Answers: Haiti's Long History of Instability
The assassination of President Jovenel Moise is the latest development in Haiti’s seemingly unending trail of woes over the past two centuries, for a country that was a trailblazer as the world’s first Black-led republic and the second-oldest republic in the western hemisphere after the United States.
Haiti, then Saint-Domingue, was France’s richest colony, known as the ‘Pearl of the Antilles’. It was the world’s top producer of sugar and coffee in the 18th century (the enslaved Africans who toiled in the fields saw little of the wealth). Inspired by the ideals of the French Revolution, Toussaint Louverture, a former slave led what’s hailed as the most important slave revolt in history. But independence in 1804 was followed by the French forcing Haiti to compensate former colonists for their lost property. The repercussions of the debt Haiti had to shoulder to pay France are felt to this day.
Haiti didn’t finish paying off the debt until 1947. Meanwhile it faced waves of U.S. military intervention, the brutal dictatorship of the Duvalier family, the massive earthquake of 2010, the subsequent cholera outbreak and frequent bouts of political and gang violence. Amid the political and economic instability, Haiti is often labelled as the ‘poorest country in the Western Hemisphere’ and until July 2021, it was the only country in the Americas without a single dose of a covid-19 vaccine.
Questions and Answers (post updated in July 2022 with intro above)
1) This Marxist intellectual’s play Toussaint Louverture was first performed in 1936 in London starring African American actor/singer Paul Robeson in the title role. Two years later his The Black Jacobins, a groundbreaking work on the Haitian Revolution was published. This was a pioneering work in placing people of African descent with the power to shape their historical narrative, instead of being passive, oppressed objects. Who is the author? Hint: the author has a cricket connection
C.L.R. James. The subtexts in the play Toussaint Louverture and the book The Black Jacobins were the U.S. military occupation of Haiti and the Italian invasion and occupation of Ethiopia in 1935-36. Ethiopia was the sole empire in Africa to hold out against Western colonisation until then and was a point of pride for the Black intelligentsia along with Haiti. James was a major advocate of the Ethiopian cause in his speeches and writings. More here and here.
The cricket hint is about the Trinidadian’s feted book on cricket ‘Beyond a Boundary’ which asked the probing question “What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?”
2) The father of this renowned author was born in colonial Haiti to a French aristocrat and his Black slave. When the aristocrat left for France to claim his inheritance he pawned his son. Later he was bought back and taken to France as a teenager. He took his mother’s surname upon joining the army at the lowest rank, after his father forbid him from using his family name. He went on to become France’s first Black general and played a major role in Napoleon Bonaparte's Italian Campaign of 1796-1797. Name the Black general’s famous literary son.
Alexandre Dumas. More about his father, General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas here, here and here. The general took his enslaved Haitian mother’s surname when he enlisted in the army. Through The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas evokes his father’s imprisonment after falling out with Napoleon. More here. The statue of the the ‘Black Count’ in Paris was destroyed by the Nazis.
3) What resulted in Haiti in 1915 after an angry crowd dragged President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam out of the French Embassy and beat him to death? (the crowd was angered by the mass execution of political opponents including a former leader). This particular consequence lasted nearly two decades.
U.S. military occupation of Haiti (1915-34). More here, here and here. The U.S. again sent troops to Haiti in 1994 following a UN Security Council resolution to remove the military junta and restore the democratically-elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. More here, here and here. U.S. Marines were back in Haiti in 2004 after Aristide resigned under American pressure. More here, here and here.
4) Haiti’s notorious dictator Francois Duvalier, known as ‘Papa Doc’, was known for his black top hat, thick glasses, gold-handled cane and long, black coat. Who did he seek to resemble in appearance?
Baron Samedi, the guardian of the cemeteries in Haitian Vodou. More on Vodou/Voodoo here. I came across the name Baron Samedi as a teenager while reading Graham Greene’s The Comedians, which was my first exposure to Haiti.
5) This novel published in 1965 introduced the English-speaking world to the horrors of ‘Papa Doc’. It draws on events in Haiti in 1963 during the author’s nerve-wracking visit there. In the foreword to the novel the author wrote “poor Haiti itself and the character of Dr. Duvalier's rule are not invented, the latter not even blackened for dramatic effect. Impossible to darken that night.” The book and the author were banned in Haiti and Duvalier produced a glossy bilingual pamphlet condemning him. Name the author and the book.
