Maracatu Atómico

A classic (and funky) number from Gilberto Gil. Brazilian music is close to perfection.

The Cacicazgos of Hispaniola

Bernardo Vega's Los cacicazgos de la Hispaniola raises a number of important questions about the political and geographic map of the island in late precolonial times. Arguing against the traditional narrative of Haiti and the Dominican Republic in which there were 5 cacicazgos, with borders conceived of or based on those described by Oviedo and Las Casas, Vega believes it is better to rely on the map of Andres Morales and the writings of Pedro Martyr. Although Las Casas first came to Hispaniola before Morales, who drew his map in 1508, he did not actually write in detail about the cacicazgos of the island until several decades later, when his advanced age led to errors. Oviedo, the other chronicler heavily relied upon for the history of the Taino cacicazgos and the idea of the 5 principal ones being Higuey, Marien, Magua, Maguana and Xaragua, however, came to the island in 1514 and was therefore only present several years after the Spanish conquest. Morales, on the other hand, was on the island during the time of Ovando and had traveled across the island. With his personal travels across Haiti, Morales was more likely to have accurately recorded the territorial divisions and geographical features that were used by the native population. Pedro Martyr, who relied on the map of Morales and interviews with him and other Spaniards who traveled to Hispaniola in the early days of the Spanish conquest, was able to transcribe Morales's information into the map and record for posterity the major provinces of the island. These five provinces included Bainoa, a large province which covered most of modern Haiti and included the Xaragua cacicazgo.

It is possible that, despite the lapses in the memory of Las Casas and the fact that the writings of his and those of Oviedo postdate the earlier work of Pedro Martyr, the traditional idea of the 5 paramount caciques whose territory did not align perfectly with that described in the map of Morales may be at least partially accurate. If the provinces described by Morales and Martyr, with their natural borders based on rivers, mountains, and other geographic provinces are not exact matches with the 5 dominant cacicazgos described by the other chroniclers, this may reflect a different interpretation by the natives of the island's political and territorial maps. Of course, we lack evidence for this, but we find it unlikely that the cacicazgos described by Las Casas and Oviedo as the dominant ones, did not have some large degree of territorial control which fluctuated over time and was not necessarily based on the borders and divisions of the provinces. Furthermore, the indigenous cosmology and view of the island's geography as described by Pedro Martyr suggests a magico-religious interpretation that may not have been meant to indicate the political divisions of cacicazgos. For example, if the far west of the island was the anus of an island conceived as a living being, with a cave considered to be the origin of the island's first people, perhaps there were other types of religious symbolism in the other provinces like Bainoa or Cayabo. 

In spite of our own reservations about Vega's conclusions, his use of the map of Morales plus that of other 16th century maps and surviving toponyms of Taino origin in Haiti and the Dominican Republic is rather impressive. His success in identifying about 90 percent of the places indicated in the map of Morales certainly fleshes out our understanding of the island's geography and indigenous toponyms. For example, Vega's theory of Xaragua's capital being located in the area of Port-au-Prince, probably directly north of Kenscoff, is intriguing. The river they relied upon for their irrigation canals, Camin (or Cami) identified as rio Blanco is certainly useful information for those interested in pursuing the specific history of Xaragua. Some of Vega's conclusions about the ciguayos is also worthy of consideration, although we find it highly unlikely that Caonabo was a Ciguayo. Furthermore, we find the notion of a cave-dwelling or primitive population of foragers in the far west of Haiti to be less likely, since we know the Indian population that fled from the Spaniards to live in the mountains subsisted on roots, hunting, and food sources available in areas far away from Spanish control. While there could have been an archaic, pre-farming population in the southwestern corner of Haiti in the late precolonial era, it seems more likely that the area was populated by agriculturalists. In addition, ciguayos who preyed upon inhabitants in the plains near their mountainous abode, where they were ruled by Mayobanex, emerge from Vega's analysis as an intriguing and distinct indigenous population of the island. Whether or not the archers encountered by Columbus at the Golfo de los flecheros is an unresolved question, but Vega's idea of a Carib temporary residence there is plausible. Indeed, such a case seems to have been present in nearby Puerto Rico.

A un Pintor

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Some of Ramito's music is so enchanting and beautiful. This particular number, supposedly in the style of Caguas, is irresistible. 

