An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a
President
Randall Robinson
New York: Basic Books, 2007
280 pp., $26
RANDALL ROBINSON HAS WRITTEN a searing, unforgiving expose of the forcible
abduction, in February, 2004, of the democratically elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, and the consequent deepening wretchedness of its citizens. But he does more than that.
In just 270 pages of text, he depicts Haiti from the triumph of the slave revolution in 1804 to the
installation of Rene Garcia Preval as president in May, 2006, while thousands of the dissident
black population shouted their displeasure and could be heard outside the gates of the presidential
palace during the inauguration. Thus, the title, 200 years of unbroken agony.
One would have
thought that the president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, having won his nation's
freedom through revolution and having penned those glorious words, "We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal . . . " would have welcomed another revolution in the
Americas from a despotic foreign colonial ruler. But instead, unsurprisingly, Jefferson, a slave-
owner himself, said, "If this combustion can be introduced among us . . . we have to fear it." His
fellow revolutionary, George Washington added, "[It is] lamentable to see such a spirit of
revolution among the blacks." Imagine!
From 1791 to
1804 the African slaves of Haiti, under the brilliant generalship of Toussaint L'Overture, himself a
former slave, fought and defeated the armies of France, England and Spain. Over 150,000 slaves
of about 465,000 fighters died in the war -- one third of the African fighters were killed! This was
a more costly war and a more auspicious victory than the American rebellion! "How did a force of
ill-equipped ex-slaves defeat the best that Europe could muster against it?" Robinson quite rightly
asks. "[A] great many had served in African armies prior to their enslavement . . . sixty to seventy
percent of the adult slaves listed on . . . inventories in the late 1780s and 1790s were African born
. . . " (John K. Thornton, "African Soldiers in the Haitian Revolution," Journal of Caribbean
History, 25, 1993). It was the only successful slave rebellion in the history of the world,
with black slaves defeating three European armies and losing a third of their fighting manhood!
The winners of this magnificent achievement lay prostrate despite their victory -- penniless, their
educated classes fleeing, without an economy and ripe for exploitation or help from the developed
nations of the world.
I
"IN THE WAKE OF THE BLOODY twelve-and-a-half-
year revolt, thousands -- French colonial officials, dispossessed white planters, middle-class free
Haitian coloreds -- fled . . . Haiti for ‘safety' [mostly to the eastern end of the island which later
became the Dominican Republic] . . . and beyond, thus roiling slave plantations as far afield as
Jamaica, Louisiana and South Carolina," reports Robinson. Immediately, President Jefferson
proposed an embargo on the island, and refused to extend diplomatic recognition to the new
nation, though it immediately extended recognition to the new revolutionary nation of France.
Indeed, France itself demanded $21 billion (2004 dollars) in reparations from Haiti for the loss of
its most profitable foreign colony!
"For the next two
hundred years, Haiti would be faced with active hostility from the world's most powerful
community of nations . . . [as] late as 1915, 111 years after the successful slave revolt, some 80
percent of the Haitian government resources were being paid out in debt service to French and
American banks on loans that had been made to enable Haiti to pay reparations to France."
Besides this, "The Haitian economy has never recovered from the financial havoc France and
America wreaked upon it during and after slavery." And, indeed, in 1915 Haitians suffered under
occupation by American Marines for 22 years and Haiti was required to pay $16 million of a loan
from the U.S. government for its "debt" to France. Haiti itself was ruled by a string of U.S.
imposed and armed, black and mulatto dictators: Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, Jean Claude
"Baby Doc" Duvalier, Henry Namphy, Leslie Manigat, and Prosper Avril. Haiti has long been
viewed by the world, and indeed by blacks in the United States, on seeing blacks ruled by blacks,
as nothing but "that black mess." In fact, in my talking to a few Jamaican Americans, they
expressed the view held commonly by fellow islanders: "they just need to get themselves
together," "they are mostly ignorant peasants," "they need to be more like us."
It was revealing to
me to accompany a group of presidents from historically black colleges to Haiti, in 1981. I went
along as an observer for the American Council on Education. It was evident that the presidents
were more comfortable dealing with the mulatto, educated elites than with the throngs of black
peasants who followed them everywhere and tried to talk to them. Indeed, the attitude of
Americans, and especially black Americans, requires an extensive quote from Randall Robinson's
book in partial explanation of this phenomenon:
The Bush administration knew that when it came to Haiti, which was commonly
perceived to be uniformly black and poor, it could do virtually anything that it wished, without
political or strategic consequences. In the eyes of the administration, no one who counted would
suffer in Haiti, and no one who counted in the United States would care. Black Haitian democrats
had no force or friends in America who mattered to the Republican president or to the U.S.
