"In Haiti, as in Africa, there is no separation between the sacred and the secular, between the holy and the profane, between the material and the spiritual, Every dance, every song, every action is but a particle of the whole, each gesture a prayer for the survival of the entire community."
I do not know Haiti. I do, in fact, know only one Haitian who I have the distinct pleasure of calling one of my oldest and dearest friends. He is quite brilliant, compassionate and talented on many, many fronts. His immediate family is deeply rooted in Haitian faith and culture. He has told stories of suffering, both physically and psychologically, about people very close to him. Whether through economic woes, of which Haiti has endured and continues to endure many - more so now, or through the latent effects of a society so beautifully layered in traditions and beliefs as to be breathed and seen at every glance and with every sigh; and felt & regarded through every single movement.
When Isabella asked him to describe the island of Hispaniola, Columbus crumpled a piece of paper and left it before her on the table - "That, is Hispaniola." Nearly his second 'discovery' while exploring what would be the Americas, Columbus came upon Haiti through the lore of San Salvadoreans - telling enticing tales of a mountainous paradise, where the rivers ran yellow with 'soft stones'. When he found this most lucrative and untouched land, he wrote immediately to Queen Isabella, beseeching her to take this fertile and beautiful island under the wing of Spain. And so it went, and in 15 short years the indigenous population shrank from approximately 500,000 to 60,000.
The Spanish did not stay long but their stay was important. They killed most of the Arawak Indians, and when they left for other colonies they set their livestock free. The Spanish maintained a presence on the eastern part of the island but abandoned the west. Other Europeans ignored Hispaniola for nearly 100 years but settlers who came in the 1600s found an island filled with cattle and pigs, and empty of hostile natives. The new arrivals to the western part were mostly buccaneers who preyed on Spanish ships and hunted the abundant wild cattle (the word “buccaneer” comes from the French boucaner, “to barbecue beef”). As the Spanish consolidated their hold to the east, the French slowly took control of the west, which became French San Domingo. By the 1700s the colony was turning from what Stoddard called “a nest of hunters and pirates,” into a thriving outpost of agriculture and trade.
The vast forests of Mahogany, Rosewood & Pine were raped and leveled into fields of cane, cotton, indigo, tobacco & coffee and by the late 18th century, acre upon acre of plantations turned the soil and the population into something that would become the envy of all Europe. Slave owners were very selective. They preferred Africans from the Congo and Angola and imported large numbers - they were less prone to suicide than Nigerians and less likely to revolt than the people from Sierra Leone or the Ivory & Gold Coasts. Two-thirds of France's overseas trade was supplied solely through Haiti - being wrought by a small percentage of white plantation owners (around 40,000) and a mixed free 'upper-class' of blacks, who together owned a population of over 500,000 slaves. By 1769, the island of Saint Domingue, under French rule, supplied more contemporary commodities than Americas and the Spanish Indes combined.
It wouldn't last.
Between 1779 & 1790, the slave ships that plied the coast of Africa from Sierra Leone to Mozambique unloaded close to 400,000 slaves in what was now, Saint Domingue.
In 1791, two years after the French Revolution, the colony was shaken and then utterly destroyed by the only successful revolt in history.
The freed slaves successfully defeated the very best of Napoleon's army. Time after time. And upon winning their freedom, the country made strong attempts at sustaining their own glory and economy through hard work as free men. But being displaced has it's severe costs and socially, it would not take. Too many tribes, too much distrust, the ultimate alpha-superiority and corruption of human nature served to help the earth to reclaim the lands so militantly worked for hundreds of years...
Haiti is now a land of shadows and pain, but through these irrevocable hardships, they will dance and sing, too loudly - and I cannot hear it, but I will suppose I can sometimes.
A matter of personal interest noted in my looking over the history of Haiti; actually one which initially inspired my rant - but given the context I thought it suitable to pay homage to a strong and beautiful people and also to their rich history and struggle.
as for the rest...
...some other time
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment