things… things that belonged in the public domain, and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC… what would you do?” “God knows what happens now. Hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and […]

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Eric Williams on the Haitian Peasant

We must not, however, be romantic about this question of peasant proprietorship. Peasant ownership, by itself, is no solution of the agricultural problem of the Caribbean. Haiti is the glaring example. The average holding is small, from three to six acres, and lots of one-fifth an acre are not uncommon. The method of cultivation is […]

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