[Marcus Garvey] studied all of the literature he could find on African history and culture and decided to launch the Universal Negro Improvement Association with the goal of unifying "all the Negro peoples of the world into one great body and to establish a country and government absolutely on their own". In addition, Garvey started his own newspaper. He did not have a forum to express his philosophy in the white newspapers, so he started the Negro World. The Negro World was the U.N.I.A. weekly newspaper, published in French and Spanish as well as English. In it African history and heroes were glorified.
In creating Scourge, a full-length work of hip hop theater, Joseph digs into his ancestral roots to tell the story of Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere with a long and violent history. The piece's main characters are two Haitian-American kids who are torn between their Caribbean roots and urban America where they have grown up.
Launch of Caribbean Culture Week on January 18 at Savacou Gallery, NYC. Loris Crawford is Director of the Savacou Gallery, which hosted Caribbean Culture Week.
In this issue, we'll see why [Frederick Douglass] believed Haiti not only worried but scared slave-holding Americans. We'll also discuss why he believed Haiti is a country of "firsts" and his answers to critics that the country is doomed due to its roots in voodo. His actual words will be in italics. While slavery existed amongst us, Haiti's example was a sharp thorn in our side and a source of alarm and terror.
[Frederick Douglass] lamented the fact that the U.S. continues to shun Haiti although it has enriched American merchants, farmers and the country overall. He acknowledged a common complaint of Americans at the time that Haiti was more friendly to France and other European countries than the U.S. However, he partly blamed the US for not reaching out to Haiti with respect and friendship. He also cited Haiti's many institutional and cultural connections to France - language, literature, laws and government - as reasons for its friendship with France. Still, Douglass asserted that the main reason for the United States' ambiguous attitude towards Haiti was racial. In discussing Haiti's geography, Douglass lavishly praises its climate; lofty mountains; strikingly beautiful valleys, lakes, rivers and plains; blue waters and the exquisite Bay of Portau-Prince and Mole St. Nicolas. Douglass noted that the U.S. wanted the Mole for a naval station in order to dominate the area's commercial market before and after the then anticipated Nicaragua Canal was completed. The U.S. was also considering taking the Mole by force, if necessary. However, Douglass warned them that Haiti would not peacefully give up the harbor and that it would cost too much to take it by force.
Denying Haiti credit where credit is due is an established tradition. In 1893, at the end of the century that started with Haitian Independence and the Slave Trade Act, the orator, statesman and emancipated slave Frederick Douglass told an audience at the Chicago World's Fair how Haiti "taught the world the danger of slavery and the value of liberty." He pointed out that: The world had a chance to recognize Haiti three years ago, during the celebration of Haiti's bicentennial. But once again, Haiti was penalized. On the big day, January 1, 2004, Thabo Mbeki, President of the most powerful African nation, South Africa, came to celebrate. But the former slaveholding nations, led by the United States, boycotted the events, and forced the less powerful countries of Africa and the Caribbean to stay away. Instead of sending congratulations to the Haitian people's elected representatives, the United States sent guns and money to those trying to overthrow the government. When the international spotlight came to Haiti in 2004, it was to witness the return to dictatorship rather than to celebrate freedom from slavery.
[Leon D. Pamphile], executive director of the Functional Literacy Ministry of Haiti, talked last week about his book, "Haitians' & African Americans' Struggle Against Racism Through the NAACP," as part of Harvard Law School's Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice Lecture Series. "Haiti was able to fulfill what the American and the French Revolutions could not do," said Pamphile. "Haiti witnessed the fulfillment of equal rights for all men, and this is what made the Haitian Revolution such a powerful force."
Through these public outreach efforts, Boggis was able to engage Milford leaders in the project, resulting in their designating a city park as the [Harriet E. Wilson] Adams Wilson Memorial Site. Ms. Boggis was able to further increase public awareness and gain support from the community for the commission of a life-size sculpture of Harriet Wilson and on November 6, 2006 in a celebration hosted by actress and civil right activist, [Ruby Dee], the project unveiled the Wilson memorial statue which is the only public sculpture honouring a person of colour in the State of New Hampshire.
Resolutions have been passed to add the "Day of Africa" and "Day of the Black Women in Latin America and the Caribbean" to the official calendar of events in São Paulo, Brazil, thanks to the efforts of São Paulo City Councilwoman Claudete Alves.
The chant among the enslaved Africans in Haiti was heard, "Coupe tet, boule kay!" and the Haitians complemented the rhetoric with full force-fueled by years of heartache, humiliation, torture, and inhumane treatment. The 500,000 enslaved Africans in Haiti, along with tens of thousands of Maroons, collectively took up arms and defeated the French, awarding Haiti with the title of the first Black Republic in the Western world and becoming the only people to win a slave revolution in the history of the world. The Haitians, with the support of strong leadership, were united physically and mentally. Sealing this collective support was their belief in a religion mustered trom their traditional religion in Africa. An important leader of this revolutionary period was a Voodoo priest, Dutty Boukman. Other leaders during the various stages in the revolution included Toussaint L'Ouverture, Andre Rigaud, Jean-Francois, Biassou, Jeannot, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and Henry Christophe, many of which were former generals in the French army.
