26136: Corbett: On Thomas Madiou's historical writings

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

> From Bob Corbett

Folks, I had a note from a former list member who wanted to know a bit 
about THomas Madiou, and in checking my notes I saw I had a reference to
the treatment of David Nicholls.  Since I scanned those pages for
the person who inquired, I thought it might be useful to share the
Nicholls' passage with the rest of you:

===========================

From:  FROM DESSALINES TO DUVALIER by David Nicholls.
	Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1979

pp. 87-88

Thomas Madiou

The regimes of Soulouque and Geffrard witnessed the appearance of a number of
important works on aspects of the Haitian past. In 1847 Thomas Madiou
published the first part of his Histoire d Haiti. this being followed in 1848
by volumes II and III. Madiou was born in 1814 at Port-au-Prince, but was sent
away to France at the age of ten for his education. He became interested in
history and, returning to Hait in 1835, published a number of articles on
Haitian history. From 1837 to 1841 he was personal secretary to Inginac, chief
minister in Boyer?s government, but managed to separate himself from the
regime before its fall in 1843. He became a teacher and was appointed director
of the lycee nacionale; he resigned in protest against the massacres by
Soulouque in 1848. Nevertheless Madiou was soon brought back into public
aftairs by the emperor, who appointed him editor of Le Moniteur, the official
government journal. He was made ambassador to Spain by Geffrard and became
secretary of state for education in 1866.

His close association with Geffrard?s government led to the confiscation of
his property by Salnave. He returned to favour and became secretary of state
for education under Saget. He retired from public life, but was brought back
by Salomon, who was an old friend of his, and appointed secretary of state for
justice, war and the navy. He died in 1844.

Although a mulatto, Madiou was never totally committed to the mulatto clique
or cliques, as his association with the regimes of Soulouque and Salomon will
indicate. His writings on the Haitian past, though liberally sprinkled with
value judgments. personal reflections and practical lessons for his readers,
were never simply an elaboration of the mulatto version of Haitian history. He
was not, however, a historian interested in the past for the sake of the past,
and made it clear to his readers that a knowledge of the past is important in
order ?to direct a society in the ways of progress?.  Madiou saw his historical
writings as a work of piety and patriotism. ?History?, he wrote,

     consolidates the independence of a nation. A people which
     does not know its traditions is without a love of its fatherland. This
     people, being attacked by foreigners, will defend only its material
     interests: vanquished, it submits to the yoke of conquerors without
     regret for the past.

He saw Haiti. founded as a free homeland for African people. as a repay
repayment to the people of Europe for the oppression which they had
inflicted in the past. and for their destruction of the indigenous Indians.
The emergence of Haiti constituted, furthermore, a refutation of the
view that certain parts of the globe should be restricted to particular
races: the globe belongs to the whole human race. Madiou also believed
that important lessons can be drawn from a knowledge of world history,
in particular the fact that civilisation progresses because of the movement of
populations and the blending (fusion) of races.  This belief in the benefits
of racial mixing became a familiar aspect of the mulatto ideology for obvious
reasons. It would be quite wrong to think that Madiou, who himself managed to
avoid a narrow commitment to the mulatto groups of his day, ignored the
importance of colour distinctions in the history of Haiti. Quite the reverse:
each of his three volumes contains an appendix giving the colour of the
characters mentioned in the text. Furthermore, his explicit recognition of the
colour question and his reference to the presence of two ?castes? in post-
colonial Haiti as especially objectionable to the mulatto elite. Madiou saw
the rebellion headed by Acaau as a reaction against mulatto domination under
Petion and Boyer, stating that ?colour remained the criterion of social,
administrative and political distinctions?.

He thus saw the colour factor as important, but he refused to paint the
history of Haiti according to the ?official? mulatto version. In particular,
as we have already seen, his assessment of the emperor Dessalines was somewhat
out of line with the accepted mulatto view, and his judgment of Christophe was
regarded as excessively lenient. The French writer Bonneau accused Madiou of
attempting to rehabilitate Christophe in order to ingratiate himself with
Soulouque.


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Bob Corbett