Graham Greene, The Comedians. More here, here, here and here.
6) Joe Gaetjens was one of the many who were taken away by the Tontons Macoutes, the feared secret police under ‘Papa Doc’, never to be seen again. While he was not politically active, others in his family were involved in plans to overthrow Francois Duvalier. Earlier in 1947 Gaetjens’ parents sent him to Columbia University in New York and in 1950 he played the starring role in one of the biggest sporting upsets of all time. What was the sporting upset?
Joe Gaetjens scored the lone goal in the United States’ upset win over England in the 1950 Football World Cup in Brazil (Gaetjens was not a U.S. citizen and never became one). More on Gaetjens here, here and here.
7) Who became the world’s youngest President at the age of 19 in 1971?
Jean-Claude Duvalier, son of ‘Papa Doc’ who was known as ‘Baby Doc’. The younger Duvalier was overthrown in a popular uprising in 1986. More here and here.
8) Through the 1970s and 1980s, low wages and close proximity to the U.S. attracted American companies to Haiti to manufacture what item? At the time, Haiti was the largest manufacturer of this item globally. Political instability prompted the companies to move out in the late eighties and early nineties. Manufacturing has shifted to Costa Rica as well as China. What item? (Hint: sport)
Baseballs. More here and here. U.S. companies expanded operations in Haiti after ‘Baby Doc’ opened up the country to foreign business in the 1970s. The policy known as ‘Jeanclaudism’ enabled U.S. businesses to gain from Haiti’s cheap labour and the power of the Tontons Macoutes secret police to crush unions. U.S. companies started relocating to countries such as Costa Rica in the aftermath of the younger Duvalier’s fall from power. More here and here.
9) He was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1983. He became popular among the poor in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince for his sermons condemning greed and corruption under the country’s president. He went on to criticise the United States and the church hierarchy, expressing an affinity for liberation theology, regarded by the church as dangerously left-wing. He was expelled in 1988 by the Salesians, the religious order he belonged to. He resigned from the priesthood in 1994. Who?
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who became Haiti’s first democratically elected President in 1990. Ousted in a military coup, he returned to power in 1994 after a U.S.-led military intervention dubbed Operation Uphold Democracy. But Aristide fell out of favour in Washington and was forced to quit amid U.S. pressure in 2004. He returned in 2011 after years of exile in South Africa. His Fanmi Lavalas Party remains a potent presence in Haiti. More here, here and here
10) Haiti was hit by cholera, just months after the massive earthquake in 2010. The cholera outbreak was the worst in recent history and killed thousands of people. Six years later, an entity admitted it played a role in the outbreak and apologised while stopping short of saying it specifically caused the epidemic. Name the organisation.
United Nations peacekeepers. More here, here and here.
11) A popular pop star known as ‘Sweet Micky’ notorious for profane and misogynistic remarks on stage, he ran for President in 2010. His candidacy was initially dismissed as a joke, but anger over the slow pace of recovery from the January 2010 earthquake propelled him to victory in the runoff (a playbook emulated in 2015 by comedian Jimmy Morales in Guatemala and Donald Trump in 2016). Who is the pop star turned Haitian President who has returned to his music career?
Michel Martelly. More here, here, here, here and here. Haiti-born and New York-bred rapper Wyclef Jean also tried to run for President in 2010. Though he had retained his Haitian citizenship, he was barred for not meeting residency requirements. More here, here and here.
12) Jovenel Moise was a little-known businessman who headed the chamber of commerce in Port-de-Paix in Haiti’s northwest. He oversaw a controversial state-backed export project, giving him a nickname that he and his supporters promoted on the campaign trail. What was the nickname? (Hint: export project involved a fruit)
The Banana Man. More here, here and here.
13) The party associated with Jovenel Moise and his predecessor is known as Parti Haitien Tet Kale (PHTK) in Haitian Creole. How does it translate in English?
Bald Head Party, inspired by the bald pates of Michel Martelly and Jovenel Moise. More here and here