|
Books on the Caribbean
Hubert Cole. Christophe: King of Haiti. New
York: The Viking Press, 1967.
C.L.R. James.
The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution
(1938)
Edourad Gissant.
Caribbean Doscourse (2004)
/ Barbara Harlow.
Resistance Literature (1987)
Josaphat B. Kubayanda.
The Poet's Africa: Africanness in the Poetry of Nicolas Guillen and Aime
Cesaire
(1990)
Paul Laraque and Jack Hirschman.
Open
Gate An Anthology of Haitian Creole Poetry
(2001)
David P. Geggus, ed.
The Impact of the
Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World.
University of South Carolina Press, 2001.
Jean-Bertand Aristide.
Eyes of the Heart: Seeking a
Path for the Poor in the Age of Globalization
* * *
* *
Books by Arthur Flowers
De Mojo Blues
/ Another Good Loving Blues
/
Cleveland Lee's Beale Street Band
* * * *
*
Up Against the Wall in Haiti
By Arthur R. Flowers
I am Flowers of the Delta Clan Flowers and
the Line of O Killens. I ask Lord Legba to open this gate. A
strategic analysis by Rickydoc Flowers. For we both love
Haiti.
Latest Developments:
Jamaica has agreed to host Aristide for an undetermined length
of time. This is in keeping with the skeptical attitude CARICOM
has taken against Aristides removal by the US. CARICOMS move
puts Aristide back into play. This is an interesting development
to which I shall play close attention. Depending on what moves
CARICOM makes with Aristide, Aristides return or participation
in the next elections is an option that has to be considered.
In bringing Aristide so close to home, the
likelihood of his partisans remaining a cohesive and influential
force is increased. This is an interesting development and Im
not quite sure at this point how its going to play out. But so
far its been the strongest African American move on the board.
In incurring US hostility for keeping the issue of Aristide
alive, Jamaica has performed an act of political courage that
will now put it in the US crosshairs as
"uncooperative."
Hopefully African American policy influents will be more
effective in defending Jamaica than they were in Haiti.
Developments To Be Looked Out For and Resisted:
|
- marines shooting/disarming Lavalas
partisans in order to let “rebels” emerge unchecked
when they leave
- the independence and the democratic nature of the
Haitian political process being now shaped.
- the continued exploitation of the poor in Haiti and
the resumption of Haitian class oppression. |
SITUATION DYNAMICS
America, with the assistance of France and
international funding institutions, has apparently orchestrated
a coup against Aristide and Haitian democracy.
This operation has been in progress since
the inauguration of the Bush Administration, and perhaps even
before when Aristide was deposed during the first Bush
Administration by an army and paramilitaries associated with the
CIA.
The current Bush administration has considered him a leftist
troublemaker and Clinton holdover. The Bush operatives in
charge of Caribbean policy are neocon ideologues Reich,
Poindexter, Abrams, Negroponte and the Asst Secretary of State
for Western Hemisphere affairs, Roger Noriega, all of whom have been aggressively and overtly targeting Aristide since his
first fall in 1991. In the words of Vice President Dick Cheney,
"We're glad to see him go."
Some of us are not. Haitis unique
history
has made it an important icon of black empowerment
and geopolitical positioning.
Haiti has historically been riven by class and color issues,
with a small exploitive elite and masses of the oppressed,
composed in the main of subsistence farmers and the urban poor.
Aristide, a slum priest preaching liberation theology, rode a
wave of resentment that frightened the Haitian elite with
populist calls of redistribution and retribution. The elite then
conspired with the army (traditionally an instrument of
repression) to topple him once in 1991 and again in the current
“rebellion”.
After a paramilitary reign of terror that killed thousands of
Haitians and triggered massive refugee movements, the Clinton
Administration forcibly reinstated Aristide. Aristide disbanded
the army and continued to alienate Bush ideologues and the
Haitian elite with populist policies.
Riding the dispute over the election of 7
senators during the election of 2000, the Democratic
Convergence, an opposition alliance of Haitian elites,
Duvaliarists and disaffected Aristide partisans, was supported
and financed (some x millions a year) by US policy instruments
like the Democracy Enhancement Project and The International
Republican Institute. This US backed movement gridlocked Haitian
government.
This gridlock was used to trigger a full embargo of
international aid that had begun under media radar by the Bush
Administration. This in turn crippled the ability to provide
services by a government that was already one of the poorest in
the world and Aristide began to lose support. In spite of
Aristides attempts to compromise, the US backed Democratic
Convergence made it clear that they would accept nothing less
than his resignation.
