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Background Report on Haiti
(hayt'ee)
© Dianne L. Durante 1994
If you know it, you
know if for …
NOTE THAT THIS REPORT WAS WRITTEN IN 1994
THE CURRENT CRISIS: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, president of
IF YOU KNOW IT, YOU KNOW IT FOR (an attempt to help you
integrate what you might already know of this
nation): Site of Columbus' first settlement.
CAVEAT ON STATISTICS: probably unreliable after ca. 1986, and possibly before.
Geography Back to table of contents
SIZE: 10,714 sq. mi., about the size of
CAPITAL:
TOPOGRAPHY: Occupies the western third of the Caribbean
island of Hispaniola, shaped like a lobster's claw reaching westward for
Cuba; Haiti is the pincer part, the Dominican Republic is the rest.
WIDER GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING: Sailing west from
CLIMATE: Average temperature 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Annual rainfall varies from 20 to 100 inches (sea level vs. mountains).
People & culture Back to table of contents
POPULATION: With a population of 6,431,977 (1992),
Haitian racism is an odd thing, collectivism with a layer of subjectivism on top. White is considered better than black, and an elaborate nomenclature (sacatra, griffe, marabou, mamelouc, etc.) describes the degree of one's white vs. black blood. However, a rise in social position causes one to be perceived as more "white": a man whose skin is very dark will, if successful, be called "un blanc noir," a white man who happened to be born black. Herbert Gold (in the 1980s) wrote, "Even after the fall of a dictatorship inaugurated by blacks, continued by mulattoes, and abetted by white foreigners, candidates for the presidency were described as representatives of the light-skinned or the dark-skinned or the medium-skinned" (p. 262).
PUBLIC HEALTH: Hepatitis and tuberculosis are widespread, but the disease that gets most media attention is AIDS.
In the early years after AIDS was recognized (ca. 1980), Haitians were classified with such high-risk groups as homosexuals and hemophiliacs. Within a year after this higher incidence of AIDS among Haitians was recognized, the number of American tourists to Haiti dropped from 70,000 to 10,000. Haitians are now generally categorized with Africans in studying the transmission and prevalence of AIDS (see Fumento, "But What About Africa?" pp. 108-28 of *The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS*). The high incidence of AIDS - 10% in urban areas of Haiti, 5% in rural - is apparently not due to any genetic predisposition, but to different sexual mores and abject poverty: factors that were eliminated or of little concern in the U.S. are still serious problems in the Third World.
For example, for quite some time little screening was done for HIV in blood donations (it was too expensive a process), and by some studies, as much as a quarter of the blood supply might have been contaminated. In hospitals, needles were used again & again until they broke, with no sterilization between uses. Hence any accident or disease requiring an injection or a blood transfusion carried a very high risk of acquiring AIDS as well.
In addition, many men who might be exclusively homosexual in the U.S. evade the stigma attached to homosexuality in Haiti by becoming practicing bisexuals. Thus, while in the U.S. female infection by a bisexual is relatively infrequent, in Haiti transmission to one's wife is common.
Haiti also has a much higher rate of
sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) than the U.S., because treatment is too
expensive to be readily affordable. STDs seem to make the transfer of HIV
easier (e.g., through genital ulcers). Prostitutes are a permanent source of
infection, since most cannot afford continual treatment, and even if they
aren't HIV-positive (one study showed an infection rate of 53% among women
prostitutes in Haiti), they may transmit an STD that makes the client more
susceptible. Prostitution was widely practiced in Haiti when tourism was at
its height, and it's quite possible that AIDS was introduced to Haiti via U.S.
tourists in its brothels.
RELIGION: Roman Catholicism is the official religion. Most inhabitants practice voodoo, a combination of Catholicism and elements from African religions: for example, the spirit Baron Samedi (Baron Saturday) is capable of great evil, because Jesus died on Friday and was not resurrected until Sunday. "Jesus bon, mais Damballa puissant"- Jesus is good, but Damballa (the snake god, most important in the voodoo pantheon) is powerful.
