Nèg Mawon Podcast

Welcome to the Nèg Mawon Podcast, where we delve into the rich history, resilience, and resistance of the Haitian people. In today's episode, titled "A Secret Among the Blacks - A Conversation with John Garrigus," our host, Patrick Jean-Baptiste, sits down with acclaimed author and historian, John Garrigus, to discuss the role of community in revolution and resistance against slavery.

Garrigus challenges the prevailing notion that enslaved people were constantly rebelling against their oppressors, emphasizing instead the importance of building a community of trust. He contests the stereotype that violence was the sole driving force behind the Haitian Revolution, highlighting the story of Medor, who utilized nonviolent means in the fight for freedom.

Diving into his book, Garrigus takes us on a chronological and geographical journey, focusing on specific regions and individuals associated with resistance communities. One intriguing aspect he uncovers is a poison scare in Haiti, where he unveils the culprit as anthrax, a disease brought from France.

As Patrick and John exchange greetings and their initial confusion with a misidentified individual named David Gegis, they delve into the challenges of studying colonial Haiti and the value of considering the perspective of the enslaved people. They discuss the difficulties of navigating the archives and the imperative of centering the stories of the enslaved individuals rather than being caught up in the perspective of the enslavers.

Our conversation continues with an exploration of the connections between key revolutionaries, such as Macandal and Boukman, revealing the contradictions in historical documents and the need to focus on the perspective of those fighting against slavery. Garrigus clarifies the misconceptions surrounding Mackandal, debunking him as a lord of poison and shedding light on his true role as a great leader and founder of Haitian culture.

We also delve into the various forms of resistance implemented by the enslaved people, from spiritual practices and individual efforts for manumission to utilizing the French legal system and labor strikes on plantations. Garrigus sheds light on the complexity of resistance activities and the level of coordination among the strikers in their fight against the oppressive plantation system.

Join us as we uncover the secrets of Haiti's past, challenge historical narratives, and celebrate the resilience and strength of the Haitian people. Get ready for an enlightening conversation with John Garrigus, an expert who opens our eyes to a history that has often been overlooked. Stay tuned for another captivating episode of the Nèg Mawon Podcast.

I'm thrilled to bring you another episode from our Lakou series, delving into the rich tapestry of Haitian culture living in the diaspora and in Haiti. Today, we have a very special guest joining us all the way from London, Guilaine Brutus, who is an integral part of the Haitian community there.

In this episode, we explored a taboo topic in Haitian culture - the practice of Restavek, and child slavery. I'm not going to sugarcoat the practice by calling it child servitude. When people work for free, it's slavery. Period. Full stop.

Guilaine shared her mother's personal experience as a Restavek in Haiti and in the Turks & Cacos. Listen to how Guilaine's mom and family coped with the hardships and sacrifices of being a Restavek.

We examined the role of women in Haitian society, discussed the lack of recognition for their contributions and the importance of understanding the trauma individuals may carry with them.

So, get ready for a thought-provoking, emotionally heavy, and insightful conversation as we delve into the world of Restavek and its long-lasting consequences on individuals, families, and Haitian culture.

In the meantime, here are some top 10 questions worth considering as you listen to this episode:

1. How does the experience of being a Restavek shape a person's life and their relationship with their family?

2. What are some possible reasons why the speaker's mother chose to leave two of her children behind when she returned to the Turks and Caicos Islands?

3. How does the theme of sacrifice play a role in the speaker's mother's life and the choices she made for her family?

4. In what ways do cultural differences impact the expression of love and affection within families?

5. How does the speaker challenge societal norms and expectations surrounding women's contributions and recognition in society?

6. What role do ancestral traditions and practices, such as creating altars, play in Haitian culture and the speaker's personal experiences?

7. How does trauma, pain, and unspoken experiences impact the speaker's relationship with the person they are communicating with?

8. How do cultural traumas, like the Restavek system, continue to affect Haitian communities and individuals today?

9. How does education play a role in Haitian society, particularly in the context of the speaker's mother's determination to provide opportunities for her children?

10. In what ways do personal experiences of pain and trauma shape an individual's perspective on life and their ability to overcome adversity?

Let's dive right in!

Welcome back to another captivating episode of the Nèg Mawon Podcast. In this episode, your host Patrick Jean-Baptiste continues his Scholar Legacy Series with esteemed Yale Professor Dr. Marlene Daut. Brace yourself for a thought-provoking exploration of Haiti's history, as the conversation delves into the intricate complexities of compromised freedom and the struggle for sovereignty.

What didn't we discuss in this wide-ranging part 2/3 discussion with Dr. Marlene Daut on the intellectual history of the Haitain revolution?

• Well, she took a hammer to Bonaparte and his white supremacist sympathizers.

• We talked about how the terms enslaved & enslavers can be unintentionally problematic.
• You will learn how Haitian History is both local and global. Other topics covered by Dr. Marlene L. Daut: some of the famous and lesser-known eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Haitian revolutionaries, pamphleteers, and political thinkers whose extraordinary deeds, coupled with their systems of knowledge and interpretation played center stage during the Age of Revolutions; the 1801 Haitian constitution;
• Louverture's definition of "free";
• that deeds & discourse are two sides of the same coin (my framing);
• We touched briefly on the only none cross-dresser I know of in Haitian history-- Romaine la Prophetess;
• French hypocrisy (surprise!) on "universalism" and the Rights of Man.

