29508: Clerie (Comment): Re: 29494: Patrick de Verteuil (Opinion) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Philippe Clerie <philippe@gcal.net>

> Much of HaitiÂs history deals with color conflicts; black versus mulatto.
> There certainly has been a great deal of tension along color lines but I
> believe that this is a red herring in that most of the color conflicts have
> been between members of the same clan.

The _color question_ may not be as much of red herring as you think. There's
been too much fighting over it and too many words written about it to dismiss
it. On the other hand, I also believe it's more of a symptom of something else
that we (or at least, I) have not yet discovered much less understood. It's
the fever to an unknown sickness, a proxy hiding the real problem. But that's
only _my_ belief and not even a hypothesis.

> I refer interested readers to the work of GÃrard BarthÃlÃmy: particularly
> ÂCrÃoles  Bossales: Conflit en HaitiÂ.

I also discovered the dichotomy you describe via BarthÃlemy. At the time my
first reaction was that finally I understood my country. That was a very
short lived understanding. But it does point to what I think is a fundamental
problem: while we perceive this dichotomy in day to day life, we do not
formally acknowledge it. It does not exist. We persist in saying and
thinking: we're the same, while at the same time behaving each in his own
way. We keep trying to make the _other_ the same. But the _other_, refusing
to acknowledge the differences, will not submit. And so on, back and forth.

Incidentally, BarthÃlemy's theories don't seem to be very popular with Haitian
intellectuals. One of them thought it was some sort of patronizing story of
the _good savage_. Another told me BarthÃlemy was a joker. But then, maybe
it's not too surprising. GÃrard told me one of his editors thought that
somehow he had misinterpreted something, because if what he said was true, it
would already be known.

And yet, there is much in his books and articles that I relate to immediately,
because, intuitively, it makes so much more sense. He should be required
reading for anyone who wants to understand Haiti.

> BarthÃlÃmy was one of the first
> researchers to write on the Bossale question.

Not quite. Jean Fouchard, RÃmy Bastien and Jean Casimir (and no doubt others
that I don't know) also explore the bossale/creole dichotomy. But he
certainly took things much further.

--


Philippe

------
The trouble with common sense is that it is so uncommon.
<Anonymous>