13655: Leiderman: Antenor Firmin and Eritaj Foundation videotapes ready (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Stuart M Leiderman <leidermn@cisunix.unh.edu>

Group:

Prof. Jacques Georges and Mr. Stuart Leiderman of the University
of New Hampshire-Durham have launched a special speakers' series,
"A Prelude to Haiti's Independence Bicentennial, 1804-2004".  Two-hour
videocassettes from the first two programs are now available.  The cost
is US$30 each or US$50 for both, including shipping.  Summaries and
contact information follows:

"A PRELUDE TO HAITI'S INDEPENDENCE BICENTENNIAL, 1804-2004"
FALL 2002 SPEAKERS' SERIES, UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE-DURHAM

The purpose of the series is to rediscover the positive elements of
Haiti's 200 years of independence and then to combine these elements into
a vision of a "New Haiti" for the next 200 years.  To begin, there will
be a series of presentations during the fall semester, 2002. Each
program will have a guest speaker and a respondent, plus discussion with
the audience.  The presentations will be videorecorded for distribution
and then packages in a special editdion for the bicentennial celebration.

For scheduling information and to suggest speakers for future dates,
contact Dr. Jacques R. Georges, 603.862.4005/3856, jgeorges@cisunix.unh.edu

For copies of videotapes, contact Stuart M. Leiderman, 603.776.0055,
leidermn@christa.unh.edu

Thank you.

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Program 1: "THE LIFE AND WORK OF ANTENOR FIRMIN", Thursday, September 19

Guest speaker: Dr. Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, Director of General Studies,
Professor of Anthropology, Rhode Island College, Providence, Rhode Island,
cfluehr@ric.edu, 401. 456-8005

Respondent: Dr. Jacques R. Georges, Department of Languages, Literatures &
Cultures, University of New Hampshire-Durham

In 1853-55, French diplomat Compte Arthur de Gobineau  published a
fantastic treatise entitled "The Inequality of the Human Races".  Gobineau
propounded the superiority of Caucasians and laid out a rationale for
world domination by whites, to the enslavement of all others.  At the
time, the eugenics movement in Europe used Gobineau's treatise to advocate
the selection and breeding of a master race.  A generation later, Haitian
scholar and political activist Antenor Firmin (1850 -1911) strongly
attacked Gobineau's book and the predominant racial anthropology of the
century by writing "The Equality of the Human Races" in 1885.   Firmin
extolled the value of racial mixture, and his book earned him a reputation
as Haiti's premier intellectual pioneering anthropologist and
pan-Africanist.  Although available only in French for more than a
century, "The Equality of the Human Races" was finally translated into
English in 2000 by Dr. Asselin Charles with a forward by Dr. Carolyn
Fluehr-Lobban.

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Program 2: "HAITI AT WORK", Monday, October 7

Guest speaker: Ms. Mirlande Butler, MSN, President and Co-founder of
Eritaj Foundation, P.O. Box 894, Framingham, Massachusetts 01701, ph
508.881.8159, www.eritajfoundation.org, eritajfoundation@msn.com,
committed to improving the quality of social services in Haiti.

Summary of Program:  Once known as "La Perle des Antilles" (The Pearl of
the Antilles), Haiti in recent years has fallen to the rank of the
poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.  Based on recent statistics,
the country has an 80% illiteracy rate, unemployment is 70-80% and 70% of
its 8,200,000 souls depend on the agricultural sector which now barely
exists. To add to this nighmarish situation, Haiti's scarce local
products have to compete with cheaper products flooding in from abroad.
But if the appraisal of the first 200 years of independence is bleak, the
next 200 years will be much more promising. The reason is that friends of
Haiti together with Haitians inside the country and emigrants scattered
throughout the world are working away feverishly to create a "New Haiti".
Ms. Mirlande Butler's work inscribes itself in this very perspective.
She is a social worker by training and has a recipe: "To help the Haitian
people make a better, brighter future for their children".  She will share
her views on health care and education, with a special focus on how
Eritaj Foundation promotes adult literacy and improves the quality of
social assistance, agro-economics and water management in Haiti.

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