Ayant grandi en France, je dois avouer que j’etais assez etonnee de me rendre compte du peu que je savais/sais sur la revolution en Haiti. Le fait que nous l’etudions dans ce cours m’a en fait fait realiser que jamais auparavant, dans aucun de mes cours d’histoire, nous ne nous etions vraiment penches sur l’histoire d’Haiti. A l’inverse, les programmes scolaires francais insistent grandement sur beaucoup d’autres relations coloniales que la France a pu avoir et a toujours. Par exemple, j’ai plusieurs fois etudie en details la guerre d’Algerie, les relations entre la France et l’Afrique et leurs histoires communes mais je n’ai que tres peu entendu parle d’Haiti et de leurs relations avec la France.

En faisant quelques recherches rapides et en demandant autour de moi a ma famille ou a mes amis francais, j’ai decouvert que cette oubli, ce “trou de memoire”, ne semble pas seulement concerner le systeme scolaire francais mais aussi la vie politique ainsi que la vie en general. J’ai par exemple trouve cet article du journal Le Monde datant de Fevrier 2010 (http://www.lemonde.fr/ameriques/article/2010/02/17/la-france-a-oublie-haiti_1307419_3222.html)  paru a la suite de la breve visite de Nicolas Sarkozy en Haiti juste apres le tremblement de terre de Janvier. L’article explique que cette visite presidentielle etait la premiere depuis l’indépendance de l’ancienne colonie française, plus de 200 ans auparavant. De la meme facon, l’article rapelle une citation de l’ancien President Jacques Chirac datant de 2000: “Haïti n’a pas été, à proprement parler, une colonie française.”.

Cet “oubli” parait assez choquant quand on realise les liens historiques forts qui unissent la France et Haiti et leur passe commun. La question a laquelle je n’ai pas de reponse precise est de savoir pourquoi? Cet oublie etant d’autant plus surprenant si l’on considere que la France a garde des liens relativement forts avec ses autres anciennes colonies et principalement celles en Afrique. On peut alors se demander ce qui est different dans le cas d’Haiti et fait que toute relation a ete coupee…?

Like several students have indicated, Haiti first captured my attention through the news about the devastating disaster in 2010, followed by the relief campaigns. Its history and involvement in the global transformation nevertheless was scantily mentioned. I did not find out about Haiti’s past until I took a Cultural Anthropology class later in Fall 2010, where we spent time reading two impressive tour de force – “Aids and Accusations” by Paul Farmer and “Mountains beyond Mountains” by Tracy Kidder. Paul Farmer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Farmer) obtained his B.A. from Duke, attended graduate school at Harvard where he earned a M.D. and a Ph.D., and went to work in Haiti. His book “Aids and Accusations” attempts to explain the link between Haiti’s present state of rampant poverty and diseases and its past as a French colony, as the first country to obtain independence, and later, as a country that was oppressed financially and militarily by both the United States and France. The second book was almost an ethnography of Farmer’s work in Haiti and Boston, which adds another rich layer of details to his life and quest as a doctor. I really enjoy reading both of them – besides being historically and anthropologically informative, they are also critical about the exploits imposed on third-world countries by the developed countries.

Aside, I want to also comment on a few details in Hunt’s “Inventing Human Rights”. It did not appear clear to me at the beginning of the book why she made the distinction between “natural rights” and “rights of man”. But as I read on, even though Hunt never explains this explicitly, the way I see it is that she intends for “natural rights” to be the rights we possess in the “state of nature” defined by Rousseau, whilst “rights of man” is the rights agreed upon by men when they entered the social contract, and thus already implying a degree of constraint. I am very interested in hearing what others have to comment on this.

One point I wish Hunt had incorporated in her book is the comparison between “rights of man”, i.e. why is it that with Locke, we have “life, liberty and property”, with the American Declaration of Independence, we have “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, and with the French Declaration of Independence, it is “liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression”. Hunt did allude to a comparison in the last chapter, but she never made a distinct one.

The history of the Haitian Revolution, long largely overlooked, has in recent years gained increasing attention in the United States. Here is a piece I wrote for The Nation, for instance, about a recent biography of Toussaint Louverture. This November, an exhibit will open at the New York Historical Society that focuses on the connections between the French, American and Haitian Revolutions.The curator for this exhibit, Richard Rabinowitz, will be speaking about the exhibit at Duke’s Haiti Lab at 3 p.m. next Tuesday, September 20th for those who are interested.

And below is the trailer for a recent PBS documentary on the event I participated in.

What might explain the increasing focus on Haiti? Where else can you find discussions of the Haitian Revolution online, or in movies, works of literature, or music? How might a better understanding of the Haitian Revolution influence attitudes towards Haiti, as well as to the history of the U.S., Africa, and France?

Yesterday there was amazingly widespread coverage a recent find by Duke University graduate student Julia Gaffield of a printed version of the Haitian Declaration of Independence. The find was covered in local papers, NY Times, and literally hundreds of other venues: something rather rare for historians! I am lucky enough to be her dissertation advisor here at Duke. Congratulations, Julia!

Here is the New York Times article, by an excellent journalist Damien Cave who has done important coverage in Haiti since the earthquake, which launched the media blitz.

Among my favorite pieces is this bit from none other than Rachel Maddow, who ends the segment in a great way.

A particularly good article on the story was printed in Canada in the Globe and Mail with a nice gloss on the declaration by Deborah Jenson.

Julia also did a great interview on BBC’s “The World.”

Liberty or Death!!

Edward Widmer, a historian and director of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, just published an interesting op-ed in the Boston Globe with this title. Widmer will be at Duke for our conference on “Haiti’s History” April 22-23.

En lisant de Toussaint Louverture, j’ai pu bien comprendre pourquoi les gens de beaucoup des races l’admiraient. Il était charismatique et futé, surtout dans ses interactions avec des ex esclaves. Pour qu’adresser les plaintes des ex esclaves (qui étaient forcées à travailler comme des esclaves pour un salaire), Louverture a redéfini la liberté. “To save liberty, Louverture decided, was to accept that it might be something less than what slaves had dreamed it would be” (Dubois 193). Il les a convaincues à baisser leurs prévisions et “if they wanted to conserve their liberty they must submit to the laws of the Republic, be docile, and work” (Dubois 190). Louverture était l’incarnation et la représentation des races et religions différentes d’Haïti. Fusion des cultures, Louverture n’était pas de tout loyal à un groupe, mais plutôt loyal à soi-même et à la réussite d’Haïti.

“They loyally served the Republic by fighting against the British, but in the regions they commanded they operated autonomously acting as both military leaders and local administrators, cultivating a political and social power that depended on their ability to mobilize and control the citizens of Saint-Dominigue” (Dubois 197)

Ainsi, je veux vous demander ce que vous pensez des tactiques de Louverture. Est-ce qu’il avait dû être plus loyal et sympathique aux ex esclaves ? Etiez-vous étonnés que l’Espagne se soit fié à Louverture malgré les plaintes contre lui juste avant qu’il se soit mis du coté des françaises?