Congress.
As a matter of fact,
Robinson mentions that when he urged a protest in front of the South African embassy, many
prominent blacks, including several black Congresspeople, joined him and eagerly went to jail.
They saw that they were protesting white oppression of blacks. But when he urged a hunger
strike to protest the oppression of blacks in Haiti, no one joined him in what was perceived to be,
that "black mess." An understanding of that common perception of Haiti is necessary to
understand the fate of President Jean Bertrand Aristide.
II
ON JANUARY 1, 2004, on the National Palace grounds of
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa gave an address in celebration of
Haiti's bicentennial of freedom. The Haitian president, Jean Bertrand Aristide, began to speak and
thousands of Haitians began to roar. They surged forward, overcoming the security guards, and
came to the foot of the platform. (" They're going to riot," said someone). But instead, the
thousands gathered clapped and cheered for their president. Robinson, who was on the platform,
leaned over to his neighbor and said, "No one can say he does not have the support of the
people." The neighbor said," Well, eighty to ninety percent [of the people may support him] but
they're not the ones who count."
When Aristide was
elected president by popular vote, he promised modestly to bring the poor blacks "from misery to
poverty with dignity." The rich, for the first time, would be required to pay significant taxes for
electricity and telephone services. Before he became president, Haitian citizens were described by
birth in two separate categories: the status of those reserved for whites, mulattoes, and the city
born minority were citizens; the majority of blacks born in the countryside were designated as
peasants. Aristide vowed to change that to one category of citizenship. He promised to raise the
pittance the workers received to a modest wage. The plant and field owners howled. This was
more than the white plant owners and their American overseers could stand. "Washington
responded by stoking violence which it then used to label Haiti and its bicentennial celebration
unsafe for Americans and foreign visitors" to attend, Robinson reports.
"They're planning
a coup, you know," said Maxine Waters, congresswoman from California. "I've been going to
receptions [and over- hearing] at various hotels over the past few days." The United States,
through every means, tried to keep the world away from Haiti's bicentennial celebration. "It
warned the world away from a Haitian celebration that it had calculatedly endeavored to
ruin."
Guy Phillipe, a
Haitian thug and former policeman, had been selected by the CIA for military training in Ecuador.
He led a small group of rebels who, despite their size, were heavily armed, uniformed, and trained
by the U.S. army in the Dominican Republic, which had "long enjoyed a warm working
relationship with the United States." Phillipe and his band of rebels were marching across Haiti,
killing the poorly armed government troops, and vowing to kill the president upon arriving in the
capital. Phillipe was supported by Andy Apaid, a Syrian American, who operated several large
sweatshops in Haiti. He was not a Haitian citizen, but he was a member of Group 184, a wealthy
antidemocratic group "that had been demanding the president's resignation and exit, as if two
decisive and undisputed nationwide presidential elections had not occurred."
Before the
president's election, Haiti was similar to racialist South Africa. In exchange for the trappings of
state power, the dictator Duvalier and his successors gave to the white and mulatto upper class
carte blanche to suppress and exploit the largely poor and illiterate black labor force in anyway it
saw fit. "This was the Faustian bargain that Aristide threatened with his stunning first election
victory." He threatened to empower the poor to take their fate in their own hands and to rule
themselves. Neither the Americans nor their white and mulatto satraps could allow this to happen.
This was similar to the attempt to organize a coup against Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. American
power and control in Latin America and the West Indies was maintained by having compliant
local rulers while the wealth and resources flowed to the United States. Aristide did not fit that
mold and had to be deposed.
III
AS THE REBELS GATHERED MOMENTUM in their
rampage across Haiti and vowed to topple the national government, Ron Dellums, former
American congressman and advisor to president Aristide, received a call from Colin Powell, the
U.S. Secretary of State. Powell told Dellums that the rebels were coming to kill President
Aristide, and that the United States would do nothing to protect him. Again, Randall
Robinson:
Colin Powell, the secretary of state, and Condoleezza Rice, the national security
advisor, were among the most respected people in America. More importantly, they were black. If
they didn't care what was happening to Haiti's democracy, why would an archly conservative
white American president, at whose small-minded pleasure they relished to serve, care? After all,
the machinations of the two of them together were largely the reason what was happening to Haiti
was indeed happening.
