With Aristide's return comes hope (Selma James, widow of C.L. R. James)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/21/aristide-return-haiti-election

With Aristide's return comes hope

We don't know how Haiti will react to an election that excluded his party, but the former president will take his cue from the people


Selma James
The Guardian, Monday 21 March 2011


The return of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his family to Haiti ends seven long years of campaigning – the 92% of voters who elected him had never accepted his overthrow in 2004 by a US-backed military coup. They risked their lives against a UN occupation that killed and brutalised thousands to demand his return. And last Friday he flew back from South Africa, where he had been living in forced exile, to a rapturous welcome in Port-au-Prince.


I was one of those waiting to greet him at his modest house, from where he was kidnapped seven years ago. Some of the waiting crowd were former political prisoners, others were visiting from exile. Yet others, disheartened after so many defeats – dictators, coups, hurricanes, earthquake, then cholera – had returned from Haiti's diaspora.


We listened on transistor radios for news of his arrival. Finally Aristide's plane had landed, and he was addressing supporters in a number of languages. He was back on Haitian soil two days before the fraudulent election from which his party has been excluded.

Much later his car was heard in the driveway. As the barrier that protected the house began to slide open, mainly young people began to flood the path and climb the walls, until we were surrounded by a torrent of the joyous. Lavalas, meaning "flash flood", was the name of Titid's party, and here it was. In their midst, hidden from our view, was the Aristides' car.


We waited another hour to be escorted inside through the singing and dancing crowd. I was welcomed into the arms of his wife and my friend Mildred Trouillot. She was unafraid, elated to be back and part of this historic event. Her girls, 14 and 12 years old, had to see how their father was greeted, she told me, so "they understood who he was. Nothing else can explain it". The girls' non-negotiable demand was that they bring their beloved little dog.


Later we were brought to meet their father. Aristide spoke about learning from the people, a practical strategy now. No one knows how Haitians will meet the rigged election process which arrogantly excluded Lavalas from the ballot. Their leader is likely to take his cue from the collective response.


He embraced me as the living connection with my late husband CLR James's Black Jacobins. Thabo Mbeki, the president of South Africa when Aristide first arrived there, had told him that when Mbeki read this history of revolutionary slaves triumphant, he felt confident they would end apartheid. It was not so much a book as a weapon for freedom fighters. James had implied in the book that that was his intention. How unfair that he never knew of his real success.


On election day we visited Cité Soleil, an impoverished area which has been an Aristide stronghold. We heard that two days earlier the presidential candidate Michel Martelly, a popular musician associated with the Tonton Macoutes – the Duvalier murder squads that terrorised Haiti for decades – had been driven about by people singing. UN soldiers from Brazil were all around the polling station, menacing, rifles at the ready.


We asked people about Aristide and the elections: they were happy he was back, but he wasn't on the ballot and they urgently needed to hold a government to account.


Yet the presence of Aristide in Haiti has immediately shifted everyone's situation. When he landed he spoke of "the humiliation of the people under tents" and said that "modern-day slavery will have to end today".


What's clear is that the 1804 revolution never ended. The US and the Haitian elite seem as determined as 19th-century France to keep Haitians enslaved, though sweatshops have replaced plantations and UN tanks Napoleon's army.


Nobody knows yet how Haitians will deal with the rigged election results. Aristide spoke to us about "learning from the people". He is likely to take his cue from their collective response. Having achieved the victory of his return, the movement has again a powerful, compassionate voice.

jafrikayiti a écrit:http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/21/aristide-return-haiti-election


I was one of those waiting to greet him at[b] his modest house, from where he was kidnapped seven years ago

FROM HIS HOUSE! Is this a joke?

No wonder why the lavalas people are going crasy.

KAY LETA A LI TE VAN TET NEG.
TOUT MOUN KI WINMIN MISIE PA KITE ENYEN LAN KAY LA MINME MANGO VERT YO YO MANJE LI OBLIJE ALE DOMI KAY FANMI .
LOL

Mesye pou ki nou pa fè yon ti efO reflechi - nou pa remake depi se moun Nwa sou planèt la ki abitye kanpe vètikal kont enperyalis ak kolon rasis, prèske yo tout trete Aristide ak respè?

C.L.R. James nou tande la a, se pa yon senp ekriven non li te ye. Se yon jeyan ki ekri liv osijè Toussaint Louverture ki pi popilè jiskaprezan "LES JACOBINS NOIRS". Si nou wè madanm defen an deplase majeste li vini asiste retou Aristide la, se paske yo konprann kokennchenn valè enevenman istorik 18 mas 2011 lan genyen.

Leson diyite sa a, se yon viktwa non sèlman pou pèp Ayisyen - men pou tout Nèg ki pa dako pou ane 2004 te tèt koupe ak ane 1802, lè G.W. Bush, Jacques Chirac, ak Paul Martin te aji menm jan ak zansèt yo, ti kolon rasi, rasis yo te rele Napoléon Bonaparte la.

