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Haiti

Black and White, Love and Haiti

By Jheri St. James

Black

The Republic of Haiti was the only nation whose independence was gained as part of a successful slave rebellion, the first post-colonial Black-led nation in the world, and the first independent nation in Latin America. Despite having cultural links with its Hispano-Caribbean neighbors, Haiti is the only predominantly French-speaking nations in the Americas, Haitian Creole being the other. It occupies the mountainous western side of the island of Haspaniola in the Great Antillean archipelago.

A woman bathes inside a muddy pool of water considered to be sacred during a Voodoo ceremony in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Photo: Ariana Cubillos/AP)

Christopher Columbus landed at Mole Saint-Nicolas on December 5, 1492 and claimed the island for Spain. Nineteen days later, his ship, the Santa Maria ran aground near the present site of Sap-Haitien. Columbus was forced to leave 39 men, founding the settlement of La Navidad. Following the destruction of La Navidad by the Amerindians, Columbus moved to the eastern side of the island and established La Isabela.

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One of the earliest leaders to fight off Spanish conquest was Queen Anacaona, a Taino princess fro Zaragua who married Chief Caonabo. The two resisted European rule but she was captured by the Spanisha nd executed in front of her people. To this day, Anacaona is revered as the Golden Flower in Haiti, with many claiming her to be a significant icon in early Haitian history and consequently a primordial founder of their country. No less a poet laureate than Alfred Lord Tennyson celebrated Queen Anacaona in the following poem.

ANACAONA
A dark Indian [Taino] maiden,
Warbling in the bloom'd liana,
Stepping lightly flower-laden,
By the crimson-eyed anana,
Wantoning in orange groves
Naked, and dark-limb'd, and gay,

Bathing in the slumbrous coves,
In the cocoa-shadow'd coves,
Of sunbright Xaraguay,
Who was so happy as Anacaona,
The beauty of Espagnola,
The golden flower of Hayti ?

In the purple island,
Crown'd with garlands of cinchona,
Lady over wood and highland,
The Indian queen, Anacaona.
Dancing on Uic blossomy plain
To a woodland melody :
Playing with the scarlet crane,
The dragon-fly and scarlet crane,
Beneath the papao tree !
Happy, happy was Anacaona,
The beauty of Espagnola,
The golden flower of Hayti!

Naked, without fear, moving To her Areyto's mellow ditty, Waving a palm branch, wondering, loving, Carolling "Happy, happy Hayti!" She gave the white men welcome all, With her damsels by the bay; For they were fair-faced and tall, They were more fair-faced and tall, Than the men of Xaraguay, And they smiled on Anacaona, The beauty of Espagnola, The golden flower of Hayti! Following her wild carol She led them down the pleasant places, For they were kingly in apparel, Loftily stepping with fair faces. But never more upon the shore Dancing at the break of day, In the deep wood no more, By the deep sea no more, No more in Xaraguay Wander'd happy Anacaona, The beauty of Espagnola, The golden flower of Hayti !

Google.com images: http://www.rara.Wesleyan.edu/carnival/index.php

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White

President Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative sponsored his trip to the island in March 2009 with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and a delegation of business and philanthropic leaders to help focus attention on the country’s continuing efforts to “build back better” from storm damage in 2008 and create a more stable and prosperous future for the people of Haiti. “So often the people and places ravaged by natural disasters are forgotten only months after they are hit by storms that destroy entire communities and livelihoods,” President Clinton said. “I am hopeful that my trip to Haiti with Secretary General Ban K-moon will help remind the world that there is a lot that we each can do, working with the people of Haiti to help expand education, health, and job opportunities in Haiti, even during these hard economic times.”

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Tracy Kidder wrote a book called Mountain Beyond Mountains. A journalist, Tracy was doing a story on American soldiers sent to Haiti to reinstate the country’s democratically elected government. The title of his book comes from a Haitian proverb which is loosely translated “Beyond mountains there are mountains.” Haitians use this phrase in many different ways. Sometimes it’s used to express the idea that opportunities are inexhaustible and sometimes as a way of saying that when you surmount one great obstacle you merely gain a clear view of the next one. It is also a pretty accurate description of the topography and life experience of a lot of Haiti and her people.

Kidder’s book is a study of Paul Farmer, a medical anthropologist and physician who has provided medical care to some of the poorest populations in the world. The second of six childen who spent most of his childhood in Florida living on a bus and a houseboat moored in a bayou on the Gulf Coast, he is now chairman of Harvard Medical School’s Department of Global Health and Social Medicine. He is expected to become the Obama administration’s nominee to head the United States Agency for International Development. The agency has been without a director since President Obama took office. In 1987, Dr. Farmer co-founded an organization called Partners in Health, a non-profit agency based in Boston. The organization provides medical services to the poor of Haiti, Rwanda, Peru and Russia, as well as Boston. Dr. Farmer has pioneered treament programs for infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in poor communities around the world.

As a student he went to Haiti in 1983 to work with the people of the Central Plateau, an area that had no access to adequate health care. He founded Zanmi Lastane (Creole for Partners in Health), which grew from a small clinic to a multiservice health complex that includes a school, infirmary, hospital, women’s clinic, surgery wing and pediatric care facility. In his 2003 best seller, Kidder described him as a “man who would cure the world.”

