21601: Jepiem@aol.com: Re: 21593: Mambo Racine

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Jepiem@aol.com

I' m sorry I missed post 21272, but I think  mambo Racine's comments on
post
21593 gave pretty much the gist of it, and it really should not surprise
anyone
in this particular time of Haiti's history. There is really never
domination by
force without at least an attempt at cultural enslavement. The famous Code
Noir
of 1685 enjoined the slave owners to have their possessions baptized
whithin
eight days of their arrival on the island of St Domingue. Slaves were also
prohibited from devoting themselves to "supertitious practices" they had
brought with them from Africa. Furthermore, the habits and ways of the
master are always considered "civilized" and superior and those of the
subservient retrograde and uncivilized and inferior. Immediately after the
American occupation, which left power safely in the hands of a substitute
occupying force, the National Guard which continued its tradition under
the
grandiose name of Forces Armees d'Haiti, buttressing a succession of
bourgeois
elite governments, the practice of cultural enslavement continued in full
force
with the destruction of cutural icons of the voudou religion, specially
under
the regime of Elie Lescot. According to Metraux, a french catholic priest
nicknamed Lavalas (and what a choice of name for a supposedly opposite
movement!) distinguished himself by the fervor with which he went about
terrorizing the population in the Marbial valley, and destroying the
"maisons
de mysteres" ( yes the voudou temples) and all their contents. Imagine
going
into a catholic church those days and pulling the chalices, the waffles
and the
bottles or wine( perdon me Jesus blood) and throwing them on a bonfire.
Recently didn't some preacher at the head of a band of zealots or paid
accomplices go into a museum in Port au Prince and do the same to
paintings
which to them represented icons of the voudou religion? Recently there was
some
outcry from Dr Large about this sacrilege, but I don't believe the current
government has any mandate from higher ups to protect the cultural
heritage of
the haitian people.That reporter was not out of line at all. He was
writing as
part of the system to which he belongs. You have to throw out the whole
basket
of rotten apples in order to get anything changed. Like the Uncle said,
you
cannot deny the African part of your origins and call yourself a Haitian,
no
matter the karat rating of your skin color or which little category of the
Moreau de St Mery table of Haitian shades you think you belong, marabou
quateron mamelouque pur sang or otherwise.Unfortunately we don't have
anymore
the blood of Bookman, Macandal, Romaine la Prophetesse or Charlemagne
Peralte.
We have sold our soul in exchange for the mirage of convenience and have
all
forgotten about national dignity, a long time ago..
By the way, way to go Mambo Racine.
Math Jay