Roadmap to Haiti’S Next Revolution: Capitalizing Haiti’S Economy with Haitian Diaspora Remittances

By Rubens Francois Titus

Haiti,
the first slavery-emancipated black nation on earth, achieved a political revolution for the dignity of man at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Her history is well documented. Scholars have published in-depth analyses on her past and present. Yet she remains an enigma.

In Roadmap to Haitis Next Revolution: Capitalizing Haitis Economy with Haitian Diaspora Remittances, author Rubens Francois Titus attempts to understand the real underpinnings of the Haitian revolution while proposing labels for a number of the most well-known events in Haitis history. He also tries to refute some of the most widely accepted contemporary misconceptions about the Haiti of today.

There are a number of hard lessons to be learned from studying Haitis history. Titus puts forth a series of empirical proposals that can serve as the basis for future political-forum debates among the concerned Diaspora Haitiansdebates that ought to lead to the adoption of a Diaspora Plan for Haiti.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jul 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9781475934281

Rubens Francois Titus

Rubens Francois Titus is an amateur historian and a macroeconomics enthusiast with a background in the physical sciences. He is a graduate of Saint-Louis de Gonzague in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, NYC Tech, and Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. He is devoted to increasing the Haitian Diaspora understanding of Haiti’s macroeconomic history.

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Copyright © 2012 Rubens Francois Titus.

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CONTENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

PART I HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES, VIEWS, AND ANALYSES

CHAPTER 1 HAITIAN HISTORY’S LESSONS

The Bo Kay Imam Ceremony A National Identity Is Born

The Emancipation Breaking the Slavery Rule at What Costs?

The Dessalines Doctrine The Right for Blacks to Own Their Land

The Haitian Mulatto Ideology Essence of Squalor

The Problem on January 2, 1804 Sequels of Colonial Stratification

King Henry Christophe Progress in Tyranny or Vice Versa

Politics of Concessions Endemic Lack of Capital in the Public Treasury

The Underpinnings of the First Haitian Revolution Concerts and Leadership Plurality

The American Military Occupation of 1915 Shoring up the Mulatto Ideology

Coffee as Cash Crop Financing the Education of the Upper Class

CHAPTER 2 LET GRATITUDE RING!

What America Owes to Haiti No Nation on Earth Did It All by Itself

What Black America Owes to Haiti Haiti as a Ray of Hope

What Pan-America Owes to Haiti Inspiration Goes a Long Way

Haiti’s Independence Debt Feeding France’s Insatiable Appetite

What the Dominican Republic owes to Haiti A Sister Nation from another Mother

CHAPTER 3 THE ELUSIVE SECOND REVOLUTION

When the Chiefs Fail to Become Leaders Sacrifices in Vain

Theory of Balance of Power Consolidating the Base

Empty Treasure Chest Good Intentions Feed No One

Four Schools of Thoughts on Haiti’s Failure to Prosper The Enigma of a Nation

PART II CONTEMPORARY VIEWS AND ANALYSES

CHAPTER 4 PROPAGANDA AND MISINFORMATION

Attracting Foreign Investments Insecurity Is Not the Main Obstacle

The Path to Higher Education The Pyramidal Dilemma

Haiti’s Elite Is No Bourgeoisie When Terminology Is Confused

Haiti’s Main Artery A Flow of Youth

Who Really Deforested Haiti? When Lie Becomes Truth

CHAPTER 5 WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING

Complete Reforestation Is a Utopia Agricultural Production Growth Is Not

The Absent-Minded Short Answers When You Are Told You Are to Blame

What Political Class? When Electoral Politics Is Futile

Prohibiting Dual Citizenship When a Native Is Not Welcome Home

Creole and French Bilingualism Is No Commodity

The Illegitimacy of the Electoral Process Complicity of the Established Private Institutions

The Depolarization of the Political Debate When Fanaticism No Longer Prevails

The Participation Is Strength The New Rallying Slogan

PART III FRAMEWORK OF A DIASPORA PLAN FOR HAITI

CHAPTER 6 HAITIAN DIASPORA BABYSITTING HAITI

From the Haitian Diaspora with Love Keeping Haiti Afloat

Haitian Diaspora Remittances Inaction It Flows in and Back Out

CHAPTER 7 HAITIAN DIASPORA UPLIFTING HAITI

The Haitian Diaspora and Haiti’s Electoral Politics Adopting a Policy of Outsiders

