Fetishes and the Rights of Man

I recently read Stephan Palmié's Wizards and Scientists: Explorations in Afro-Cuban Modernity and Tradition and what stood out most to me was the example of a rebel slave during the Haitian Revolution whose fallen corpse was found to carry a copy of the Rights of Man (Droits des Hommes) as well as a 'fetish.' This is part of the author's larger argument about placing Afro-Cuban (or Afro-Atlantic religious practices in a broader perspective) as essentially "modern" (not a primordial, timeless African tradition) and as much a product of modernity as the French Revolution, Enlightenment thought, and Caribbean slavery and rationalized economies. Other examples given by the author include the Lemba cult of Central Africa, which was also a way for Central African groups to reconstruct their social and moral systems of thought in response to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and an increasingly linked Atlantic World.

Returning to the fallen soldier of the Haitian Revolution, it is important to remember how one should not try to enforce a dichotomy that makes it seem "strange" or nonsensical for this former slave to have carried on his body a "fetish" representing African/Afro-Atlantic as well as writings expressing Enlightenment thought. Because both the Enlightenment and Haitian Vodou (although that term is not the most accurate for describing the religious and moral thought of Africans in colonial Saint Domingue) are products of modernity and a broader Atlantic World, both are equally "modern" and rational, and to be expected in the highly modern, complex Caribbean of the late 18th and 19th centuries. Stephan Palmié's comments on this case are also of importance for understanding the principles and ideology behind slave insurgency in Saint Domingue and the Haitian Revolution, a subject Thornton's work has explored based on Central African societies, specifically, Kongolese, in Saint Domingue. But what would be more interesting to study is the confluence of European and African influences on the slave masses during the Haitian Revolution, from Afro-Atlantic social thought and religion to Enlightenment ideas.

Race and Puerto Rican Migrants in the Interwar Years

Interesting lecture by Peter Carlo Becerra on race and the experience of Puerto Rican migrants in New York during the interwar years. I came across this from the Transnational Hispaniola Facebook page, a useful site for news and scholarship on Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Haiti in 1865 (Harper's Weekly)

Source

Some images of Haiti in 1865, from an August edition of Harper's Weekly. The sketches, by a Lieutenant M. Farland, show Cap-Haitien, a street in Cap-Haitien, a "belle of Cape Haytien," Place du Geffrard in Port-au-Prince and some soldiers. Smith's Liberty, Fraternity, Exile breathes life into the violent 1865 civil war, centered in Cap-Haitian where a seemingly endless siege of the city by Geffrard's forces sought to defeat Salnave, a presidential contender. Only with the aid of British naval intervention was Geffrard able to win back Haiti's second city, a city captured in these sketches. According to Harper's, the city was mostly one story homes housing a population of 5000, full of foreign merchants and exaggerates the presence of Dominicans in the rebel forces of Salnave. 

Creole Choir of Cuba

The Creole Choir of Cuba is currently one of my favorite groups. Though I had heard of them a few years ago, it was only a few weeks ago I began to devour their music. Enjoy this lovely performance of "Son de la loma!"

Liberty, Fraternity, Exile: Haiti and Jamaica after Emancipation

Smith's Liberty, Fraternity, Exile: Haiti and Jamaica after Emancipation is one of the best comparative histories and best recent works on Haiti I have encountered in quite some time. Smith carefully weaves together different tapestries of Jamaica and Haiti's pasts, highlighting the numerous instances in which Haiti and Jamaica were bound together by the vagaries of race, colonialism, and encroaching US dominance of the Caribbean by the early 1900s. In addition, Smith's prose is more engaging and succeeds in breathing life into the various civil wars and coups in Haitian history. Moreover, Smith manages to find that elusive land between academic and accessible, making the Morant Bay Rebellion and the plethora of coups in Haitian history comprehensible. In addition, some of the deeper nuances of late 19th century Haitian history and the uncovered new ground of Jamaica's historical links to Haiti make for fascinating reading.

John Oliver and Columbus Day

As usual, John Oliver's Last Week Tonight delivers the laughs while offering some much needed corrections to the traditional narratives on Christopher Columbus as some sort of 'hero.' Enjoy!

Kaiama Glover and Haiti

A worthwhile lecture from Kaiama Glover on how discourses of Haiti after (and before) the 2010 earthquake are predicated on an anti-African, anti-black bias. Media reports of Haiti during and after that catastrophe often emphasize Haiti's links with Africa as a way of denigrating and Othering Haiti.

La historia negra

Joe Arroyo sings of slavery and Cartagena. One of my favorite salsa numbers by far, "Rebelion" is essential Colombian music. No le pegue a la negra!