15683: Alvin: Mounting up a Haitian Conference (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Steven Alvin <steveal03@yahoo.com>

This editorial appeared in the May issue of Boston
Haitian Reporter

Mounting up a Haitian conference with a Pan African
Flavor

As I mesmerize on the Sixth annual Haitian Student
Association(HASA) conference, the diligent effort of
the U/Mass Amherst students who organized it, the
presence and active participation of our own stars,
the idea of an intergenerational and interdisciplinary
conversation resurged.  After a violent  June 11 2001
melee opposing having a budget for education in my
Haitian chaplaincy, I  thought first of bringing all
Haitian lay and religious Catholic leaders together in
2002 to reflect on  the 30 years since the late Father
Jeannot started the ministry in St. Leo in 1972, the
first exclusively Haitian parish in the United States.
Though I wrote to various church officials about that
idea, it never materialized.

The first Haitian gathering organized by  Marie St.
Fleur in an October 2001 was a beginning of a long
needed conversation.  Though  intergenerational,
however, Haitians who were not educated in this
country or who did not speak English could not be
actively engaged even with available translation.  As
we are approaching the Haitian bicentennial and I am
noticing numerous events, I would like to propose to
all 2004 organizers to put together an assessment
meeting in Creole  to culminate the 200th year of our
independence.

Pondering on those two centuries  of our history,
Haitians  had never gathered to brain storm, vision
and  look at the big picture.  Boston being the Athens
of America,  with so much intellectual  and material
resources, we can materialize such endeavor. I am
thinking of service providers, professionals in the
community such as teachers, doctors, community
organizers, ministers, lawyers, artists, students, the
media of course having subsequent meetings that will
lead to a major conference in Creole with English
translation in  2004.

Observing, reading, and participating in various
conferences, the concerns are the same, HIV,
immigration, family, domestic violence, education, a
more complex younger generation, a lack of
understanding of our African ancestry and culture,
unity, among others.  Individually, Haitian
organizations in Boston  are addressing each one of
those issues, but collectively we are not.  I  think
like the Japanese, collective work and communication
will have more fruitful result. A 2004 gathering will
be twofold. It will serve to assess, set a collective
vision and future goals and objectives for the Haitian
community. It will also set an impetus to maintain a
nearly extinct aspect of our African culture which was
present in the 6th annual HASA conference - the
interconnection among generations.  Through oral
presentations, songs, music, poetry, film, pictures,
Rene Godfroy, Wyclef Jean, Michele Montas, Elda James,
 Magalie Lamour, and others in the audience  told
their stories. We need a broader organized venue to
tell more stories, to hear the elders,  and use those
stories to (re) direct the Haitian community towards
the global culture.

Having migrated to this country  about three decades
ago and seeing a third generation on the rise,  I
realize the experiences, the stories or history are
not being passed on from one generation to the next.
As a veteran educator, I am also noticing three
generations who have no contact with one another. The
grandparents don’t speak English; the second
generation hardly speaks Creole. The third generation,
of elementary school age is not in yet in the picture.
Since the elders are not telling stories and there are
few culturally relevant Haitian children books, or
structured children  programs to foster narrations and
transfer of those stories, our African rooted culture
is being minimized and not globally manifested .

I envision Africentric after school or Saturday
programs similar to what the Jews,  Asians, Muslims,
Germans and other groups make available to their
children.  As Haitians with African roots, we need to
communicate with African Americans, other Caribbeans,
and immigrants from Africa to strengthen the African
diasporic community through such aforementioned
programs.  Last year, I attended a conference composed
of Asians from China, Japan, Vietnam and various parts
of Asia and the Pacific. In the Haitian sixth annual
conference, there were participants from Cape Verde,
South Africa, Nigeria in solidarity with the Haitian
students. The Black community needs more of this Pan
African alliance to capitalize our talents and make
creativity our goals for the 21rst century.

As Blacks and Haitians, we need to be honest with
ourselves, and stop blaming racism, oppression and
other  ailments.  Being materialistically poor, many
of us strive for basic survival needs.  Once we have
an education and/or obtain a reasonable employment,
and acquire those essential needs, we have reached our
limits.  Though Africa is known as a poor, dying
continent, Haiti the poorest in the Western
hemisphere, African Americans being among the bottom
of the economic, social and educational strata,  many
blacks I encounter demonstrate an have-made-it
attitude.  There is nothing else to do. They have
attained their goals. I don’t applaud such conception.
 For instance, as Haitians, besides having contributed
to the literary and artistic worlds, as we approach
the 200th anniversary that Catherine Flon sewed our
flag,  we have not yet invented a needle.  In addition
to putting our logo unity in  practice, we need to
involve the three generations of Haitians and other
Africans in the Diaspora to make creativity and
invention our goals and objectives in the next two
centuries.

Nekita Lamour




Nekita Lamour a 23 year veteran educator has published
numerous articles on the topics of
Bilingual/ESL/Multicultural Education.  She is now


































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