The Danger of Haitian Diaspora Conceit When Opportunities Abroad Make a Native Cocky

A Plan That Is an Idea It Belongs to No One but is Owned by All of Us

The Permanent Haitian Diaspora Forum A Chamber of Equals

A Wave of Communication Ending the Dialogue of Deafness

Haitian Diaspora Remittances in Action The Money Stays in and Builds Up

Packaging Foreign Capital Investments to Haiti Haitian Diaspora Does the Legwork

Haiti Away from Haiti An Escape

PART IV THE TENETS OF PROGRESS FOR AN IMPOVERISHED NATION

CHAPTER 8 CITIZEN ACTION

Revolutionize a Nation The Noble Quest

Building Up the Apolitical Academic Institutes When Electoral Politics Is Not the Alpha and Omega

Indoctrinating a People Information to the Masses in Mass Communication in Creole

Fostering a National Vision Creating an Ideal

Haiti’s Dormant Middle Class Path to the Elusive Second Political Revolution

CHAPTER 9 RADIOGRAPHY OF A PROGRESSIVE GOVERNMENT AND A NATIONALIST STATE

The Compulsory Constitutional Amendments An Endogenous Constitution That Heals a Nation

GSPARE Run It to Return a Profit

PART V APPENDIX

The Twelve Periods in Haitian History

REFERENCES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

In loving

memory of my two uncles, Jean-Gerard Titus and Lovelt Francois, who left this world much too soon. They were patriotic Haitians who chose to live, work, and die in their native country, our beloved Haiti. Till their last day on earth, they kept the hope that Haiti would rise from her ashes, escape from her aches, and become a nation in which all Haitians can prosper and live in peace. May God welcome them in paradise!

I also extend a thousand thanks to personal friends and the listeners of my radio talk shows for encouraging me to put it all in writing for the benefit of Haitian posterity. I look forward to your comments and critiques, either online or at [e-mail].

If God bless my handiwork and grants me enough time, I am hopeful that the inhabitants of Haiti, overcoming the shameful prejudice that has oppressed them too long, will soon astonish the world with their knowledge.

—Henry Christophe, letter to Thomas Clarkson on February 5, 1816

PREFACE

Haiti, which means the land of high mountains, is a legacy name of the Taino Indians’ native language. The name has become globally synonymous to poverty, social deprivation, political corruption and instability, and, notoriously, superstitious religious practices.

In the hearts of fellow Haitians, Haiti is synonymous to a people’s determination to be free, to black people’s courage and spirit of sacrifice, and to an oppressed people’s stance against imperialism and social injustice.

After nearly six decades in exile, after numerous plots to overthrow sitting Haitian governments, after several wasteful and ill-minded invasion attempts, after countless conferences and passionate appeals over the airwaves for togetherness, even after dozens of books written by Haitian professionals, the educated exiled Haitians have not yet been able to conceive a concerted and efficient Haitian diaspora Plan for Haiti. They have either put together long laundry lists of recommendations to the illegitimate and oligarchic government of Haiti or merely suggested that the latter tap into the pool of qualified professional Haitians living in the diaspora. Neither approach can be called a plan. The Haitian diaspora is the set of native of Haiti residing outside her borders.

On the contrary, for the last five hundred years or so, the Western neo-colonialist nations have developed, under one form or another, a multitude of nefarious plans for the Negro in general, and for Haiti in particular: the first nation in which Negro slaves were emancipated. The time has come for the Haitian people to devise their own plan and set their own course. It is absolutely imperative that the Haitian diaspora makes a meaningful contribution in helping the Haitian people chart their own destiny. My main objective for writing this book is to propose a framework to that effect.

My inspiration comes from the patriotic Dantes Bellegarde, my favorite Haitian intellectual and statesman; I modeled this book after his Haiti and Her Problems. This book is a collection of disjointed essays on a variety of topics of interest about Haiti’s past and present. I made every effort to group the essays into chapters by relevance but each chapter can be read independently from one another. However, taken as a whole, an overall thesis will emerge.

I sincerely believe that you will find this book quite interesting and to the point, since I synthesize a number of topics that are normally treated separately or simply omitted by other analysts of Haiti’s history. Enjoy.

