Saturday, November 9, 2024

HISTORIC BLACK VEGAS: The Republic of Haiti

October 13, 2024 by  
Filed under Community

Claytee D. White

BY CLAYTEE D. WHITE

When I lived in Los Angeles, I fell in love with a man from Haiti. He spoke French as one of his native languages. He was handsome, kind, and sophisticated. All of his Haitian friends were stylish and enlightened about world affairs. Their community was closely connected, the parties were fun, the food was fabulous, and everybody could dance. They knew their history and they were proud of their resistance and strength. I was smitten by all aspects of the culture, and of course, by this man. And today, I still remember more of the history than I thought. 

Haiti occupies the western third of the island of Hispaniola. In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed there when the entire island was the kingdom ruled by a Taino Indian chief. In the 17th century, the French arrived, exterminated the majority of the native population, and began to import Africans to work the land. These enslaved Africans turned the island into the wealthiest French colony, “the pearl of the Antilles.” In 1791, Haitians began a revolt that brought freedom in 1804. “Haiti became the second republic in the Americas, the first country in the Americas to officially abolish slavery, and the only country in history established by a slave revolt. Toussaint L’Ouverture, a formerly enslaved general, led the ending segment of the revolt. 

So why isn’t Haiti wealthy? This history is so complicated that I will quote from a Plant Money article and from the work of University of Virginia scholar Marlene Daut (Dr. Daut I want to take your Haitian history classes.) 

During Haiti’s critical period of development, France intervened even more directly than the U.S. to thwart its success. In July 1825, the French King, Charles X, sent an armed flotilla of warships to Haiti with the message that the young nation would have to pay France 150 million francs to secure its independence, or suffer the consequences. (That sum was 10 times the amount the United States had paid France for the Louisiana Purchase, which had doubled the size of the U.S.) Almost literally at gunpoint, Haiti caved to France’s demands in order to secure its independence. The amount was too much for the young nation to pay outright, and so it had to take out loans with hefty interest rates from French banks and others. Over the next century, Haiti paid French slaveholders and their descendants the equivalent of between $20 and $30 billion in today’s dollars. It took Haiti 122 years to pay it off. Professor Marlene Daut writes it “severely damaged the newly independent country’s ability to prosper.” 

The debt was repaid in 1947. And to complicate matters, the United States played roles that compounded the instability of Haiti. The U.S. invested heavily in Haiti, as did Germany, so the U.S. imposed the Monroe Doctrine — which grants the right to oppose foreign interference in the Americas. This led directly to a series of actions where the U.S. removed $500,000 from the Haitian National bank, sent in the Marines after a Haitian uprising, imposed martial law, censored the press, and installed a new constitution that allowed foreign ownership of the island. The U.S. harshly ruled Haiti from 1915 to 1934. Politically, turmoil has been the order of the day ever since though under numerous Haitian leaders, many puppets of the U.S. 

Wikipedia updates us to the present: On July 7, 2021, President Moïse was assassinated in an attack on his private residence, and First Lady Martine Moïse was hospitalized. Amid the political crisis, the government of Haiti installed Ariel Henry as both the acting prime minister and acting president on July 20. On August 14, Haiti suffered another huge earthquake, with many casualties. The earthquake has also damaged Haiti’s economic conditions and led to a rise in gang violence which by September 2021 had escalated to a long-lasting full-blown gang war and other violent crimes within the country. As of March 2022, Haiti still had no president, no parliamentary quorum, and a dysfunctional high court due to a lack of judges. In 2022, protests against the government and rising fuel prices intensified. 

In 2023, kidnapping jumped 72% from the first quarter of the previous year Doctors, lawyers, and other wealthy members of society were kidnapped and held for ransom. Many victims were killed when ransom demands were not met, leading those with the means to do so to flee the country, further hampering efforts to pull the country out of the crisis It is estimated that amidst the crisis up to 20% of qualified medical staff had left Haiti by the end of 2023. 

In March 2024, Ariel Henry was prevented by gangs from returning to Haiti, following a visit to Kenya. Henry agreed to resign once a transitional government had been formed. As of that month, nearly half of Haiti’s population was living under acute food insecurity, according to the World Food Programme. On April 25, 2024 Transitional Presidential Council of Haiti took over the governance of Haiti and is scheduled to stay in power until 2026. Michel Patrick Boisvert was named interim Prime Minister On June 3. 2024, the council appointed Garry Conille as Acting Prime Minister. 

Haiti is owed much from Germany, France, and the United States. We are repaying our debt with slurs, taunts, bigotry, hate, lies, and injustice. I am happy that there are Haitians who have lived here longer even than most of us and they know the good they have enjoyed and the dollars they have sent home. Yet, they also know the greatest heist in history was perpetrated against their homeland for the privilege of being free.

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