LITERACY RATE: 53% of the adult population, according to the Academic American Encyclopedia (on-line), but a story in the Christian Science Monitor 9/12/91 noted 85% illiteracy.
LANGUAGES: The official language, and the language of the elite upper class, is French. Creole, derived from French, is the language of most people.
CULTURAL ACHIEVEMENTS: Haitian primitive art, using
primary colors and cartoon-like forms, illustrates agricultural, biblical
and/or voodoo scenes. Works of the first generation of painters (Obin,
Hyppolite, Bigaud, Bazile, Gorgue), done in the mid-20th c., are now highly
priced and on display at museums worldwide. The Haitian primitive style has
been copied throughout the
TIDBITS: The self-proclaimed Emperor Soulouque (1847-59) had a passion for creating nobility; his Duke of Marmalade, Duchess of Lemonade, etc. inspired some of Gilbert & Sullivan's sillier titles.
Economy Back to table of contents
PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS: Coffee, cacao, sugarcane. Sugar was
a mainstay, since it is resistant to
CURRENCY: 5 gourdes = 1 dollar haitien.
INFLATION RATE: Unknown, but high; the embargo imposed
by the
PER CAPITA INCOME: $440, the lowest in Western
Hemisphere; some African countries have lower per capita incomes, the worst
being Mozambique at $110. (The highest per capita income in the world is in
History Back to table of contents
In 1492
In the course of the 16th c., the Spaniards gradually
abandoned the island and buccaneers established settlements there. Buccaneers
were originally outcasts who survived by killing cattle and smoking the meat
over a boucan (grill); later they took over the
During the 18th c. exports of sugar, coffee and other
products made this one of the richest colonial possessions in the world.
Thousands of slaves were brought from
In 1791, while the French government was weakened by the
Revolution, the slaves in
Haitian history over the next hundred years is a
depressing study. Its 13 rulers included a self-proclaimed governor-general
for life, a self-proclaimed king and a self-proclaimed emperor. Two of the 13
died peacefully while in office, 1 committed suicide, and all the others were
ousted by revolutions or the military. The continual struggle between the
blacks and the mulatto elite for control of the government often resulted in
years of civil strife. During one such period, in 1844, the eastern end of
the island revolted and established itself as the
As one would expect, the economy languished. During the
initial slave revolt and subsequent civil wars, many sugar mills were
destroyed, sugar production virtually ceased, and the irrigation systems fell
into ruin.
In the 1910s
In 1935, after the
In 1957, after a limited popular election, François
Duvalier - a physician, hence his nickname "Papa Doc" - took office
as president. He soon became a dictator, excluding most of the elite from
government, exiling or killing those who opposed him. His armed thugs, the
Tontons Macoutes ("Bogeymen"), terrorized political opponents and
preyed on businessmen and property owners. Attempts to overthrow Duvalier met
with little support from the masses. The
When Duvalier died in 1971 he was succeeded by his son
Jean-Claude ("Baby Doc")
Duvalier, somewhat less brutal and repressive but rather more mercenary. Baby
Doc cleaned out the public treasury every few weeks and sent the money by
courier to his Swiss bank account; Gold refers to his rule as the
"Duvalier kleptocracy" (p. 281). Thousands of Haitians continued to
flee the country. The economy fell to pieces. In 1985 widespread
demonstrations erupted, and in 1986 Duvalier fled to
A series of interim governments followed. In 1987, presidential elections were cancelled after a campaign of terror. The president elected in January 1988 was ousted 6 months later by the military, whose leader was first Lt.-General Henri Namphy, then Lt. General Prosper Avril. (Another telling quote from Gold, on life in Port-au-Prince under Namphy: "The streets were garbaged with bodies - we saw them every morning - and an official explained that they were carted away on trucks without any attempt at identification because: 'This is a civilized country. We can't just let bodies lie around.' " [p. 242].)
