a1818: Norwich Bulletin: Pair make Haitians feel at home (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

Friday, April 26, 2002

Pair works to make city Haitians feel at home
By MEGAN BARD
Norwich Bulletin

NORWICH -- When Roosevelt Thomas moved to Norwich three
years ago, he noticed immediately that the city lacked
resources for its growing Haitian community.
"They didn't have anything here," Thomas said in a thick
Haitian French accent. "We had no place to go, few people
we can turn to with problems and it was almost as if we
didn't exist."

To provide the new Haitian residents -- estimated at 3,500
in Norwich -- with an information outlet, Thomas, with
Garry Val-Fils, started Tele Lakay, a cable access
television show broadcast weekly in Norwich, Groton and New
London that includes news events from Haiti, as well as
news of local community events.

"We have footage sent from Haiti via UPS every week,"
Thomas said. "It's one of the ways we are able to stay
informed about what is going on back in Haiti. But we pay
our taxes here too and have a need to know what is going on
locally. We provide that in our native language."

But that isn't enough.

Thomas and Val-Fils are furthering their efforts to make
the Haitian community feel at home and provide an
educational forum for city residents to learn about their
culture by hosting a celebration May 18 in honor of Haitian
Flag Day.

"They celebrate the day throughout the country, but we
haven't had anything here," Thomas said. "With the
population increasing every day, and more questions being
asked about Haitian culture, we think this will be a good
way to celebrate and teach. We have a lot to do here."

Local event

The event will begin at noon May 18 with the raising of the
Haitian flag -- with its blue and red background and
Haitian coat of arms in the center enclosed in a white
square -- and the playing of "La Dessalienne," the Haitian
national anthem.

Thomas expects 200 to 300 people to take part in the
celebration that commemorates the 199th anniversary of
Haiti's claiming its independence from France in 1803.

"We have our Independence Day, Jan. 1, 1804, but our Flag
Day means more to us," Thomas said. "It was the day we took
the white out of the flag and fought the French for
freedom. It was the day we proclaimed our independence."

Flag's history

The 1803 Haitian flag was a combination of the blue and red
colors in a vertical strip with "Liberté ou la Mort" --
liberty or death -- inscribed in the center in white. The
white band was removed from the flag because it represented
the French monarchy, against which the island was
rebelling.

Catherine Fion sewed the new flag at the request of
rebellion Gen. Jean Jacques Dessalines and Gen. Alexandre
Petion. According to Thomas, the generals had the white
removed to create a blue and red flag that represented the
union of black and mulatto Haitians against the mainly
white French.

Over the years, the flag evolved to include black rather
than blue -- black representing death and red representing
freedom. But in 1986, the blue was reinstated.

"There are many stories about our flag and the union of the
people," Thomas said. "Some people are offended that the
blue has been changed from black, but others don't care
about it."

Val-Fils and Thomas said they don't want to stop with
bringing their television show and Haitian Flag Day to
Norwich.

"We need a place. We need a community center. That's next,"
Thomas said with a smile. "But for now, I'll concentrate on
our Flag Day."




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