Haiti, African Liberation and Nationhood – where courage is not enough
By Femi Olugbile
Two weeks ago, an indictment was unsealed in the USA against a man named Bazile Richardson, a naturalised American citizen. He was indicted along with his collaborator, a resident of Port-au-Prince, Haiti named Jimmy Cherizier but better known to the hapless residents of Port-au-Prince and the rest of the Haitian nation as ‘Barbecue’.
Richardson, also known as Fredo, or Fred Lion, was charged with leading a conspiracy to transfer funds collected from members of the Haitian diaspora in the USA, to ‘Barbecue’ to fund his gang activities in Haiti. A reward of five million dollars was announced for anyone who could provide information that would lead to the arrest and conviction of ‘Barbecue’.
The announcement of the bounty on Barbecue sounded like an ironic joke, since everyone knew that Barbecue, along with other Haitian gang members, was ‘hiding in plain sight’, literally controlling the streets and the lives of the people in the capital and several other parts of Haiti. They have done so for a long time, making government and normal life virtually impossible in the country.
Haiti, a country of eleven and a half million people in the Caribbeans, was the first ‘black’ nation to achieve ‘independence’ from colonial rule. If only for that fact, the country and its fortunes – or misfortunes, should be matters of interest to everyone with a pan-African interest.
There is a special connection with Nigeria. Many of the people who were taken to the nation that would later be known as Haiti as slaves came from the land that would later be known as Nigeria. Many came from the eastern part of the Nigerian nation and have ethnic links that may still be discerned from extant cultural and religious practices. Perhaps significantly, Haiti was one of the four nations that gave diplomatic recognition to Biafra during the Nigerian civil war.
Many African children in school learned of Toussaint Louverture as one of the romantic figures of African ancestry in the black diaspora, a real-life ‘Wakanda’ superhero. Toussaint was born as a slave in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, now known as Haiti, in 1743. In that century, huge numbers of people were taken in the trans-Atlantic slave trade from the West Coast of Africa and conveyed to the island to work on sugar and coffee plantations run by European – mostly French, landowners.
Toussaint became a ‘freed slave’ as an adult, and for some time worked as an overseer in his former master’s plantation, before becoming a wealthy coffee planter in his own right.
At nearly fifty years of age, he joined the slave revolt that started in 1791. He was a natural leader and a brave and brilliant tactician. He deftly allied his fighters initially with Spanish Forces on nearby Santo Domingo, then worked with the Republican government of France when it pronounced the abolition of slavery in the French colonies. He gradually overpowered his rivals and established control over the whole island. He worked to balance security and economy, restoring the plantations that had been destroyed by the slaves when they revolted and murdered their white masters. He replaced slave labour with paid labour. He established an administration that created its own constitution and named himself as ‘Governor General for Life’.
His audacity was seen as challenging the authority of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1802 he was lured to a meeting with a French General. He was arrested and deported to France, where he was put in jail. He died the following year.
Toussaint’s achievements and the hopes he had aroused in slaves and former slaves laid the groundwork for the horrendously violent slave revolution that was to follow, when the army of slaves, under his lieutenant Jean-Jacques Dessalines, drove a decimated and dispirited French army away from the island and declared independence on 1st January 1804.
It was the only known slave rebellion in history that led to the founding of a nation ruled by black former slaves.
The story of Haiti since Toussaint’s time has been a tragicomedy.
It had a succession of short-lived ‘Emperors’ and other rulers. It was a founding member of the United Nations and the Organisation of American States (OAS).
The modern era for the country began with the 1957 election which ushered in a medical doctor named Francois Duvalier, aka Papa Doc. Voodoo, the distorted traditional religion the slaves brought over from West Africa, was the predominant religion in the land, sometimes mixed with Christian rituals. Papa Doc created a cult figure known as Baron Samedi to intimidate the people spiritually. He also created a private militia – the Tonton Macoute.
He was succeeded by his son, ‘Baby Doc’, who followed his footsteps.
Earthquakes, famine, civil unrest, poverty, criminality, with a perennial failure of governance and an almost total dependence on foreign aid – these have been the hallmarks of the drama of Haiti from the times of Papa Doc.
A major part of the travails of Haitians have come from ‘frenemies’ such as France, which, with characteristic greed and ruthlessness, insisted on extracting its pound of flesh from its erstwhile colony; and the USA – the overbearing neighbour, which has interfered at every turn, exclusively in pursuit of its own national interests.
But most of the nation’s problems – the failure of governance, corruption, the mass hopelessness and the impunity of gang violence have been caused by Haitians themselves.
A detachment of Police from Kenya is in the land, trying to train Haitian Police and help the Interim Government to enforce a non-existent peace. America is helping in its own way, mostly motivated by the Trump government’s desire to cut down immigration of Haitians into its territory.
Who will rescue Haiti and create an environment for meaningful life – a true nation-state, for these ‘Nigerians in exile’? Kenya at least ‘donated’ its policemen, though only in the teeth of massive opposition from the Kenyan public. Should the rest of Africa, with its hands full of its own problems, continue to look away?
