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OpEdNews Op Eds    H4'ed 8/15/09

A Giant Step for Mankind Made in Haïti

By Èzili Dantò  Posted by Èzili Dantò (about the submitter)       (Page 2 of 5 pages) Become a premium member to see this article and all articles as one long page.   5 comments
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Then, came 2007, when Her British Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her beloved subjects deemed it most proper to commemorate the efforts of one William Wilberforce whose 1807 Act, they say, is an earth-shattering accomplishment for the cause of abolition. Unfortunately for the royals, a number of voices disturbed the harmonious chorus they had come to expect from their loyal subjects. Some of them stood up and reminded the world that well over three years before 1807, the Haitian General Jean-Jacques Dessalines had proclaimed and verily invested in the abolition of racial slavery after having defeated, among others, the British army. Within England itself, an organization named Operation Truth 2007 worked tirelessly to counter the shameful attempts of the British State to falsify history [23]. Publications after publications were presented to adequately document how the so-called 2007 commemorations were serving to purposefully suppress the role Africans had played in the abolition of racial slavery while, at the same time, grossly exaggerating the dubious contributions to the same by folks like Wilberforce. [24]

Thus, 2007 was yet another opportunity which we missed to deal courageously with the lasting scars that the MAAFA has left on humanity[25].

Then came 2008! Surely, you must have heard the good news. The day has finally come and, this time, it is dubbed "Change we can believe in". The face of change in 2008 is tall, dark and, according to Berlusconi, handsome. Of mixed European and African heritage, like Haiti's Grann Iman (CÃ ©cile Fatiman) of Bwa Kay Iman fame, the new Superstar President of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama, is in charge. He is the "change" who shall make everything right, just so. Or so, many seem to think! Since his remarkable and inspiring meteoric rise to power, Obama, who recently returned from a quick tour of fatherland Africa, has done everything possible to avoid uttering the words REPARATIONS. He may, after all, not get deposed in a coup d'Ã ©tat. To arrive with his beautiful black family in the White House, he was also compelled to disavow his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who carelessly uttered one too many inconvenient truths, at the wrong time, about the invisible American Elephant - lingering white supremacist racism that permeates society. Thus far, through the magic of words and, more recently, "beer diplomacy", Obama has been able to maneuver a path out, on the perilous landscape of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemming's imperfect union. We recognize that the Barack is indeed good at what he does! However, it is too early to ascertain whether President Obama will have made enough baby steps, if any at all, in the direction of the restorative justice that our world so urgently and so seriously needs.

A few days ago, in the midst of a nasty coup d'à ©tat in Honduras, a bloody terror campaign in Afghanistan, and fake elections in UN-occupied Haiti, someone who truly cares about my mental health attempted to distract me with a good-news rumor: "the U.S. State Department, he claims, is about to announce the nomination of Dr. Paul Farmer as head of U.S.A.I.D." Yes, the white guy who said he felt happy and privileged to join Haitians for the bicentennial celebration of their now impoverished Abolitionist Republic! The rare American who is not of African descent but feels justified to describe Bwa Kay Iman as "a giant step for mankind"; this unorthodox Harvard-graduated medical doctor who has spent over twenty years serving the most vulnerable in Haiti and Rwanda; Paul Farmer of Partners in Health and author of The Uses of Haiti; that guy! He was to be named at the helm of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). That is: the same USAID that has consistently financed the overthrow of progressive governments in the Americas, under the guise of aid for "correction dà ©mocratique"?

Now, this is what I would call a great step, at least for the United States of America! But, as quickly as we were led to give this wild rumor serious thought, we received indication that it is too soon to dream that the U.S. State Department has become tired of investing in dead-aid and is now ready to consider life and human dignity as worthy targets of USAID investments[26].

How many possibilities have we already missed in 2009?

What has a man or woman gained if s/he has conquered the world but lost his/her soul?

I invite you to look with me toward the inspiring lives of Grann Iman and Boukman to answer these questions while I wish you a Happy Bwa Kay Iman celebration!

