Peter Espeut TOMORROW IS the 200th anniversary of the birth of the second independent state in the Western Hemisphere (after the USA in 1776) and the first independent black republic in the world.
On August 22, 1791 slaves in the French colony of St. Domingue, just 100 miles north-east of Jamaica, rose up in revolution against their masters. Their effort was a military success - in fact the only successful slave revolt in the Americas. And what a victory! They beat the might of the army and navy of the great Napoleon Bonaparte! On January 1, 1804 the new country declared its independence, and took its original Arawakan name "Hayti".
I believe that most Jamaicans are unaware of the heavy impact the Haitian Revolution has had on Jamaican history. In fact, I don't think most Jamaicans even think of Haiti when they think of the Caribbean region. Haiti is only hours away from Jamaica by boat - minutes by plane. Yet we are as far apart as if we were in different hemispheres. Did you know that in the old days there used to be a regular scheduled ferry between Kingston and Port-au-Prince? The present chasm has been cleverly created by those who have always feared that Jamaican black people would repeat the achievements of their Haitian brothers.
Indeed, it has long been hidden from us that a Jamaican slave fired up the Haitian revolution, because it might give us locals ideas about the possibilities of our own liberation. Boukman Dutty (called "Book Man" in Jamaica because he could read) was sold by his British master to a Frenchman (and his name became "Boukman" in Haiti). A giant with imposing stature, with courage to match, he was a Voodoo priest, exercising an undisputed influence and command over his followers, who knew him as "Zamba" Boukman.
At a regular night meeting of slaves on August 14, 1791 at Bois-Caiman on Haiti's northern plain, a black pig was sacrificed in a Voodoo ceremony. Boukman made a great speech which so fired up his listeners that they made a blood pact to execute Boukman's orders: to break their chains or die! Thus began the great 13-year struggle which culminated in the independence of the first black nation in the world. Boukman was killed in November 1791 in a French counter-offensive, otherwise a Jamaican might have become the first leader of independent Haiti!
So Jamaica was intimately involved in the revolution. And in the aftermath. Hundreds of refugees poured into Jamaica, people with names like d'Aquin, Beaumont, Brandon, Chavannes, Chevolleau, deCambre, deCassieres, deLisser, Delvaille, deRoux, Desnoes, DuCasse, Dufour, DuQuesnay, Duval, Espeut, Gadpaille, Lafayette, Lamont, Latibeaudiere, LeFranc, Lyon, Malabre, Moncrieffe, Narcisse, Rousseau, Vidal. Accounts of Jamaica in the 1790s reveal that the planters were nervous, fearing that revolutionary sentiments would migrate to Jamaica with the slaves some of the French planter refugees brought with them. Indeed, the local planters raised an army which went to St. Domingue intending to put down the revolt and restore slavery! They were unceremoniously thrown out by Toussaint!
In 1795 (during the Haitian Revolution), the Maroons of Trelawny Town were badly treated, and they revolted. The viciousness with which this small conflict was put down may be traced to widespread fear that it might become a Haiti. In 1831 when Sam Sharpe led a slave uprising, the memory of Haiti was still fresh in the minds of Jamaican society, leading to swift, brutal repression; as in 1865 during the Morant Bay Rebellion thirty years after Emancipation! The Jamaican power structure has always been afraid Jamaica's African majority might wake up to the implications of their overwhelming numbers, in the context of their inferior status. The poor quality of the "book learning" offered the average Jamaican is not an accident. The spectre of Haiti has long hung over Jamaica.
If independent Haiti could not be hidden, it could be discredited and ridiculed, and its progress obstructed; things would be made as hard as possible for this upstart country. The French exacted a heavy price to drop their claim to Haiti and end hostilities: before independence was recognised Haiti was made to pay 60 million francs in reparations to the French for the loss of their property, the equivalent today of US$21.7 billion; no reparations to the slaves for the loss of their freedom and their homeland! Imagine newly independent Jamaica being asked to pay Britain twenty billion dollars compensation for Britain's loss? It is a marvel that the country survived at all!
THE NEW NATION
The new nation was isolated and ostracised by the world community. The Americans and the Europeans applied an economic boycott. Haiti was invaded and occupied twice by the United States military during the last century (c.f. Iraq). Rather than try to encourage democracy, the world powers supported one corrupt dictator after another for their own benefit.
We Jamaicans sat by for decades while a series of Haitian dictators ran down the country and enriched themselves. Indeed we traded with them, and had cordial meetings with them, and we formed political links. We gave political asylum to no less than nine of these despots (Boyer, Herard, Guerrier, Soulouque, Geffrard, Domingue, Alexis, Estime, Magloire), and at least three of them are buried here (Herard, Geffrard, Alexis). Some Jamaican businessmen have had investments in Haiti, and have given support to corrupt governments. We have co-operated in the poverty that is in Haiti.
And we laughed at the first independent black country in the western hemisphere and their squalor; and we watched her people chop down their forests for a little firewood; and in the midst of our Obeah, our duppies, our dreams, our "rakes" and our McDonald's Almanacs, we belittled their particular attempts to make sense of this world and the next, which is what Voodoo is; and after ensuring their failure, we held them up to ridicule as proof of the futility of black people coming to power. And when some observed our growing difficulties, they would speak of the "Haitianization of Jamaica". I for one am not proud of the record of our dealings with Haiti over the last 200 years. Haiti, I'm sorry!
But despite their poverty, Haitians are a proud and strong and talented people. They have survived the depredations of slavery and freedom, of invasion and occupation, of coup and deprivation. Despite poverty, their crime rate is low. With the absence of government, especially in rural areas, they have learned to band themselves into local community organisations for co-operative advancement. Despite low levels of formal education, the fame of Haitian artists is global in reach. I have been to Haiti several times, and many Haitians I meet are well informed about Jamaica and our political and economic woes. As bad as things are in Haiti, I have been told they wish to avoid the "Jamaicanization of Haiti".
When will we come to realise that rejection of Haiti is a rejection of ourselves, a rejection of blackness? The world community looks at Haiti and it looks at us. As long as Haiti remains in its present condition it is an indictment on all of us. When "Baby Doc" Duvalier fled to the French Riviera, the Caribbean Community missed an opportunity to step in and bring real change to Haiti, but we missed the boat. After the coup after the elections it was not CARICOM that restored democracy but the USA. And then we say we want to run our own affairs! But then we didn't step in to restore democracy in Guyana either (maybe we were afraid of the precedent that might bring others to restore democracy and order in Jamaica!)
We Jamaicans need to realise that the future of the black Caribbean is tied up with the future of Haiti. We won't march very far towards sustainable development without bringing Haiti along. No one will take us seriously.
To all Haitians I say, "Happy Bicentennial! Some of us are in your corner."
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and Executive Director of an Environment and Development NGO.
