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"Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité" : The Case of Haitian

Exceptionalism and the Greater Caribbean

Andrew Nelson

Political Science 640

Dr. Krishna

16 December, 2013

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Haiti has for many years been seen as a textbook example of

the “failed state theory” in action, this premise relies on the

notion that Haiti has possessed a state structure. The study of

Haiti can be described as “…watching a car wreck on the highway:

one can feel the distasteful thrill of seeing blood splattered on

the warm asphalt, while enjoying the luxury of being on the safe

side of the road. In Haiti, the car wreck has unfolded in slow

motion for two hundred years”.1 The story of Haiti unfolds much

like a Shakespearean tragedy, complete with larger than life

personalities, yet very little positive results and plenty of

bloodshed. There have been many theories put forward to explain

how Haiti is so different from the rest of the Caribbean, one of

these theories is known as “Haitian Exceptionalism”, unlike the

American form, Haitian exceptionalism argues that Haiti and by

default, the Haitian people hold a unique place within the

region’s history that has doomed the island republic to failure

1 Philippe Girard, Paradise Lost: Haiti's Tumultuous Journey from Pearl of the Caribbean to Third World Hot Spot, (New York City: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 4.

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from the beginning. This concept will be examined through the

complex political and economic relationships that Haiti has

formed with the wider Caribbean communities, France, the United

States as well as within its own borders. The colonial racial

caste system, the impact of French enlightenment thinking on the

early revolutionaries as well as the complex relationships that

emerge between the colonized and the colonizer will be examined

under the larger umbrella of Haitian exceptionalism in order to

discuss the age old question of Haitian underdevelopment. I

agree with the sentiments of Patrick Bellegarde-Smith who said

concerning Haiti, “Haitian reality is complex and often

perplexing to the casual observer. Haitian scholars often take

issue with Western analyses that see Haitians as solely

responsible for their nation’s plight and that perceive foreign

intervention and colonialism as constructive and mismanagement,

economic downturns, government corruption, and class and color

antagonisms as part of Haitian reality”.2 The recurring

antagonistic relationship between Haiti and CARICOM, the leading

regional trade bloc that is dominated by Anglophone Caribbean

2 Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, Haiti: The Breached Citadel, (Toronto: Canadian Scholar'sPress Inc., 2004), 7.

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interests showcases the concept of Haitian Exceptionalism within

a regional political and trading bloc.

CARICOM emerged from the British West Indies Federation

formed in 1958, however following the independence of many

Caribbean island nations from the United Kingdom and other

respective European powers; the need for a Caribbean Community

post-independence was needed. The original CARICOM member states

were all English speaking; the four founding nations were

Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana as well as Trinidad and Tobago. The

other early members of the organization were Antigua and Barbuda,

Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia

and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The only non-island nation

is Belize, which was formally known as British Honduras. The

Bahamas joined in 1983. The two non-English speaking nations

joined later, Dutch speaking Suriname in 1995 and French speaking

Haiti fairly recently in 2002. With regards to per-capita GDP’s,

the vast majority of the Caribbean nations fall into the middle

income set for the region.

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“Of Caricom’s 15 members, only the Bahamas have achieved the

status of an upper-income country, with an annual per-capita GDP

exceeding US$17,000. Most are middle-income countries, with GDP

per-capita hovering near $3,500 in Dominica, Jamaica, and St.

Vincent and the Grenadines, and exceeding $10,000 in Antigua and

Barbuda as well as Barbados”.3

To begin the discussion, the history of colonization in the

entire Caribbean must be analyzed through a critical historical

lens in order to understand the unique issues facing the region

today and not just Haiti. Globalization has been in the region

since the first Europeans set forth upon various island shores.

Malcolm Cross notes “The history of Caribbean agricultural

dependency is closely linked with European colonialism which

altered the financial potential of the region by introducing a

plantation system. While the early stages of colonization

involved the Spanish conquest of the “New World” and the

subsequent enslavement of the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean

and the introduction of African slavery, the seventeenth century

3 Daniel Erickson, and Adam Minson, "The Caribbean: Democracy Adrift,"

Journal of Democracy, 16, no. 4 (2005): 159-171.