Aristide made mistakes. Under pressure he too easily adapted to
the Haitian winner take all style of governance and with no army
and a weak police force he followed another traditional Haitian
practice of arming partisan gangs. It was one of those
disaffected gangs that started the ‘rebellion’ in the North,
which was soon joined by ex army officers and paramilitaries
previously convicted of crimes against humanity during the first
Aristide coup, suddenly reconstituted, armed and organized by
unknown outside forces.
The official media line has been that
Aristides government lost popular legitimacy because of the
irregularities of the 2000 election.
But according to Heather Williams in a recent Counterpunch
article, this process reflects the Noriega modus operandi,
"fund an opposition, report every clash as repression
against the population, arm pliable thugs and mercenaries in
exile, embargo the government, precipitate acute crisis, play up
the discontent of a hungry population, and then happily leave it
to internationalist liberals to lead the charge for military
intervention on humanitarian grounds."
The official media line is that this is the collapse (again) of
a failed state with bad management practices – as opposed to
the result of official US policy that would surely be questioned
if it were fully known.
Again, Aristide clearly made mistakes and his government was
what we used to call back home a colored shop (as in operating
on CPT principles), but his government is one of the precious
few in Haitian history that sincerely tried to reverse the
endemic exploitation of the Haitian people. To empower them and
raise their living standards. To make of them a truly free
people. In a country where 65% of the country cannot read,
Aristide set up critical adult literacy programs. Aristide
understood that Haitis redemption will come only through the
empowerment of its people.
In the final analysis Aristide represented Haitian democracy,
shaky perhaps but no more illegitimate than the equally
questioned election of George Bush in the same year. Without an
army and unable to stop them, Aristide agreed to the
Administrations power sharing plan. The US backed Democratic
Convergence did not.
America made it clear that it would not stop the rebel advance
as long as Aristide remained in power. Then came the
questionable exile, which if not a political kidnapping is close
enough. As soon as he was gone, the Marines were on their way.
Basically what happened in Haiti was that America and France
endorsed an armed takeover of a democratically elected
government whose populist policies they did not approve of.
AGENDAS
The Haitian People:
A restless population in need of stability and development.
Quality of life issues are predominant and Empowerment
Strategies a must. A powerful force for change that must be
channeled.
Haitian Elites:
Right now Haitian elites just want their power back. Security is
high on their wishlist. They must be made aware of progressive
principles of political stewardship. Instruments of influence
and constraint must be designed.
USA Agendas:
Primary US agenda will be to shape a stable government that will
be pliable to United States interests and influence.
The US attitude toward the Caribbean is one of marginal interest
and as long as they do not openly defy America (as in Cuba) they
are pretty much left alone. Jamaica and CARICOM have defied
America on Haiti and will probably be targeted for retribution.
Supplemental issues that move the US are trade, tourism, drug
transshipment, refugees and immigration. There is little sense
of US awareness of the human condition factors in their
motivation here.
Joke of the Week: "No president has done more for
human rights than I have," George W. Bush
The West Indian/AfricanAmerican lobby is not considered strong
enough to be an effective brake on a hostile administration. Blacks
in power in the Bush Administration tend to
follow the company line and work against black world interests.
Hopefully after so artlessly orchestrating
Aristides departure the Bush Administration should feel some
sense of responsibility in making sure the ‘replacement’
government is functional, but perhaps that kind of progressive
imperialism is beyond this fundamentalist bunch. It will
probably be nakedly neocolonial and all that easier to check.
CARICOM and Regional Agendas:
CARICOM has taken an unusually strong stand on this. The
countries of the Caribbean and South America fear hegemonic
meddling in their own affairs. A primary ongoing agenda of
theirs is to empower the counties of the hemisphere against
American hegemony.
Regional pressure has proved effective in the past: Regional
opposition and an OAS embargo tempered the first coup against
Aristide in 1991. The US backed overthrow of Hugo Chavezs in
April 2002 was reversed by the refusal of the people and 19
Latin American governments, including Mexico and Brazil, to
accept it.
CARICOM will try to use this both to
question Aristides removal and empower themselves as a regional
force. This move back to Jamaica puts Aristide back in the game.
We may have to be prepared to back a very strong move.
African American Agendas: (Games: Long and Short)
Short Game: immediate attempts to finesse current strategic
dynamics
Empower
the Haitian Population Through Nation Building and Investment in
Social Capital
Social Capital. Quality of Life. Are your
people downtrodden masses or are they viable factors in
international competition. This is the critical component of any
state developmental strategy, an investment in social capital.
