The ORIGINAL tragedy of Haiti

The recent catastrophic earthquake in Haiti has called attention to what many consider the most dysfunctional nation state in the western hemisphere. That is the context within which many are raising money and aid for the people of that devastated country. The people of Belize, including our Rotary club, are also raising money to send for the relief of the people of Haiti.



One benefit of living outside the U.S., and in an English speaking country, is that you are not limited to the unacknowledged bias and slanting by the “balanced” media in the U.S. (I suspect this is also true of Canada and Western Europe.) One of our weekly papers had an article this weekend written by a leader of one of the campuses of the University of the West Indies. He traces the history of Haiti, and the path to its current condition.


Haiti is much admired in the Caribbean region because it was the second independent nation in the Western Hemisphere. It became an independent democracy (from France) in 1804 as a result of a revolution led by slaves, said by some to be the bloodiest war in modern history. There were 500,000 people, and at the time Haiti had been the most populous and prosperous colony in the Caribbean. Interestingly, colonial economy of the Caribbean was based on slavery, and although there were abolition movements in Britain and France, those movements did not extend to the colonies. Newly independent Haiti welcomed anyone of African descent, immediately granting them citizenship.


For the United States and the colonial powers (France, Britain, Spain, Holland), this would not do. The French refused to recognize their independence, and declared them a pariah state. The United States, which the Haitians looked to as a mentor in independence, also did not recognize them, instead siding with the French. The British had been negotiating with the French to take ownership of Haiti, and so it went with every nation state in the Western world. They were isolated – denied access to world trade and finance, and subject to an embargo.


In 1825, faced with a bankrupt economy, the cabinet decided they had to find a way to be a participant in the world economy. They invited the French to a summit. The French demanded that in exchange for recognition that Haiti would have to pay reparations. With little choice the Haitians accepted the terms, and the French sent appraisers to account for everything, including land, physical assets, the 500,000 citizens who were former slaves, and everything else of value, including the cabinet members themselves.


The sum amounted to 150 million gold francs. (It should be noted that France sold the entire area known as the Louisiana Purchase to the United States for 80 million francs.)


The payments lasted almots 100 years, until 1922, and in some years amounted to as much as 70% of France’s foreign exchange earnings. In bad crop years, they had to borrow from U.S. and French sources, and finally paid off the U.S. debt in 1947, over 140 years following independence. France didn’t defeat the Haitians on the battlefield, but with the support of the U.S., they did on the field of finance.


The U.S occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934, and one of the justifications was to assist France in collecting its reparations. During those 19 years the U.S. controlled customs, collected taxes, and ran many government institutions. One wonders how much else was taken out of the economy at the time. From 1956 to 1986 the U.S. propped up the dictators “Papa Doc” and “Baby Doc” Duvalier, who stole millions and ran up debts to the U.S. 40% of Haiti’s current $1.3 Billion external debt is attributable to the Duvaliers.


In 2004, The U.S. again intervened militarily to prevent popularly elected President Aristide from taking office. Haiti is now the third largest market for U.S. rice, and now imports sugar. Agriculture, which had been the basis of the economy, as been near destroyed. Multi-national corporations now pay Haitians $2/day for factory work.

No doubt the Haitians have made mistakes. So much of their economy was devoted to the reparations payments for so many generations that education, upon which a democracy depends, and infrastructure development only occurred on a piecemeal basis. So France and the U.S. bear great responsibility for the continuing failure of Haiti. Will either country accept that responsibility? I tend to doubt it.

I’ve drawn most of the information presented here from two articles in the 1/24/10 Amandala newspaper. One by Sir Hilary Beckles (nationnews.com) and the other by Bill Quigley, a long time Haiti human rights advocate. He suggests for further reading: “The Uses of Haiti” by Paul Farmer, “Damming the Flood” by Peter Hallward, and “An Unbroken Agony” by Randall Robinson.