new book ""Haiti: The Aftershocks of History" By Laurent Dubois
Ivan Olsen
A good new book on Haiti is always useful in trying to make sense of that important, needy, enigmatic Caribbean nation so near to, but so different from, the United States. Laurent Dubois, Duke University professor of French studies and history, has given us one in "Haiti: The Aftershocks of History."
There are several veins of richness in this book. It may also be very original in its particular strengths, although I have not read enough of the long shelf of books on Haiti to be sure. In any case, what is most interesting for an American is Mr. Dubois' analysis of the importance of U.S. interventions in the evolution of Haiti to the point where it stands now.
Of critical importance is that the United States has occupied Haiti twice, from 1915 to 1934 and, under President Bill Clinton, from 1994 to 2000. Whatever American intentions were, the fact is that the two military interventions played heavily in what Mr. Dubois identifies as a central theme in outsiders' interactions with Haiti: "The continuing distance between the different groups who all have the same general aim -- improving Haiti -- but harbor completely different visions of what that actually means."
The other point he would underline would be that those outsiders' conflicting visions of what Haiti needs may well be entirely at variance with what Haitians themselves think they need to improve their country.
What I found the most fun in the book was the fascinating, extensive portraits he gave of the various Haitians, French, Americans and others who played roles in the history of Haiti. There are so many of them that keeping track becomes confusing.
The place has now had 56 presidents since its independence in 1804. From the first (Jean-Jacques Dessalines) to the current president (Michel Joseph Martelly, a singer and entertainer who was elected in 2011), Mr. Dubois paints them and their actions in bright colors. There was Louis Jean-Jacques Acaau, who led the Army of the Sufferers, the elaborate official funeral held in the Roman Catholic cathedral of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, in 1859 for hanged U.S. abolitionist John Brown. And the United States sold guns and ammunition to the leader of the Haiti revolution, Toussaint Louverture, which enabled him to defeat the French right after the American revolution.
Mr. Dubois sets out dramatically the interplay between Haiti -- whose slaves, making up 90 percent of the population, revolted against the French successfully in 1791 -- and the United States, where slavery prevailed until the end of the Civil War in 1865. U.S.-Haiti relations were never smooth. In 1916 the U.S. annexed the Haitian island of Navassa, between Haiti and Jamaica, to obtain the bird excrement there for fertilizer, holding it to this day.
The whole relationship between the United States and Haiti that Mr. Dubois portrays is complex, to say the least. The cast of characters on the American side does not make one's chest swell with pride. On the other hand, Mr. Dubois does, sometimes annoyingly, make Americans involved in Haiti sound for the most part like dreadful racist imperialists when they may well have been acting more or less according to the norms of their time.
Competing Haitian politicians were also quite adroit at using Americans to help them win out against their Haitian competitors, sometimes to the general detriment of Haiti the country.
Mr. Dubois' interplay analysis opens up a new view of Haiti. The only problem is the degree to which it serves as a means for Haitians themselves to seek to escape responsibility for the problems of the country. Mr. Dubois' narrative, particularly his perspective on the country's economic development generally denies them that escape route, however.
For anyone with even a little interest in Haiti, this book is an essential read. It goes fast.
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amazon has it new for $16.39 and used for $19.59 go figure???
The reviews on Amazon look good, even a good review by Tracy Kidder.