L'union fait la force Understanding the situation in Haiti and its historical context

On an airless night in October, aboard a vessel cutting through the waters of the Caribbean, a huddled mass of 171 individuals, ravaged by hunger, thirst and fear find themselves afloat, uncertain of their destination. Suddenly, a flicker of light emerges on the horizon, the faintest contours of another ship. As it draws nearer, the human traffickers aboard realise with stark clarity that they are outnumbered and outgunned, and wisely avoid a conflict. Swiftly, marines descend upon the vessel and seize it. The ship’s Captain weakly protests, only to be met by a resolute commander of the marines, who firmly declares that he is acting upon his government’s standing orders, and the vessel shall be escorted into port. You may be tempted, dear reader, to make the assumption that this must be yet another story about a Haitian boat being intercepted by the naval forces of the United States or the Bahamas, but here you would be mistaken. For the year is 1817 and the seized vessel is a Spanish slaver headed for Cuba and those admirable marines, members of Haiti’s navy. On that day, in October 1817, all the 171 captive Africans were liberated and, according to the Official Gazette, “joyfully accepted

BY TITUS DE BOER

Titus de Boer was born in Hamburg and spent his formative years in the West Indies. After a formal education in Germany and subsequent training as a journalist, he moved to the TCI in 1989. These days he works as a residency consultant for Titan Services. (www.titanservices.biz). Readers wishing to contact Titus with ideas and/or suggestions for columns, can to so on tdbtci@aol.com.

into Haitian society”. A few months later, the Spanish attempted to protest officially, only to be informed by the Haitian Government that its constitution decreed there could be no slaves in Haitian territory. Until such time the rest of the world followed the Haitian example, by abolishing slavery and the slave trade, Haiti continued to seize slave ships and set their “human cargo” free.

Haiti banned slavery from the first day of its inception, in 1804. It should be an undisputed fact that Haiti was the first country to do so, although abolitionists in European nations have often tried to claim ownership of this accomplishment. When Haiti drafted its first constitution, a year after gaining its independence, Article 2 stated, “Slavery is forever abolished”. By abolishing slavery in its entirety, Haiti also abolished the slave trade, unlike the two-step, some might say half-hearted, approach of the Europeans and the United States.

The British, the current day colonial overseers of the Turks and Caicos Islands, have throughout modern history attributed the achievement of abolishing slavery to themselves. They did abolish the slave trade in 1807, but only passed the Abolition Act in 1833.

But why write about all this and how is any of this relevant in today’s situation? Its relevance lies in recognising Haiti’s important role as a beacon of hope for enslaved people around the world and certainly in the Caribbean. When looking at Haiti’s present-day struggles, it reminds us of all the obstacles the fledgling independent nation faced.

To be clear, the current situation in Haiti, especially the south of the country, is nothing short of catastrophic. The threat it poses to its neighbours, including the Turks and Caicos Islands, is real and very worrying. Gang attacks, extrajudicial killings, and kidnappings have become part of the daily lives of Haitians, forcing locals to flee their homes. Besides gangs, the activities of vigilante groups have resulted in hundreds of lynchings. More than 1,630 people have been killed, wounded, or kidnapped in Haiti in the first three months of 2023, a 30% increase compared to the previous quarter.

According to the United Nations a record 4.7 million people face acute hunger, tens of thousands of whom are now on the “brink of starvation”. This is the unembellished, grim reality, a reality which is less than two hundred miles south from us. And yet, history matters. When judging Haitians and assessing the situation in Haiti we should never lose sight of just how high a price Haiti paid for its independence. A price best summed up in its “debt” to France, which only recognised Haiti’s independence in 1825, after it threatened war on its former colony if it didn’t agree to pay reparations that would be worth $22 billion today. Thus, for one hundred and twenty years, as much as 80% of Haiti’s revenues went to paying off this debt. These historical facts are significant, I believe, when the world and region view events in this “failed state” with, understandably, increasing anxiety.

“Lespwa fe viv”, “hope is alive” as the Haitian proverb goes. Haiti needs hope and more, it needs help. The Turks and Caicos Islands is a United Kingdom Overseas Territory and as such there is only so much we can do unilaterally. Yes, boats can be intercepted, and persons sent back to Haiti. However, as far as the “big picture” goes, perhaps the time has come, jointly with our regional partners, to lean on the former and current colonial powers and urge them to do right by a country whose only “crime” was to declare its independence and offer refuge to enslaved peoples. This much we