Stay until the end of this episode to hear an original Cameroonian piece by the Theologian, Dr. Roch Ntankeh. This outro was commissioned & licensed by Neg Mawon Media. All rights reserved.

Episode Outline

1 - Intro

2- Book's table of contents

3 - Her Most Haitian Book

4 - On the Title

5 - Restorative Justice for Haiti

6 - Our Ancestors had the Receipts!

7 - Insurrection

8 - 1804 Principle

9 - Acts & Actes

10 - The Haitian Story is Local & Global

The Haitian Revolution was a powerful blow against colonialism and slavery, and as its thinkers and fighters blazed the path to universal freedom, they forced anticolonial, antislavery, and antiracist ideals into modern political grammar. The first state in the Americas to permanently abolish slavery, outlaw color prejudice, and forbid colonialism, Haitians established their nation in a hostile Atlantic World. Slavery was ubiquitous throughout the rest of the Americas and foreign nations and empires repeatedly attacked Haitian sovereignty. Yet Haitian writers and politicians successfully defended their independence while planting the ideological roots of egalitarian statehood.
In Awakening the Ashes, Marlene L. Daut situates famous and lesser-known eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Haitian revolutionaries, pamphleteers, and political thinkers within the global history of ideas, showing how their systems of knowledge and interpretation took center stage in the Age of Revolutions. While modern understandings of freedom and equality are often linked to the French Declaration of the Rights of Man or the US Declaration of Independence, Daut argues that the more immediate reference should be to what she calls the 1804 Principle that no human being should ever again be colonized or enslaved, an idea promulgated by the Haitians who, against all odds, upended French empire.

• Dr. Steiber turns to the written record to re-examine the building blocks of Haitian history.
• Picking up where most historians conclude, listen as Dr. Chelsea Stieber explores the critical internal challenge to Haiti’s post-independence sovereignty: a civil war between monarchy and republic. What transpired was a war of swords and of pens, waged in newspapers and periodicals, in literature, broadsheets, and fliers. In her analysis of Haitian writing that followed independence, Dr. Stieber composes a new literary history of Haiti, one I'm certain challenges our interpretations of both freedom struggles and the postcolonial.
• She also examines internal dissent during the revolution, Stieber reveals that the very concept of freedom was itself hotly contested in the public sphere, and it was this inherent tension that became the central battleground for the guerre de plume―the paper war―that vied to shape public sentiment and the very idea of Haiti.
• Stieber’s reading of post-independence Haitian writing reveals key insights into the nature of literature, its relation to freedom and politics, and how fraught and politically loaded the concepts of “literature” and “civilization” really are. The competing ideas of liberté, writing, and civilization at work within postcolonial Haiti have consequences for the way we think about Haiti’s role―as an idea and a discursive interlocutor―in the elaboration of black radicalism and black Atlantic, anticolonial, and decolonial thought. In so doing, Stieber reorders our previously homogeneous view of Haiti, teasing out warring conceptions of the new nation that continued to play out deep into the twentieth century.

Enjoy!

In this part 2/2 episode, Dr Lou starts breaking down two of the five key concepts he covers in his book: Pan-Africanism and black Atlantic Intellectualism. You'll hear the difference between the Garvism version of Pan-Africanism and Price-Mars'. Dr Lou also pays tribute to the amazing black women who were also signisficant contributors to Pan-Africanism.

Enjoy the Troubadour Haitian folk ballads at the end.

"Between Two Worlds: Jean Price-Mars, Haiti, and Africa" is a special volume on Jean Price-Mars that reassesses the importance of his thought and legacy, and the implications of his ideas in the twenty-first century’s culture of political correctness, the continuing challenge of race and racism, and imperial hegemony in the modern world. In this first of many interviews, Dr. Joseph shares with us how Price-Mars’s thought is also significant for the renewed scholarly interests in Haiti and Haitian Studies in North America, and the meaning of contemporary Africa in the world today. Dr. Lou explores various dimensions in Price-Mars’ thought and his role as historian, anthropologist, cultural critic, public intellectual, religious scholar, pan-Africanist, and humanist.
The goal of this book is fourfold: it explores the contributions of Jean Price-Mars to Haitian history and culture, it studies Price-Mars’ engagement with Western history and the problem of the “racist narrative,” it interprets Price-Mars’ connections with Black Internationalism, Harlem Renaissance, and the Negritude Movement, and finally, the book underscores Price-Mars’ contributions to post-colonialism, religious studies, Africana Studies, and Pan-Africanism.

Show Notes

In this episode (1/2), listen as Dr. Celucien Joseph (Dr. Lou)outlines the 5 themes he will discuss with us in this episode and the two others that follow. As it relates to

Jean Price-Mars' writings and thoughts. The 5 themes are listed below. In this episode, Dr Lou Discusses Price-Mars' grounding within the context of Caribbean intellectual traditions, such as creolite, negritude, etc. Subsequent episodes will tackle the remaining 4 themes--not necessarily in the order he mentions them in this episode. Enjoy!

