20472: Esser: Toussaint's legacy (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Lousiana Weekly
http://www.louisianaweekly.com

March 15, 2004

Toussaint's legacy
By Edmund W. Lewis, Editor

Many historians have given Haiti's revolutionaries very little credit
for successfully overthrowing their French oppressors. While some
attribute Napoleon Bonaparte's embarrassing defeat in Haiti to the
outbreak of yellow fever and lax attitudes among French colonists,
count this writer among those who support the theory that African
cultural continuity played a pivotal role in the outcome of the
uprising.

With their age-old beliefs, history and culture intact, the enslaved
Africans were able to forcefully and relentlessly resist the
oppression they encountered in St. Domingue. Though largely
misunderstood and maligned by Westerners, the Vodun religion our
ancestors carried across the Atlantic Ocean infused them with a fiery
determination to free themselves from human bondage.

It is important to understand that many of the West African slaves
who were transported to the Caribbean were seasoned warriors who had
honed their skills battling Europeans and other African nations in
the Motherland. As a result, they were well-prepared to do battle
with the French and others, and to exploit a French force that
underestimated their military prowess and resolve to be free.

Two months ago, Haitians paused to celebrate the bicentennial of the
Battle of Vertieres, the decisive victory over French troops that led
to the creation of the Western world's first free black republic.

During the January celebration, Haiti President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, a former revolutionary priest, did not mince his words in
describing his nation's unenviable predicament. While Toussaint
L'Ouverture, Jean Jacques Dessalines, Henri Christophe, Boukman and
other African freedom fighters inspired the masses to seize the
moment and wrestle their freedom from a global power, Haiti continues
to pay a dear price.

Once the wealthiest colony in the "New World," Haiti in 2004 is
plagued with poverty, chronic unemployment, violence, illiteracy,
hunger and despair. At least half of the country's work force is
unemployed and 50 percent of Haiti's 8 million residents are
reportedly suffering from malnutrition.

"After 200 years of economic violence, the traces of slavery are
still here," Haiti President Jean-Bertrand Aristide told more than
10,000 Haitians gathered to commemorate the Battle of Vertieres.
"Poverty today is the result of a 200-year plot," he continued.
"Whether it be slavery or embargo, it's the same plot. You are
victims. I am a victim."

Conspicuously absent from the bicentennial celebration were officials
from France, the United States and the European Union, who reportedly
boycotted the gathering in protest of Aristide's refusal to allow
U.S.-backed groups to demonstrate near the capital.

Given the reaction of European nations to Haiti's struggle for
independence, it is unlikely that any European presence at the
celebration would have been more than half-hearted lip service.

For its part, France has painted itself as a victim of black
revolutionaries in Haiti, demanding that the Republic of Haiti pay it
reparations for the wealth it loss as a result of the revolt.

To get its due, France lined up war ships and aimed its cannons at
Haiti while it waited for its former slave colony to make up its mind.

In order to pay reparations to France, Haiti dismantled its
educational system, further crippling efforts by the fledgling nation
to achieve economic dependence from the global powers.

Interestingly, France was encouraged to demand reparations from Haiti
in part by former slave owners who escaped to New Orleans before and
during the insurrection. In a guest column in The Final Call last
September, J. Damu, the acting Western Regional Representative of
N'COBRA, pointed out that some of the descendants of those white
plantation owners still possess the indemnity coupons issued by
France in 1825.

That fact illustrates the direct connection between what in
transpiring in Haiti and race relations in the Crescent City. Haiti's
struggle is our struggle in every sense.

For France to actively participate in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade,
buy African men, women and children like cattle, work them like
beasts under some of the harshest conditions in the Western
Hemisphere, use wild dogs to hunt and kill them after they rebel, and
then have the temerity to turn around and demand from those Africans
and their descendants what amounts to about $22 billion today in
reparations for the "property" it lost as a result of the Haitian
Revolution is millions of light years beyond criminal.

How much in reparations has France paid to its royal family for the
French Revolution for power, prestige, privilege and property lost?
And how much has it paid Algeria in reparations for the atrocities
committed by the French during its colonization of that African
nation?

To his credit, Jean-Bertrand Aristide voiced his determination to
force France to return the money it extorted with cannons from Haiti.
No doubt another reason to remove him from the highest office in
Haiti.

African America owes a great debt to Toussaint L'Ouverture,
Jean-Jacques Dessalines and all the men, women and children of Haiti
whose love of freedom inspired enslaved Africans in Colonial America.
Toussaint's victory belonged to all oppressed people the world over.
It was a mighty blow against white supremacist global domination.

It is imperative that we understand that the United States and other
European nations did not stand idly by while France battled enslaved
Africans for control of St. Domingue. In addition to giving the
French $750,000 in military aid to defeat the insurgents, America
joined Germany, Poland, The Netherlands and Switzerland in sending
troops to strengthen France's military forces in St. Domingue. From
the beginning, the U.S. was squarely on the side of imperialism and
colonialism.

When Abraham Lincoln finally decided to recognize Haiti's
independence in 1862, he did so in large part because he had hoped to
ship Africans who were enslaved in the U.S. off to Haiti after they
were emancipated. He recognized Liberia the same year for the same
reason.

At the very least, we need to educate ourselves about the rich
history of Haiti and hold U.S. elected officials and agencies
accountable when they fail to do right by Haiti. That includes
fighting for equitable treatment for Haitian immigrants who are
routinely sent back to Haiti or imprisoned, and demanding that U.S.
foreign policy promotes stability, growth and prosperity in Haiti
rather than desperation, despair and mayhem.