The Taino of Hispaniola in 1517

Reading Rodriguez Demorizi's Los dominicos y la encomienda de indios en la isla Española has been a profoundly rich source on the indigenous history of the island of Haiti. Including in its various sources the 1517 Interrogatorio de los Jeronimos, the reader is treated to the testimonies of several Spaniards on the island answering 7 questions on what can or should be done for the Indian population, the encomienda system, and if the Indians are capable of living politically or rationally, like a laborer or common person in Castilla. Unsurprisingly, most of the men shared a belief in the incapacity of the Indians to be placed in liberty. Even the lone person who thought so, Fray Bernaldo de Santo Domingo, believed that the freed Indians must be placed in communities under Spanish administration for a period. Nonetheless, these highly biased sources reflecting the views and opinions of vecinos, regidores, a treasurer and other men in colonial society do shed much light on the conditions of the colony and what the indigenous population was like. Indeed, one of the men who answered the questions was married to a native woman of the island and could draw from his own experience and that of his wife and her connections to buttress his claims about the Indian or Taino population in 1517.

First, the sources stress the indigenous populations inability to live politically or with reason. Unlike the average person in Spain, the Indians lacked the ability (to the Spanish) to save for tomorrow, work consistently or maintain any kind of devotion to the Catholic faith and meet tribute or tax requirements. Without Spaniards holding encomiendas or Spanish administrators to oversee them, the Indians were said by most of the informants to idle away their time with the batey ballgame, cohoba, areytos, and trading valuable things like hammocks for trinkets or things of lesser value. The informants cite numerous examples of this, including caciques who failed to meet tribute obligations before the repartimientos as well as the example of instances in which caciques or Indians educated or raised among the Spaniards completely failed to become successful holders of repartimientos. Instead, the whites claimed that these Indians, such as Alonso de Caceres and Pedro Colon, were addicted to wine and even exchanged their naborias for it or let others access their wives. Other educated caciques and Indians, such as Masupa Otex, don Francisco in Bonao and the Doctor (el Dotor) in Santiago also failed to be successful holders of repartimientos as their Indians produced less than those hold by the Spaniards and they wasted resources and time on what the Spaniards considered to be the typical idleness of the Indian. To the Spaniard, the Indian's inactivity and laziness meant they were even enemies of labor. They would always prefer to spend their time in leisure, playing the batey game, eating to excess and holding areytos, or wasting time with cohoba. The irony of Spaniards claiming Indians were incapable of living on their own account is rich, especially since the surplus of Taino production had enabled the sustenance of large populations before the conquest and even fed the Spaniards.

Indeed, the indigenous population of the island were often able to spend leisure time in what the Spaniards considered frivolities by their choices in settlements. While the original Spanish pueblos were often founded near the settlements of principal caciques, the Indian population of the island preferred to live at a distance from colonial pueblos. In fact, doing so was the best way to ensure some protection from the worst abuses of the colonial system. Nearly all the witnesses in the Interrogatorio claim that the Indian settlements were always at a distance from the Spanish towns, and if Spaniards made attempts to forcibly relocate these Indians, they either fled into the montes or killed Spaniards or threatened to commit suicide with the venom from yuca. Indeed, the threat of this vivid enough to be recalled when similar ideas were proposed for the Indians in the area of Azua and San Juan de la Maguana. There, the cacique Ojeda and other Indians conspired to flee and resist the Spanish attempt to relocate them. So, the Indian population was able to retain significant autonomy even under the abusive encomienda system. By choosing to live separately from the Spaniards, they could ensure that the 4 months or so of the year they had for themselves was spent in a way that was in accordance with Taino customs and practices. Verily, this was what motivated the desire by the Spaniards to reduce the Indians into pueblos in or close to the Spanish settlements, since they would be easier to monitor, proselytize, and control. Otherwise, left to their own devices in far away asientos or hiding in the montes, the Tainos were continuing their cemi worship, consultation of bohites (behiques), and pre-Christian customs that so offended the Spanish that some of witnesses referred to it as a bestial life. 