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brought a new series of oppressors in the form of the Dutch, the

English, and the French. By the middle of the eighteenth century

sugar was Britain’s largest import which made the Caribbean that

much more important as a colony”.4 The region historically has

embodied the definition of economic colonialism. European powers

utilized the rich agricultural land for cash crops in order to

benefit their societies at home. The economic philosophy of the

time was mercantilism, which stated that the nation with the

largest gold deposits was considered the wealthiest and thus the

most powerful. The implementation of the plantation system in

the Caribbean was done through the genocide of the Indigenous

peoples of the Caribbean, namely the Arawak and Taino peoples and

further cemented through Irish and African slave labour. The

stage was thus set for the agricultural dependency of Caribbean

states to their former colonial nations as well as to the United

States which sought to assert its perceived “ownership” of the

regions wealth as well. Haiti has a history similar to Cross’s

summation, however the nation possesses a history slightly

different from that of nations such as Jamaica or Barbados and

4 Cross Malcolm, Urbanization and Urban Growth in the Caribbean, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979), pp3.

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this history plays a role in modern day Haitian politics and

society.

Like many Caribbean nations, Haiti and the island of

Hispaniola has seen the wars of various European nations enacted

on its shores. The island has switched between Spanish, British,

Dutch and French colonial rule, a history not uncommon for the

region. Haiti was considered a sugar giant in the region while

under French control, however the most prominent commodity of

Haiti both colonial and modern has been its people. “Haitians

are descendants of former slaves and freed people, the affranchise,

who fought and defeated the French army in the late eighteenth

century. The race and color breakdown of the population is

approximately 93 percent black and 7 percent mulatto. Included

in these figures are hundreds of Syrio-Lebanese and Palestinians

(known locally as Syrien) who arrived at the turn of the century;

Polish descendents of Napoléon’s army that occupied Haiti in the

early 1800s; descendents of some German, French, and Scandinavian

males; and a few other Caucasians”.5 The issues of race and caste

5 (Bellegarde-Smith, 18-19.).

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in Haiti play a large role in the formation of the modern Haitian

state and the racial politics that occurs to this day in Haiti.

In his “A Systematic Idea for the Manner of Leading a People

to the Sentiment of Liberty and to a Civilized State”, French

Philosopher Denis Diderot stated that,

“If I had to civilize savages, what would I do? I would do useful

things in their presence, without saying or prescribing anything to them. I

would maintain an air of working for my family alone and for myself. If I had

to build up a nation to [the sentiment of] liberty, what would I do? I would

plant a colony of free men in their midst, very free ones, such as (for

example) the Swiss, whose privileges I would protect very securely. And I

would leave the remainder to time and to the force of example”.6

This quotation is common within the enlightenment thinking of the

era on the issues of colonialism and liberty. Diderot is arguing

for a form of settler colonialism that in his mind would

“improve” society for the colonized, therefore equating the

colonized with a low status with regards to their demand for

liberty and “civilization”. This type of largely racialized

thinking influenced and is still influencing Haitian politics and6 Sunil Agnani, Hating Empire Properly: The Two Indies and the Limits of Enlightenment Anticolonialism, (New York City: Fordham University Press, 2013), 38-39.

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society to this day. The seemingly limitless number of ethnic

and racial subcastes in colonial Saint-Domingue are far too

numerous to mention in detail; however it is important to know

the three primary castes in colonial society on Saint-Domingue.

“There were in the colony three ‘castes’, or legally and customarily

defined status groups, into which a person was born and out of which it was

difficult or impossible to move. At the top of the power structure was the

white caste, numbering about 40,000; at the bottom were the roughly 450,000

slaves and in the middle were the free coloured people or affranchise, numbering

around 28,000. Also we should mention the marrons, or maroons as they were

called in the British colonies; these were slaves who had escaped from the

plantations and lived in the hills as outlaws. Finally, there were a number

of foreign white residents. … It was possible for slaves, through

manumission, to become affranchise; it was even possible for affranchise to pass

for white”.7

The divide between “African” and “mullato” in Haitian politics

was at its most contentious during the rule of François Duvalier.

