Ghosts of 1915 U.S. Invasion Still Haunts Haiti

[Marilyn*]

The Miami Herald, Mon, July 25, 2005: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/ne ... 214452.htm

90 YEARS LATER

Ghosts of the 1915 U.S. invasion still haunt Haiti's people

[email protected]

BY EDWIDGE DANTICAT


On July 28, 1915, U.S. forces invaded Haiti, launching an occupation that would last 19 years.

The U.S. invasion came in the wake of President Woodrow Wilson's professed commitment to make the world safe for democracy. However, as soon as the Marines landed in Haiti, Wilson's administration remapped the country into police departments, shut down the press, installed a lame-duck government, rewrote the constitution to give foreigners land-owning rights, took charge of Haiti's banks and customs and instituted a system of compulsory labor for poor Haitians.

Those who resisted the occupation -- among them a militant peasant-run group called Cacos -- were crushed. In 1919, U.S. Marines in blackface ambushed and killed the Cacos' fearless leader, Charlemagne Peralte, mutilated his corpse and displayed it in a public square for days.

By the end of the occupation, more than 15,000 Haitians had lost their lives. A Haitian gendarmerie was trained to replace the U.S. Marines, then proceeded to form juntas, organize coups and terrorize Haitians for decades.

Although U.S. troops were officially withdrawn from Haiti in 1934, the U.S. government maintained economic control of the country until 1947.

Ninety years later, there are many, including some current foreign-policy experts, who maintain that Haiti, like recently occupied Iraq, should be declared a failed state. This could make way for another lengthy takeover. After all, some of the conditions that existed in Haiti in 1915 are still present today: rampant insecurity, political uncertainty, proximity to U.S. shores and concern for American interests, no small part of which is the fear of an exodus of boat people headed for Miami.

However, while Haiti tantalized the West at the beginning of the 20th century with an entryway to the Panama Canal and mineral, fruit, coffee and sugar resources, it seems to have little left to currently exploit except the desperation of a people, whose most basic needs have often been neglected by its own leaders.

Few Americans are aware that their country once occupied ours, and for such a long time. This is not surprising, for as one Haitian proverb suggests, while those who give the blows can easily forget, the ones who carry the scar have no choice but to remember.

While it takes American leaders and their armed enforcers just a few hours, days, weeks, months to rewrite another sovereign nation's history, it takes more than 90 years to overcome devastations caused by such an operation, to replace the irreplaceable, the dead lost, the spirits quelled, to steer an entire generation out of the shadows of dependency, to meet fellow citizens across carefully constructed divides and become halfway whole again.

The 1915-1934 U.S. occupation is not the only problem that Haiti has or has ever faced in the last nine decades. Yet it is one more hurdle that the country has had to overcome in a long and painful cycle of destruction and reconstruction, self-governance and subjugation.

Ninety years is a long span of time in the life of a woman or a man, but it is a short phase in the life of a country.

Iraq, take heed.


Edwidge Danticat, a native of Haiti, is the author of several novels, including, most recently, Anacaona, Golden Flower.

[jafrikayiti*]

Fantom Okipasyon 1915 lan Kontinye Ante Lespri Pèp Ayisyen an.

("Ghosts of the 1915 U.S. Invasion Still Haunt Haiti's People" by Edwidge Danticat - Original Text Published on Monday, July 25, 2005 by the Miami Herald)
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/ne ... 214452.htm

Jou ki te 28 jiyè 1915 lan, lame peyi Etazini te anvayi Ayiti epi yo tanmen yo okipasyon ki ta pral dire 19 lane.

Etazini fè anvayisman sa a sou menm woulib deklarasyon Prezidan (Meriken) Woodrow Wilson kòmkwa li angaje l pou li mete sekirite nan lemonn pou demokrasi kapab boloze toupatou.

Mèzalò, apenn sòlda meriken yo te fin mete pwent pye yo sou tè d Ayiti, administrasyon Wilson nan make kat peyi a ak depatman polis, li fèmen bouch laprès, li mete yon gouvènman popetwèl kanpe, li pase kout plim tribò babò nan konstitisyon peyi a jouk li bay etranje dwa pou yo posede tè, li poze men sou ni bank ni ladwann, epi li mete kanpe yon sistèm
"kòve" pou fòse Ayisyen pòv travay vle pa vle.

