#1431: Jews in Haiti : Chamberlain adds (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

<lauretteb@yahoo.com> wrote:


> I would recommend a book by David Nicholls, 
> titled "Haiti in Caribbean Context." This book 
> is about the "Levantine Movement" in the 
> Caribbean in General and has a specic tilt 
> on Haiti.  He is also the author of "From 
> Dessalines to Duvaliers: Race, Colour and
> National Independence in Haiti."


Not quite.  Haiti in Caribbean Context is about
many aspects of Haiti.  Only one chapter (30 pages)
is about "Levantines."  It's called "No Hawkers and 
Pedlars:  Arabs of the Antilles."  The article deals
with their presence in the Dom. Rep., Jamaica
and Haiti (where they are mostly from Palestine,
though historically they've all been lumped together 
by Haitians as "Syrians").  These immigrants 
have held prominent political positions in the DR 
and (less so) in Jamaica, but not at all in Haiti, 
probably for obvious reasons of colour and 
Haitian history.

The interest in Nicholls' chapter is that it's one of
the very few studies of the economically important 
100-year-old presence of Arabs in the Caribbean, 
even though its scope is limited, as indicated.

Does anyone know of others?


Greg Chamberlain