Divisiveness: Haiti's age-old cancer

This September 20, 2023, marks the 265th birth anniversary of Jean-Jacques Dessalines. The one who took up the torch of the struggle for Freedom and the Dignity of the human Being, as general-in-chief of the indigenous Army after the capture and deportation of the genius Toussaint Louverture by the French. However, this date is unknown to the vast majority of Haitians since the date of his death has always been put forward, unlike the day of his birth.

While browsing, on this day, some ancient texts relating the high deeds, the clairvoyance and the vision of the great General, I asked myself a few questions. There is one that has kept coming back: How did we get so low after having known the peak of Glory and Dignity, passing from the Great Jean-Jacques Dessalines to the "leaders" of recent times? I have been trying hard to answer this question for quite a while. I have come to the conclusion that there is not a single cause, a single reason, but that there is one that has primacy.

To understand the situation of Haiti nowadays, we must go back in time, we must go back very far, either to the war of independence, this patriotic war waged for the inalienable and imprescriptible rights of the human person. It was not, from the point of view of our ancestors as it was for the Napoleonians, an ethnic or racial war. Haiti was for a long time the tiara of the French royal crown, the most prosperous of the European colonies. The events of August 1791 caused the French colonial authority to waver on the territory, the slaves demanding their freedom with weapons in hand. They finally got it in 1793. The convulsions on the island have not stopped despite this major gain. In 1802, Napoleon decided to restore slavery in the colony, the former slaves, under the leadership of Toussaint Louverture refuse to return to the chains. Toussaint Louverture is arrested and deported to France. Jean-Jacques Dessalines took over. With his generals, his officers and his soldiers determined to defeat tyranny, he beat flatly the Armies of Napoleon sent to restore slavery. Independence was officially proclaimed on January 1st, 1804, realizing the amazement of the century.

Dessalines, who has become Head of State of the young Nation, is assassinated by a quarter of generals and officers driven by their personal interests and the desire to invest the top of power. We must see there the beginnings of the problems of this country. It followed the division of the country into two distinct entities: Alexandre Pétion in the south and Henry Christophe in the north. This assassination and this inability to get along for people who nevertheless participated together in the Emperor's magnicide, created the fertile ground for widespread chaos and civil war.

It is necessary to wait for the presidency of Jean-Pierre Boyer to see a small period of peace between Haitians appear. Nevertheless, the same Boyer agreed to pay a ransom to France in 1825 in exchange for the recognition of independence. This ransom, a pharaonic sum which represents today, according to the calculations of a consortium of economists from the New York Times, 115 billion US dollars, too heavy for the young Nation, has plunged the country permanently into debt and the masses into misery. In addition, it allows, for the first time in our history, a foreign power to put its nose in our affairs. We had, therefore, lost part of our independence acquired by the sword and the bayonet.

The situation did not improve during the entire 19th and 20th century. The civil wars continue. So is debt. The struggles for power as well. The administrative and financial strategy is well present. We take power almost exclusively by coups d'état. Between 1915 and 1934, the United States occupied the country, this did not change much despite a certain political stability. On the contrary, the United States despoiled us (as early as 1914), by grabbing the gold stock of the national bank. The only result of this occupation and which was one of their objectives: to damage the pride of this arrogant little Negro people from the Caribbean who dared to defy the avalanches of the largest Army in the world, that of Napoleon.

Despite the American withdrawal in 1934, the country remains subject to a form of tutelage from Washington. Indeed, they put their protégés in power, have a right to review Haiti's internal decisions, support dictators and authoritarian and corrupt rulers like François and Jean-Claude Duvalier. They "dismiss" or participate in the overthrow of power those who want real change in the country and who do not kneel before them.

Despite the importance of foreign participation in the making of this terrible Haiti that is before us at the moment, the racket that the country has been subjected to by France and other powers, the role of the Americans in supporting dictators and political instability, our responsibility as a Haitian remains immense.

The present situation finds its source in the division, the one that began on October 17, 1806 and which continues with an elite that is cutting itself off from the masses, "who no longer thinks country, but who thinks "class community". I don't confuse division with divergence. The latter is normal in any society. It is even consubstantial to democracy. It is also in the division between mulattoes and Haitians from overseas and the Negro mass. It is in the division between the city and the countryside and the marginalization of the peasant. She is in the division between those who speak French and the majority who speak Creole, considered illiterate, uneducated, uncivilized. She is in the internal struggles for power between potential leaders who are often devoid of patriotic vision, height of view, build to lead the country. Furthermore, it is in the incessant coups d'état which are as many regressions for us. Likewise, it is in this mania of systematically excluding people from the bowels of the masses, the nameless, who, by dint of sacrifices, manage to form themselves who, by virtue of their experience, their origin, are able to understand the situation of the working and peasant classes.

This division is today the major cause of our misfortunes, of the calamities that overwhelm us. Many countries exist to remind us of the need to unite to address problems together, to put aside our personal ambitions and our dissensions to say ya basta!, this people can no longer suffer. Although I am not a follower of the Rwandan president and his practices, I often wonder what could have made it possible to change the face of Rwanda, a country ravaged by a civil war and a genocide. In less than 20 years, this African country has been able to rise from the ashes and today counts among the most stable states in Africa. I realize that Rwandans have reconciled after the painful episodes of 1994. Maybe we need to have a look at the trajectory of South Korea, the Dominican Republic or Costa Rica! And I also realize that what we need to get out of this slump, to remove this shameful label of "the poorest country in America" that has stuck under our skin for several decades, to restore to our people the lost pride, to prevent our Nation from emptying of its most valiant citizens in search of a better life elsewhere where they receive, very often, only spitting and humiliation, to simply prevent our country from dying, we must put an end to division, we must return to this spirit that presided over the birth of our State. It is simply necessary to put an end to the division in order to rebuild the most glorious Republic of the New World. We must find the way back to Unity!

Louinel ESTIMABLE

Bibliography

GAMIO, Lazaro, MÉHEUT, Constant, PORTER, Catherine, GEBREKIDAN, Selam, MCCANN, Allison et APUZZO, Matt, 2022. Les Milliards Envolés. The New York Times. [en ligne]. 20 mai 2022. [Consulté le 23 septembre 2023]. Disponible à l’adresse: https://www.nytimes.com/fr/interactive/2022/05/20/world/americas/haiti-france-dette-reparations.html