What do you really know about the world’s first black republic? What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear a reference to Haiti?

As I’ve mentioned before, what you don’t know about your culture can hurt you. The same holds true for history. At some point, I will absolutely get around to taking a closer look at what passes for history education in T&T, but by now we should all know we haven’t been taught the whole truth as it relates local or global history. Most of us pick up bits and pieces of the truth here and there over time. Those of us so inclined will go looking off the beaten path of the historical record. No matter how we come across it, we’re often floored to discover the depth of the lies we’ve been fed (often in a classroom) as historical fact.

There’s one pack of falsehoods I find particularly infuriating and it’s trotted out every single time a certain one of our CARICOM neighbours makes the international news. Very rarely does the mainstream media present a news story about Haiti that isn’t dripping with “look at those poor savages” condescension. Don’t get me wrong, they condescend to us all, but Haiti in particular is treated as a disturbing mix of a cautionary tale and the inevitable conclusion of letting a certain kind of person attempt to govern themselves. The presentation is almost skillful enough to hide the intent.

Before I look at specific attempts to further a tired and misleading narrative with the aim of supporting equally tired imperialist ideals, let’s look at what’s true about Haiti.

The Truth

As a colony under brutal French rule, Haiti, then called Saint Domingue (AKA the “Pearl of the Antilles”), produced immense wealth for France in the form of coffee, indigo and sugar during the 17th and 18th centuries. In return, the French brutalised the people they kidnapped and enslaved to the extent that they required a constant supply of newly-abducted African people to maintain production.

In the late 18th century, the enslaved people of Saint Domingue revolted and not only liberated themselves, but eventually persuaded France to abolish enslavement across its empire in exchange for holding onto a very valuable colony.

However, colonisers gonna colonise, so it wasn’t long before good old Napoleon Bonaparte came along and decided these folks needed to be put back in what he thought was their rightful place. He brought back slavery in the other French colonies, granting France the dubious honour of being the only country to ever try that particular about-face. When the Saint Domingue revolutionaries heard about that, they decided it was time to be free of the French empire altogether, sparking the war for Haitian Independence in the beginning of the 19th century.

Which… they won.

Thus an independent Haiti was born in 1804. It was the very first independant Caribbean state, the world’s first Black republic and the second republic in the western hemisphere (established just 28 years after the United States).

The Haitian people immediately banned enslavement AND the transcontinental slave trade, becoming the first country to do so. By way of context, the British empire didn’t ban the slave trade until three years later and they didn’t pass the Abolition Act until 29 years later (after Jamaica rebelled). PLUS, they were still enslaving Caribbean people five years after that.

Many of us didn’t learn this in history class. I certainly didn’t. As I recall, the “slavery” chapters of my high school textbooks barely referenced “bloody slave rebellions” if they mentioned them at all. More often, they’d talk about the white abolitionists who saw the injustice and used their privilege to secure freedom for the poor “slaves”. They didn’t mention that the first abolitionists were the enslaved people themselves.

Nor did they mention how the so-called First World punished those pioneers of the abolitionist movement for daring to fight for the freedom to which they were entitled.

Twenty-one years after Haiti fought to free itself from its savage French colonisers, those same people sailed over in a fleet of warships and demanded reparations for their so-called losses. In exchange, the French offered a promise to not invade the sovereign nation and an end to the economic and political isolation that had been imposed upon the Haitian people since they won their freedom.

For, you see, France wasn’t the only nation bothered by the audacity of these revolutionaries. Their neigbours to the north (and French ally) the United States of America wasn’t thrilled about the effect a successful nation of Black revolutionaries might have on its own population of enslaved people. The US wouldn’t get around to issuing the Emancipation Proclamation until a full 61 years after Haiti’s independence. It therefore refused to acknowledge Haitian Independence for 58 years, right up until the southern states seceded from the Union in 1862. That refusal didn’t stop the US from trading heavily with Haiti, though, and it made sure that that economic relationship worked out in its favour.

So, when France rolled up in 1825 to extort money from the people they had abducted and enslaved, Haiti was in no position to refuse and Haitian citizens ended up paying for it for 122 years.

If you’re wondering what the formerly enslaved people of Haiti, people who had already put their lives on the line for their freedom, had to pay to have that freedom recognised by the so-called civilised world… well. France’s accountants did the math and figured that they were owed 150 million gold francs (more than $20 billion today). This was eventually reduced a bit to 90 million francs, but Haiti had to provide a 50% discount on all their exports to France AND they had to borrow from French banks to make their payments.

They made the last payment of this so-called “debt” in the year 1947. That’s the middle of the last century, y’all.

As if that wasn’t enough, while they were being extorted by France, the US was busy in their business with economic exploitation and military occupation, teaching Haiti’s national army all kinds of tricks that later came in handy in several coups. And then there was the neverending foreign political interference.

When you add in the hurricanes that are a perennial part of Caribbean life and a devastating earthquake in 2010 (not to mention the deadly cholera epidemic caused by UN peacekeepers who were supposed to be there to help), you can see how this nation was not given even the slightest sliver of a chance to prosper.

Oh and, in case you’re wondering, France has ZERO intention of paying back the funds they stole.

How much of the above did you already know? How much of it do you see in the coverage that emerges every single time Haiti is devastated by another natural disaster or (disturbingly more often) harmed by nations and organisations that purport to want to help?

Wondering why that is? Well, let’s take a look at the coverage coming out of the latest top news story relating to this nation.

The Lies

On Wednesday, 7th July, 2021, controversial (and US, UN and OAS backed) Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated, reportedly by trained commandoes or mercenaries who spoke Spanish and allegedly identified themselves as US DEA agents (naturally the US strongly disputes that last part). This is all happening against a backdrop of the ongoing pandemic in a nation which is, as mentioned above, still grappling with the effects of being hamstrung in every way by the “First World”.

So, how do the majority of articles contextualise this story?

Generally, by making sure to include a line about Haiti being the “poorest country in the Americas“, without reference to why that might be, beyond the ongoing effects of the 2010 earthquake. Some just focus on the most recent political turmoil and the wider pandemic strife. Even articles ostensibly written with the aim of shedding light on how Haiti came to this point manage to glide right over some of the most heinous ways outside interference continues to suffocate this nation.

This approach is not new. Everything I know about Haiti’s history beyond the usual narrative of poverty, violence and corruption I’ve learned by digging. Every conversation I’ve had with anyone who isn’t already versed in their history (here and abroad) has been steeped in conclusions based on exactly the kind of narratives usually perpetuated in the media.

Understandably so.

It’s difficult to tell the true story of Haiti and still claim the kind of moral superiority the “developed world” needs in order to wield influence on a global scale. It’s no less challenging to claim a divine right to rule if you’re being honest about the kind of brutality you’ve inflicted in order to do so. Even worse, it’s near impossible to sell the myth of meritocracy if folks know you funded your technological superiority with the wealth you stole from those you oppressed.

It’s all much easier if you pretend to forget it all and offer your sympathies and sporadic (and sloppy) humanitarian aid while shaking your head sadly at the inability of those poor “developing” countries to govern themselves.

N’est pas?