Christian Wisskirchen on Haiti

Tell me about your first book, The Comedians by Graham Greene.

I have chosen this book because it is set in what is probably the third most traumatic period of Haiti’s history. The first was the extermination of the Tainos (who were the original inhabitants of Haiti), after Christopher Columbus landed in 1492. The second traumatic time was the Haitian revolution between 1793 and 1804 and the third one was the period of the Duvalier dictatorships and the rule of Papa Doc from 1957-1971, followed by his son Baby Doc until 1986.

This novel is set in the early 1960s in the early days of the reign of Papa Doc. Although I wasn’t a witness to this regime, many consider this book captures extremely well the atmosphere in Haiti in those days when the Tonton Macoutes tightly controlled the country and brutally extinguished any attempt to change the political status quo.

With the help of the secret police?

Absolutely, and that was Papa Doc’s way of controlling the country, because he couldn’t trust the military who were traditionally controlled by the tiny mulatto élite and he had won the elections because he really came to power on the wave of the black majority saying we must stop being subjugated by that élite.

Graham Greene is very good at telling the story which reflects the small insurrections that happened a few times in Haiti, mainly led by mulatto officers. They were then joined by the main ‘comedian’ in the book, Mr Jones, who is travelling on the boat with Mr Brown, who is the first-person narrator, and the (US) presidential candidate Smith. The book is also very good at capturing Haiti’s function for the US government of the day. Papa Doc is seen as a bulwark against communism and the rebels trying to rescue their country from this dictatorship are labelled as communists.

And there is a very famous hotel in there which is meant to be based on the real-life Hotel Oloffson.

Yes, in the book the Oloffson is called Hotel Trianon which is now managed by Richard Morse (who is also leader of the Haitian racine band RAM) and it is still running and survived the earthquake of 12 January 2010. It is a wonderful hotel which I have stayed in and is a must-see for any visitor in Haiti with its wonderful gingerbread architecture. Richard could try and keep it up better as it is so much part of Haiti’s history, but he would probably argue it survived the earthquake precisely because it’s so ramshackle! It is a place which is so interlinked with Haiti’s history. It used to be the house of President Guillaume Sam who was dragged from his residence just before the US invasion in 1915 and hacked to death in public. That created a lot of negative publicity and gave the US more reason to say they needed to restore order in Haiti, the real reason being they didn’t want the Germans there.

Your next book is Libète, an anthology compiled and edited by Charles Arthur and Michael Dash.

This book is a deeper introduction to Haiti. It really gives you an entry into any number of facets of Haitian life because it is really a compilation of around 180 extracts on Haiti, many written by Haitians. So you get a real sense of Haiti’s history, politics, religion, social life and culture. Charles Arthur and Michael Dash are two experts on Haiti who wrote a very good introduction to each chapter, which taken together would make a worthy book in its own right.

It has also got excellent bibliographical information for people who want to find out more on matters such as voodoo or the true reasons for Haiti’s poverty. Little-known historical facts are illuminated – for example the efforts by the British to snatch the French colony during the revolution. A lot of people in the UK have absolutely no idea that most of 20,000 British soldiers died in one of the most disastrous military expeditions in Britain’s colonial history. Most of them were killed by yellow fever, admittedly – but the whole story of the Haitian slave army is a remarkable bit of history.

So, this really is an excellent introduction to the many different sides of Haiti. For example, the decline of the peasant economy and the environmental degradation are very clearly explained in chapter three. This is followed logically in the next chapter which sets out the problems of life in the slums and the underpaid assembly sector, all of which gives a very good analysis of why Haiti is economically as poor as it is. Yet the book also describes the richness of its culture which is quite distinct from other Caribbean islands!

What about your next book, C L R James’s The Black Jacobins which I believe you see as the most important one on your list?

That’s right at the top of my list because many Haiti-watchers see it as the best account of the Haitian revolution of 1791-1803.It focuses a lot on Toussaint L’Ouverture as the key leader in the revolution. His life and his leadership are as much a topic as the revolution itself. Toussaint is credited with uniting the revolutionary forces against the French presence. I think it is a must-read for anyone involved with Haiti at a political level. It is also useful to anyone else involved in the country.

The book really highlights the incredible achievement of the Haitian nation, namely to be the only ever slave revolution leading to shaking off slavery and achieving independence by armed struggle. I think that much of Haiti’s current political socio-economic problems can only be understood in the light of French slavery and the way in which it was brought to an end by the slaves of Haiti.

What kind of legacy has that left them?

Well, you had the small mulatto élite who were the result of colonialism – being in the ideal position to lead when the French were thrown out or killed by Dessalines. So, early on a split occurred where you had a southern mulatto republic led by the wealthy Alexandre Pétion and the northern kingdom led by black Henri Christophe.

And after that split was overcome the mulattos dominated, thanks to their French education, and unfortunately established a regime which wasn’t that different to the one the French had before (though slavery was, of course, formally abolished). Mulatto domination endured to the days of Papa Doc and this tragic split was the result of slavery. The mulattos’ aim in the revolution was to continue their lifestyle, because they also had slaves and were beneficiaries of the slavery system. All this is looked at in fascinating detail in the book.

You also have to remember that James wrote the book just as the Nazis were at the height of their power and there is quite a bit of understandable emotion involved, so one must read some of the passages in the book in the light of James’s strong communist leanings.