• Pan-Africanism
• Black Atlantic Intellectual History/thought/culture
• The Symbolic Meaning of Africa re to his writings. What does Africa mean to Price-Mars.
• Grounding Price-Mars in the Caribbean context of creolite, negritude, etc
• Price-Mars' connection to the Harlem Renaissance.

Through our art & religion, there is definitely a Haitian way of viewing & expressing how we engage with the world. Dr. Kaima Glover explains Spiralsm.

Haiti, the land where Sweet & Sorrow dwells; where 1 + 1 = 3.

Produced by Patrick & Joshua Jean-Baptiste

Voice-over: Joshua Jean-Baptiste

Artwork: Patrick Jean-Baptiste

Written by: Patrick Jean-Baptiste

[Konesans Series - Ep. #54] Kreyol & the Translator's Craft. A Brief Chat with Dr Nadève Ménard

In Fragments of Bone, thirteen essayists discuss African religions as forms of resistance and survival in the face of Western cultural hegemony and imperialism. The collection presents scholars working outside of the Western tradition with backgrounds in a variety of disciplines, genders, and nationalities. These experts draw on research, fieldwork, personal interviews, and spiritual introspection to support a provocative thesis: that fragments of ancestral traditions are fluidly interwoven into New World African religions as creolized rituals, symbolic systems, and cultural identities. 

Contributors: Osei-Mensah Aborampah, Niyi Afolabi, Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, Randy P. Conner, T. J. Desch-Obi, Ina Johanna Fandrich, Kean Gibson, Marilyn Houlberg, Nancy B. Mikelsons, Roberto Nodal, Rafael Ocasio, Miguel "Willie" Ramos, and Denise Ferreira da Silva Reviews "Takes the reader to a deeper and broader understanding of Afro-Caribbean traditions than we have had before. . . . 

The cumulative effect of this unusual collection moves religions such as Vodou, Santeria, Palo, and Candomblé out of the realm of the exotic and into a merited position among progressive religious alternatives in the contemporary world."--Karen McCarthy Brown, author of Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn "Impeccably researched, persuasively argued, and engagingly written. . . . 

This is the most comprehensive, creative collection available, and should become the standard text for courses on the subject in the United States and abroad."--Richard Brent Turner, University of Iowa "This is a rare and important work. Fragments of Bone makes major progress toward reconstructing and rehabilitating historically subjugated indigenous spirituality. It is innovative, informative, and of the utmost significance."--Claudine Michel, author of Aspects Moraux et Educatifs du Vodou Haitien 

About our Guest
Patrick Bellegarde-Smith is professor emeritus of Africology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is also the author of Haiti: The Breached Citadel and other books.

Haitian seasonal migration to Cuba is central to narratives about race, national development, and US imperialism in the early twentieth-century Caribbean. Filling a major gap in the literature, this innovative study reconstructs Haitian guestworkers' lived experiences as they moved among the rural and urban areas of Haiti, and the sugar plantations, coffee farms, and cities of eastern Cuba. 

It offers an unprecedented glimpse into the daily workings of empire, labor, and political economy in Haiti and Cuba. Migrants' efforts to improve their living and working conditions and practice their religions shaped migration policies, economic realities, ideas of race, and Caribbean spirituality in Haiti and Cuba as each experienced US imperialism.

This episode is compelling and thought-provoking, The Sexual Politics of Empire examines LGBTQI life in contemporary Haiti against the backdrop of American imperialism and intervention.

Evangelical Christians and members of the global LGBTQI human rights movement have vied for influence in Haiti since the 2010 earthquake. Each side accuses the other of serving foreign interests. Yet each proposes future foreign interventions on behalf of their respective causes despite the country’s traumatic past with European colonialism and American imperialism. 

Listen as Dr. Durban shows how two discourses can dominate discussions of intervention. One maintains imperialist notions of a backward Haiti so riddled with cultural deficiencies that foreign supervision is necessary to overcome Haitians’ resistance to progress (sounds familiar?). The other sees Haiti as a modern but failed state that exists only through its capacity for violence, including homophobia. In the context of these competing claims, Dr. Durban explores the creative ways that same-sex desiring and gender creative Haitians contend with anti-LGBTQI violence and ongoing foreign intervention.

A wide ranging discussion with one of my favorite scholars, Dr. Nadève Ménard. [A sprinkle of Kreyol; the rest in English. ] We cover The Haiti Reader and a separate essay (post-2010 earthquake) she wrote to her daughter, "My Dearest Dear Ana".

While Haiti established the second independent nation in the Western Hemisphere and was the first black country to gain independence from European colonizers, its history is not well known in the Anglophone world. As co-editor, The Haiti Reader is an introduction to Haiti's dynamic history and culture from the viewpoint of Haitians from all walks of life.  

The Reader includes dozens of selections—most of which appear here in English for the first time. She emphasized that the selections are representative of Haiti's scholarly, literary, religious, visual, musical, and political cultures. What you'll find in this reader: poems, novels, and political tracts to essays, legislation, songs, and folk tales.  

