Haiti. And its importance in the study of black culture.
1. I'm a big fan of Zora Hurston, an intellectual and academic of the 1900s, and a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance. She was famous for studies of Haiti, and voodoo, and of the racial struggles for blacks in America.
In the 20th century, Haiti was thought to be a site to be studied in order to understand black culture, and there are certain aspects of said culture/history that were on display this week on America’s streets.
Anthropologists were fascinated by a death culture, and the existence of ‘zombies.’ There was the claim that religious views brought from Africa might be biological, and resistant to sociological advances.
“Black rioters driving around shouting “shoot the white people!”
2. “Many progressive thinkers at that time agreed that a “Negro problem” existed, and that it was a matter of culture, which could be changed, not of biology, which presumably couldn’t. Researchers like Melville Herskovits, another professor of [Nora] Hurston’s, believed the answer could be found by studying African folk culture.
In Haiti, Hurston fell in easily with priests whom she met casually through local friends and colleagues. She met some of the country’s foremost houngans and watched as late-night ceremonies summoned an entire pantheon of gods — a holy conclave of Jesus and the saints, standing alongside unfamiliar deities such as Damballah Ouedo and Erzulie Freida. She saw people writhe and cry as they were mounted by a loa, a disembodied spirit seeking someone to ride, like a horse. She felt the urgency of grasping at another plane of reality — seeing wickedness and purity, the most venal things and the most exalted, all braided together, all making sense, no more bizarre or unreal, nor less ecstatic, than a Baptist prayer meeting in her hometown of Eatonville, Florida.”
https://zora.medium.com/when-zora-met-zombie-dbcf0fb45d11
3. There are tell-tale signs in Haiti’s history that presage elements of the recent riots.
Feb 3, 1794 In what many consider the most radical revolution of the 18th century, runaway slaves from the mountains won emancipation from the French in Haiti. After the slaves, under Toussaint L’Ouverture took control of their island, Napoleon had no further need for Louisiana- so he sold it to the US. This is but one way that Haiti’s history is interwound with America’s.
January 1, 1804 Haiti (Saint Domininque) becomes independent, under Emperor Jacques I, the first black republic in the world, and only the second free country in the hemisphere
4. "Jean-Jacques Dessalines (Haitian Creole: Jan-Jak Desalin; French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ ʒak dɛsalin]; 20 September 1758 – 17 October 1806) was a leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1805 constitution."
Jean-Jacques Dessalines - Wikipedia
"The 1804 Haiti massacre was carried out against the remaining white population of native French people and French Creoles (or Franco-Haitians) in Haitiby Haitian soldiers under orders from Jean-Jacques Dessalines. He had decreed that all suspected of conspiring in the acts of the expelled army should be put to death."
1804 Haiti massacre - Wikipedia
"....April 1804 and resulted in the deaths 3,000 to 5,000 men, women and children.[4]
Squads of soldiers moved from house to house, torturing and killing entire families.[5]Even whites who had been friendly and sympathetic to the black population were imprisoned and later killed.[6] A second wave of massacres targeted white women and children.[6]"
1804 Haiti massacre - Wikipedia
Kinda like this riot’s “Shoot the white people!”
1. I'm a big fan of Zora Hurston, an intellectual and academic of the 1900s, and a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance. She was famous for studies of Haiti, and voodoo, and of the racial struggles for blacks in America.
In the 20th century, Haiti was thought to be a site to be studied in order to understand black culture, and there are certain aspects of said culture/history that were on display this week on America’s streets.
Anthropologists were fascinated by a death culture, and the existence of ‘zombies.’ There was the claim that religious views brought from Africa might be biological, and resistant to sociological advances.
“Black rioters driving around shouting “shoot the white people!”
2. “Many progressive thinkers at that time agreed that a “Negro problem” existed, and that it was a matter of culture, which could be changed, not of biology, which presumably couldn’t. Researchers like Melville Herskovits, another professor of [Nora] Hurston’s, believed the answer could be found by studying African folk culture.
In Haiti, Hurston fell in easily with priests whom she met casually through local friends and colleagues. She met some of the country’s foremost houngans and watched as late-night ceremonies summoned an entire pantheon of gods — a holy conclave of Jesus and the saints, standing alongside unfamiliar deities such as Damballah Ouedo and Erzulie Freida. She saw people writhe and cry as they were mounted by a loa, a disembodied spirit seeking someone to ride, like a horse. She felt the urgency of grasping at another plane of reality — seeing wickedness and purity, the most venal things and the most exalted, all braided together, all making sense, no more bizarre or unreal, nor less ecstatic, than a Baptist prayer meeting in her hometown of Eatonville, Florida.”
https://zora.medium.com/when-zora-met-zombie-dbcf0fb45d11
3. There are tell-tale signs in Haiti’s history that presage elements of the recent riots.
Feb 3, 1794 In what many consider the most radical revolution of the 18th century, runaway slaves from the mountains won emancipation from the French in Haiti. After the slaves, under Toussaint L’Ouverture took control of their island, Napoleon had no further need for Louisiana- so he sold it to the US. This is but one way that Haiti’s history is interwound with America’s.
January 1, 1804 Haiti (Saint Domininque) becomes independent, under Emperor Jacques I, the first black republic in the world, and only the second free country in the hemisphere
4. "Jean-Jacques Dessalines (Haitian Creole: Jan-Jak Desalin; French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ ʒak dɛsalin]; 20 September 1758 – 17 October 1806) was a leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1805 constitution."
Jean-Jacques Dessalines - Wikipedia
"The 1804 Haiti massacre was carried out against the remaining white population of native French people and French Creoles (or Franco-Haitians) in Haitiby Haitian soldiers under orders from Jean-Jacques Dessalines. He had decreed that all suspected of conspiring in the acts of the expelled army should be put to death."
1804 Haiti massacre - Wikipedia
"....April 1804 and resulted in the deaths 3,000 to 5,000 men, women and children.[4]
Squads of soldiers moved from house to house, torturing and killing entire families.[5]Even whites who had been friendly and sympathetic to the black population were imprisoned and later killed.[6] A second wave of massacres targeted white women and children.[6]"
1804 Haiti massacre - Wikipedia
Kinda like this riot’s “Shoot the white people!”
