Haiti

Haiti.  On 13 January 2010, Rev Pat Robertson famously explained that the previous day’s earthquake that had devastated the capital city of Haiti, and caused some 200,000 deaths, had been the result of a 1791 ‘pact with the devil’.  You can hear it here for yourself:

According to US fundamentalist Christian history, this satanic pact allegedly took place at Bois Caiman near Cap Haitien on 14 August 1791 during a meeting organised by several slave leaders, under the leadership of Dutty Boukman, before launching what would become Haiti’s Independence War.

On 17 January 2010, Sir Hilary Beckles, Pro-vice-chancellor and Principal of the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies, reminded us of what really happened.  This is what he wrote:

THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES is in the process of conceiving how best to deliver a major conference on the theme Rethinking and Rebuilding Haiti.

I am very keen to provide an input into this exercise because for too long there has been a popular perception that somehow the Haitian nation-building project, launched on January 1, 1804, has failed on account of mismanagement, ineptitude, corruption.

Buried beneath the rubble of imperial propaganda, out of both Western Europe and the United States, is the evidence which shows that Haiti's independence was defeated by an aggressive North-Atlantic alliance that could not imagine their world inhabited by a free regime of Africans as representatives of the newly emerging democracy.

The evidence is striking, especially in the context of France.

The Haitians fought for their freedom and won, as did the Americans fifty years earlier. The Americans declared their independence and crafted an extraordinary constitution that set out a clear message about the value of humanity and the right to freedom, justice, and liberty.

In the midst of this brilliant discourse, they chose to retain slavery as the basis of the new nation state. The founding fathers therefore could not see beyond race, as the free state was built on a slavery foundation.

The water was poisoned in the well; the Americans went back to the battlefield a century later to resolve the fact that slavery and freedom could not comfortably co-exist in the same place.

The French, also, declared freedom, fraternity and equality as the new philosophies of their national transformation and gave the modern world a tremendous progressive boost by so doing.

They abolished slavery, but Napoleon Bonaparte could not imagine the republic without slavery and targeted the Haitians for a new, more intense regime of slavery. The British agreed, as did the Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese.

All were linked in communion over the 500 000 Blacks in Haiti, the most populous and prosperous Caribbean colony.

As the jewel of the Caribbean, they all wanted to get their hands on it. With a massive slave base, the English, French and Dutch salivated over owning it - and the people.

The people won a ten-year war, the bloodiest in modern history, and declared their independence. Every other country in the Americas was based on slavery.

Haiti was freedom, and proceeded to place in its 1805 Independence Constitution that any person of African descent who arrived on its shores would be declared free, and a citizen of the republic.

For the first time since slavery had commenced, Blacks were the subjects of mass freedom and citizenship in a nation.

The French refused to recognise Haiti's independence and declared it an illegal pariah state. The Americans, whom the Haitians looked to in solidarity as their mentor in independence, refused to recognise them, and offered solidarity instead to the French. The British, who were negotiating with the French to obtain the ownership title to Haiti, also moved in solidarity, as did every other nation-state the Western world.

Haiti was isolated at birth - ostracised and denied access to world trade, finance, and institutional development. It was the most vicious example of national strangulation recorded in modern history.

The Cubans, at least, have had Russia, China, and Vietnam. The Haitians were alone from inception. The crumbling began.

Then came 1825; the moment of full truth. The republic is celebrating its 21st anniversary. There is national euphoria in the streets of Port-au-Prince.

The economy is bankrupt; the political leadership isolated. The cabinet took the decision that the state of affairs could not continue.

The country had to find a way to be inserted back into the world economy. The French government was invited to a summit.

Officials arrived and told the Haitian government that they were willing to recognise the country as a sovereign nation but it would have to pay compensation and reparation in exchange. The Haitians, with backs to the wall, agreed to pay the French.

The French government sent a team of accountants and actuaries into Haiti in order to place a value on all lands, all physical assets, the 500 000 citizens were who formerly enslaved, animals, and all other commercial properties and services.

The sums amounted to 150 million gold francs. Haiti was told to pay this reparation to France in return for national recognition.

The Haitian government agreed; payments began immediately. Members of the Cabinet were also valued because they had been enslaved people before independence.

Thus began the systematic destruction of the Republic of Haiti. The French government bled the nation and rendered it a failed state. It was a merciless exploitation that was designed and guaranteed to collapse the Haitian economy and society.

Haiti was forced to pay this sum until 1922 when the last instalment was made. During the long 19th century, the payment to France amounted to up to 70 per cent of the country's foreign exchange earnings.

Jamaica today pays up to 70 per cent in order to service its international and domestic debt. Haiti was crushed by this debt payment. It descended into financial and social chaos.

The republic did not stand a chance. France was enriched and it took pleasure from the fact that having been defeated by Haitians on the battlefield, it had won on the field of finance. In the years when the coffee crops failed, or the sugar yield was down, the Haitian government borrowed on the French money market at double the going interest rate in order to repay the French government.

When the Americans invaded the country in the early 20th century, one of the reasons offered was to assist the French in collecting its reparations.

The collapse of the Haitian nation resides at the feet of France and America, especially. These two nations betrayed, failed, and destroyed the dream that was Haiti; crushed to dust in an effort to destroy the flower of freedom and the seed of justice.

Haiti did not fail. It was destroyed by two of the most powerful nations on earth, both of which continue to have a primary interest in its current condition.