Spanning the centuries between precontact indigenous Haiti and the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, the Reader covers widely known episodes in Haiti's history, such as the U.S. military occupation and the Duvalier dictatorship, as well as overlooked periods such as the decades immediately following Haiti's “second independence” in 1934. Whether examining issues of political upheaval, the environment, or modernization, The Haiti Reader provides an unparalleled look at Haiti's history, culture, and politics.

Within the context of Haiti, the word crisis has very specific meaning for Dr. Greg Beckett. As you'll him articulate, this is not just another book about crisis in Haiti. This book is about what it feels like to live and die with a crisis that never seems to end. It is about the experience of living amid the ruins of ecological devastation, economic collapse, political upheaval, violence, and humanitarian disaster.

It is about how catastrophic events and political and economic forces shape the most intimate aspects of everyday life. In this gripping episode, anthropologist Greg Beckett offers a stunning ethnographic portrait of ordinary people struggling to survive in Port-au-Prince in the twenty-first century. Drawing on over a decade of research, There Is No More Haiti builds on stories of death and rebirth to powerfully reframe the narrative of a country in crisis. It is essential episode for anyone interested in Haiti today.

Within the context of Haiti, the word crisis has very specific meaning for Dr. Greg Beckett. As you'll him articulate, this is not just another book about crisis in Haiti. This book is about what it feels like to live and die with a crisis that never seems to end. It is about the experience of living amid the ruins of ecological devastation, economic collapse, political upheaval, violence, and humanitarian disaster. It is about how catastrophic events and political and economic forces shape the most intimate aspects of everyday life. In this gripping episode, anthropologist Greg Beckett offers a stunning ethnographic portrait of ordinary people struggling to survive in Port-au-Prince in the twenty-first century. Drawing on over a decade of research, There Is No More Haiti builds on stories of death and rebirth to powerfully reframe the narrative of a country in crisis. It is essential episode for anyone interested in Haiti today.

Within the context of Haiti, the word crisis has very specific meaning for Dr. Greg Beckett. As you'll him articulate, this is not just another book about crisis in Haiti. This book is about what it feels like to live and die with a crisis that never seems to end. It is about the experience of living amid the ruins of ecological devastation, economic collapse, political upheaval, violence, and humanitarian disaster. 

It is about how catastrophic events and political and economic forces shape the most intimate aspects of everyday life. In this gripping episode, anthropologist Greg Beckett offers a stunning ethnographic portrait of ordinary people struggling to survive in Port-au-Prince in the twenty-first century. Drawing on over a decade of research, There Is No More Haiti builds on stories of death and rebirth to powerfully reframe the narrative of a country in crisis. It is essential episode for anyone interested in Haiti today.

This is the story of freedom, of choices black women made to anchor their humanity,to retain control over their bodies, selves, loved ones, and their futures.

The story of freedom is ambiguous, but often begins with intimate acts steeped in power. Listen as Dr Johnson discusses the peculiar oppressions faced by African women and women of African descent. And it pivots on the self-conscious choices black women made to retain control over their bodies and selves, their loved ones, and their futures. Slavery's rise in the Americas was institutional, carnal, and reproductive. 

The intimacy of bondage whet the appetites of slaveowners, traders, and colonial officials with fantasies of domination that trickled into every social relationship—husband and wife, sovereign and subject, master and laborer. Intimacy—corporeal, carnal, quotidian—tied slaves to slaveowners, women of African descent and their children to European and African men. In Wicked Flesh, Jessica Marie Johnson explores the nature of these complicated intimate and kinship ties and how they were used by black women to construct freedom in the Atlantic world.

Johnson draws on archival documents scattered in institutions across three continents, written in multiple languages and largely from the perspective of colonial officials and slave-owning men, to recreate black women's experiences from coastal Senegal to French Saint-Domingue to Spanish Cuba to the swampy outposts of the Gulf Coast. 

Centering New Orleans as the quintessential site for investigating black women's practices of freedom in the Atlantic world, Wicked Flesh argues that African women and women of African descent endowed free status with meaning through active, aggressive, and sometimes unsuccessful intimate and kinship practices. 

Their stories, in both their successes and their failures, outline a practice of freedom that laid the groundwork for the emancipation struggles of the nineteenth century and reshaped the New World.

Her profile page on our site.

https://neg.fm/dr-jessica-marie-johnson/

Yes. Haitians were in the nation-building business! This episode covers a little-known chapter in Haitian history. Dr. Regine Jackson offers a fascinating, multi-sited, and interdisciplinary study of the United Nations Organization in the Congo (ONUC), a civilian operation established after the Democratic Republic of Congo achieved independence from Belgium.  

Through narrative interviews in New York City, Port-au-Prince, Montreal and Paris and analysis of archives in Haiti, Kinshasa, and at UN headquarters in New York and Paris, Dr. Jackson helps us understand better the lived experiences of the Haitian educators, engineers, and doctors in the ONUC during the Congo crisis. her previous research suggests that many of these Haitian professionals saw postcolonial Africa as a space of possibility (see Jackson 2014).  

