Notes on French Culture in Haiti

Although not exactly the type of Haitian ethnological studies we usually read, we devoured J.B. Romain's Notes sur la culture française en Haiti. A short study based on a conference talk by the author in 1973, Romain outlines the areas of French cultural influence in Haiti. This, of course, is most evident in intellectual and literary culture, since Haiti, according to Romain's estimate, only had 200,000 Francophones. However, evidence of French influence is unsurprisingly ubiquitous in a former French colony whose official language includes French and a Creole with a French lexifier. Nonetheless, French influence in folk medicine, popular beliefs, song, politics, and other areas of Haitian life are evident. Haitian literary and intellectual currents undoubtedly evince this, since French literary models were an influence on Haitian arts and letters since the colonial period. How, exactly, to bring together the Francophone Haitian town and the Creole countryside of peasants, however, is not addressed here. Still, an interesting exploration of the French factor from J.B. Romain. 

Haitian Africanisms

Using Haiti as a case study of evaluating African cultural retentions or survivals in the New World is not a new endeavor. However, J.B. Romain's Africanismes Haitiens presents a short but useful overview of the various manifestations of African culture in Haiti. Names, folklore, arts, totemism, taboos, domestic architecture, language, Vodou, music, dance, herbal lore, proverbs, and conceptions of the soul and personhood all indicate traces of Africa. Of course, since we are overwhelmingly African in origin, none of this is a surprise. What's more interesting are the number of Africanisms that can be traced directly to specific African ethnic groups and cultures, such as Wolof words and phrases in Haitian Creole or the Gedevi people of Benin and the Gede spirits in Vodou. Romain knows very well that much of this heritage has changed or experienced modifications over time. Indeed, French and Catholic influences, rites, and allusion have undoubtedly shaped the formation of Haitian culture. But learning of the specific Fongbe expressions that survive in Vodou's langage or the Yanvalou dance in its Benin context is fascinating. The preemince of cultural survivals from the area of Benin, Togo and southern Nigeria is especially interesting since Haitians also descend from huge numbers of captives from West Central Africa.