“In Saint-Domingue everything takes on a character of opulence such as to astonish Europeans."
Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry, lawyer and product of colonial Martinique and Saint-Domingue whose Description of the French and Spanish parts of Hispaniola, of epic length, is of great importance to scholars. His writing so far strikes me as essentializing different racial groups in Saint-Domingue as well as thought-provoking for his commentary on social relations, dance, Vaudoux, and the cities and towns of the French colony. Apparently he is a relative of Josephine, wife of Napoleon. I recently read The Civilization That Perished, which is an abridged and translated copy of his aforementioned work. Anywho, the following are some enlightening things about Saint-Domingue, future Haiti.
1. Although lacking universities like the Spanish colonies, cities such as Le Cap (Cap Francais) featured a Royal Society of the Sciences and Arts and other learned organizations, including an active theater scene, where seatings were racially segregated, of course. Slaves were around 2/3 of the population of Le Cap, about 10,000! Port-au-Prince, though made the capital of the colony, was described as a "camp of Tartars" by Moreau de Saint-Méry and seen as lacking the splendor, design, and feel of a more capable and beautiful city, such as Le Cap. In addition to theaters and schools of reading, writing, and arithmetic, colonial cities were tied to the Atlantic world's commerce, via trade with British colonies, Curacao (particularly Jacmel), and other parts of the world. The global economy was becoming more and more connected, and one can see such a phenomenon in Saint-Domingue, where free women of color and slave women wore Madras cloth and (the more fortunate, that is) finer materials from Persia and India. The prospect of learning in Saint-Domingue seemed to have been worsened by the expulsion of the Jesuits in the mid-18th century. With men such as Father Boutin, they were responsible for studying African languages as well as proselytizing among the slaves.
2. Slave culture among African and Creole slaves in Saint-Domingue reveals the deep divisions and gaps in understanding between slaves of different origins. According to Moreau de Saint-Méry, Creole slaves referred to African-born slaves as "horses" or beasts of burden as an insult, and looked down upon them. He also claims that Negroes born in the colony gradually gained less "Negroid" features over time and seems to favor slavery for showing "domestication's" beneficial impact on blacks. Needless to say, such sentiments are highly disturbing and racist, and even though the author abhorred the treatment of pregnant slaves or the blind prejudice against free people of color, his own slaveholding personal interests are never mentioned.
3. He does describe "Vaudoux" as a dance and snake cult from what is now Benin, as well as the chica and calenda dances of slaves. Their skills as musicians also deserve mention, particularly in drums, violins, the banza, as well as their interest in European dances such as the minuet. Overwhelmingly, the portrait of blacks, particularly those from Africa, is one of superstitious, lazy, stupefied by European manufactured products (such as mirrors), poor with arithmetic and unable to give their precise age, ignorant, feeble-minded, polygamous, careless, and thieving. He also claims that 1/4 of all blacks sold into slavery from Africa were accused of witchcraft, the blacks worship fetishes (crude wooden statues, which sound like nkissi figures from Central Africa), the Creole slaves were smarter and preferred for domestic and skilled labour, mulatto slaves were almost exclusively domestic and considered themselves above blacks, and the Africans who spoke about their homeland loved it. He goes on to say that Negroes were capable of full emotions and some showed complete loyalty to their masters, as well as defending the Creole/Kreyol language as better-suited than French for expressing certain things. Interestingly, slaves of Amerindian origin were also illegally present in Saint Domingue, from Natchez, Lousiana, Canada, Guianas, the Caribs, and elsewhere. As mentioned previously, woman’s headdresses were important; slave women loved undergarments and muslins from India/Persia and slave women shared clothes. I am surprised no one has researched clothing and dress among slave women and free women in Saint-Domingue, it sounds like an understudied but fascinating field for elucidating constructs of gender, class, status, and style in a colony where opulence and excess are always referenced.
4. Some of the problems of today's Haiti clearly arose in the colonial period. Soil erosion, for instance, was already severe by 1791. Epidemics of smallpox and other diseases, as well as earthquakes struck Saint-Domingue, too, including one that destroyed Port-au-Prince in 1770. Droughts, soil exhaustion, epidemics, and earthquakes made the profitable colony of Saint-Domingue a dangerous place and suggests a precarious future. Perhaps this is why Fumagalli asserts that Moreau de Saint-Méry and other French Saint-Dominguans envisioned taking over Spanish Santo Domingo to expand the plantation complex into the eastern half of the island. With increasing soil exhaustion and a sense of impending ecological doom from the plantation system within the small French colony on the island, expansion into Spanish Santo Domingo would be a rational decision. These issues also illustrate how the independent nation of Haiti inherited problems from European colonial destruction of the environment, which has worsened conditions for the independent states of the region. In my opinion, too often has this fact been conveniently 'forgotten' as a contributor to soil erosion, deforestation, and other signs of environmental change.
