Le problème des classes à travers l'histoire d'Haïti

Le problème des classes à travers l'histoire d'Haïti is a worthwhile read for all eager to understand the roots of Duvalierism and its legacy in Haiti. What is particularly striking about it is the ways in whcih Lorimer Denis and  François Duvalier contort Haitian history and apply noirist lens to develop an argument for the rule of noir elites. Their argument rests on their ideological sleight of hand that allows them to collapse the distinctions between race and class for their analysis of Haitian social relations.  Moreover, their account of the Haitian Revolution offered in the text is surely out of date or lacking the nuanced interpretation of Jean Price-Mars's La vocation de l'élite. 

Indeed, while the former acknowledges contradictions between the enslaved masses and the black and "mulatto" leaders in the Haitian Revolution, Denis and Duvalier make Toussaint L'ouverture into the incarnation of the aspirations of the slave classe. Even more than the incarnation of their collective hopes and aspirations, Denis and Duvalier defend his labor regime despite its similarities with that of Rigaud in the South. Throughout the text, the authors make clear their admiration for strong man leadership, of Ataturk, of authoritarian collectivism in a nation-state. Their willingness to apply psycho-sociology and racial theory further buttress their argument for la brave classe moyenne and its intellectuals as the rightful leaders for the nation. 

However, there is also a call for a politics of equilibrium that, one would hope, brings together the two classes (affranchis and the bourgeois of today, slaves and the Haitian majority) into unity for the fulfillment of the nation's destiny. So there is a call to national unity across the "color" line while the authentic representatives of the black masses (the intellectual elites of black middle class) should lead. What definitely distinguishes Denis and Duvalier from Price-Mars (besides the emphasis on color in Duvalier and his contemporaries) is their admiration for authoritarian individual rule, which, if representative of the masses, can still be democratic in their eyes. There are more than enough hints in Le problème des classes à travers l'histoire d'Haïti of what types of political systems appealed to Duvalier the decade after its initial publication.

In some respects, Duvalier and Denis offer an overview of Haitian social relations that echoes Jacques Roumain's Analyse schématique. Both see parallels between the Haiti of today and the colonial-era social structure. Both groups show some degree of nuance in understanding the complex interplay of color and class. But the proposed solutions differ profoundly, whether the "national socialist" quasi-fascist mysticism of Duvalier or the Haitian Left's appropriation of Marxism in an underdeveloped, semi-colonial context. But again, one cannot help but see parallels in the proposed routes to national freedom in Price-Mars, Duvalier, and, to a certain extent, the Haitian Left's belief in a vanguard or national bourgeoisie (PSP and its descendants). This is a topic of further interest for the blog.