Literacy. Poverty. Living Wages. Health, Education and Social
Welfare. Political empowerment. A state is only as strong as its
people. A point that needs to be made to the Haitian elite. They
need a much better sense of stewardship.
Haitis agricultural sector (most of its people) has
been devastated by environmental misuse and economic agreements
w/US. These issues have to be addressed systematically.
Make sure that the marine occupation does
not, as it did in 1915-34, cripple the organizations of the poor
in favor of continued elite rule and increased US hegemonal
pliability.
Breaking that cycle of dysfunction in Haiti
is going to be a long and difficult task. It will take somewhat
more than a village, it will take a generation. Or two.
Transform
the Haitian Elite Into A Progressive Force with Class and Color
Consciousness.
They must be forced to face their own
contradictions, the progressive strands supported, the
exploitive ones restrained.
Convince them that they will never be
respected in the world as long as they continue to treat their
people like this. Convince them that they will never know stable
development. Convince them they will never know respect, power
or security as long as they are renegade forces.
Bind them with democratic instruments designed to
empower the Haitian people.
Influence
The Dynamics of Haitian Governance Currently Being Shaped by
International Forces.
Now the struggle will be to promote a
viable government and progressive politics in Haiti, to build
and shape a democratic infrastructure, and to ensure that
discredited forces that joined hands with the Bush
administration to destabilize Haiti are not rewarded for their
efforts.
CARICOMs move bringing Aristide to Jamaica
means his return or participation in the process becomes an
option. We need to back CARICOMs play, whatever it is, and try
to deflect some of the hostility and pressure they are about to
incur from Bush and Co.
The Bush administration will try to install
folk willing lead Haiti to the corporate slaughter. Folk willing
to sell out Haiti for a fistful of trade beads.
The Election of 2004. Getting the Bush
Administrations neocons cabal in charge of Caribbean policy out
of office will give Haiti a chance to breath. In an effort to
distinguish himself from Bush, Kerry has vaguely spoken out in
support of Aristide. While nothing to bet on, this is just
another reason to work hard for the defeat of George Bush.
(Fundamentalists who continue to claim that there is no
difference between electing Democrats or Republicans need to get
out of the way and go sit in the corner somewhere.)
Basically the immediate move is to transfer
control of this Haitian governing process from the US to the UN
and regional associations, the OAS and CARICOM.
And to further ensure that developmental
strategies of official and NGO instruments are designed to truly
empower the Haitian people.
Depending on what moves CARICOM makes with
Aristide, Aristides return or participation in the next
elections is an option that has to be considered.
In bringing Aristide so close to home, the
likelihood of his partisans remaining a cohesive and influential
force is increased. This is an interesting development that im
not quite sure at this point is going to play out. But so far
its been the strongest African American move on the board
Empowering
African American Policy Influence in Global Affairs & In
Particular the Caribbean
This effort to influence the international
shaping of Haiti will be an exercise in frustration exposing our
weaknesses in policy instruments. Its hard not to feel a certain
sense of guilt that we didnt do more for Aristide and Haiti
before it got dicey and much too late. (Including calling him on
it when he made bad moves.)
Accordingly this should be a dual effort,
(one) to affect the current situation and (two) to enhance and
institutionalize our ongoing ability to influence events in the
world that concern us. Situations like African development or
slavery in the Sudan or the struggles of the untouchables in
India.
We, African Americans, need to forge a
foreign affairs capacity equal to other influential minorities
(which will go unnamed). We need an ongoing and proactive
lobbying infrastructure that will give us the ability to respond
to crises that affect us with something more than hollow bleats
of moral outrage. We need
instruments.
Have to support the ones we have. We have to build new ones
shaped to our needs. Got to get in front of the curve.
Show
Unity With A Beleaguered African American Population.
Personal Commitment: its difficult to take
on new responsibilities that ask us to give to others when we
have so little ourselves, but it is the fundament of the strong
people we would our generations be.
THE LONGGAME:
Fa:
Shaping Our Generations and their Destiny
Use the mojo generated by this situation:
To empower the Haitian people and culture
and to make of it a nation, strong, healthy, wealthy and wise.
To conjure Haiti as the mythopoetic icon of
black pride and empowerment we all know it capable of being.
To empower and strengthen strategic ties
with African American populations of the Hemisphere.
To foster respect for Voodoo (and ATR) in
the world.
To illuminate and empower Haitian voodoo
and remind it of its tribal guidance responsibilities. If they
had been doing their jobs, Haiti would not be in the state it is
today.