The fake Black Nationalism espoused by Duvalier dates back to the

racial divisions set up during French colonial rule. For

instance, “Like Soulouque and Dessalines before him; Papa Doc 7 David Nicholls, Haiti In Caribbean Context: Ethnicity, Economy and Revolt, (London: The MacMillan Press Ltd., 1985), 22-23.

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used racial pride to justify his authoritative rule. He killed

and exiled thousands of mullattoes. He changed the national flag

from blue and red to black and red. He made stirring references

to the black slave’s courage in 1791 and claimed to head a new

black revolution. He regularly denounced outside powers for

their imperialism; the Dominican Republic was the most likely

suspect, but France and the United States regularly took their

share of public opprobrium. This black nationalism was as fake

as it was self-serving, for Papa Doc never shied away from

privately enlisting the support of those foreign powers he

denounced in public”.8 This is more or less the case for the

continuing leaders of Haiti following fairer elections, Jean

Bertrand-Aristide still relied on the United States for support

and this is evident in the American role in Haiti as well as in

Aristide’s downfall.

The role of the United States in the Caribbean has been a

history of colonialism, coups, slavery and other forms of

oppressive colonial economics. The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 8 (Girard, 98-99).

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claimed that all lands in the Americas needed to be free from

European influence and further asserted that the United States

was the major player in the regions affairs. The most

recognizable actions taken by the United States in the region

have been largely relegated to two nations, Cuba and Haiti. The

Spanish-American War in 1898 placed Cuba under American control

for a short period of time, as well as ushering in the era of

American imperialism in the Pacific. The 1962 Cuban Missile

Crises again placed Cuba under the American radar. The defeat of

American backed Dictator Fulgencio Batista by the rebel forces of

Fidel Castro and Che Guevara in 1959 placed the two nations at

odds and continued to affect American policy in the region to

this day. The United States has a long history of military

presence and occupation in Haiti. Early on there was a strong

opposition to Europeans and all white people (acun blanc), owning

land in Haiti. However, the relationship between Haiti and the

United States in the early days of independence was one of trade

and openness.

“During the first two years of independence, the USA was Haiti’s most

important trading partner and one Haitian, writing anonymously in the official

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Gazette, warned against the danger of United States imperialism. Owing to its

proximity, as well as to the frequent visits of its citizens to the ports of

the empire and to ‘the pretentions to which these might give birth’, the USA,

he warmed, might in the future be a greater threat to Haitian independence

than were the countries of Europe. Because of pressure from the French

government, however, whose diplomatic support the Americans needed in their

dispute with Spain over the details of the Louisiana purchase, an embargo was

placed by the US government on commerce with Haiti in February 1806”.9

The anonymous Haitian writer was correct in much of his

assumptions; the United States occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934

and gave inception to the concept of “Haitian fascism”,

Martial law was enforced throughout the U.S. occupation, and the Haitian

legislature was dissolved in 1917, not to reconvene until 1930. In a six-

month period in 1956-1957, five Haitian governments followed one another in

rapid succession until the United States helped to install the dynastic

Duvalier dictatorship, which ruled Haiti with an iron fist until its overthrow

in 1986. The demand for more democracy in Haiti has always resulted in more

rather than less repression as a ruling regime answers challenges to its

control with even more repressive measures to maintain the status quo”.10

The argument made is that the colonial systems set up during the

era of US occupation set the stage for further political 9 (Nicholls, 89).10 Ibid, 96.

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instability in Haiti. This is evident, but the reality is that

any foreign occupation damages the future political stability of

the occupied nation. The impact of the American occupation was

largely economic first and political second, A U.S. envoy to

Haiti was quoted as saying in 1914 of the benefits to America if

they gained control of the Haitian customhouses that,

The government will find it most difficult to operate. The statement

that the government, in the absence of a budget convention, will be without

income is based upon the fact that… the bank is designated as the sole

treasury of the government, and as such receives all moneys of the government,

and further is empowered to hold such moneys intact until the end of the

fiscal year…. It is just this condition that the government, when confronted

by such a crisis, would be forced to ask the assistance of the United States

in adjusting its financial tangle and that American supervision of the customs

would result.”11

While some of the Haitian elite supported American intervention

as they stood to benefit both economically and politically, the

occupation can be described as a failure for the United States as

well as the Haitian elite because it strengthened the opposition

movements within Haitian society that opposed the corrupt

11 Ibid, 99.

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governments prior to American intervention and now had another

enemy in which to bolster their political goals. As a U.S.

