637 p., Utilizes perceptions and attitudes towards the Haitian Revolution as a means to resituate party conflict and the boundaries of American nationalism in the Early Republic. The concept of nationalism is utilized in both the shaping of political culture and in the institutional formation of the state. As a result, the Haitian Revolution generated contradictory factional responses between the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans to the emergence of revolutionary abolitionism in the Atlantic. On a more popular level, the ordeal of Haiti engendered a fear of black militant abolitionism that hardened American attitudes towards the possibility of further slave emancipation in the United States.
The last week of January 2005, the Fifth Annual World Social Forum was held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, bringing together 150,000 grassroots leaders, intellectuals and activists to discuss how the world can be made more free and more just. The conference's theme was "Another World Is Possible," and the speakers and participants showed that another, more fair treatment of Haiti is possible. The conference's keynote speaker, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, discussed the debt that the world owes Haiti in a press conference. He acknowledged that Haiti's Constitutional President had been kidnapped, and declared that he and other Latin American Presidents understood that there could be no solution to Haiti's crisis without President Aristide. At a workshop in Porto Alegre, called "Haiti, the International Community's Dictatorship," speakers from Haiti, the U.S. and the Caribbean led a discussion of the human rights crisis in Haiti, and explored ways that people from outside Haiti could promote the country's sovereignty and the return of its democracy.
As the CBC turns up the heat on the [Bush] administration, rebel leader Guy Philippe, who said his troops are ready to attack the Haitian capital, decided to "give a chance to peace" that is, to see if [Jean-Bertrand Aristide] will resign. "Given the fact that Haiti is so close to us, they have been treated very shabbily by our government and we have not exercised the kind of moral authority that we talk about and attempt to exercise even in other places when it comes to Haiti. That is unfortunate...," [Danny K. Davis] stated. "The current unrest may result in an exodus of refugees fleeing to our shores, thus placing the lives of many Haitians in danger. The political violence in Haiti is intolerable, and the U.S. cannot afford to allow a country in our own hemisphere to spiral further downward into a state of turmoil," said [Bobby L. Rush].
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
;, 300 p., Examines how Haitian diaspora writers, artists, and musicians address black masculinity through the Haitian Creole concept of gwo negs, or "big men". This work confronts the gendered, sexualized, and racialized boundaries of America's diaspora communities and openly resist "domestic" imperialism that targets immigrants, minorities, and gays.
The first Africans came to America in August, so obviously, it's our entire history - in so far as the celebration or acknowledgement was. It has to do with [Jonathan Jackson], George Jackson and prisons. I believe in a time when the United States has more people in prison than any other industrialized nation, the prediction that if the current rate of incarceration stays the way it is now, one in three men will be incarcerated or on parole in 2020, which is not very far. I think it is contingent on us to look at that - the re-enslavement of African Americans continuing. I think this benefit for Haiti is important, because of what Haiti represents - a nearby island that had a successful slave rebellion, it has always suffered from intrusions from America from as far back as the 1800s, so I think joining together the national and international struggles is important. It is important for African Americans to look at themselves locally, nationally and internationally - to see ourselves in the world. Black August 2003 offers an opportunity to do that.
A Congressional Black Caucus delegation, led by the CBC Chairwoman Carolyn C. KiIpatrick (D-Mich.), traveled to Haiti recently for a one-day visit as part of the group's ongoing effort to bring attention to the plight of starving Haitians.
To honor our sacred heritage, to bear the burden and glory of our history, we must self-consciously resume our vanguard role in the midst of the liberation struggles of the world.
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.
Despite the righteous platitudes of the American and French Revolutions, the idea of an independent Black Republic created through force of arms did not sit well with the powers that be in the Capitols of Europe and America. There was virtually universal agreement among the European/White leaders of the time, including President Thomas Jefferson, that the example of Haiti was a threat to their national interests - profiting from the slave trade and/or colonialism in Africa, the Caribbean, Central and South America. Therefore, it was imperative that Haiti be isolated, marginalized and rendered weak as a "Black nation." Under threat of a new invasion, Haiti succumbed to demands from France to pay millions of dollars in reparations for title loss of property (enslaved Africans and the plantations) incurred during the Revolution. The burden of this debt would cripple Haiti's struggle for development well into the 20th century. In 1915 the U.S. invaded and occupied Haiti until 1934, and has treated Haiti as a neo-colony ever sense.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
239 p., From 1791 to 1804, revolution on the French Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue sent thousands of free and enslaved people of African descent to the United States. Historians have largely viewed this migration as contributing to black community formation in cities like Philadelphia, and as evidence of revolutionary connections in an Atlantic World. This dissertation examines the experiences of these migrants as an example of competing identities among people of African descent, and argues that the emergence of an ethnic identity among black Saint-Dominguans, shaped by Roman Catholicism and French language, impeded assimilation into African-American communities.