This episode seeks to answer crucial questions about our best and brightest: about their pre-migration experiences in Haiti under Duvalier, the role of international organizations such as the UN and WHO, relations between Haitians and the Congolese, as well the circumstances of their departure from the Congo under Mobutu Sese Seko.

Visit her guest page

https://neg.fm/dr-regine-ostine-jackson/

A PDF version of this book is available for free in open access via the OAPEN Library platform (www. oapen. org).

Historically and contemporarily, politically and literarily, Haiti has long been relegated to the margins of the so-called 'New World.' Marked by exceptionalism, the voices of some of its most important writers have consequently been muted by the geopolitical realities of the nation's fraught history. In Haiti Unbound, Kaiama L. Glover offers a close look at the works of three such writers: the Haitian Spiralists Frankétienne, Jean-Claude Fignolé, and René Philoctète.

While Spiralism has been acknowledged by scholars and regional writer-intellectuals alike as a crucial contribution to the French-speaking Caribbean literary tradition, the Spiralist ethic-aesthetic not yet been given the sustained attention of a full-length study. Glover's book represents the first effort in any language to consider the works of the three Spiralist authors both individually and collectively, and so fills an astonishingly empty place in the assessment of postcolonial Caribbean aesthetics.

Touching on the role and destiny of Haiti in the Americas, Haiti Unbound engages with long-standing issues of imperialism and resistance culture in the transatlantic world. Glover's timely project emphatically articulates Haiti's regional and global centrality, combining vital 'big picture' reflections on the field of postcolonial studies with elegant close-reading-based analyses of the philosophical perspective and creative practice of a distinctively Haitian literary phenomenon. Most importantly perhaps, the book advocates for the inclusion of three largely unrecognized voices in the disturbingly fixed roster of writer-intellectuals that have thus far interested theorists of postcolonial (Francophone) literature. Providing insightful and sophisticated blueprints for the reading and teaching of the Spiralists' prose fiction, Haiti Unbound will serve as a point of reference for the works of these authors and for the singular socio-political space out of and within which they write.

Visit her guest page

https://neg.fm/dr-kaiama-glover/

In this 3 part chat with Dr. Fatton, you won't hear me asking questions. Fatton is the kind of guest that you just hand him the mic and let him do his thang. It's a master class in polisci 101. Grab pen & pencil. Fatton drops some key terms we all should know and internalize.

The collapse of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1986 gave rise to optimism among Haitians in all walks of life—to hopes for a democratic journey leading to economic development, political renewal, and social peace. The reality of the subsequent years, however, has not been so sanguine. Robert Fatton analyzes the vicissitudes of politics in Haiti from the demise of Duvalier through the events of 2001.

Despite a relatively stable period since Jean Bertrand-Aristide assumed the Haitian presidency for the second time, in 1994, Fatton reveals a country in which the imperfect trappings of liberal democracy coexist with violent struggles to monopolize the few sites of public power with any access to wealth and privilege. Haiti's Predatory Republic, while recognizing the possibilities of a happier future, tells a somber story of an apparently endless transition to democracy.

Terms /Concepts Discussed
--Peaks & Valleys
--La Politique de Doublure
--Tout Moun se Moun
--Dechoukaj
--La Politique du Ventre
--Duvalierism

BOOK CONTENTS

• Introduction.
• Class, State, and Civil Society in Haiti.
• The Fall of Duvalier and the Contradictions of Democratization.
• The Rise, Fall, and Second Coming of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
• The Vicissitudes of Lavalasian Power.
• The Antagonistic Present and Future Alternatives.
• Toward a Compromise?
• Conclusion.

Robert Fatton Jr. is professor in the Department of Government and Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia. His numerous publications include Predatory Rule: State and Civil Society in Africa and The Making of a Liberal Democracy: Senegal's Passive Revolution.

Visit his guest page

https://neg.fm/dr-robert-fatton-jr/

Sandra Wisner is a senior staff lawyer with the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), a U.S. human rights organization, working in partnership with the Haiti-based public interest law firm the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) [Garment Industry] At first glance, the garment workers’ protests sweeping Haiti appear to be the result of a grossly inadequate minimum wage. But listen closely to the organizers and you will see they are rooted in decades of rights violations perpetrated by foreign states’ approach to investment in Haiti.

Foreign actors must be held accountable to their legal obligations both for the harm they have caused and to ensure that future investment in Haiti is fair and sustainable. [Food Insecurities] A series of international economic assistance programs in Haiti has led to a protracted and worsening food crisis in the country, amplifying the country’s vulnerability to starvation and malnutrition, as well as natural disasters, like earthquakes and pandemics. These economic programs, which dealt a crushing blow to the country’s domestic agriculture and left the erstwhile self-sustaining nation vulnerable to chronic food insecurity, have ultimately impeded the ability of Haitian people, and their future generations, to enjoy their right to food, health, education, work, and other fundamental human rights.