Mwen se premye moun ki toujou kritike Aristide pou obsesyon li ak Toussaint louverture. Men, pou sa ki rive 18 mas 2011 lan, mwen wete chapo devan tout moun ki ede senbol sa a reyalize....Toussaint pete chenn Fodejou, li retounen lakay.


Kounye a, sa n ap fè ak sa noumenm Ayisyen. Peyi nou an kraze....men Aristide raple nou, li gen Petwol, li gen Iraniom....

se noumenm ki pou konnen, èske nou ap gaspiye tan ak enèji nou ap di betiz sou entènèt oudimwens n ap monte manch chemiz nou ak janm pantalon nou pou nou TRAVAY pou lavi fleri.

Gen yon tan pou ranse, yon tan pou regle bagay serye.

Jaf

JAF,

Si wap mande pou moun serye fok ou komanse bay ekzanp la!

Mond entenasyonal, anpil nan yo ki ap byen toushe ka fe komsi yo pa konnen men ou menm ak fomasyon w tanpri pa fe nou sa. Gende bagay nou ka bay pou konsomasyon etranje, mwen ap genyen pwoblem ak sa!

Men....

Aristide rete youn neg ki konpwnan dinamik peyi Dayiti, kom pe, menm ak ansyen Papa Dok, lite genyen chans fe wonn peyi a, li pale lang pep la e li konpwnan kilti pep sa byen! Men zafe anti enperyalist la, pa genyen sa menm mon ami! PA genyen sa la'a pyes.

Dapre mwen ansyen prezidan ka pwan pouvwa tout tan an Ayiti men li pap janm ka gouvenen peyi sa'a amwens ke li ta vreman chanje nan pwen kote lita ka tande vwa lot moun ki pi saj pase li. MWen tap priye Letenl pou 7 tan ekzil ta chanje msie ak kontak direk ak youn pragmatik tankou Mbeki, Mandela ak lot men sanble vye vyann nan pako janm pwan koule! Map swiv toujou!

Genyen lavasyen ki rekonet ke msie chak fwa li pwna pouvwa komet anpil ere ke anpil lot moun rele krim kont lanasyon. Pesonelman mwen apt janm pense ke mwen ta konte Aristide pami dirijan ki volo lajan al sere aletranje, touye moun, alatriye... Men nou pa ka pase yo nan mond de loubliyet .. nou pa kapab fe sa menm o nom de timoun kap vini yo! Mesye kite di nou ke Enperyalism se peche motel te aksepte bay peyi anbago, retounen ak 23 solda meriken, marye ak amerikenn e rele pete kriye pou ameriken bay pitit li sitwayennte! Non se pa konpotman sa'a Toussaint Louverture tap genyen jodya!

Mwen konnen TOussaint sete youn pesonnaj konpleks menm pou entelek jounen jodya men mwen te etidye TOusen, mwen te prezante li nan BAkaloreya, mwen fe tez sou li nan peyi Lamerik, mwen ap aprnan Tousen toujou mwen pa kwe k eAristide ko rive nan pla pye Tousen men li poko mouri li ka aji jodya pou ede kout tissu sosyal ki ka fe nou we li plis ke Tousen men li poko! Mwen pa tap diw anyen men apre mwen we kapasite ak nivo w mwen konnen ke ou konnen sa map pale a ki fe mwen reponn ou!

Gende pawol kite yo ti Joel ak Poporiko, an tan ke moun kap leve rido pou fe moun we klate limye lespri ak edikasyon ou genyen devwa pou ou menm tou reflechi anpil e pote limye ki pa vityel men ki reyel!

Nou remake ke jafrikayiti pa janm di anyen pou kay leta ke ancien diktate a kidnape. Pap janm genyen moun kap pwan nou pou serie depi nou chwazi pou nou defan ancien diktate a. Mwen pat janm panse ke mwen tap jwen youn moun nan moman sa ki ap defan ancien diktate a. Se youn wont li pwal ye pou nou ta we ke Martelly ta akonpli plis bon bagay passe Aristid.

Sa ou di a se bon koze wi. Nou pwal we si ancien diktate a pwal bay ekzamp inklizyon le li pwal inkli pitit fi li yo nan menm lekole pitit chime li yo ale ou bien inkli yo kay met Precial nan cite soley.

Tet Pa yo!

drno a écrit:Sa ou di a se bon koze wi. Nou pwal we si ancien diktate a pwal bay ekzamp inklizyon le li pwal inkli pitit fi li yo nan menm likole pitit chime li yo ale ou bien inkli yo kay met Precial nan cite soley.

Tet Pa yo!

Bèl kesyon...