Colin Powell's
attempt to frighten Aristide to abdicate his legitimate presidency and flee the country did not
work. The French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, publicly criticized Aristide and "called
for a new government in transition" that would not include Aristide. Jamaican Prime Minister
Patterson threatened to "impose sanctions on Aristide." Louis Moreno of the U.S. embassy, said
to the president, "Mr. President . . . it's too bad that I'm the one who has to announce to you that
you've got to go." But, Aristide was determined to stay in Haiti and support his people no matter
what the consequences. So a more drastic solution to the United States problem would have to be
found.
On February 29,
2004, at 3:15 A.M., two U.S. Special Forces soldiers appeared at the president's home. They
carried M16s and wore full battle dress. Outside, there were twenty or thirty soldiers on the walls
that surrounded the house. President Aristide and his wife, Mildred, were escorted to a waiting
SUV and joined a convoy of suburbans going straight to the airport. They were boarded on an
unmarked plane with the shades drawn for the long flight to the Central African Republic. Why
the Central African Republic, halfway around the world? Because the rulers of the CAR had been
pressured by the United States and France to grant the Aristides exile status, and the heads of the
Caribbean nations had been threatened not to give the Aristides assistance.
The Bush
administration immediately began to demonize Aristide. They stated, falsely, that Aristide had
voluntarily left Haiti, that his government was corrupt, and that the majority of the Haitian people
were glad to see him go. The American media overwhelmingly touted the administration line and
the American people were either indifferent or accepted the administration's position.
Yet this was about
a president "of a country, who opened schools and clinics for the poor . . . who opened his home
on Fridays, without fail, to scores of homeless and poverty-stricken children -- a man such as this
. . . was seen as a hero by the vast majority of his people."
Senator Jesse
Helms called Aristide "a psychopath" on the floor of the Senate. The media portrayed Aristide as
"dictatorial," "tyrannical," and "corrupt." Colin Powell called Aristide's claim that he had been
abducted "absurd . . . he was not kidnapped. We did not force him onto the airplane." Senator
Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, was at least, more honest. He later said, "We had
interests and ties with some of the very strong financial interests in the country, and Aristide was
threatening them."
Randall
Robinson:
I was ashamed. Ashamed of my country. Ashamed of official America,
crouched cruel and hiding behind the curtain of public ignorance. Ashamed of the Colin Powells
and the Condoleezza Rices who, steeled by unmerited prestige, took full advantage of an
American civil rights movement they never participated in, to become their own people's worst
enemies.
The book
concludes with the inauguration of Rene Preval, sitting beside Jeb Bush, governor of Florida. The
shouts of disapproval, for the unpunished anti-Aristide members on the rostrum, could be heard
by the thousands of black peasants outside the national palace gates -- still tenacious, still
determined.
A few criticisms of
the book: Robinson never treats Aristide as anybody other than as a martyred saint. We need to
know of any political mistakes Aristide made. We need an explanation of the damning claim of
"necklacing" (burning rubber tires around the necks of foes) that was made against Aristide.
Perhaps Aristide had nothing to do with this practice, but it does deserve comment because of its
notoriety. When and why did Aristide leave the priesthood? Robinson doesn't tell us. The book
itself could be better organized. It consists of pithy, brief chapters, but their dates jump from a
date in 1492, to a date in 2003, to a date in 1804, etc. This is somewhat confusing to the
reader.
Nevertheless,
Robinson's book illustrates, in its most blatant form, the imposition of American imperial power
on a small, defenseless nation that was struggling to lift its people out of poverty. It further
illustrates that both Democrats and Republicans of the American ruling class have a common
interest when their international economic and power interests are threatened. And, perhaps most
sad, the skin color of the servants who carry out the orders of their masters is irrelevant.
In the larger
context, the United States has always considered Latin America its particular colony. Through
various stratagems -- both economic and military -- the United States maintains control over the
countries but prefers that its authority be exercised through native puppets to give some pretense
of democracy. The Organization of American States, the United Fruit Company, the World Bank,
and so forth, are some of the means used to achieve United States control. A wealthy native upper
class that enriches itself and is all too willing to carry out the suppression and impoverishment of
its lower and working classes is easily found. Thus, the Latin American countries stand by,
impotent, as Woodrow Wilson sends the marines to take over the government of the Dominican
Republic or the CIA topples the elected government of Guatemala or Reagan invades Grenada,
and on and on, with impunity. Consequently, the abduction of President Aristide and the
suppression of Haiti's nascent democracy was particularly swift and ruthless, to serve as a lesson
to other countries. But other countries are tentatively showing their independence: Morales in
Bolivia, Chavez in Venezuela, Lula in Brazil. We wait with curiosity to see what the future
brings.