Finally in 1990 Jean-Bertrand Aristide won 70% of the vote in what appears to have been a fairly free election. He was overthrown by a military coup in September 1991, 8 months after assuming office, but since it is Aristide that the U.S. and the U.N. advocate reinstating as Haiti's president, let us look in more detail at his platform and his record while in office. (This is somewhat sketchy, since little coverage was given to him while in office, and little has been said in the media since about his principles.)
Aristide, a 37-year-old Roman Catholic priest, is an
advocate of "Liberation Theology," according to which the Gospel
demands that the Church concentrate its efforts on liberating the people of
the world from poverty and oppression. Its supporters use Marxist ideas and
back revolutionary movements. Hence when Aristide was ordained in 1982, he
began to attack not only Jean-Claude Duvalier's regime, but also the sins of
foreign bankers, businessmen and the
When running for the presidency in 1990, he promised sweeping social and economic reforms (including teaching 3 million Haitians to read by 1995) and prosecution of Duvalierists. As noted, he won the election with 70% of the votes. One diplomat admitted that the U.S. wouldn't have been so pleased with Aristide if he'd been elected in 1987, before the fall of eastern Europe & the U.S.S.R. (quoted in the CSM 1/9/91, i.e. just after the election and before Aristide was inaugurated).
Aristide's human rights record during his 8 months in
office was not very impressive. There were at least 25 lynchings
("necklacings," killing by placing a tire around neck & setting
it on fire) of Duvalierists, which he refused to condemn. He even gave 2
speeches encouraging the practice, according to Americas Watch (CSM
Aristide came into office with no experience in running
a government and no clear-cut economic plans. When businessmen held off on
investments, he warned of a "backlash" if they failed to provide
jobs. This was widely interpreted to be a threat of mob action. He ordered
price cuts on rice, flour and other essentials, and planned to raise the
minimum wage from $2.00 to $3.50 per hour. To anyone familiar with economics,
the long-term effects of such policies should be obvious: less food and fewer
jobs. Unemployment rose to 40%. Finally realizing he couldn't raise enough
money in
Aside from the question of whether the
The coup that overthrew Aristide in September 1991 was
led by Lt. Gen. Raoul Cédras. On
High-level military officers (including the police chief
of
World Reaction Back to table of contents
In 1993 an arms and oil embargo was imposed; a trade embargo followed in May 1994 (but food & medicine were exempted). In June 1994 the U.S. stopped all commercial flights and most financial transactions were banned.
The issues for the U.S. are: 1) Is military intervention indicated? 2) How should the refugees be dealt with, especially those who are HIV-positive?
Military
intervention
The media think Clinton is stumbling toward military intervention not because he wants it, but because he keeps making one short-sighted move after another. Clinton's reasons for military intervention (as cited in a CSM editorial 5/27/94) are the following. 1) It's in our back yard. (But it's hardly a threat, with an army of 7,000 troops, a navy that's barely a coast guard, and 3 working armored personnel carriers.) 2) There are 1 million Haitian-Americans in the U.S. and several thousand Americans in Haiti. (This crisis has been building for years; the Americans who are still there probably want to be.) 3) A lot of drugs are coming through Haiti. (The way to stop that, of course, is to legalize drugs in the U.S. so the profits drop precipitously; otherwise shutting down Haiti would merely move the transshipment point to some other poor Caribbean island.) 4) Haitians might keep wanting to immigrate to the U.S. (The reasons are mostly economic - that $440 per capita income - and no amount of military intervention will alter that.) 5) Haiti is trying to create a democracy. (Is democracy in and of itself a desirable end, particularly under a Marxist?)