The lack of responsibility taken by those who imposed these policies—among them, international financial institutions like the World Bank—reveals the need for foreign actor compliance with human rights obligations and remediation. This paper proposes that the food insecurity Haitians face today constitutes a violation of the right to food—a territorial and extraterritorial obligation that foreign actors have pledged themselves, both under the United Nations Charter and other human rights instruments, to promote and respect. As such, this paper outlines the emerging recognition of extraterritorial obligations (“ETOs”) around the globe; suggests available mechanisms at the domestic, regional, and international level for adjudication of cases arising from ETOs; and proposes ETOs’ application to traditional policies and remedies meant to protect individuals from harm and compensate them for harm caused. [Peacekeeper Exploitation & Abuse]

In Haiti, UN peacekeeping troops have been tied to sexual exploitation and abuse towards local communities. In pursuit of justice and accountability, BAI has been supporting claims for child support on behalf of children fathered by UN peacekeepers. Our teams at BAI and IJDH are leading the litigation in Haiti and both local and international advocacy to fight for justice and defend the rights of women and children.

Visit her guest page

https://neg.fm/sandra-wisner-jd/

In this second episode of the series (2/2), Dr. Vincent Joos explores the failed international reconstruction of Port-au-Prince after the devastating 2010 earthquake. He describes the failures of international aid in Haiti while ihe analyzes examples of Haitian-based reconstruction and economic practices.

By interrogating the relationship between indigenous uses of the cityscape and the urbanization of the countryside within a framework that centers on the violence of urban planning, Dr. Joos shows that the forms of economic development promoted by international agencies institutionalize impermanence and instability.

Conversely, he shows how everyday Haitians use and transform the city to create spaces of belonging and forms of citizenship anchored in a long history of resistance to extractive economies. Taking our listeners into the remnants of failed industrial projects in Haitian provinces and into the streets, rubble, and homes of Port-au-Prince, Dr. Joos reflects on the possibilities and meanings of dwelling in post-disaster urban landscapes.

In this series of episodes (2), Dr. Vincent Joos explores the failed international reconstruction of Port-au-Prince after the devastating 2010 earthquake. He describes the failures of international aid in Haiti while he analyzes examples of Haitian-based reconstruction and economic practices. 

By interrogating the relationship between indigenous uses of the cityscape and the urbanization of the countryside within a framework that centers on the violence of urban planning, Dr. Joos shows that the forms of economic development promoted by international agencies institutionalize impermanence and instability. 

Conversely, he shows how everyday Haitians use and transform the city to create spaces of belonging and forms of citizenship anchored in a long history of resistance to extractive economies. Taking our listeners into the remnants of failed industrial projects in Haitian provinces and into the streets, rubble, and homes of Port-au-Prince, Dr. Joos reflects on the possibilities and meanings of dwelling in post-disaster urban landscapes.

In Island Futures Mimi Sheller delves into the ecological crises and reconstruction challenges affecting the entire Caribbean region during a time of climate catastrophe. Drawing on fieldwork on postearthquake reconstruction in Haiti, flooding on the Haitian-Dominican border, and recent hurricanes, Sheller shows how ecological vulnerability and the quest for a "just recovery" in the Caribbean emerge from specific transnational political, economic, and cultural dynamics. Because foreigners are largely ignorant of Haiti's political, cultural, and economic contexts, especially the historical role of the United States, their efforts to help often exacerbate inequities. Caribbean survival under ever-worsening environmental and political conditions, Sheller contends, demands radical alternatives to the pervasive neocolonialism, racial capitalism, and US military domination that have perpetuated what she calls the "coloniality of climate." Sheller insists that alternative projects for Haitian reconstruction, social justice, and climate resilience—and the sustainability of the entire region—must be grounded in radical Caribbean intellectual traditions that call for deeper transformations of transnational economies, ecologies, and human relations writ large.

In Island Futures Mimi Sheller delves into the ecological crises and reconstruction challenges affecting the entire Caribbean region during a time of climate catastrophe. Drawing on fieldwork on postearthquake reconstruction in Haiti, flooding on the Haitian-Dominican border, and recent hurricanes, Sheller shows how ecological vulnerability and the quest for a "just recovery" in the Caribbean emerge from specific transnational political, economic, and cultural dynamics. Because foreigners are largely ignorant of Haiti's political, cultural, and economic contexts, especially the historical role of the United States, their efforts to help often exacerbate inequities. Caribbean survival under ever-worsening environmental and political conditions, Sheller contends, demands radical alternatives to the pervasive neocolonialism, racial capitalism, and US military domination that have perpetuated what she calls the "coloniality of climate." Sheller insists that alternative projects for Haitian reconstruction, social justice, and climate resilience—and the sustainability of the entire region—must be grounded in radical Caribbean intellectual traditions that call for deeper transformations of transnational economies, ecologies, and human relations writ large.

This compelling book and author offer a comprehensive analysis of the struggle for democracy in Haiti, set in the context of the tumultuous rise and fall of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Swept to power in 1991 as the champion of Haiti's impoverished majority and their demand for a more just, equal, and participatory democratic society, the charismatic priest-turned-president was overthrown by the military just seven months into his first term. 

Popular resistance to the junta compelled the United States to lead a multinational force to restore Aristide to power in 1994 to serve out the remainder of his presidency until 1996. When he was re-elected for a second and final term in 2000, Aristide had undergone a dramatic transformation. Expelled from the priesthood and no longer preaching liberation theology, his real objective was to consolidate his and his Lavalas party's power and preserve the predatory state structures he had vowed to dismantle just a decade earlier. To maintain power, Aristide relied on armed gangs, the police, and authoritarian practices. That strategy failed and his foreign-backed foes overthrew and exiled him once again in 2004. 