Yo kraze zo tout sa ki te kanpe pou reziste lokipasyon – pami yo nou jwenn yon gwoup jenn militan peyizan yo te rele Kako – Nan ane 1919 yon gwoup sòlda meriken ki te maske figi yo an nwa monte yon anbiskad epi yo touye yon nonm ki pat konn sa yo rele lapèrèz la, lidè Kako yo ki te rele Charlemagne Péralte. (Meriken ) yo maspinen kadav la epi yo ekspoze li sou laplas piblik pandan plizyè jou.

Paltan okipasyon an fini, plis pase 15 mil Ayisyen te pèdi lavi yo. Yo gwoup Jandam te fòme pou ranplase sòlda meriken yo, pi douvan se yo ki vin fòme jent militè, ògazine koudeta epi teworize pèp Ayisyen an pandan plizyè dizèn ane.

Menmsi, ofisyèlman, twoup meriken yo te kite peyi d Ayiti nan ane 1934, gouvènman meriken an te kenbe kontwòl sou ekonomi peyi d Ayiti jouk nan ane 1947.

90 ane annapre, gen anpil moun, pami yo kèk ekspè nan zafè politik etranjè, ki vle deklare Ayiti yon leta ki faya, menmjan ak Irak, ki nan moman an ap debat anba yon okipzasyon. Sa ta ka tou louvri pasaj pou yon lòt okipasyon manch long. Epitou, kèk nan kondisyon ki te egziste Ayiti nan ane 1915 yo la tennfas jouk jounen jodi a: ensekirite k ap vale teren, ensètitid onivo politik, yo tou pre ak tè peyi Etazini kidonk yo reprezante yon menas pou enterè Meriken. Yon gwo moso nan “enterè” sa a ki pa neglijab ditou se lapèrèz Meriken genyen anfas botpipol k ap fè vwèl drèt dirèk nan direksyon Miami.

Nan koumansman 20tyèm syèk la Ayiti te bay Loksidan tanta paske li te yon pasaj estratejik pou franchi kanal Panama al dèyè min pyèpresyèz, frui osnon resous ki gen arevwa ak eksplwatason kafe osnon sik. Alèkile, pa sanble gen anpil bagay ki rete Ayiti pou yo eksplwate, anwetan yon popilasyon dezespere ki, laplipa ditan, twouve l ak yon seri lidè ki kontinye neglije bezwen elemantè popilasyon sa a.

Pa gen anpil Ameriken ki okouran ke peyi yo a te deja okipe peyi pa nou an, pou tout tan sa a anplis! Sa pa etonan paske, tankou pwovèb Ayisyen an di sa aklè li fasil pou sila a ki bay kou an bliye men sila yo ki pote mak yo pa gen chwa – vle pa vle –yo blije sonje.

Kèlke zè, kèk jou, kèk semenn, kèk mwa, se sa li pran gwo potanta Meriken yo ak lame ki sou lobidyans yo a pou yo re-ekri listwa yon nasyon ki te granmoun lakay li. Men, sa pran plis pase 90 lane pou yon pèp redi sòti anba tout ratibwazay yon operasyon konsa mennen ak li, jouk pou li ta rive ranplase sa ki pa ranplasab tankou mò li pèdi, lespri li ki delala, elatriye…jouk li reyisi dirije gouvènay tout yon jenerasyon, ede li sòti nan lonbray chimen restavèk jouk li ta prèske tounen mwatye nan sa li te ka ye, si malgre tout bagay, konpatriyòt yo ta reyisi mache rankontre youn lòt, lòtbò yon seri lantouray ke zòt te pran san yo bati pou divize yo byen divize.

Okipasyon 1915-1934 lan se pa sèl pwoblèm peyi d Ayiti ni genyen ni te janm genyen pandan 9 deseni ki sot pase yo. Men, se yon barikad anplis peyi sa a te sètoblije monte nan yon chimen madoulè, san fen, pou yo soti nan kraze - tonbe nan rebati. Soti nan lendepandans - tonbe anba dominasyon.

90 lane long nan lavi yon fanm osnon yon gason. Men se yon kadè nan lavi yon peyi.

Irak, veye tande !
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Otè a, Edwidge Danticat, se pitit tè d Ayiti. Li ekri plizyè liv nan lang angle tankou Anacaona, Golden Flower.

Tradiksyon Kreyòl sa a pa yon vèsyon ofisyèl. Se travay Jafrikayiti te fè pou li pataje refleksyon otè a ak oditè emisyon radyo "Randevou Ayisyen" nan Ottawa, www.ckcufm.com , jou ki te dimanch 31 jiyè 2005 lan.