Many journalists and politicians do seem to realize that the real problem is not wresting control from the military, but getting things in order and giving control back to civilians. In the poorest country in this hemisphere, without a functioning criminal justice system, without a civilian police force, without electricity even in some urban areas, rebuilding the system would take decades and millions of dollars: witness our attempts in 1915-1934.
Immigration
During the 1992 campaign, Clinton said Bush's return of Haitian refugees without hearings was illegal and immoral; after the election, in the first flip of many flops, he said that he didn't mean lots of Haitians would be allowed into U.S. They would be given a hearing elsewhere. In January 1993, fearing a flood of refugees, he said he would temporarily continue Bush's policy. In May 1994 he promised refugees asylum hearings aboard U.S. ships in the Caribbean, but in July 1994 said no more refugees would be resettled in U.S.; the U.S. would, instead, find them "safe haven" in the Caribbean. (The U.S. policy regarding refugees was formulated during the Cold War, and is geared toward those fleeing Communism rather than military oppression or economic hardships; hence most of those applying through formal channels have been rejected.)
Lobbying against Haitian immigration is the politically powerful state of Florida, many of whose residents feel threatened at the possibility of a flood of Haitians. Fighting to have Haitians allowed in are some Afro-American organizations, including the Congressional Black Caucus, who are struggling to make the issue a racial one.
200 Haitians were pre-screened for political asylum and would have been admitted to U.S. if they hadn't tested positive for HIV; a suit on their behalf was brought in U.S. District Court in New York (3/29/93 CSM), outcome unknown. Meanwhile they are being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Given the causes discussed above for the spread of AIDS in Haiti, admission of Haitian refugees to the U.S. would probably not cause a significant increase in U.S. cases of AIDS; but, most of these people having sold their last possessions to get to the U.S., we would probably end up paying very large medical bills for terminal AIDS patients.
It has been pointed out that the U.S. invaded Panama (1989), Grenada (1983) and the Dominican Republic (1965); why not Haiti? There are two fundamental differences. In Panama, Grenada and the Dominican Republic, the U.S. had a clear-cut, vital interest at stake: in Panama, the danger to traffic through the Panama Canal if Noriega became more aggressive toward the U.S.; in Grenada and the Dominican Republic, the threat of governments allied with Cuba and the U.S.S.R. very close to the U.S. border. The military in Haiti have made no alliances, nor threatened to. The second difference is that in Panama, the Dominican Republic and Grenada, the aim was to oust the current ruler and thus allow democratic government to resume; all had well developed political systems which had only temporarily been disrupted. Haiti has never had a functioning political system, if regular elections and continuity in government are the standard. To create one, the invasion would have to turn into an occupation of years.
Summary Back to table of contents
LESSONS LEARNED: There are wealthy countries in the Caribbean (e.g., the Cayman Islands, with a per capita annual income of $13,600, Guadeloupe with $3,300, Martinique with $6,000), and there are wealthy countries with incredibly high population densities (Hong Kong has over 14,000 people per square mile and a per capita income of over $11,000). Not coincidentally, all these countries are capitalist (or as capitalist as economies go, these days) and rely heavily on capital-intensive industry. Haiti has never been stable, and never been safe for investment from home or abroad, but capital investment is the only way to support so many people per square mile. (If all Haiti's land were arable, which it is certainly not, there would only be a plot 200 x 200 feet for every resident to farm.) Reinstating a Marxist as Haiti's ruler is hardly likely to help solve the economic problems, and with such serious economic problems, political stability is unlikely.
QUESTIONS UNANSWERED: Is democracy a floating concept for liberals? They seem to have no clue that certain principles are necessary to establish it and keep it working.
Bibliography Back to table of contents
Assorted Christian Science Monitor articles (search Haiti or Aristide).
Academic American Encyclopedia, on-line, s.v. Haiti, Panama, Dominican Republic, Aristide.
Gold, Herbert. Best Nightmare on Earth: A Life in Haiti , 1991. Somewhat meandering, and now and then repetitious, but good for getting a feel for the country.
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