Naturally, one should be skeptical of many of de Saint-Méry's claims, particularly on the slaves, given his biases and prejudice as a slaveholder himself. However, his text is excessively detailed and informative on the economic, urban, rural, social, environmental, racial, and cultural factors at play. One should read his text with an open mind and analyze some of the postcolonial legacies inherited by Haiti, particularly how the color/caste system created the conditions under which Saint-Domingue would perish as well as those through which it would linger in Haiti. If I ever learn to read French properly, or if de Saint-Méry is ever fully translated, I hope to tackle his description of Spanish Hispaniola.
" I am surprised no one has researched clothing and dress among slave women and free women in Saint-Domingue, it sounds like an understudied but fascinating field for elucidating constructs of gender, class, status, and style in a colony where opulence and excess are always referenced." Clever lad, you will have a fine future with United Colors of Benetton as their in house ethnographer. "Although lacking universities like the Spanish colonies, cities such as Le Cap (Cap Francais) featured a Royal Society of the Sciences and Arts and other learned organizations, including an active theater scene, where seatings were racially segregated, of course. Slaves were around 2/3 of the population of Le Cap, about 10,000!" I read somewhere that Christophe's architect Henri Barre's father was a member of that learned society. Since you are in South Africa, what do you make of Mugabe's landslide victory in Zimbabwe? All the western media I've read so far are full of bile and self righteous preachments about the "proper" way to hold elections. Will a Zimbabwean "color" revolution ensue? What do you think?
ReplyDeleteI was in South Africa until mid-June. I wrote those last two posts about Robben Island and the District 6 Museum because I was re-reading my personal notes on my time there. I am disgusted and disturbed by Robert Mugabe, who has single-handedly destroyed Zimbabwean agriculture and carried out campaigns of genocidal violence (the Gukurahundi)and is nothing but an old despot. I was shocked to hear a Black South African friend once defend Mugabe, basing his claims on the bias of the western press which fuels negative stereotypes of Africa and Zimbabwe. While I concur with him that the western media often gets things wrong and has a vested interest in not telling the 'truth' or speaking truth to power, I still can't believe some people take the old dictator seriously.
DeleteHowever, one piece that got published in the New York Times or some other mainstream western publication asserts that the land redistribution policies of Mugabe may be working now or at least limiting the downward spiral of the Zimbabwean economy. That said, given the vast numbers of Zimbabweans living in South Africa, fleeing Zimbabwe due to political violence and poverty, I am inclined to still detest Mugabe.
Also, it's amazing how white folks rewrite history in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. A European I knew in Cape Town was friends with some white Zimbabwean women, and according to these biased daughters of white farmers, black Zimbabweans were "well-treated" under white management and that things are so bad for white farmers that they sometimes can't even leave their property without facing threats of violence of government thugs seizing the land. For obvious reasons, I am skeptical of such claims, especially since it reeks of paternalism.
In conclusion, I haven't been following recent events in Zimbabwe as much as I should be, unfortunately. Unless you count Al-Jazeera
" I am disgusted and disturbed by Robert Mugabe, who has single-handedly destroyed Zimbabwean agriculture and carried out campaigns of genocidal violence (the Gukurahundi)and is nothing but an old despot."
Delete" I still can't believe some people take the old dictator seriously."
" However, one piece that got published in the New York Times or some other mainstream western publication asserts that the land redistribution policies of Mugabe may be working now or at least limiting the downward spiral of the Zimbabwean economy. That said, given the vast numbers of Zimbabweans living in South Africa, fleeing Zimbabwe due to political violence and poverty, I am inclined to still detest Mugabe." From the above I take it that you wished the old man had loss and made way for a "modernizer" like Mr. Tsvangirai. What would you have done if you were in Mugabe's place facing an insurrection where the insurgents or South African mercenaries went so far as to attempt to murder you? This article gives a more nuanced version of the incident you refer to above: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gukurahundi. Civil wars are violent affairs, the comments you make about Mugabe would apply with as much justice to Abraham Lincoln or any other victor in such wars. I'm sure that you are aware of Sherman's march to the sea, and how even now the descendents of his victims whine about his cruelty at Confederate events. I'm fascinated by your take on how Mugabe "single-handedly destroyed Zimbabwean agriculture". I'd like to know more, I would appreciate it if you would expand on the subject, with an emphasis on what, in your view, should have been done differently. A comparison of Zimbabwe with her neighbors would show clearly what your objections and assumptions are. What's your take on Mr. Malema, the South African politician, who wants to emulate Mugabe's land seizure program? How do you think Mugabe's Indigenization program will fare now that his party won 2/3 of the Parliament seats?
