THE WHITE CURSE

By Eduardo Galeano Reprint | | Print |

This column is available for visitors to the IPS website only for reading. Reproduction in print or electronic media is prohibited. Media interested in republishing may contact romacol@ips.org.

MONTEVIDEO, Mar 1 2004 (IPS) - On the first day of this year, freedom in this world turned 200. But no one noticed, or almost no one. A few days later the country where this birth occurred, Haiti, found itself in the media spotlight, but not for the anniversary of universal freedom but because there had been a bloodbath that culminated in the ouster of President Aristide, writes Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan writer and novelist and author of \’\’The Open Veins of Latin America\’\’ and \’\’Memories of Fire\’\’. But the international experts are far more destructive than invading troops, Galeano writes in this column. Placed under strict orders from the World Bank and IMF, Haiti obeyed every instruction. The government paid what it was told to even if it meant there would be neither bread nor salt. Their credit was frozen despite the fact the state had been dismantled and the subsidies and tariffs that had protected national production had been eliminated. Rice farmers, once the majority, soon became beggars or boat people. Many have ended in the depths of the Caribbean, and more are following them to the bottom, only these shipwreck victims aren\’t Cuban so their plight never makes the papers. Today Haiti imports all of its rice from the US, where international experts, who are rather distracted people, forgot to prohibit tariffs and subsidies to protect national production.

On the first day of this year, freedom in this world turned 200. But no one noticed, or almost no one. A few days later the country where this birth occurred, Haiti, found itself in the media spotlight, but not for the anniversary of universal freedom but because there had been a bloodbath that culminated in the ouster of President Aristide.

Haiti was the first country to abolish slavery. However, the most widely-read encyclopedias and almost all educational textbooks attribute this honourable deed to England. It is true that one fine day the empire that had been the champion in the slave trade changed its mind about it. But abolition in Britain took place in 1807, three years after the Haitian revolution, and it was so unconvincing that in 1832 Britain had to ban slavery again.

There is nothing new about this slight of Haiti. For two centuries it has suffered scorn and punishment. Thomas Jefferson, a slave owner and champion of liberty at the same time, warned that Haiti had created a bad example and argued it was necessary to ”confine the plague to the island”. His country heeded him. It was sixty years before the US granted diplomatic recognition to this freest of nations. Meanwhile in Brazil disorder and violence came to be called ”haitianism”. Slave owners there were saved from this fury until 1888 when Brazil abolished slavery — the last country in the world to do so.

* * *

And Haiti went back to being an invisible nation — until the next bloodbath. During its brief sojourn on TV screens and front pages earlier this year, the media showed confusion and violence and confirmed that Haitians were born to do evil well and do good badly. Since its revolution, Haiti has been capable only of mounting tragedies. Once a happy and prosperous colony, it is now the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere. Revolutions, certain specialists have concluded, lead straight to the abyss; others have suggested, if not stated outright, that the Haitian tendency to fratricide derives from its savage African heredity. The rule of the ancestors. The black curse that engenders crime and chaos.

Of the white curse nothing was said.

* * *

The French revolution had abolished slavery, but Napoleon revived it.

”Which regime was most prosperous for the colonies?”

”The previous one.”

”Then reinstate it.”

To reinstate slavery in Haiti, France sent more that 50 shiploads of soldiers. The country’s blacks rose up and defeated France and won national independence and freedom for the slaves. In 1804, they inherited a land that had been razed to make sugar cane plantations and consumed by the conflagrations of a fierce civil war. And they inherited ”the French debt”. France made Haiti pay dearly for the humiliation it inflicted on Napoleon Bonaparte. The newly born nation had to commit to pay a gigantic indemnification for the damage it had caused in winning its freedom. This expiation of the sin of freedom would cost Haiti 150 million gold francs. The new country was born with a rope wrapped tightly around its neck: the equivalent of 21.7 billion in today’s dollars, or 44 times Haiti’s current yearly budget. It took it far more than a century to pay off the debt, which ballooned with usurious interest rates. Finally in 1938 Haiti made the last payment. Since then it has belonged to the banks of the US.

* * *

In exchange for this fortune, France officially recognised the new nation. No other countries did so. Haiti was born condemned to solitude.

Not even Simon Bolivar recognised Haiti, though he owed it everything. In 1816 it was Haiti that furnished Bolivar with boats, arms, and soldiers when he showed up on the island defeated and asking for shelter and help. Haiti gave him everything with only one condition: that he free the slaves — an idea that had not occurred to him until then. The great man triumphed in his war of independence and showed his gratitude by sending a sword as a gift to Port-au-Prince. Of recognition he made no mention.

In reality the Spanish colonies that had become independent countries continued to allow slavery, although some had laws against it. Bolivar proclaimed his own such law in 1821, but news of it didn’t travel far. Thirty years later, in 1851, Colombia abolished slavery; Venezuela followed suit in 1854.

* * *

In 1915 the Marines landed in Haiti. They stayed 19 years. The first thing they did was occupy the customs house and duty collection facilities. The occupying army suspended the salary of the Haitian president until he agreed to sign off on the liquidation of the Bank of the Nation, which became a branch of City Bank of New York. The president and other blacks were barred entry into the private hotels, restaurants, and clubs of the foreign occupying power. The occupiers didn’t dare reestablish slavery but they did impose forced labour for the building of public works. And they killed a lot of people. It wasn’t easy to quell the fires of resistance. The guerilla chief, Charlemagne Peralte, was exhibited in the public square, crucified on a door to teach the people a lesson.

This civilising mission ended in 1934. The occupiers withdrew leaving a National Guard, which they had created, in their place to exterminate any possible trace of democracy. They did the same in the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. A short time afterwards, Duvalier became the Haitian equivalent of Somoza and Trujillo.

* * *

And so, from dictator to dictator, from promise to betrayal, one misfortune followed another.

Aristide, the rebel priest, became president in 1991. He lasted a few months before the US government helped to oust him, took him, subjected him to a certain treatment, and then sent him back, in the arms of Marines, to resume his post. Then once again, in 2004, the US helped to remove him from power, and yet again there was killing. And yet again the Marines came back, as they always seem to, like the flu.

But the international experts are far more destructive than invading troops. Placed under strict orders from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Haiti obeyed every instruction, without cheating. The government paid what it was told to even if it meant there would be neither bread nor salt. Their credit was frozen despite the fact the state had been dismantled and the subsidies and tariffs that had protected national production had been eliminated. Rice farmers, once the majority, soon became beggars or boat people. Many have ended in the depths of the Caribbean, and more are following them to the bottom, only these shipwreck victims aren’t Cuban so their plight never makes the papers.

Today Haiti imports all of its rice from the United States, where international experts, who are rather distracted people, forgot to prohibit tariffs and subsidies to protect national production.

* * *

On the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, there is a large sign that reads: Road to Ruin.

On the other side is the black hell. Blood and hunger, misery and disease.

In this much feared hell, everyone is a sculptor. Haitians have the habit of collecting tin cans and scrap metal that they cut and shape and hammer with old-world mastery, creating marvels that are sold in the street markets.

Haiti is a country that has been thrown away, as an eternal punishment of its dignity. There it lies, like scrap metal. It awaits the hands of its people. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)