Discusses the struggle for freedom and full citizenship in the Caribbean. Background on the Haitian Revolution which is recognized as the third pillar in the making of modern citizenship and freedom; Factors that affect the effort of Caribbean people to fight for universal citizenship; Manifestations of the differential valuing of white and black bodies in the Caribbean; Lessons being taught by the Caribbean history.
The work of Haitian author Jacques Stephen Alexis is replete with examples of characters caught in the dilemmas of exile. The author focuses on Alexis's characters who go through a "true" expatriation, a movement out of Haiti and into another country, and considers how the various experiences of expatriation are represented, as well as how the presence of the Haitian exiles impacts the host country. Taking examples from Alexis's novel Compère Général Soleil, Monro argues that the Haitian exiles unwittingly, though inevitably, disrupt the illusion of oneness of national identity and culture and become a subversive force, creolizing culture in the place of exile, the Dominican Republic. This cultural creolization in turn is a threat to the monocultural, totalizing political discourses of the host country, it is argued.;