INTRODUCTION

The term revolution is often used to describe political events in Haiti, even though that nation has only seen one political revolution: the one that led to her independence from colonizing France on January 1st, 1804.

It is a mystery, not only to the vast majority of fellow Haitians but also to the rest of the world, how Haiti made the transition from being France’s richest colony to the world’s most impoverished nation in the span of less than a hundred years after she gained her political independence. It is even less understood how she has remained so up to the very publication of this book, according to current economic indicators.

Suffering under the curse of nearly a century and a half of an over 90 percent illiteracy rate, generations upon generations of Haitians lived in utter ignorance and never had a chance to learn about their history, but only history can tell a people who they are. In addition to illiteracy, travelogues and foreign writers unleashed a wave of propaganda and misinformation about Haiti that either totally discredited her achievements or simply buried the knowledge of it, plunging her into diplomatic isolation and obscurity for much of the nineteenth century. Apathy, political instability, and misery became the norm. A nineteen-year-long American occupation brought no remedy. With the advent of Duvalierism in 1957, most college educated Haitians chose to go live in exile; the brain drain had begun. Today, after nearly two centuries of oligarchic governments and crippling foreign debts, the Haitian nation is bankrupt and is on life support from her citizens living outside of her borders, namely, the Haitian diaspora. In that regard, to begin to repair the damages of almost two hundred years of decline, the nation of Haiti must undergo another political revolution, peacefully.

First, the framers of Haiti’s next political revolution ought to thoroughly educate the Haitian people about her history, remind old friends of Haiti of services rendered in times gone by, and learn from the mistakes of previous progressive and revolutionary-minded statesmen. Second, they ought to mount a truth campaign to begin to undo the damages of decades of misinformation and in the process inculcate a great deal of humanism in the psyche of the Haitian people. Third, they ought to implement strategies in order to apply the financial resources of the Haitian diaspora to the revolutionary movement. Finally, they ought to devise a new political structure of representative democracy and galvanize each citizen to actively participate in it.

I absolutely do not pretend to be competent enough to thoroughly investigate and comprehend the entire transition mentioned above, but I believe if we study Haiti’s history from a number of perspectives, we may learn a few lessons, advance some claims, and discover a number of barriers erected against her revolutionary aspirations. Part I of this book examines those issues. Part II places some of Haiti’s current crises in their historical perspectives. Part III proposes a framework for a prospective Haitian diaspora Plan for Haiti. Part IV posits a set of hypotheses on how Haiti’s middle-class citizens can usher in a modern and peaceful sociopolitical revolution; my plan in itself is only intended to serve as a framework to guide and to motivate diaspora Haitians to play a catalytic role in fostering a politically revolutionary environment in Haiti. Part V contains a break down of the twelve periods of Haiti’s history.

PART I

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES, VIEWS, AND ANALYSES

CHAPTER 1

HAITIAN HISTORY’S LESSONS

The Bo Kay Imam Ceremony

A National Identity Is Born

There is no other event in Haitian history that has caused more contention among the Haitian people than the August 14, 1791 gathering, at Le Normand de Mezy, a French plantation, commonly known as the Bois-Caiman Ceremony (now hypothetically believed to be: Bo Kay Imam Ceremony). This event, described by Alexis Beaubrun Ardouin in his Etudes sur L’Histoire d’Haiti Tome 1 and embellished by Dr. Justin C. Dorsainvil in Manual of Haitian History, marked the distinctive beginning of the Haitian revolution. Haitian voodoo devotees also cite this event with pride as the source of Haiti’s independence. It was a fairly small gathering of commandeurs, branded slaves who had the permission to go outside of their masters’ plantations; by late 1791, a spirit of collectivism had arrived among the slaves and developed into a national identity. Years upon years of social injustice and inhumane treatments could not deprive these African blacks of their innate desire to live like humans.