This time, however, the population did not rally in his defense. Written by one of the world's leading scholars of Haiti, The Prophet and Power explores the crisis of democratization in a poor, underdeveloped, peripheral society with a long history of dictatorial rule by a tiny ruling class opposed to changing the status quo and dependent on international economic and political support. Situating the country in its global context, Alex Dupuy considers the structures and relations of power between Haiti and the core capitalist countries and the forces struggling for and against social change.

This collection of writings from Haitian anthropologist Michel-Rolph Trouillot includes his most famous, lesser-known, and hard-to-find writings that demonstrate his enduring importance to Caribbean studies, anthropology, history, postcolonial studies, and politically engaged scholarship more broadly.

Legal identity is universal, transcending national and socioeconomic borders. It is a central tenet of the UN’s 2030 SDGs and cuts across over 70 development indicators, including birth registration. Evidentiary proof of citizenship is now a necessary tool to ensure access to health, education, and welfare services. As Laurence Chandy, director of Data, Research and Policy at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), recently stated: the prioritization of documentation within global policy, including the transition from paper to digital identity systems, is ‘one of the most under-appreciated revolutions in international development’.

During a period of intense global political-economic reconfiguration, inter-governmental organizations, multi-lateral and national aid agencies have problematized under-documentation. They have contributed significant levels of financial and technical assistance to governments to improve civil registries and ensure that all citizens everywhere have their paperwork. 

Over this time, formal identification has come to be considered a ‘prerequisite for development in the modern world’ (Gelb and Clark, 2013). It is now essential to development strategy planning and assumed in both policy and practice to constitute a common good for all beneficiaries.

With a focus on the Caribbean, this book highlights how identification practices as promulgated by the World Bank, United Nations (UN) and the Inter-American Development Bank can force the thorny question of nationality, unsettling long-established identities, and entitlements. Notably, the book is the first to identify tensions in social policy over the use of social protection mechanisms promoting legal identity measures with disputes over race, national identity, and belonging. 

The book illustrates how, while keen to follow the World Bank’s lead in promoting a legal identity for all – not least to continue benefiting from external funding and support – the Dominican Republic balked at pressure to recognize the national status of persons of Haitian ancestry. It used social policy programs and international donor funding to trace and register the national origins of persons of non-Dominican ancestry. 

This culminated in the now notorious 2013 Constitutional Tribunal ruling that retroactively stripped tens of thousands of persons of Haitian descent of their Dominican citizenship. Significantly, these measures not only affected undocumented or stateless populations – persons living at the fringes of citizenship – but also had a major impact on documented citizens already in possession of a state-issued birth certificate, national identity card, and/or passport as Dominicans.

From 2015 to 2019, Laura Wagner was the project archivist for the Radio Haiti Archive at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University. She holds a PhD in cultural anthropology from UNC Chapel Hill, where her research focused on displacement, humanitarian aid, and everyday life in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Her writings on the earthquake and the Radio Haiti project have appeared in Slate, Salon, sx archipelagos, PRI’s The World, and other venues. She is also also the author of Hold Tight, Don’t Let Go, a young adult novel about the Haiti earthquake, which was published by Abrams/Amulet in 2015. In the fall of 2021, Laura will be a fellow at the Camargo Foundation, where she will be working on a book about the history and legacy of Radio Haïti-Inter,

Dr. Hadassah St. Hubert's dissertation focuses on the motivations of successive Haitian governments from the late nineteenth century to the 1960s in participating in world’s fairs abroad and in mounting expositions in Haiti. In particular, it explores why and how world’s fairs became a primary path through which Haitian officials and elites sought to represent and defend the nation’s image internationally.

World’s fairs were mostly held in countries of the global north as showcases of national progress, imperial reach and power. Having overthrown French colonial rule in 1804 and been denigrated by detractors abroad for decades thereafter, Haitian governments sought to demonstrate through participation in late nineteenth-century expositions that they and people of African descent more broadly were capable of “civilization.” While colonized “others” were being displayed at human zoos at these international events, Haiti, the sole independent black nation participating, attempted to represent itself as a beacon of black progress through the nation’s pavilion architecture and displays. Haitian governments in the late nineteenth century also sought investment and new markets for Haitian goods and products through participation in and mounting of world’s fairs.

The government of Sténio Vincent (1930-1941) participated particularly active in international expositions, even while Haiti was still under U.S. occupation. Vincent used each event to declare Haiti's sovereignty, seek European trade and investment, and highlight Haitian history and culture to attract tourism. His administration created a precedent for how future Haitian governments represented the nation abroad in these contexts. Under the presidency of Dumarsais Estimé (1946-1950), Haiti launched its own Bicentennial International Exposition (1949-1950), which transformed a portion of the capital of Port-au-Prince into a visionary “modern” city that celebrated the culture and production of the Haitian masses in order to draw tourists. My study concludes with an examination of Haiti’s participation in expositions in the 1960s during the dictatorship of François Duvalier (1957-1971).