Marine major stated in 1916,

As far as I am able, this country shall be run as a piece of machinery,

with no preference being shown any negro owing for a supposed superiority due

to the infusement of white blood in his veins …. There will be a deadline

drawn between me and the Haitians, the same as there is in Egypt … between the

British … and the Egyptians.”12

The era of American occupation did not set the stage for Haitian

underdevelopment, however it occurred during a period that should

have been of crucial economic importance to Haiti, the occupation

did not instill the ethnic caste system, but it enforced them for

the sake of political maneuvering, what the American occupation

largely did was create a “relationship” between Haiti and the

United States that continues until the present day. The argument

that Haiti “failed” due to adoption of certain aspects of French

Enlightenment thinking associated with the French Revolution

combined with a revolution largely led by the Haitian upper-class

and as some may say “absent” of Indigenous Haitian thinking has

12 Ibid, 103-104.

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gained traction in recent years and plays a prominent role in the

supposed uniqueness of Haiti within the Caribbean and its

relationship to other Caribbean nations who following

independence kept their foreign monarch as the head of state such

as the Anglophone Caribbean nations who are part of the

Commonwealth of Nations.

The nation currently known as the Republic of Haiti came to

be following the only successful slave rebellion in the Western

Hemisphere. The former nation of St. Domingue came to be known

as Haiti in 1804 following the successful overthrow of the French

colonial authorities. Whereas many of the Anglophone nations

claim a peaceful and successful transition from colonial rule to

democratic independence, Haiti has possessed a long history of

political corruption. “In spite of effort by Henry Christophe to

promote honesty in public administration, this heritage of

corruption was never eliminated. An essentially “private”

concept of the state took root, and the distinction between

public and private funds became blurred. Politics became merely

the infighting of various cliques in pursuit of the spoils which

accrued to the holder of the presidential office and his

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followers, while the peasant masses remained entirely outside the

political process except when called upon (and/or hired) to help

one or another of the contending groups”.13 Whereas many of the

leading nations in the region claim to be free from corruption or

having limited corruption, Haiti is often pointed to as the odd

man out within the region for that very reason. In speaking on

that subject, current Haitian President Michel Martelly stated

that “Haiti must be viewed and treated as an opportunity, despite

its difficulties; Haiti represents a wonderful opportunity for

the region, an opportunity for every single country of

CARICOM”.14 While pan-Caribbean attempts have been made to bring

Haiti in line with the rest of the region in the case of tackling

political corruption, there has not been a clear effort by

CARICOM to invest the political capital into such a project. The

relationship between Haitian history and that of the Anglophone 13 Mats Lundahl, "History as an Obstacle to Change: The Case of Haiti," Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, 31, no. 1/2 (1989): 1-21, http://www.jstor.org/stable/165908 . (accessed December 5, 2013).

14 Britell, Alexander. "Haiti's Martelly Urges Caribbean on Climate Change, Integration." The Caribbean Journal, February 18, 2013.

http://www.caribjournal.com/2013/02/18/haitis-martelly-urges-caribbean-

on-climate-change-integration/ (accessed December 5, 2013).

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Caribbean can also be described within the contexts of culture

and identity and how those aspects affect government formation.

Haiti has a long history of borrowing political institutions

from other nations in order to emulate what they perceive to be

effective governmental forms. Fred Reno argues that this move

has been one of the reasons behind Haiti’s political instability

throughout history.

“The Republic officially installed on 18 December 1806 was a liberal

regime of sorts. It borrowed from internationally available political models.

Its institutions could hardly depart from the former colonial power’s models

or from those of the American neighbor whose revolution against England

fascinated the elites of Santo Domingo. The new state was inspired by the

French political structures of the period, but it disregarded the importance

of the cultural environment that was part and parcel of those structures.

While it cannot be denied that culture is a construct that does not export

easily, the English-speaking Caribbean countries illustrate the fact that

under certain historical circumstances, particularly in colonies with non-

indigenous populations, certain features of the metropolitan political culture

could be imported”.15

15 Fred Reno, "Democratic Transition and Authoritarianism: The Case of Haiti,"Modern Political Culture in the Caribbean, ed. Holger Henke and Fred Reno (Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 2003), 429-430.

