The Idea of Haiti: Rethinking Crisis and Development

The Idea of Haiti: Rethinking Crisis and Development, edited by Millery Polyné, is uneven but useful for general and academic audiences. The text consists of a collection of essays and one phone conversation on Haitian development and the need for new narratives and approaches after the 2010 earthquake. Some essays were quite informative and challenged common notions of Haitian underdevelopment or responses to the earthquake, particularly Karen Richman's nuanced explanation of Protestant conversions in Leogane after the catastrophe. Instead of arguing, like some Western journalists did, that Haitians turned away from Vodou after the earthquake because the lwa did not stop the natural disaster (clearly, these US journalists know nothing about Vodou, as Richman demonstrates), Richman argues that we must see the religious landscape of Haiti as fluid and inseparable as people adopted new religious identities for various reasons, often temporary. 

Understanding and respecting Vodou is one of the central themes of the text (McAlister's excellently researched essay on Bois Caiman as a pact with Satan in the eyes of evangelical Christians was also informative) tied to the need for inclusion of grassroots organizations, the peasantry, and the urban lower classes in government and decisions made by NGOs. In a similar context, arguing for the philosophical underpinnings of Haitian univeralist freedom and the importance of the Haitian Revolution, as well as the detrimental impact of the Western powers, indicates the importance of understanding Haiti's history, positive meanings and contributions of the nation, and how Haiti cannot be solely reduced to a aberration of international standards or crises. Patrick Sylvain's essay buttresses these points, too, focusing on the silence of Preval in the aftermath of the quake as a lost opportunity for fostering Haitian solidarity and national identity. The President's failure to speak to the people was, as Sylvain suggests, a form of violence that materialized in protest, anger, social distrust, and lamentable conditions as NGOs and the US became the real arbiters of authority and providing services in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. 

The impact of NGOs on taking away resources from the Haitian state and lacking any real accountability to Haitian citizens is also superbly elucidated by Mark Schuller through his analysis of several camps established after the earthquake for internally displaced people. Moreover, the funding of NGOs and the shift after the Cold War in donors' relationship with NGOs was new information to me, and quite useful for explaining how Haiti became the 'Republic of NGOs. The transformation of Port-au-Prince, also included in the text, was a dry read but the essay on Duvalier's relationship with Kennedy via the Alliance for Progress aid program was an enlightening reminder to the geopolitical and strategic purposes of international aid  the difficulties of delivering that aid to the Haitian state. The author of that essay, Arthus, unfortunately, seems to have a more conservative conclusion that is at odds with most of the other writers, but certainly is in the right for placing part of the burden on the Haitian state for not taking enough measures to ensure compliance with some of the conditions of donors for aid. 

Unfortunately, Yveline Alexis's chapter was the weakest part of the text. It was lacking in enough sources and felt redundant, which is odd given how strong her dissertation on the same subject reads. Regardless, her chapter supports the aforementioned role of remembering the caco resistance as part of Haitian historical memory, just like Bois Caiman, as important in Haitian self-identity and key to local ideas of democracy as rooted in the popular classes. Nesbitt's chapter, alas, was too pedantic for my taste and nothing new from his earlier writings, but useful for introducing new concepts and arguing for Haiti's place in history as part of universal liberation, not as the cause of Haiti's 'ruin' or persistent series of crises. Fischer's essay on Gilden's photography was likewise one of the weaker sections of the text, albeit certainly important for understanding how Haiti is framed by the outside world as exceptional, savage, mysterious, irrational, ultimately working against the possibility of supporting a sovereign Haiti.

For scholars and lay audiences, this is certainly a worthwhile read. The editor's useful introduction places everything into context and the essays, for the most part by Haitians or Haitian-Americans, offer different perspectives that reorient questions of development and what Haiti represents to those more meaningful to Haitians. Instead of blindly supporting NGOs, Western governments, and imperialist or racist readings of Haiti's history and present poverty, one must see Haiti as part of modernity (the incarnation of the radical Enlightenment, to paraphrase Nesbitt) that is a highly complex society in need of multiple solutions (some, seemingly so simple, like formal cadastres). Overall, the text seems consistent with leftist ideas on Haitian development, while some individual essays in the text are more aligned with neoliberal development.

From Douglass to Duvalier: U.S. African Americans, Haiti, and Pan Americanism, 1870-1964

Millery Polyné's From Douglass to Duvalier: U.S. African Americans, Haiti, and Pan Americanism, 1870-1964 manages to examine U.S. African-American-Haitian collaboration and solidarity through the lens of Pan-Americanism in a variety of fields, such as international relations, economic uplift, black nationalism, tourism, dance, and education. In some ways quite indebted to Plummer's work on Haiti and U.S.-Haiti relations (as well as reminiscent of her work on the role of African-Americans in shaping US foreign policy), Polyné introduces the reader to several interesting figures who shaped African-American relations with Haiti, and in turn, U.S.-Haitian relations. Pan-Americanism as an important area for the African Diaspora of the Americas also has relevance here.

Moton, Barnett, Lavinia Williams, Frederick Douglass, etc. all shaped US relations with Haiti in important but understudied ways. Black nationalist sentiment, African-American sincere belief in US-centered Pan-Americanism (but critical of white supremacy and imperialism), and Haiti's legacy as a testament to black freedom motivated U.S. African-American involvement with Haiti, but due to the aforementioned motivations, sought to improve Haiti's economic and political turmoil from the late 19th century to the rise of Duvalier. Although I felt the chapter on Douglass was initially overly long in its coverage of Douglass's support for annexation of the Dominican Republic in the 1870s, one can see that chapter's relevance to later chapters of the text (specifically, some of the shortcomings of African-American Pan-Americanism that favored U.S. rule or capitalist development under inter-American policies dominated by the U.S.).

In the case of some African-Americans, inter-American relations were further weakened by a reluctance to criticize sovereign black leadership abroad, as in the case of Claude Barnett's influence in the U.S.'s black press and a refusal to repudiate Duvalier (something Polyné refers to as a nadir of African-American-Haitian relations). African-American deviance from Anglo-American Pan-Americanism, however, is another important theme in the text that illustrates how African-Americans have played a significant role in challenging US imperialism. In addition, African-American Pan-Americanism faced the economic constraints of the Great Depression (which undermined business initiatives connecting African-American capitalists and Haiti, though the success of Major R.R. Wright's investments in coffee and the African-American pilot, James O. Plinton, in starting a small airline and laundry service in Haiti demonstrate important examples of how African-Americans with capital and skill contributed to Haiti's economy, albeit not helping much with the rural sector).

Nonetheless, African-American dancers (Lavinia Williams, Haitian dancer Destiné, Moton, and Walter White (of NAACP fame) played an important role in promoting Haiti's tourism industry and cultural heritage (by bringing 'discipline' to folkloric dance, capital and advertising in tourism, and commissions to recommend changes in education during U.S. Occupation (besides uncovering and disseminating news of racial oppression, violence, and economic disaster under U.S. rule). African-American criticism of the paltry aid given to Haiti during the early Duvalier years, calls for increased investment, debt relief, cultural programs, defending Haitian sovereignty (exemplified by Douglass during the negotiations for the Mole St. Nicolas) and appreciation for Haitian history (as well as other forms of solidarity and intellectual exchange, such as cultural, literary, and Pan Africanist programs and movements) indicate additional ways African-Americans have shaped US-Haitian ways for the better.