The Duvalier regime continued Haiti’s long-standing tradition of participation in world’s fairs and expositions to counter negative international portrayals of the country. In this case, the bad press Duvalier sought to counter stemmed from his authoritarian abuses of power. The Duvalier regime, known for its black nationalist rhetoric asserting Haiti’s autonomy, participated in these international events to attract foreign investment, revealing a dependency on the very Western nations from which it claimed its independence. My dissertation contributes to our understanding of how successive Haitian governments negotiated neocolonial relationships at these international events to uplift the nation’s image, open foreign markets for Haitian products, encourage foreign investment, and cultivate tourism.

 (In Kreyol/French/Mostly English) This is part 2 where we dig deeper into Dr Fatton's latest book, The Guise of Exceptionalism, which compares the historical origins of Haitian and American exceptionalisms. It also traces how exceptionalism as a narrative of uniqueness has shaped relations between the two countries from their early days of independence through the contemporary period. As a social invention, it changes over time, but always within the parameters of its original principles.

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https://neg.fm/dr-robert-fatton-jr/

In 1934 the republic of Haiti celebrated its 130th anniversary as an independent nation. In that year, too, another sort of Haitian independence occurred, as the United States ended nearly two decades of occupation. In the first comprehensive political history of postoccupation Haiti, Matthew Smith argues that the period from 1934 until the rise of dictator Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier to the presidency in 1957 constituted modern Haiti's greatest moment of political promise.  Smith emphasizes the key role that radical groups, particularly Marxists and black nationalists, played in shaping contemporary Haitian history. These movements transformed Haiti's political culture, widened political discourse, and presented several ideological alternatives for the nation's future. They were doomed, however, by a combination of intense internal rivalries, pressures from both state authorities and the traditional elite class, and the harsh climate of U.S. anticommunism. Ultimately, the political activism of the era failed to set Haiti firmly on the path to a strong independent future.

Profile Page
https://neg.fm/dr-matthew-smith/

In 1934 the republic of Haiti celebrated its 130th anniversary as an independent nation. In that year, too, another sort of Haitian independence occurred, as the United States ended nearly two decades of occupation. In the first comprehensive political history of postoccupation Haiti, Matthew Smith argues that the period from 1934 until the rise of dictator Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier to the presidency in 1957 constituted modern Haiti's greatest moment of political promise. Smith emphasizes the key role that radical groups, particularly Marxists and black nationalists, played in shaping contemporary Haitian history. These movements transformed Haiti's political culture, widened political discourse, and presented several ideological alternatives for the nation's future. They were doomed, however, by a combination of intense internal rivalries, pressures from both state authorities and the traditional elite class, and the harsh climate of U.S. anticommunism. Ultimately, the political activism of the era failed to set Haiti firmly on the path to a strong independent future.

Profile Page
https://neg.fm/dr-matthew-smith/

Mining The Haitian Archives. A Conversation with Dr. Hadassah St Hubert. Colorism in the archives; weaponized language. And you thought doing research was boring. 

This episode went looking for Haitians in London and we found them! We talked primarily in Kreyol about a range of subjects: from racism, opportunities in London, Haitian Chamber of Commerce, Queen Marie-Louise Christophe, immigration, census, and how the relatively small Haitian community living in London are thriving living abroad.  Wilford told me they've built a bridge in London for other Haitians to come. For those of you looking for a change, London may be the place for you. Join me in a fascinating conversation with Michelet and Wilford.

"THE DEAR REMOTE NEARNESS OF YOU speaks poetry's origin in new and startling ways. This is the precise intelligence that knows it must step carefully across the light on the surface of the water... These poems form the contiguous dance of language choosing its own body at will, traveling across light and the dimensions of unarticulated history. This is the word rubbed onto the palimpsest of our being, the careful solo soprano in the space where music ends and poetry moves in to name what is eternal and what is only in the abbreviation of now. What a delightful book from Boston's Poet Laureate."—Afaa Michael Weaver

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https://neg.fm/danielle-legros-georges/

The Immortals is set in an infamous neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, on Grand-Rue, where many women, young and old, trade in flesh, sex, and desire. We learn, in glimpses and fragments, about the lives of women who fall in love with the moving images of television, the romance of a novel, and the dreams of escape. This moving novel asks, What becomes of these women, their lives, their stories, their desires, and their whims when a violent earthquake brings the capital city and its brothels to their knees?

To preserve the memory of women she lived and worked with, the anonymous narrator makes a deal with her client once she discovers that he is a writer: sex in exchange for recording the stories of the friends who were buried beneath the rubble. She tells the stories of women who were friends, lovers, daughters, and mothers—all while their profession sought to hide any trace of intimacy or interiority through pseudonyms and artifice. Ultimately the book reveals how a group of women sought to make a name for themselves in life, demanding that they not be forgotten in death.

Winner of France's 2012 Prix Thyde Monnier de la Société des Gens de Lettres, The Immortals is the first work of fiction by the celebrated Haitian writer Makenzy Orcel. Mingling poetry and prose, Orcel centers stories that too often go untold, while reflecting on the power and limits of storytelling in the face of catastrophe.