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Haiti and Haitianisation Fr Bobbie Gilmore SSC, first published on the Columban website
Along the road from Montego Bay in the north coast of Jamaica to the town of Savannah-la-Mar in the south coast there is a small town called Anchovy. Further along the road is the Old Montpelier estate. It was established and settled in 1743 by a Capt. Francis Sadler who later passed it on to the Ellis family and then to the de Walden family headed by Lord Seaford. All in all it comprised of about seven thousand acres. The estate produced sugar, spice and everything nice for the British and European commodity markets through slave labour. As slavery in Jamaica was inhumane there were regular slave revolts and one such in 1831-2 in the Montpelier estate area. The Montpelier estate is now owned by a bank and grows citrus to offset the effects of frost in the Florida citrus supply to the United States market. Since early settlement of the estate there has always been an intermittent military presence in the Anchovy/Montpelier area. The barracks has been renewed many times and left unoccupied over the years. On its property one the biggest annual agricultural shows takes place in Jamaica. Also, a railway station on the Montego Bay/Kingston line was opened in 1893 in Anchovy. The railway closed in 1994. For Reggae lovers, the singer Jah hails from Anchovy. The military barracks in Montpelier estate and the town of Anchovy itself both have close connections with the history of Haiti. Given Haiti's terrible history since independence in 1804 Haitians have been forced to flee and seek refuge all over the Caribbean. As Jamaica is an adjacent island, Haitians fleeing the terror of various regimes have headed south for the north coast of Jamaica and come ashore exhausted in battered old boats. Indeed, their weather-beaten craft can be seen rotting on the beaches long after their arrival. The Jamaican people have no hesitation in admitting them and sharing with them their scarce resources. Jamaicans relate to Haitians who like themselves are descendants of slavery, part of their own heritage. Indeed, news of uprisings by slaves in Haiti over the previous centuries against horrible depravity gave impetus to slaves in Jamaica to rise up against their slave masters. The fact that Haiti became a republic in 1804 having deposed the French gave confidence to leaders of slave revolts in Jamaica and elsewhere. Usually, Haitian refugees are initially housed in the police station near where they land. Generally, if the arrivals are few in number they are housed in the local police station. However, the many political Haitian upheavals, regime changes and natural disasters arrivals begin in a trickle but if there is not an immediate resolution to the problems a trickle soon turns into a flood of refugees. Jamaica being a small country with limited resources and having its own poor can easily be stretched not just for food but also accommodation. And this is where Anchovy/Montpelier enters the picture. The first effect of Haitian regime change is noticed by the people in Anchovy/Montpelier. When they see the Jamaica military arrive with large trucks loaded with roofing, flooring, doors, cooking equipment, fuel and sanitary requirements they know that the Haitian political system has collapsed again. They have been observers of the effects of Haitian politics, economics and hurricanes for the almost two centuries. Haiti is part of the folklore of Anchovy/Montpelier. Many in the surrounding areas have Haitian blood running in their veins from intermarriage with Haitian refugees. On seeing the military they know that people in all sorts of misery will follow soon. Port au Prince - NASAImage - NASA Haiti has from its foundation as a republic been treated as a pariah state by the United States and European powers who maintained slave regimes until the middle of the nineteenth century. France, its colonial ruler, even demanded reparation from Haiti after French rule ceased. In other Caribbean states at slave emancipation the slave owners were indemnified. The United States and European colonisers did not want a black independent republic. Furthermore, the United States and European states supported some of the most oppressive regimes in Haiti over the past century. When seventy five percent of Haitian public selected a president in the recent past he was deposed twice. Interests of those outside and inside the country that have made Haiti a giant slum have contributed to the fragility of the physical and corrupt political structures that wilted in the present earthquake leaving thousands dead, millions homeless and the rest of the population dependent and rootless. According to reports, Haiti has more aid agencies that any other country. Some would say that these agencies have smothered and hindered the development of government structures that should adequately take care of their own people. Others would even go as far as saying that aid agencies have helped maintain a corrupt, crony status quo managed by a small military, political and business elite whose profits are invested outside the country. If aid was effective Haiti should be a thriving democracy rather than the failed state it is. This does not deny that there is a need for emergency aid in time of disasters such as this but according to many observers aid has become the norm in Haiti. This was obvious by the expressions of a few young men in a news bulletin earlier today. They were demanding food, water rather than going about finding it or helping to find it themselves. Haiti is not some distant country in Africa, Central Asia or the Orient that according to voices in Europe or the Americas needs democracy. It is on the doorstep of the Americas. Haiti has been allowed to smoulder