My take on the Gukurahundi was biased since it was from the lens of a Matebele/Ndebele professor from the University of Cape Town who was teaching parts of a Genocide studies course where we looked at case studies from African history. He didn't talk too much about his own experiences, but based on the academic sources, his own experiences of hunger and fearing for his life due to Shona/Mugabe-supporters' violence, and interviews with Joshua Nkomo, it seemed like a genocide where the 'rebellion' was struck down with acts of excessive violence and ethnic . Again, my take is obviously very titled in favor of the perspective of political/ethnic genocide from discussions and readings in a genocide studies course, but Nkomo himself, at least in interviews with the western press, downplayed ethnic/genocidal violence, despite the fact that many of the Shona-speaking Fifth Brigade soldiers referred to their victims in derogatory ways that made it clear that, at some level, the soldiers carrying out murder and assault rationalized their attacks as vengeance on the Ndebele for past cattle raids/conflicts. So, the Gukurahundi is a very complex period in 1980s Zimbabwe, and there seems to be some disconnect, perhaps, in the motives of Mugabe and the top leadership, versus that of the 'grunts.' Of course, one could offer some defense for the actions of Mugabe's party, since Zimbabwe was a very recently created political project and unity under a single party was often seen as necessary in so much of post-colonial Africa, and of course apartheid South African meddling only made things worse. What was shocking during the time is how nobody seemed to want to acknowledge the ethnic violence as 'genocidal' while it was happening.
DeleteI don't particularly care for Tsvangirai but it would be nice if Mugabe stepped down (I assume old age will gradually lessen his direct role in politics if his health deteriorates). I think Mugabe was disastrous for land redistribution and the Zimbabwean economy because of the hyper-inflation and poorly managed redistribution. One got the impression that most of the land went to lackeys of Mugabe and most of these people were either not interested in upkeep of previously white-owned farms or they themselves didn't have the interest or skills in doing so. Many black Zimbabweans ended up fleeing to South Africa or the cities of Zim in the hopes of finding work, and so many live in South Africa where they send money to relatives back in the country. So, in a sense, Mugabe is directly responsible for the astounding fall of Zimbabwean agricultural production and economic hyperinflation. To a certain degree, there was going to be economic decline or at least immediate consequences through the shift to black land ownership and management, since many Zimbabweans lacked the initial capital, connections, and crucial government support Mugabe did not properly provide. I believe there should have been more of a gradual land redistribution program where land was more directly divided for rural populations instead of cronyism. Perhaps landownership could also have been granted collectively to black workers and farmers but whites also allowed to stay on or encouraged to do so and help provide seed, modern, agricultural tools, etc.
Malema seems to talk the talk, but his own economic interests lean toward materialism and putting himself ahead of the poor. He's definitely got some populist vibes going, but he was banned from the ANC Youth League after his rebellious comments toward Zuma and the top leadership (which shows how divisions and in-fighting among the ANC can create permanent rifts and conflicts in the ruling party). I personally don't care for Malema, from some of his writings/statements I've read, he said some rather absurd things, and he is (or was for a while) living quite well while speaking about nationalization of mines and land redistribution. Of course, we know Zuma has assured the mining industry over and over again that there will be no nationalization, and the South African government seems to be very, very slowly tackling the issue of land reform. I read a while back (maybe in The Guardian) about how one SA government program bought white-owned land and distributed it among blacks, but then blacks would sell the land back to the whites! If there will be changes in land ownership in South Africa, it will probably take the government a long time to properly address it (despite ongoing attacks on white farmers, though I don't believe it's a genocide as some white right-wing South Africans say). I don't know, from my time in South Africa, my take on Zuma, the ANC, and Helen Zille is that South Africa is fucked up, where political scandals, corruptions, shady deals, corporatism, and rising class inequality threatens the dream of racial equality. We'll see about Mugabe, I have been away from the computer for the past few days so I'm behind the times on the news. I will try to check it more these days and see what's going on in South Africa and Zimbabwe at the moment.
DeleteThank you for clearing up your position on this matter for me. The following article by Mamdani, based on the scholarly works of Sam Moyo et al, gives a more objective appraisal of this period of history http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n23/mahmood-mamdani/lessons-of-zimbabwe. Mugabe is a politician, he did what was politically expedient. The land seizure movement was a real movement, Mugabe had the option of repressing it or co-opting it. He did both. He was praised when he went after the squatters and reviled when he made common cause with them. Malema, like Mugabe is responding to a real social injustice. The choice for the political leadership of South Africa is to continue to massacre the people as they did to the miners last year or join and lead the struggle of the oppressed. As for cronyism, that's a red herring used by people who hoped nothing would change. The fact is that from its inception the land seizure program benefited the people it was meant to benefit. Where have you ever heard of a social upheaval that was not taken advantage of by smart operators? The problem with genocide studies and other courses of that ilk is that they are biased, and objective discussions are precluded, because anybody objecting to claims made would be denounced as insensitive.