Love

A number of celebrities are rallying behind Haiti to help the embattled country win a global competition hosted by BBC World News and Newsweek. Wyclef, actress/model Garcelle Beauvais, Russell Simmons, Free (Power 105 FM), Sha Money, Tony Yayo, DJ Whoo Kid, Mona Scott-Young (Monami Entertainment), actor Jamie Hector and singer Black Dada have signed on as ambassadors for LOVE ‘N HAITI, a recycling project in Port-au-Prince that turns everyday trash into energy. LOVE ‘N HAITI – an initiative also championed by President Bill Clinton — is one of twelve finalists in the BBC’s “World Challenge ’09,” which will award a grant to the finalist with the most online votes. The cash grant will help LOVE ‘N HAITI continue its recycling efforts, which aid in decreasing deforestation, creating jobs, and reducing the incidence of floods.

“I’m proud to be a part of this campaign, not only because it’s for my people, but because I care about our environment,” says Wyclef. “All it takes is one vote to make a difference. We need everyone to support LOVE N’ HAITI!”

To log your vote for LOVE ‘N Haiti, visit http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/index.php. Voting ends November 13, 2009.

Want to help? Copy and paste one of the following messages on your Twitter page today! Get the word out! Vote here: http://bit.ly/3bdpWa NOW 2 vote 4 HAITI to win a grant that will support the recycling project #LoveNHaiti

Haiti Collection

Jacqueline O’Connor was the second collector of soil from Haiti. Her collection location was Hinche in Haiti’s Central Plateau, home to the Cacao Rebels during the U.S. occupation of Haiti. “If memory serves, the rebellion started to protest against the policy of ‘forced’ labor among others that the US Marines instituted to construct oads and for other large infrastructure projects.” The leader of the rebels was Charlemagne Peralte, captured and hanged in Hinche. “I wish I could say that I collected the soil from the street named after him but alas it came from my front yard. If you Google Peralte you can verify the information. I am in the US at the moment recovering from dengue fever and don’t have any reference material.”

“My story is that I have been working in international development for 19 years mainly with the UN. I work for the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) providing technical assistance to local government officials on administrative and fiscal management, transparency and good governance. I also manage several quick impact projects which are small projects designed to address an urgent need of a community. In the Central Plateau examples of projects that have been implemented are the reparation of the water pump and delivery system for the main hospital in town, community goat raising, and a fruit transformation project for women.

“This is a wonderful project. I would love to know when it is completed and the work will be shown. Ideally it should debut at the UN or some other international body that attempts to promote peace in the world while trying to please the governments of its 192 member countries. I would be happy to do some research to find out with whom you would have to speak when the time comes. Have an inspiring day!”

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Google research led to the following quotation from Wikipedia:

“An officer by career, Charlemagne Péralte was the military chief of the city of Léogane when the US Marines invaded Haïti in July 1915. (See United States occupation of Haïti (1915-1934). Refusing to surrender to foreign troops without fighting, Péralte resigned from his position and returned to his native town of Hinche to take care of his family's land. In 1917, he was arrested for assaulting the home of an American Officer of the occupation troops, and was sentenced to five years of forced labor. Escaping his captivity, Charlemagne Péralte gathered a group of nationalist rebels and started guerrilla warfare against the US troops.

The troops led by Péralte were called "Cacos", a name that harked back to rural troops that historically took part in the political turmoil of late 19th century Haïti. The guerrilla warriors of the Cacos were such strong adversaries that the United States upgraded the US Marine contingent in Haïti and even employed airplanes for counter-guerrilla warfare.

After two years of guerrilla warfare, leading Péralte to declare a provisional government in the north of Haïti, Charlemagne Péralte was betrayed by one of his officers, Jean-Baptiste Conzé, who led disguised USMC second lieutenant Herman H. Hanneken to the rebels camp, near Grand-Rivière Du Nord. Péralte was shot in the heart during the short skirmish that ensued.

In order to demoralize the Haïtian population, the US troops took a picture of Charlemagne Péralte's body tied to a door, and distributed it in the country. The effect was the opposite. Betrayed and killed at the age of 33, Charlemagne Péralte took the dimension of a martyr for the Haïtian nation.

After two years of guerrilla warfare, leading Péralte to declare a provisional government in the north of Haïti, Charlemagne Péralte was betrayed by one of his officers, Jean-Baptiste Conzé, who led disguised USMC second lieutenant Herman H. Hanneken to the rebels camp, near Grand-Rivière Du Nord. Péralte was shot in the heart during the short skirmish that ensued.

Charlemagne Péralte’s remains were unearthed after the end of the US occupation in 1935. His mother was able to identify the corpse because of his gold teeth. A national funeral, attended by the then-President of Haïti, Sténio Vincent, was held in Cap Haitien, where his grave can still be seen today. A portrait of Charlemagne Péralte can now be seen on the Haïtian coins issued by the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide after his 1994 return under the protection of US troops.

As a footnote, for his daring exploit, Second Lieutenant Herman H. Hanneken (1893-1986) was awarded the Medal of Honor for killing the "chief bandit of Haïti". He later served in World War II, notably at Guadalcanal and ended his career as a Brigadier General. In his late days, he constantly declined to comment on his exploits in Haïti, notably to Haïtian journalist asking for interviews on the 100th anniversary of Péralte's birth, in 1986.

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Thanks to Jacquiline O’Connor, intrepid planetary service worker, for taking the time to obtain soil from this important region of Haiti. Man certainly has had some impact on the environment but the Earth has its own timetable and power. The word for peace in Haiti is pé in Haitian Creole language.