in squalor, a failure as a functioning democracy, dependant on international aid. It has high levels of illiteracy. Almost eighty percent of its population lives below the poverty line having to scavenge to live on less that two dollars per day. It has one of the highest rates of infant and maternal mortality. Unemployment is a way of life. That does not mean that Haitians are lazy. On the contrary they are resourceful and creative. They have to be to survive. But regular hurricanes, maladministration and now an earthquake makes them wonder how they can be so unlucky or that they have been abandoned by God. Unfortunately, the religious culture of Haiti will make the people think they are unlucky and have been abandoned by God as the people of Port Royal in Jamaica thought in 1692 when an earthquake put most of that city beneath the sea. They blamed the earthquake then on "punishment from God for their wickedness" as many Haitians are doing today. But, as long as God is seen as the culprit, or that they are unlucky, in this or any disaster, there is little hope of the fundamental change necessary in a society that would prevent or minimise the effects of disasters such as this one. It was the same after the tsunami in South East Asia some years ago. God was also blamed for the disaster, when in fact precautionary measures, like early warning systems, better constructed buildings, environmental protection and planning for emergency, if they had been in place would have minimised the extent of the disaster. Neighbouring countries in the Caribbean have disasters similar to Haiti. However, the level of casualty is usually minimal because having learned from previous disasters they better prepare for the next eventuality. Cuba and Jamaica are neighbouring countries visited by similar hurricanes over the years, but with fewer casualties. It seems the ruling class in Haiti conveniently forget the last disaster. This class conveniently allow the people to wallow in political, economic and religious ignorance. The political, economic and religious classes do not question the cause of their plight in case the corrupt structures that keep them in power would be undermined. Those who question the system are silenced. Airline flights from Europe and North America begin their descent into Jamaica near the island of Hispaniola. A view of the island shows on one side the tropical cover of the Dominican Republic. Just across the border in Haiti the view is stark. Here one sees a country denuded of tropical cover, bare, eroded hillsides. One gets the impression that there is adequate agricultural wealth on the Dominican side while on the Haitian side an inert worn down landscape. The cause of this in the past was that the Haitian elite identified with France and sold off its resources of timber to France. French ships brought slaves to Haiti to develop a plantation agriculture to supply France. Having deposited the slaves, they returned to France with Haitian produce. The Dominican Republic remained a Spanish colony with a population of Spanish ancestry that regularly received injections of European immigrants and investment who created a business culture. Haiti had little French or European investment. After independence Haitians owned their own land. They fed themselves, received little help from an elite-controlled government to develop external trade. The Dominican Republic was better administered and produced goods for export. More important, the Dominican Republic did not rely on its natural resources for fuel. It protected its environment by importing fuel from abroad. Haitians were left with no alternative but to denude their forest resources for fuel. But as this progressed over the past half century large numbers of Haitians migrated from the countryside to the cities. With little or no government planning the rural poor were left to scavenge for themselves on the edge of cities building flimsy shelters on slopes, river banks and in any available empty space. Regular hurricanes easily destroyed these structures, caused rivers filled with silt to roar into these highly populated areas leaving many casualties. The effects of the present disaster should not surprise given the underdevelopment that Haiti has experienced over the past half century. In the 1990s the word, "haitianisation" entered the vocabulary of the Caribbean indicating rapid underdevelopment, decline, spiralling misrule, violence, confusion and incoherence as a country. At this time, Haiti may be stripped of its resources by an elite class that associate loyalty to their cronies at home and abroad as in the national interest. However, the people of Haiti have a spiritual resource and culture of survival that may hopefully bring a new dawn to Haiti. Hopefully, those who are rushing to help them in their need will recognise the difference between emergency aid and long term development. Haitians abroad are industrious, resourceful and creative. The class that has mismanaged Haiti over the past century stands culpable at this time. Those who blame God for what happened in Haiti have created a God in their own image; a God, who sees the world as they do, who dislikes those they dislike and who punishes them the way they would wish. That attitude has made Haitians and others prisoners of powerlessness, in need of liberation. May the God of love protect us and the people of Haiti from such people. Grace Nichols is a Jamaican poet. Her words aptly describe the legacy of colonial and neo-colonial greed that is pushing Haiti over the edge. Gold was their goal
And gold was their God
Gold was their love
And Gold was their song
Gold was their thirst
And gold was their hunger
Such golden obsessions
Could only create monsters.
(Grace Nichols. Jamaican poet)
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