Haitian voodoo adherents love to point out that a voodoo ceremony launched the Haitian nation. Even the acclaimed Haitian anthropologist Jean-Price Mars boasted that 1804 came from voodoo. I sincerely doubt that the Bois-Caiman Ceremony was a purely religious gathering; I am also skeptical that the participants even intended to hold a voodoo ritual at the conclusion of the meeting. In all sincerity, this political gathering of slaves came on the heels of the 1789 French revolution; consequently a jolt of information about liberty and political change had hit the mass of slaves like a horse kick. The slaves just felt that the time had come to shift gear and breach their socially unjust predicament. In that regard, I tend to believe that the Bois-Caiman Ceremony was first and foremost a political forum. On the other side, Christian Haitians waste a great deal of time and energy vilifying the Bois-Caiman Ceremony as a sordid pact with devilish spirits; unfortunately, in the process, they end up disrespecting their Haitian ancestors, who made the ultimate sacrifice for all of Haiti’s posterity. I believe Haitian Christians should acquaint themselves with the social and political significance of the gathering itself rather than blindly attacking it. Political meetings often conclude with a toast of a drink; so what if the Haitian slaves that gathered together to confer with each other on August 14, 1791, drank pig blood or French red wine? Does it really make a difference? Not to me. I am convinced that the Haitian Christian preachers of today would have drunk the same pig blood and called upon the same voodoo spirits as their ancestors did if it would bring them freedom and liberty.

The Bois-Caiman Ceremony indicates that the slaves in Saint Domingue (Haiti) had matured into a mind-set of collective spirit and into the recognition of their common identity. It is more beneficial to the Haitian people that we analyze the Bois-Caiman Ceremony for its true and primary purpose: a meeting of the minds, whether religious or not, a meeting that signified the start of a courageous struggle toward liberty for an heterogeneous yet connected people that had suffered unimaginable hardships and atrocities over nearly three hundred years of enslavement. By 1791, the slaves must have come to realize that despite their different tribal origins, they all were in the same predicament; people that find themselves suffering under the same social injustice must find the time to gather, debate, and coordinate their actions for the benefit of all. According to Thomas Madiou, about 200 Haitian slaves participated in the Bois-Caiman gathering; Alexis Beaubrun Ardouin added that almost of all of the participants were "commandeurs." These two revelations indicate that a few chose to take the lead and think collectively for the rest. The commandeurs no longer saw themselves as privileged slaves but rather as slaves that had an opportunity to take the necessary initiatives and assume the risks to make life better for their fellow brothers and sisters.

So the Haitian Revolution dispelled the French ideology that keeping the slave population in profound ignorance makes the slaves incapable of revolt, of organizing, of revolution, and of embracing humanistic principles. Keeping all other factors constant, it also confirms what the Greek philosopher Aristotle believed: the ultimate goal of a human being, regardless of creed or color, is joy and happiness. Finally, the Bois-Caiman Ceremony shows that people in bondage are willing to make the necessary sacrifices to pursue an innate and intrinsic desire: to be free and happy. The Bois-Caiman Ceremony teaches us today that a great leader can galvanize and inspire a people to make great sacrifices; it also instructs us that in order for a liberation movement to have a chance to succeed, the people must converse in forums in order to build bridges, share knowledge and insights, plan, and make decisions. The Bois-Caiman Ceremony reveals that a liberation movement must also set a noble and clear objective, the actions thereof must be coordinated and synchronized between all the stakeholders, and once the movement leader gives the go-ahead and takes the first step, a point of no return is reached; the dangerous crossroads ahead must be crossed at all costs. In that regard, I am absolutely unconcerned about whether the Bois-Caiman Ceremony participants made a pact with the devil or with God, for that matter. I am, on the contrary, beholden that my ancestors loved me enough to sacrifice their lives to give me an identity: Haitian.

The Emancipation

Breaking the Slavery Rule at What Costs?

The emancipation of the Haitian people from the yoke of slavery in the early part of the nineteenth century must have come as a shock to the European powers, accustomed to the spoils of the highly lucrative slave trade, but for the slaves themselves, liberty could not have come sooner. Nonetheless, it is not clear to what extent the black Jacobins, Haiti’s forefathers, understood the impact of their achievement on the world at large and on Haiti’s future in particular. In that regard, when Haiti’s forefathers gathered on that memorable day of May 18, 1803, in the small coastal town of Arcahaie to iron out a compromise in the struggle against French bigotry, cynicism, and human injustice, they could not have foreseen they were about to establish the first nation in the Western Hemisphere in which black slaves were emancipated; they could not have anticipated that an army of blacks would defeat an army of whites, that an army of former slaves would defeat an army of former slave masters; they could not have dreamed even less that the first slave revolution in the Americas would be