However, the question of what to do with the Indian population posed so many problems. The aforementioned practice of flight to the mountains, suicide and revolt was paired with a fear of the African population on the island. While one witness claimed the cacique Tamayo fled to the mountains because of African maroons who kidnapped women from his community, other Spaniards expressed deep fear of an alliance of the Indian and African population. If forcibly relocated, they feared that the Indians would flee to the mountains and collaborate with the negros alzados to attack the Spaniards and possibly take the island. Even if they did not, forcing the Indians from their homes to live in new settlements closer to the Spaniards would eventually culminate in the depopulation of the island. The Indians would resist, flee to the mountains, kill Christians, possibly align themselves with Africans, with whom they were allegedly friendly according to one witness and then the mining and agricultural economy linked to the encomiendas would collapse. In order to preserve the colony, while also ensuring the better treatment of Indians held in encomiendas, the witnesses believed it was better to assign encomiendas to Spaniards who were, ideally, married and dedicated to staying on the island. If they were planning on building stone houses and/or had participated in the conquest of it, they were even better, since these men were more likely to reside on the island for a long-term, to be invested in the island's well-being, and more likely to care for and treat their assigned Indians better. Thus, to most of these witnesses, the encomienda system was best kept as maintained, with assignments to men likely to stay on the island and no more absentee holders. Perhaps, over time, the better treatment Indians received from resident encomenderos and the attraction of a better meat diet would have been enough to gradually convince the Indians to stay permanently on or nearby the land of their encomendero. This, was of course, wishful thinking but it was likely true that the Indians held by absentee encomederos fared even worse than the others while the Indian diet and the negative impact of moving back and forth between their homes and that of their encomendero placed an additional burden. 

What is most intriguing to those eager to understand the nature of the Taino cacicazgo and society, however, are the numerous details on the role of behiques or bohites and the cemi spiritual tradition. Indeed, the bohites, who could be male or female, were considered worthy of a special punishment in one rather utopian experiencia conceived by the final witness. Bohites and old Indians were also blamed for the lack of Christian devotion and practice among the Taino. For instance, the elders were said to have mocked younger Indians who adopted or disseminated Christian teachings. Furthermore, the bohites were at the center of an island-wide conspiracy to kill the Christians and retake the island. After the initial success of Agueybana and the revolt in Puerto Rico, his relative, a cacique named Andres in Higuey, celebrated the success of the rebels in Borinquen. Then, with other caciques and bohites or shamans, they plotted to use what amounted to chemical warfare against the Spanish! Unfortunately for the indigenous population of Hispaniola, the conspiracy was unveiled and the bohites were revealed to have been the ones who knew how to prepare the toxic gas. So, the behiques or bohitis were central to ongoing Taino resistance to Christian evangelization and were, with caciques, part of a plot to kill the Spanish. While their revolt was ultimately unsuccesful, one can see how the combination of cemis, caciques, and cohoba continued to be central to cacicazgos after the conquest. Indeed, elements of Taino religion likely persisted well into the colonial era since the population had managed to live apart from the Spaniards for so long and chose to either flee or resist when the Spaniards attempted to do so. 

Consequently, the foundations of cacique authority persisted in a weakened fashion after the Spanish imposed the repartimientos, yet the caciques were not able to command their naborias to produce gold or labor along the lines of what the Spanish sought. Instead, the authority of caciques appears to have been based on command of their subjects in terms of food production, fishing, and related activities. In other words, a tributary system in which caciques exerted some authority over the labor of their subjects, but without the full means to enforce what the Spanish encomienda system was intending to procure for the Crown and the colonial government. Moreover, the Indian population was best not concentrated near the Spanish to avoid conflicts between caciques over women, resources and followers. This matches what Las Casas wrote about past conflicts between cacicazgos and suggests another reason why Indian demographic patterns favored a dispersal away from the Spanish and other possible competitors. Perhaps the cacicazgo, even in its attenuated and somewhat weakened form due to the pressure of the Spanish conquest, can still partially reflect the precolonial cacicazgo? Of course, in a highly modified fashion with smaller populations and the addition of Spaniards and Africans who, in some cases, joined Indian communities. In fact, such an experience allegedly occurred with some of the Spaniards married to Indian women who lacked encomiendas. Nevertheless, this source is quite suggestive on the nature of the Taino polity and how early colonial society in Hispaniola (and Puerto Rico and Cuba) was still fragile. 

Pawoli

Another one of our favorites from the Haitian jazz group Foula. The rhythm here appears to be or is at least very similar to one used in personal favorite of ours from Haitian Vodou music, Azouke Legba. 