*

Jafrikayiti (Jean Saint-Vil) was born and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and currently lives in Canada. He hosts two radio programs in Ottawa and has been featured as political analyst by Canadian radio and television as well as by Embassy Magazine, ZNet and Rogers Ottawa Television. He is the author of "LAFIMEN: Listwa PÃ ¨p Ayisyen Depi Nan Ginen", CD1 (2003), CD2&3 (2006) - audio recordings narrating Haitian History in Kreyol and "Viv Bondye ! Aba Relijyon!" (2000) -- book in Kreyol (Praise God Down with Religion) which deals with the history of Christianity and itsinfluence on the lives of people of African Descent. Saint-Vil is Deputy Director at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and holds a B.Sc. (Hon. Biology) degree from the University of Waterloo.


[1] Speaking of John Hawkins, historian Walter Rodney writes: "On returning to England after the first trip, his profit was so handsome that Queen Elizabeth I became interested in directly participating in his next venture ; and she provided for that purpose a ship named the Jesus. Hawkins left with the Jesus to steal some more Africans, and he returned to England with such dividends that Queen Elizabeth made him a knight. Hawkins chose as his coat of arms the representation of an African in chains" How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Walter Rodney, 1972

[2] Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas on 18 June, 1452 which reads as follows: "We weighing all and singular the premises with due meditation, and noting that since we had formerly by other letters of ours granted among other things free and ample faculty to the aforesaid King Alfonso -- to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed, and the kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions, and all movable and immovable goods whatsoever held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery, and to apply and appropriate to himself and his successors the kingdoms, dukedoms, counties, principalities, dominions, possessions, and goods, and to convert them to his and their use and profit -- by having secured the said faculty, the said King Alfonso, or, by his authority, the aforesaid infante, justly and lawfully has acquired and possessed, and doth possess, these islands, lands, harbors, and seas, and they do of right belong and pertain to the said King Alfonso and his successors".

[3] The word '''Maafa''' (also know as the African Holocaust) is derived from a (Kiswahili) word meaning disaster, terrible occurrence or great tragedy. The term today collectively refers to the Pan-African study of the 500 hundred years of suffering of people of African heritage through Slavery, Imperialism, Colonialism, Oppression, Invasions and Exploitation

[4] Bwa Kay Iman is the site of the Vodou ceremony presided over by Boukman and Cecile Fatiman on August 14, 1791. It is widely accepted as the starting point for the Haitian Revolution. It is located in the northern Morne Rouge region of Haiti, southwest of Cap Haà ¯tien. Some suggest that the site derives its name from the French "Bois Caiman" or Alligator's wood. Others suggest instead a Kreyol derived name "Bwa Kay Iman" or "woods by the house of Iman".

[5] There was the presumption of a divine legitimacy in the corporeal system of subjugation and oppression, a system which was motivated and maintained by greed and ignorance and only excused with Christianity, and sometimes even with the idea of, to some extent, Christianizing a "heathen" people. Some defenders of slavery in the United States' South in the antebellum period, for instance, argued that blacks in the United States were becoming "elevated, from the degrading slavery of savage heathenism to the participation in civilization and Christianity" (Conser, Walter H. God and the Natural World: Religion and Science in Antebellum America. 1993, page 120. ). Cited on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maafa

[6] "Cecile Fatiman, the wife of Louis Michel Pierrot, who led a black battalion at Vertieres and later became president of Haiti, took part in the Bois Caiman ceremony: she was a mambo [Vodou priestess]. The daughter of an African woman and of a Corsican prince, Cecile Fatiman was a mulatto with green eyes and long black silky hair, who was sold into slavery with her mother in Saint Domingue. The mother also had two sons who disappeared without a trace on the auction block. Cecile Fatiman lived in the Cape until the age of 112, in full possession of her mental ability. Source: Etienne Charlier's "Apercu sur la formation historique de la nation haitienne" (1954)

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Human Rights Lawyer, Èzili Dantò is dedicated to correcting the media lies and colonial narratives about Haiti. An award winning playwright, a performance poet, author and lawyer, Èzili Dantò is founder of the Haitian (more...)
 

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