The sudden quake has come in the aftermath of summers of hate. In many ways the quake has been less destructive than the hate.

Human life was snuffed out by the quake, while the hate has been a long and inhumane suffocation - a crime against humanity.

During the 2001 UN Conference on Race in Durban, South Africa, strong representation was made to the French government to repay the 150 million francs.

The value of this amount was estimated by financial actuaries as US$21 billion. This sum of capital could rebuild Haiti and place it in a position to re-engage the modern world. It was illegally extracted from the Haitian people and should be repaid.

It is stolen wealth. In so doing, France could discharge its moral obligation to the Haitian people.

For a nation that prides itself in the celebration of modern diplomacy, France, in order to exist with the moral authority of this diplomacy in this post-modern world, should do the just and legal thing.

Such an act at the outset of this century would open the door for a sophisticated interface of past and present, and set the Haitian nation free at last.  

I would like to think that Pat Robertson’s homicidal god is not one that many Christians would recognise.  I would that these murderous TV extortionists would leave West Indian history severely alone.

History

At last, there is an explanation for why Anguillians are so ornery!  Anyone interested in Anguilla’s history for this or any other reason may access the 18-chapter “Anguilla from the Archives” at “Selected Readings” on the Anguilla Archaeological and Historical Society website: http://www.aahsanguilla.com/readings.html

It is one observer’s view on the subject of why Anguillians are the way they are.

Comments welcome.

The definitive history is yet to be written.

Heritage

Nominations for the gold medal in cultural vandalism for 2009. The New Year has just begun. We already have the first nomination for the gold medal for cultural vandalism for 2009. It is a new award, invented today. The nominee is the Hon Hubert Hughes, proprietor of the old Cotton Gin Factory in The Valley.

The gin itself was erected in 1910. It last worked in about the year 1950. Then the world market price for cotton collapsed and the industry closed down in Anguilla. That means that the machinery was nearly one hundred years old. Up to the end of last year, the disused equipment was standing there as if waiting for the factory workers to return from lunch. There was a bale of compressed cotton still in the bailer, and a sprinkling of lint stuck on the belts. Everything was as it was when Carter Rey locked the door for the last time. Years later, someone was to remove and steal the bronze plaque presented to the Factory by the textile industry of Lancashire, congratulating the Anguillian cotton gin for having produced the best cotton lint that they had ever seen in England.

Last week, the cotton gin was demolished and ordered to be taken to the Corito garbage dump.

Corito Dump: Anguilla's graveyard for used machinery

I have not checked with Mr Hughes for confirmation that he gave the order, but he owns the property, and only the owner could have given permission for such a drastic alteration in the structure.

Empty space where the cotton gin used to be

Close-up of empty space

Remnants of equipment in the ceiling above

Some Anguillians are outraged. I have no idea why. After all, it was done so that the otherwise wasted space could be used as a Chinese Restaurant. It is going to look so much neater now. So much more modern, as befits an up-market destination such as Anguilla is.

Why would anyone think that Hubert should have considered the Cotton Gin to be an important part of Anguilla’s built heritage? What an idiotic concept, anyway. Built heritage! Just a fancy name for broken down old buildings and rusting machinery. Much more merciful to put them out of their misery, and tear them down. Only effete foreigners could find such a thing of interest. Little do these foreigners know that the old cotton ginnery symbolized nothing more than the state of near slavery that our Anguillian forebears were forced to live in right up to the modern time. We must get rid of these last remnants of exploitation in order to expunge our shame at the poverty of our grandparents.

Besides, it is not as if Anguilla is not already blessed with an abundance of monuments to the industrial endeavours of our Anguillian ancestors. There are magnificent old mansions scattered around the island that anyone who is determined to visit old structures can take their pick of. We don’t have to go to Jamaica or Barbados to find Great Houses. We have them right here.

Antique Anguillian house

So what if the Cotton Gin was one of the last pieces of Anguilla’s built heritage that was in relatively good working condition. There are other mementos of Anguilla’s rich economic history, for those sentimental fools who want to waste their time looking at that sort of thing. They can still go to Sandy Hill and admire the Sugar Works ruins of Governor Richardson.

Gov Richardson’s minimalist animal round foundations

What about the benefits to the living Anguillians? Is it not better for us to look after the financial needs of those who are living today, and those yet to come, rather than wasting time worrying about worn out machinery. As the US industrialist Henry Ford said, “History is bunk”.

It isn’t as if Anguilla already has too many Chinese restaurants. Anguilla desperately needs this Chinese restaurant. In the circumstances, the loss of Anguilla’s most famous surviving part of our built heritage is a small price to pay. I understand Anna wanted the equipment removed. It was occupying valuable space in her proposed new restaurant. Anyway, it was just old junk, wasn’t it? Hubert was glad to oblige. Anything for Anna.

Those idiot heritage persons should be grateful the truckers telephoned Colville Petty at his Heritage Museum, “Do you want this stuff, or should we take it to Corito?” He agreed to rescue what they offered him.

Cotton gin equipment dumped outside Petty’s museum

The rest of the rubbish is, presumably, now buried at the public dump. Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say.

If the Public Health Department insisted on its removal for health concerns, congratulations to them for their foresightedness.

If the Planning Department permitted it, in authorizing the change of use, kudos to them for their long sightedness.

If the Environment Department encouraged it when their views were sought, bravo to them for their concern and dedication!

This decision was an inspired one. In the race for the gold medal, it will be hard to beat for the rest of 2009.