The courage and the fortitude of the Haitian people

The courage and the fortitude of the Haitian people
By Jean H Charles

Posted: Sep 15, 2007 14:53 UTC

BROOKLYN, NY, U.S.A. - This month of September commemorates for the Haitian people the saga of a continuous trauma that has now lasted fifty years.

Indeed, I was eleven years old on my way to a boarding school when Francois Duvalier busted into power on September 22, 1957.

There was sadness in my family because we believed then that Duvalier was a demagogue who would excite the dark spirit in the souls and bring the worst out of the citizens of Haiti. We have seen the avant coureur signals.

Edith, a godchild of my grand mother, used to offer her services for the many receptions we offered during the St Rosa Fiesta season. I was surprised to see Edith in front of the Duvalier mob carrying her flag with the slogan that “no cars will stop in front of their house anymore”.

In my village of Grand River, my grandfather and my grandmother were more in the tradition of the Grande Dame instead of the Queen of Mean. The sense of noblesse oblige was de rigueur in Haiti. Those who have, understood their obligation to come to the aid of those who have less. With Duvalier in power, the spirit of hope for the mass was soon vanished. Edith died some few years after, in misery. My family had to contribute to bury her remains. This story has been repeated a thousand times in Haiti during the long thirty-five-year reign of the Duvalier père and fils.

Chiefs of families had to desert their homes for political or for economic strife. During the 60s and the 70s there was a legion of doctors, lawyers, school teachers, nurses, who left their home country to establish themselves in the United States and in Canada. This first wave of regular migrants was followed by a second wave of farm workers who took to the sea in the 80s and the 90s at the peril of their lives to establish themselves in Florida or in the Bahamas.

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