17579: (Hermantin) Miami Herald-Haiti's bicentennial: Force a thread of history (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sun, Dec. 28, 2003

Haiti's bicentennial: Force a thread of history
In Haiti's two centuries of independence, this little nation born of bloody
revolt has known great turbulence and little peace
BY TRENTON DANIEL
tdaniel@herald.com

Haiti's status as the first black republic created by a slave revolt has
remained a source of pride through its 200-year history, even as its people
have struggled with bloody juntas, messy politics and epic poverty -- woes
that have vexed the country since the beginning.

''You cannot deny it took a lot of guts, courage to pull off this
revolution. We have to celebrate the Haitian revolution. In a way it was a
phenomenon,'' says Jocelyn McCalla, director of the National Coalition for
Haitian Rights.

``But at the same time we recognize it, what we Haitians in particular have
to move away from is this idea you build a country on the basis of
slash-and-burn politics.''

Long before that revolution, Haiti, like the neighboring Dominican Republic,
was the home of more than a million Arawak Taíno Indians. One of their names
for the land was Ayiti, or ''mountainous'' island. The island's current
name, Hispaniola, was a colonial creation, meaning Spanish Island.

Columbus ''discovered'' Hispaniola in 1492, speaking favorably of the
Indians. The Spaniards wiped them out anyway -- with guns and smallpox --
and to replenish the labor supply for the cane fields, they imported African
slaves.

Later, Spain recognized France's claim to St. Dominigue, the western third
of the island. In time, the region came to furnish much of the French
empire's wealth.

St. Dominigue was so rich that, in 1789, it supplied two-thirds of the
overseas trade of France and was the greatest individual market for the
European slave trade, noted historian C.L.R. James.

But instead of bowing down, Haitian slaves revolted -- for 12 years -- with
former slaves as their leaders. Founding father Toussaint L'Ouverture, who
died before independence in a French prison cell, remains an icon.

Haiti's independence from French and British conquest was officially
realized on Jan. 1, 1804, when one of L'Ouverture's successors, Jean-Jacques
Dessalines, declared himself leader of the independent republic and later,
imitating Napoleon, emperor.

And with that, Haiti's people found not only freedom, but also a future of
sporadic world isolation. Led by the French, the United States and Latin
American countries did not give recognition for decades. Finally France
recognized Haiti in 1825.

The rest of the century and much of the next were politically tumultuous;
between 1843 and 1915, only one of 22 leaders served his full term of
office. Haitian society split along color lines between blacks and Haitians
of mixed descent.

The United States, led by President Woodrow Wilson, invaded in 1915 to
''protect American and foreign interests,'' and troops remained until 1934.
The United States left a sturdy infrastructure, but also an army that turned
violent.

In 1957, François ''Papa Doc'' Duvalier was elected president on a platform
courting Haiti's black middle-class vote. He soon created his own private
militia, the Ton Ton Macoutes, and publicly wore the dark wardrobe of a
Vodou spirit, Baron Samdi, as another means of intimidation.

Just before his death in 1971, Duvalier passed the mantle to his 19-year-old
son, Jean-Claude ``Baby Doc.''

The Duvalier dynasty collapsed in 1986. Jean-Claude and his luxury-loving
wife Michle Bennett fled to France aboard an U.S. Air Force jet. The
immediate aftermath was dubbed the dechoukaj, Creole for uprooting.

Following Duvalier's ouster, Haiti returned to military rule: strongmen
toppled strongmen. But in the late 1980s, a diminutive Roman Catholic priest
named Jean-Bertrand Aristide rose to power by preaching liberation theology
from a Port-au-Prince slum pulpit. He easily won a 1990 election, surprising
the light-skinned elite.

Seven months later, a military junta ousted Aristide. The new regime and its
paramilitary soldiers killed and tortured thousands, the United Nations
responded with an embargo, and South Florida received an influx of Haitian
``boat people.''

''The country was really deteriorating. The ministries were not functioning,
the gas was so expensive, and the food was starting to get expensive,''
recalled Mousson Roux, a restaurant owner and Haitian music promoter at the
time. ``The coup was devastating. To me, it is what triggered the snowball
of deterioration.''

Three years later, President Bill Clinton deployed 20,000 troops to Haiti to
restore Aristide. Already, the challenges were formidable, scholars say.

''When he first returned, he had a serious problem -- how to reconcile his
political base and [fulfill] what he promised to do vis--vis the economy,''
says University of Virginia professor Robert Fatton Jr.

There were concerns that Aristide would seek to extend his five-year term,
but he relinquished power to handpicked -- and popularly elected --
successor René Préval.

The 2000 elections returned Aristide to power. Then his Fanmi Lavalas party
swept a legislative vote that May, but the Organization of American States
said the electoral council had to recalculate some Senate seats. The
government refused, the opposition cried foul, and the international
community blocked, and continues to withhold, millions of dollars in aid.

Today as under the Duvaliers, the one-time ''Pearl of the Antilles'' is the
Western Hemisphere's poorest country.

Still, the island nation -- or ''Haiti Cherie,'' as in a popular song --
remains defiantly resili,ent and proud.

Said Carol de Lynch, a West Little River-based Vodou priestess: ``When you
love your country so much, you blind yourself to the situation, even if it
hurts you.''

Herald staff writer Jacqueline Charles contributed to this report.

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