DeleteI'll check out the Mamdani link, he's usually a good read and his thoughts on the Rwandan genocide were insightful and enlightening. The genocide course was actually more nuanced than you might think, since there were too many white Americans and a handful of white Europeans and Canadians who were less informed and often somewhat apologists for European colonial genocides.
Deletehttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/07/south-africa-julius-malema-politician-mamphela-ramphele
DeleteDid you hear about this? I wouldn't go that far, and Malema should be charged with corruption just like many of the top ANC officials
Robert, are you joking? What has this article got to do with the legitimate grievances of the South African farm workers and miners ? The article is just an exercise in name calling between two politicians for the amusement of the upper and middle classes who read newspapers. I'm surprised by the level of naïveté you've displayed. You sat in a genocide class and took all the distortions you were taught as holy writ instead of the partisan story telling it was. Genocides occur for the same reason death may result in a robbery, someone is always trying to take something from someone else. You complain that the ANC is steeped in corruption and cronyism as if these things were sufficient to explain what you perceived to be wrong with South Africa. The following is what you wrote: "my take on Zuma, the ANC, and Helen Zille is that South Africa is fucked up, where political scandals, corruptions, shady deals, corporatism, and rising class inequality threatens the dream of racial equality." If you truly believe that these things are sufficient to fuck up a nation you must explain how the USA, France, etc. ever became great powers with all the defects you found in South Africa's political system. Hell, present day China is the most successful and corrupt nation today. I sent you the link to the Mamdani article to disabuse you of your civics class distortion of the world. Instead of learning to view the issues in question with a degree of objective detachment your reply was to post a link to this silly article. Wealth and commerce has always been associated with crime, The ancient Roman god Mercury was patron to both commerce and crime: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_%28mythology%29. For over a hundred years the Bureau of Indian Affairs and its predecessors ripped off Indian tribes to the tune of billions of dollars while the USA thrived. Here is a link to an article about a woman who fought against this century long crime spree: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2005/09/accounting-coup-0. You seem hellbent on resisting my attempts to teach you that politics isn't about civics class morality, I refuse to give up on you so easily.
DeleteYou know, I was joking when I posted the link to that article. It was never meant to be taken as something I actually believe or agree with, just as a little humorous exchange of silly politicians, just as Raznd Paul and Christie were exchanging harsh words. I don't care for either one of them. Ramphele is only somewhat prominent from her relationship with Biko and is now a black business capitalist with a history of working at the University of Cape Town. And I understand that politics is rarely aligned with morality, but the corruption and defects of the SOuth African political system tend to make things worse for the poor majority through wasteful administration and spending of public money/taxpayer's dollars. The USA, France, etc. all became great powers, as you said, through conquest and exploitation of others, and South Africa can and has acted in an imperialist manner toward other African countries (such as their invasion of the Central African Republic) but their overall current structure does little to alleviate class inequities. To their credit, the ANC has provided more housing and some symbolic victories, but playing politics the way that the US or France does probably won't do much for their millions of unemployed and impoverished people. And despite all the problems in South Africa, they're far from alone, since the great powers such as the US have loads of scandals, corruption, growing inequality, etc. to deal with, which suggests to me that there should be a change in the way politics is conducted.
DeleteGlad to read that you were joking, for a moment there I thought I was corresponding with some kind of
Deleteneoconservative or libertarian for whom property is everything. "Perhaps landownership could also have been granted collectively to black workers and farmers but whites also allowed to stay on or encouraged to do so and help provide seed, modern, agricultural tools, etc." When have whites or any property owner ever helped provide seeds, modern, agricultural tools, etc. except when they plan to reap maximum profit? As Mamdani's article shows whites got super representation in the Parliament for over a decade and an under funded program was tried to buy the land from them. They misread these concessions as their just due for being the magnificent beings they are. You of all people should have recognized that arrogance since it was the same hubris that condemned the french of St-Domingue. Haiti's history is instructive because most of the stuff that the "third world" experienced since the end of World War 2 was experience by Haiti 200 + years ago.
Your last point is exactly why I ramble incessantly about Haiti when most people only see it as a hellhole of eternal poverty. It's history is a necessary and critical early instance of power and international relations between the global south and the great powers, in economic, political, racial, and cultural terms. The thing about black collective ownership and management is actually something from Saint Domingue's history that some people seem to think worked well under Toussaint, when whites were invited to return and continue to oversee properties while the ex-slaves/cultivateurs continued to work the land. Obviously that didn't quite work out, but the thing that always struck me about how so much of white academia perceives this period is one of admiration, as if an export-oriented/latifundia economic system was/is the ONLY way to alleviate poverty in the global south.
DeleteThis article is extremely instructive regarding what happened and is happening in Zimbabwe. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/54037
ReplyDelete