22239: Simidor: Siyabonga or Sayonara, Aristide? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Daniel Simidor <karioka9@mail.arczip.com>


South Africa’s red carpet treatment of Mr. Aristide may prove foolish in the end.

Aristide left Haiti a few short weeks ago in a terrible state of disorder and destruction, a cross between civil war and a natural catastrophe.  Haitians who struggled to put an end to his awful regime are aghast at the royal reception he has been granted in South Africa.  Yet we understand that Mr. Mbeki’s intent is not necessarily to disrespect the Haitian people, in whose name the former Haitian leader has been granted asylum in South Africa.

Haiti means different things to different people. For Haitians who long for true democratic governance and accountability, Aristide was a pathetic little dictator harking back to the country’s worse excesses.  But for Mr. Mbeki and his CARICOM counterparts, Aristide was the leader of a small and weak country badly mangled by the big and mad wolf in Washington.  In standing up for Aristide, they see themselves as nobly standing up to imperialist aggression, in what is supposed to be a new, post-colonial era.

But had the South African leader identified a little less with the man and a little more with the people, he might have uncovered a far more nuanced reality, and possibly avoided a needless embarrassment for his country.  As things now stand, Haitians are unlikely to bring Mr. Aristide to account for his repression and depredations, but the US Drug Enforcement Agency is methodically closing in on Mr. Aristide, one corrupt Lavalas official at a time.  Will South Africa soon find itself foolishly harboring a convicted drug kingpin, in lieu of a more deserving refugee or fellow black leader?  Some people believe that the writing is already on the wall.

Siyabonga (thank you in Zulu) or Sayonara (farewell in Japanese)?  It would appear that Haitians are not really welcome in South Africa unless they wear a crown of some sort (no pun intended on Mr. Aristide’s baldness), so I cannot great my South Africa blood brothers as prettily as Mr. Aristide.  Still in the coarse language of my people I will greet thee: “Koute pèp la, tande!” (Heed the voice of the people!)

Daniel Simidor
(Haitian community activist in Brooklyn, New York)
email: karioka9@arczip.com