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It can be seen and said that the psyche of the vast majority of

Anglophone Caribbean nations view themselves on a tier above

Haiti in the global community of nations and certainly in the

Caribbean region as well. This elitism and mentality has been a

great detriment to true regional integration. This can be seen

through the concept known as “Haitian exceptionalism”.

One of the pathological responses to the Haitian problem is

simply to say that the Haitian mentality and/or culture is the

driving factor behind its under-development and inability to

prosper within a regionally integrated organization such as

CARICOM. “In this characterization by many missionary groups,

development workers, or people with experience in hierarchical

relationships with them, Haitian people lack a sense of

responsibility, a sense of civic consciousness, and are, in

short, a backward and fatalistic people whose future is hopeless,

expressed by the phrase, se pat fòt mwen (it’s not my fault)”.16 The

economic situation in Haiti showcases the bleak reality that

faces the Haitian people on a daily basis; two main issues take 16 Mark Schuller, “Haiti’s 200 Year Ménage-À-Trois: Globalization, The State, and Civil Society,” Caribbean Studies 35, no.1 (2007): 143-144, accessed December5, 2013, http://www.potomitan.net/downloads/Schuller-Haitis-Menage-a-Trois.pdf.

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the forefront in Haitian economic policy, hunger and

malnutrition.

The island mass known as Hispaniola consists of the two

independent nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Many

political and economic observers see Haiti as the poster child

for Third World poverty and political corruption in the Americas.

With high rates of hunger and malnutrition, food security as well

as food sovereignty needs to be examined. The concept of food

security is defined by the World Trade Organization (WTO), as “a

state when all people at all times have access to sufficient,

safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”.17

Under this definition many nations including the United States

would not be considered to possess food security. In the case of

Haiti the situation is much worse, “Haiti, with a population of

approximately 8 million, is one of the most densely populated and

poorest countries in the western hemisphere, where it occupies

the rugged western-most third of the island of Hispaniola. About

17 Mohammed, A. 2009. “Food Prices and Food Security in CARICOM: The Case of Trinidad and Tobago.” Paper presented at the 28th West Indies Agricultural Economics Conference/2009 Barbados National Agricultural Conference, Bridgetown, Barbados, July 6-10, 2009. http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/122661/2/Food%20prices%20and%20food%20security%20in%20CARICOM.pdf

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80 percent of the rural population lives below the poverty line,

and life expectancy is only 54 years. Approximately half of

Haitian children under the age of 5 years experience some level

of malnutrition, and government remittances play a large role in

the survival of families in rural Haiti”.18 It should be noted

that the majority of Haitians live in rural areas. For example

the population of the capital city of Port-au-Prince has a

population slightly under one million. Unlike in other nations

emerging from colonialism, urbanization does not seem to be a

guiding issue within the economic debate. The Haitian situation

is not unique in the world, many nations suffer from some form of

malnutrition and hunger issues, yet the staggering percentages in

Haiti are beyond comparison anywhere else in the region.

While CARICOM claims that it is addressing the issues of

hunger and malnutrition, the reality is that the growth of

Caribbean economies has been limited to a few select nations and

a few select groups of peoples within the community and does not

reflect the economic realities of the region as a whole. A big

18 Britt Reid, Walter Psoter, Bette Gebrian, and Min Qi Wang, "The Effect of an International Embargo on Malnutrition and Childhood Mortality in Rural Haiti," International Journal of Health Services, 37, no. 3 (2007): pp 501-513,

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reason given for the continuation of an export based economy is

the colonial connections to the United Kingdom and by default,

the European Union and how the EU has been a benefactor of the

regions wealth often at the consent of the CARICOM leadership.