Dr. Charles Rene, a Haitian physician who relocated to New Orleans in
1986, is among those proud Haitian immigrants who are determined to
do everything in their power to promote justice, equality and
democracy in Haiti. Last week he referred to the rebels who overthrew
the government in Haiti as "U.S. proxies" encouraged to undermine
Aristide by the "illegal regime in the White House," a reference to
George Bush's questionable election victory in 2000.

Rene says the U.S. goal in attacking the poorest nation in the
Western Hemisphere is to "keep Haiti unstable. That way, it can prove
to the world that black people cannot take care of themselves and
become independent. It's to teach Guadalupe and Martinique, 'You
better stay the way you are. Don't think about independence; you will
not be able to do anything with it.' That's the symbolism of Haiti
that bothers them."

"It's a global struggle, it's a global problem and Haiti is just the
local expression of the problem," Rene explained. "What is happening
in Haiti and elsewhere is the result of a "Western supremacist ruling
class that just can't compromise with the world; they have to
control. They don't care about people and how many lives are lost."

Asked what he would like to tell Africans in America about the
struggle in Haiti, Rene said, "The Haiti situation is a global
problem. It is a problem created by the U.S.-led, racist, supremacist
elite class that has no agenda except to control the rest of the
world. The Haiti situation is just a local scene of a global problem.
Everybody must be involved in that struggle. I see it every day in
America, but except here they have managed to anesthetize so many
people...We are going to have other spots in the world, other scenes,
a theater of the same problem: global domination by a class of people.

"It's not just somebody taking a stand on the situation for Haiti,
it's about taking a stand for the classes who have got the worst of
so much for so many years," he continued. "Haiti's problem is
everybody's problem."

Although the situation in Haiti is troublesome, Rene and others have
not lost hope that things can be changed for the better.

"We went through worse," Rene told The Louisiana Weekly. "God is on
our side and we will prevail."

We are fooling ourselves if we try to convince ourselves that what is
transpiring in Haiti today is unrelated to the displacement of poor
black people in New Orleans and elsewhere in the United States; we
are deluding only ourselves if we believe that the fate of Haiti
isn't directly linked to the fate of our African cousins struggling
to overcome neo-colonialism in sub Saharan Africa; we are completely
immersed in denial if we are able to tell ourselves that the plight
of the Republic of Haiti isn't connected to the plight of black,
brown, yellow and red people all over the world.

With presidential and congressional elections on the horizon, African
Americans need to make certain that all candidates make clear their
positions on Haiti and its ongoing struggle for justice, equality and
democracy. We cannot afford to sit idly by as the United States, the
leader of the free world," hampers the progress of Haiti by
instigating political unrest and bombarding one of the poorest
nations of the world with Draconian economic sanctions and harmful
policies that make it easy for U.S. businesses to exploit conditions
in Haiti for profit.

Although they have been hurt the most by the U.S. embargo of Haiti,
the poor black masses have encouraged the White House to bring them
on, hoping that the measures discourage American businesses from
continuing to operate de facto plantations in Haiti that take
advantage of Haitians who are desperate to feed, clothe and provide
shelter for their families.

If there was ever a need for Africans in America to register to vote
and educate ourselves about political realities in the U.S. and
abroad, that need is magnified thousands of times in 2004 by
harrowing conditions in Haiti and the rest of the African world.

Conditions in U.S. communities of color are daunting enough but
developments in Haiti, sub-Saharan Africa and throughout the African
Diaspora compel Africans in America to harness our power to fight for
our brothers and sisters around the world. In doing so, we fight for
ourselves.

We know the enemy well. The enemy is a white supremacist worldview
that has historically done whatever has been necessary to gain and
maintain global power.

Given the history of the United States and all it has done to
undermine freedom movements in North America and abroad, it is
impossible to ignore reports that Jean-Bertrand Aristide was
kidnapped by U.S. Marines and forced to relocate to the Central
African Republic. While Secretary of State Colin Powell has
categorically denied that Aristide was kidnapped by American forces,
members of the Congressional Black Caucus are understandably
skeptical about the Bush administration's official statement on
Aristide's removal from Haiti. One CBC member, Rep. Major Owens, D
NY, went so far as to classify Aristide's departure as a "terrorism
takeover."

Speaking boldly about developments in Haiti, CBC chair Elijah
Cummings said recently that he stands firmly with other members of
the Congressional Black Caucus who "will not stand around and watch a
democracy being taken apart by our own country."

Former TransAfrica president Randall Robinson told The Associated
Press in early March that Aristide used a phone smuggled into his
room to call him to say that he had in fact been forcibly removed
from office in Haiti.

"He said that about 20 American soldiers in full battle gear with
automatic weapons came to the residence...took them to the airport,
at gunpoint, put them on a plane," Robinson said. "He said three
times before he hung up, 'Tell the world it was a coup, it was a
coup.'"

The bottom line is the United States sought to remove Aristide
because he was becoming too big a PR problem for the leader of the
free world. Over the years, Aristide had been highly critical of U.S.
involvement in Haiti, indicting America for trying to impose its will
"on another people."

At one point during Aristide's administration, the former priest had
made some strides in convincing other members of the international
lending community to offer financial assistance to the struggling
nation. In doing so, he ruffled the feathers of America capitalists.
The U.S. has frantically undermined those efforts, perhaps out of
fear that it would no longer be able to control, dominate and pimp
Haiti as it has for more than a century.

We who live in the United States are well-acquainted with the glaring
discrepancy between what the U.S. and other global powers profess to
stand for and how they operate under the cover of darkness.

While Bush has hoodwinked some with claims that the rest of the world
"hates us because we love freedom," some of us know better.

To the very end, Toussaint L'Ouverture never gave up. When he was
finally captured by the French, he told them, "In overthrowing me,
you have cut down in San Domingo only the trunk of the tree of
liberty. It will spring up again by the roots for they are numerous
and deep."

And so they shall.

All power to the people.
.