Accusations & Cannibalism in Occupation Time Haiti

Isidor asserts, citing “a senior member of Aristide’s Lavalas Family Party, also known as the party of Satan, the party of death, who pleaded with us for anonymity,” that Aristide “reportedly was bathed in November [of 2000, presumably] in the blood of a dead Haitian by voodoo priestess . . . Marie-Anne Auguste, commonly known as So An.”

http://skepticaljew.blogspot.com/2010/01/from-satanism-libel-to-blood-libel-this.html

From: Jean Saint-Vil jafrikayiti@hotmail.com

These types of sensasional stories about child sacrifice in Haiti (which have a tendency to pop up whenever Haiti is under occupation) have been known to net $million book sales for inteprid writers such as Wirkus. So, who knows what can be accomplished in 2011?

A few years ago, when this recurring accusation of Haitian ritual cannibalism raised its ugly head again, I wrote :

"According to white supremacist british author Spencer St-John (1889) Haitians are cannibals...according to a recent rumour began by who knows who, 2004 baby hearts were sacrificed to help Haiti's president survive January 1, 2004 in power. But, according to facts, the British, the French and the Spanish armies murdered or enslaved millions of Africans to build their empires, then they wrote books and made films to cover up their crimes. In 2004, Europeans, including the French, and Euro-Americans used diplomatic, economic and military violence to conduct a coup in Haiti. Gime me facts any day !"

Sadly, these accusations reported by Deibert are nothing new...neither are the motivations.

Here are 3 factual historical quotes...

1) an American author - from a different era, wrote the following about Haitian Vodou:

the perpetuation of a cult so degrading must have its source deep in the character of the race. Yet you find that these undoubted cannibals can on occasion be both kind-hearted and hospitable. Perhaps the root of it all lies in their squalid ignorance? Where Black Rules White (Prichard, 1910).

Ironically, Prichard was presumably Christian. Never mind that his deity apparently had required the brutal killing of his only son in order to forgive the sins of his human creation and , in fact, commands followers to "eat the flesh and drink the blood of his sacrificed son". Imagine what would be said if a Haitian god dared to ask for such things in an official holy book?

2)

"Not many white men have admitted eating human flesh; and even when they have admitted it have made the excuse of necessity. Not so Seabrook. He was curious, merely; he had long wanted to know what a man tastes like, and took the first chance he had of finding out. He says: "It was like good, fully developed veal, not young, but not yet beef." He liked it; it gave him no pains either in digestion or conscience".

Yes, you read right, this is the same SEABROOK who wrote about Haiti's cannibal religion in The Magic Island. Here is an interesting link to TIME Magazine, discussing Seabrook as well as Wirkus's works back in 1931 Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,741397,00.html#ixzz1Fa8wv4C0

3)

"Virtually every intelligence summary I was privy to on Haiti, prior to and during the invasion, emphasized stories of voodoo and powders and even that old racist standby of intrinsic African deviancy, cannibalism. For anyone who had ever been there, or even who had a little common sense, it was of course the most contemptible nonsense. But it was designed to fan racist stereotypes and ensure a lack of identification between American soldiers and the Haitian masses"

. Stan Goff, former U.S. soldier http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/399.html , in A brief account of Haiti, October 1999.

Wirkus became King of Lagonave. Perhaps an Oscar nomination in 2012 is not a crazy dream after all !

Jafrikayiti
"Depi nan Ginen bon N?g ap ede N?g!"
(Brotherhood is as Ancient as Motherland Africa)
http://www.jafrikayiti.com
http://www.akasan.org