15713: Nekita Sharing and Inquiring on Toussaint Louverture (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Nlbo@aol.com

Dear Corbettland,
I am sharing these new "findings" because of Haiti's bicentennial I am paying
more attention to the Haitian s/heroes. Going to several lectures, I only
heard about Toussaint's leadership skills, his role in the Haitian revolution. In
other words, I am not hearing anything new. So I am trying to read Haitian
history books that I have purchased years ago and never opened. I am also
reminiscing my visit in Toussaint's hometown, Alladah, Benin. Now I am regretting
that I met a  young man, named Agwe who wanted to take me to Toussaint's
grandparents' village, but the person I was traveling with did not want to go. I am
also recalling a playwright who told me that the site  of the   "La porte de
non retour" ( the beautiful pinkish arch on the seashore) that U.N had erected
in Ouidah is not the actual site. If one ever goes there, natives can take you
to the door our ancestors went through.  Trying to see the Western part of the
African continent in one month, I could not go back to Ouidah.
I was reading Thomas Madiou's  and learned couple things that I did not know
about Toussaint.  I skimmed through "The Black Jacobins" a long time ago and
don't remember most of it.
I did not know that Toussaint was a devout catholic and the  clergy liked him
and encouraged the people to honor him. In contrast he was also a philanderer
.   He would have his hands on those women's legs while asking them if they
had communion in the morning.  His soldiers did not like  him courting all
those women. He had brown, black, yellow, white women- all kinds. He did not want
his soldiers to remain single either in fear that they would have concubines.
That could cost them severe reprimands and sometimes their lives.
I also read of a lot references on the catholic parishes  that Santo Domingo
was divided into. The generals would meet in those parishes. Though a
novel,Ghislaine Charlier in " Memoir d'un affranchi" related to those gatherings
occuring in a catholic church premise . I called her about these new historical
findings and she was happy to elaborate on these topics with me.
In regards to women during slavery time, I learned through a play I saw in
Benin, West Africa  five years ago that the white women had affairs with the
slaves who  in return would be promoted to "field master". The playwright
confirmed this historical facts with me. However a picture I saw in Goree island (
Dakar) of a black nun who was a product of Louis XIV's wife affair with a slave
in France reaffirmed that there were a lot of liaisons between the colonizers'
wives and their slaves. In western history books I have learned only about
the white men raping the black slaves. I never read of King Louis XIV's black
stepdaughter. Should I say stepdaugter. By step family, I see a second marriage.
Louis XiV's stepdaughter was a product of marriage infidelity ( to use the
Creole word, zoklo) .

By the way does anyone know who Toussaint Louverture's father was? Historians
refer to him as the grandson of Gawou Ginou, a king in Aladah,  Dahomey  (
Benin, now).

Nekita