At [Henry Christophe]'s death, Haiti was taken over by General Boyer and civil war ceased. It was Boyer who obtained Haiti's official independence from France for 150 million francs. Unfortunately, Haiti's employment is less than 30 percent and its illiteracy rate is above 50 percent. Though its official language is French, Haiti's most widely spoken language is kreyol. Ninety percent of Haitians are Catholic although 99 percent worship their native religion of voodoo. Despite its tropical resort geography, living conditions in Haiti are comparative to those of many Third World nations. The Haitian economy is almost entirely dependent upon U.S. companies who horde the country's resources and only pay slave wages.
The Sphere Project, "Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response," identifies the minimum standards to be attained in disaster response. From a human rights perspective and utilizing key indicators from the Sphere Project as benchmarks, this article reports on an assessment of the living conditions approximately 12 weeks after the earthquake in Parc Jean Marie Vincent, a spontaneous IDP camp in Port-au-Prince.
Yovanovich,Gordana (Editor) and Huras,Amy (Editor)
Format:
Book, Edited
Publication Date:
2010
Published:
Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
316 p., Takes an interdisciplinary approach to Latin American social and cultural identities. With broad regional coverage, and an emphasis on Canadian perspectives, this book focuses on Latin American contact with other cultures and nations. Includes Jessica Franklin's "Afro-Brazilian women's identities and activism : national and transnational discourse," Adrian Smith's "Legal creolization, 'permanent exceptionalism,' and Caribbean sojourners truths" and Janelle Joseph's "The transculturation of capoeira : Brazilian, Canadian, and Caribbean interpretations of an Afro-Brazilian martial art."
For the last three weeks, the readers of this column have been able to follow Dr. [Anthony P. Maingot]'s speech about Haiti's history of war of liberation and internicine struggles which have been such a burden for the First Black Republic. He began with "the issue of the moment," namely the reparation from France for 200 years of slavery. Haiti's political culture, its "developed legacy of behavior, " is not conducive to development. The second issue studied by Dr. Maingot is the U.S. occupation of Haiti, which "rested on the idea of the White Man's burden" - its Manifest Destiny. But, on balance, the occupation was not entirely negative. The very racism of the White invaders was a reality check for Haitian society. Yes, by treating all Haitians (whether dark skinned or light skinned Mulattoes) as "Niggers," no more no less, the foreign invaders reconciled the subjective ideas of superiority and/or inferiority of the Haitians with their own, i.e., their more objective, non involved, opinions as powerful occupying forces. Thirdly, Dr. Maingot analysed a cultural element that had, and continues to have, a great impact on Haitian society. That major cultural factor, of course, is the syncretic religion called vodoo.
Ventura de Molina, Jacinto, b.1766 (Author), Acree,William G. (Editor), and Borucki,Alex (Editor)
Format:
Book, Edited
Language:
Spanish
Publication Date:
2010
Published:
Madrid: Iberoamericana
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
285 p., Contents: Mapa del Río de la Plata hacia 1800 -- Cronología sobre Molina -- El Río de la Plata en los años de Jacinto Ventura de Molina / Alex Borucki -- Un sueño realizado : un letrado negro y el poder de la escritura / William G. Akree, Jr. -- [Notas] -- Escritos de Jacinto Ventura de Molina, c. 1817-1837. Escritos históricos y autobiográficos. Los afrodescendientes en los escritos de Molina. Peticiones al poder. Molina en los escritos de sus contemporáneos / [various authors]. Defensor de los pobres. Escritos políticos y literarios.; Collection consists chiefly of works by Ventura de Molina: political, historical, literary, and legal.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
231 p., Contents: Introduction -- Genocide in the African diaspora : Brazil, United States, and the imperatives of holistic analysis and political method -- The inner city and the favela : transnational black politics -- Hypersegregation and revolt : the Los Angeles black ghetto in historical perspective -- The Los Angeles Times' coverage of the 1992 rebellion : still burning matters of race and justice -- Hyperconsciousness of race and its negation : the dialectic of white supremacy in Brazil -- When a favela dared to become a condominium : challenging Brazilian apartheid -- Black radical becoming : the revolution imperative of genocide.
For a truly cosmopolitan anthropology to come about, we need to reflect critically on the conditions of our knowledge production. Using the example of women's under-representation within anthropology, and the marginalization of the Caribbean. Argues that we need to think more about the social ground beneath our feet and recognize the differential access that anthropologists across the globe and at home have to the ongoing larger conversation that constitutes the discipline.