Reading Shaykh Dan Tafa

Although its brevity diminishes its use, Dan Tafa's Rawdat’l-Afkaar is a fascinating local source on the history of Hausaland and the Central Sudan. Presumably drawing on oral traditions and other written sources, Shaykh Dan Tafa's brief account outlines the history of the "Sudan" and in particular, the Hausa states. Gobir's history in particular is quite important given that Shaykh Uthman dan Fodio lived in Gobir before the jihad that led to the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate. What is particularly interesting for our purposes, however, are the references to Borno and earlier epochs in the history of the Hausa states of the area. 

First, Borno. According to Shaykh Dan Tafa, Borno once dominated all or most of Hausaland. And, according to him, it was Gobir which first refused to pay tribute to Borno. However, Borno was never able to, according to Dan Tafa, conquer Air or Ahir. However, he does corroborate the role of Borno in coming to the aid of Ahir against the Kanta of Kebbi in the 1500s. Indeed, a brief account of mai Ali's battles with the Kanta of Kebbi can be found in Dan Tafa's chronicle. One also finds the familiar tradition of a man appointed to rule Hausaland by the ruler of Borno in the distant past, although one wonders if the translator's choice of the term "political captive" is accurate. Using that terminology might lead one to suspect slaves were appointed to administer subject provinces due to the greater expectation of loyalty, yet the actual conditions and type of provincial rulers or leaders could have been different when speaking of early Borno expansion into Hausaland. Indeed, even the question of tribute and what it actually entailed brings to mind one Nigerian's scholar's important point about reconsidering the relations between Hausaland and Borno as one of empire or Bornoan or Kanuri imperialism. Indeed, when Dan Tafa explains how an increasingly powerful Gobir demanded tribute from other Hausa states, it is also stated that Gobir sent fine gifts of horses as well. So, the gifts or tribute given to Gobir were reciprocated and it is not clear to what extent Gobir exerted any real control of tributary states. One can assume that a similar relationship existed when the Hausa states sent tribute to Borno through Daura. In fact, Heinrich Barth's description of Katsina's relationship with Borno seems to confirm this.

Unsurprisingly, however, the bulk of the short work is most useful for the history of Gobir and Hausaland. While its chronology is not always clear or perhaps is unreliable, it does offer some tentative and clear chronologies for certain events in the history of the region. First of all, Amina of Zaria or Zakzak is said to have raided as far southwest as the Atlantic Ocean. While this is perhaps exaggeration, one wonders if, when using the dates suggested by the Kano Chronicle, one can perhaps detect Zaria raiding and trading as far south as Yorubaland in the 1400s. Where the chronology seems more than a little unreliable, or perhaps earlier Gobir rulers were forgotten, is Dan Tafa's allusion to an alliance of Agabba of Ahir, Muhammad ibn Chiroma of Gobir and the ruler of Zamfara against Kebbi. If accurate, this would suggest a date in the late 1600s or during the reign of Muhammad Agabba of Air (who also established the sultanate of Adar through his line). However, Dan Tafa's chronicle claims Muhammad ibn Chiroma was the son of the first ruler of Gobir after their expulsion from Air, an event which must have occurred centuries earlier than the late 1600s and early 1700s. Thus, Chiroma was either the first "Gobir" king or the earlier rulers before they firmly established themselves as the kings of Gobir were forgotten or not recalled by Dan Tafa's sources. 

Despite the omission of Gobir's political history before the late 17th century and early 18th, Dan Tafa's account gives the reader an idea of Gobir's political power in Hausaland and in relation to its neighbors. Indeed, they were so bold as to attack the outskirts of Borno and Bawa, who ruled in the late 1700s, refused to send or pay tribute to Borno. One also finds interesting allusions to the power of Kebbi in the 1500s, particularly when its ruler established a capital at Surami that received water brought by the Tuareg who were forced to do so. Although Kebbi's power lasted for only about a century, one benefits from learning a few more details about this powerful Hausa state. Sadly, Kwararafa is only mentioned briefly and one is left in the dark about this southern power.

Haitian Genealogy

Enjoy a nice conversation with Haitian genealogist Gilles Hudicourt available on Youtube. Although our interests in Haitian genealogy comes and goes, we always find it worthwhile to listen to experienced researchers share their insights and tips on conducting genealogical investigations in Haiti. We hope to one day continue our own research in Bainet and with Haitians who have family roots there with the ultimate aim of writing a history of our beloved region.