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.
Césaire,Aimé (Author) and Vergès,Françoise (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Language:
French
Publication Date:
2005
Published:
Paris: Albin Michel
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
148 p., Au moment où, pour la première fois en France, s'ouvre un large débat public sur les traces contemporaines de l'esclavage et du colonialisme, la portée historique et politique des écrits d'Aimé Césaire prend un relief tout particulier. Dans ces entretiens accordés à Françoise Vergès, le "père de la négritude" relate avec une très grande liberté de ton les principaux moments de son combat pour l'égalité des peuples à l'ère post-coloniale. Témoin capital de cette période de mutations, Aimé Césaire évoque son siècle, celui de la fin des empires coloniaux, en posant les questions fondamentales de l'égalité, de l'écriture de l'histoire des anonymes et des disparus du monde non européen. C'est la voix d'un homme immense qu'il nous est donné d'entendre, dans sa force et sa modestie.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
210 p., From the days of slavery, the Negro from Martinique has never stopped "marronner", that is to say, to try to escape his condition, winning the great woods, the plebeians districts boroughs or even the neighboring islands. Simon, principal figure of the book, was one of them. He knew in the 17th century the arrival of the first slaves from Africa Guinea, the eighteenth hell of sugar plantations in the nineteenth fever abolition, in the early twentieth that of marching strikes and, at the dawn of XXI, the mare desperadoes of false modernity.
Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
354 p., This book, considered a founding work of anthropology of the Lesser Antilles, was written by Jean Benoist and his students from the University of Montreal. It provides information on the social organization of the archipelago and its vision of the world shortly before the disappearance of the plantation system.
Special journal issue., 118 p., Contents: Introduction / Elisabeth Mudimbe-Boyi -- H(h)istoire et (inter)subjectivité dans les romans de V.Y. Mudimbe / Kasereka Kavwahirehi -- L'histoire et le roman par surprise dans Mes hommes à moi de Ken Bugul / Justin Bisanswa -- La liberté littéraire: Assia Djebr entre roman et histoire / Nicholas Harrison -- Palimpseste et métafiction historiographique: une lecture d'Un dimanche au cachot de Patrick Chamoiseau / Bernadette Cailler -- Durables par-delà leur éphémère sarclage: discontinuité historique et perennité dans Le quatrième siècle d'Édouard Glissant / Samia Kassab-Charfi -- Aux Etats-Unis d'Afrique de Abdourahman Waberi: narration dialogique ou dialectique? / Anjali Prabhu -- Comment parler du génocide? Comment ne pas en parler?: Murambi, le livre des ossements de Boubacar Boris Diop / Mildred Mortimer -- Histoire et création littéraire: je suis ne quant j'avais 16 an le 8 Mai 1945 / Amina Azza Bekkat -- Francis Goyet, Les audaces de la prudence: littérature et politique aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles / Ullrich Langer.