* * *
* *
Arthur
Flowers, a Memphis native, is the author of two novels,
De Mojo Blues and Another Good Loving Blues (Ballantine Books), and a children's story,
Cleveland Lee's Beale Street Band. He is a
Vietnam veteran, blues singer, co-founder of the New Renaissance
Writer's Guild. In addition, he is the webmaster of Rootsblog:
A Cyberhoodoo Webspace and a performance artist whose presentation, Delta Oracle: A Griot
Speaks in Tongues, keeps him busy and Professor of MFA Fiction at Syracuse University.
* * * *
The Impact of the
Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World
Reviewed by Mimi Sheller
Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1804
A Brief History with Documents
By Laurent
Dubois and John D. Garrigus
* * *
* *
* * * * *
|
Eyeminded: Living and Writing
Contemporary Art
By
Kellie Jones
A
daughter of the poets
Hettie Jones and Amiri Baraka,
Kellie Jones grew up immersed in a
world of artists, musicians, and
writers in Manhattan’s East Village
and absorbed in black nationalist
ideas about art, politics, and
social justice across the river in
Newark. The activist vision of art
and culture that she learned in
those two communities, and
especially from her family, has
shaped her life and work as an art
critic and curator. Featuring
selections of her writings from the
past twenty years,
EyeMinded reveals Jones’s
role in bringing attention to the
work of African American, African,
Latin American, and women artists
who have challenged established art
practices. Interviews that she
conducted with the painter
Howardena Pindell, the
installation and performance artist
David Hammons, and the
Cuban sculptor Kcho appear along
with pieces on the photographers
Dawoud Bey,
Lorna Simpson, and
Pat Ward Williams; the sculptor
Martin Puryear; the assemblage
artist
Betye Saar; and the painters
Jean-Michel Basquiat,
Norman Lewis, and
Al Loving. Reflecting Jones’s
curatorial sensibility, this
collection is structured as a
dialogue between her writings and
works by her parents, her sister
Lisa Jones, and her husband
Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr.
EyeMinded offers a glimpse
into the family conversation that
has shaped and sustained Jones,
insight into the development of her
critical and curatorial vision, and
a survey of some of the most
important figures in contemporary
art. |
 |
* * *
* *
Michelle Alexander: US Prisons, The New Jim Crow
/
Judge Mathis Weighs in on the execution of Troy Davis
 |
The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
By
Michelle
Alexander
The
mass incarceration of people of color through the War on
Drugs is a big part of the reason that a black child
born today is less likely to be raised by both parents
than a black child born during slavery. The absence of
black fathers from families across America is not simply
a function of laziness, immaturity, or too much time
watching Sports Center. Hundreds of thousands of black
men have disappeared into prisons and jails, locked away
for drug crimes that are largely ignored when committed
by whites. Most people seem to
imagine that the drug war—which has swept millions of
poor people of color behind bars—has been aimed at
rooting out drug kingpins or violent drug offenders.
|
Nothing could be further from the truth.
This war has been focused overwhelmingly on
low-level drug offenses, like marijuana
possession—the very crimes that happen with equal
frequency in middle class white communities.
* *
* * *
|
The Persistence of the Color Line
Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency
By Randall Kennedy
Among the best things about
The Persistence of the Color Line
is watching Mr. Kennedy hash through the
positions about Mr. Obama staked out by
black commentators on the left and
right, from Stanley Crouch and Cornel
West to Juan Williams and Tavis Smiley.
He can be pointed. Noting the way Mr.
Smiley consistently “voiced skepticism
regarding whether blacks should back
Obama” . . .
The
finest chapter in
The Persistence of the Color Line
is so resonant, and so personal, it
could nearly be the basis for a book of
its own. That chapter is titled
“Reverend Wright and My Father:
Reflections on Blacks and Patriotism.”
Recalling some of the criticisms of
America’s past made by Mr. Obama’s
former pastor, Mr. Kennedy writes with
feeling about his own father, who put
each of his three of his children
through Princeton but who “never forgave
American society for its racist
mistreatment of him and those whom he
most loved.” |
 |
His father distrusted the police, who had frequently
called him “boy,” and rejected patriotism. Mr. Kennedy’s father
“relished Muhammad Ali’s quip that the Vietcong had never called
him ‘nigger.’ ” The author places his father, and Mr. Wright, in
sympathetic historical light.
* * * * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
* *
* * *
Ancient African Nations
* * * * *
If you like this page consider making a donation
* * * * *
Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
* * * * *
The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
* *
* * *
The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
* * * * *
* *
* * *
ChickenBones Store
(Books, DVDs, Music, and more)
update 15 February 2012
|