The nature of Haitian independence in contrast with Anglophone

Caribbean independence has largely altered the relationship

between colony and colonizer. Toussaint L’Ouverture as the

central figure behind Haitian liberation should be examined as a

prime example of the uniqueness of Haitian independence in

comparison with the rest of the Caribbean. L’Ouverture was

originally known as Pierre-Toussaint Dominque and he was a former

slave who had taught himself to be literate and was a military

commander originally for the Spanish and later for the French

colonial army. Despite being the most well known figure of the

revolution, he was overthrown and shipped to France where he died

in 1803. Toussaint ruled Haiti while it was still under nominal

French colonization.19 His admiration from France and the ideals

of the revolution both granted him great power and yet like so

many it did not seem to work out. C.L.R. James argues,

19 (Bellegarde-Smith 63-64).

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If he was convinced that San Domingo would decay without the benefits of

the French connection, he was equally certain that slavery could never be

restored. Between these two certainties, he, in whom penetrating vision and

prompt decision had become second nature, became the embodiment of

vacillation. His allegiance to the French Revolution and all it opened out

for mankind in general and the people of San Domingo in particular, this had

made him what he was. But this in the end ruined him. Perhaps for him to

have expected more than the bare freedom was too much for the time”.20

L’Ouverture and a lot of Haitians were rightly afraid what

independence would bring for a small black governed island nation

surrounded by colonial European outposts and a rising global

power in the United States. James’s assessment truly hints to the

dilemma that the early revolutionaries experienced with regards

to the future of Haitian-French relations. In many colonial

cases, the colonial society upon gaining independence utilizes

the country that they are most familiar with to bolster trade and

often adopts governmental and societal systems from that nation.

This was no different in Haiti with regards to France as it was

in India with regards to the United Kingdom. This fear amongst

20 C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture And The San Domingo Revolution, (NewYork City: Vintage Books, 1963), 290-291.

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all the recently independent Caribbean nations was a large

impetus in promoting a Caribbean regional identity and economy.

It is not easy being a small island nation in an increasing

global world where liberalized trade is the economic model to

follow for many nations. That thought process was the

inspiration behind the creation of CARICOM, also known as the

Caribbean Community. It is described as “the oldest and, in

terms of number of member countries, the largest integration

group in the western hemisphere. With a combined population of

about 13.3 million and GDP of $28.198 billion, it also represents

the smallest integration group in the hemisphere on economic

terms. Beyond economic smallness, CARICOM countries are unique

among others in the western hemisphere in terms of their strong

historical ties to the UK and their relative youth as independent

nations”.21 The connection with the UK has also allowed for the

Anglophone Caribbean nations to be the driving force behind

CARICOM policies. Of the 15 nations that comprise the modern day

CARICOM community, only two are non-English speaking nations.

21 Sandberg Mikael, Seale James, and Taylor Timothy, "History, Regionalism, and CARICOM Trade: A Gravity Model Analysis," Journal of Development Studies, 42, no. 5 (2006): 795-811,

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Haiti, which speaks French along with Haitian Creole and Suriname

which is Dutch speaking, While it is true that the organization

was set up for the Anglophone nations after independence from the

United Kingdom, the organization cannot claim to speak for the

entire Caribbean, or can they? There are other regional

organizations at play such as the Association of Caribbean states

(ACS), yet their power pales In comparison to CARICOM. Many of

the Francophone nations are considered “equal” French citizens

under French law and therefore ineligible to join, largely

because of the French government’s unwieldiness to give up its

Caribbean colonies such as Martinique and Guadeloupe. The

impetus for the “special relationship” between CARICOM and the

European Union began officially in 1975.

The relatively recent independence of many Caribbean nations

has allowed for a relatively comfortable relationship between

CARICOM and the European Union. This is evident in the Lomé

Convention of 1975. “The Lomé Convention is the most complete

and ambitious attempt at engineering a progressive agreement

between the global North and the global South as it is now

referred to. As well as providing economic development finance,

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the European Union agreed to give the countries of Africa, the

Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) privileged access to its

markets”.22 The article is a bit dated, yet claims that the

original intent was for France and the European Union to

“protect” the Southern nations from the effects of globalization

and under the renegotiated treaty, the WTO was forcing France and

the EU to abandon its “humanitarian” principles”. While it can

be argued that this is in fact the case and the EU is attempting

to make Caribbean exports competitive to benefit the nations of

CARIOM, the reality is that the European Union is perpetuating

the plantation system of cash crops such as sugar and bananas as

opposed to setting a goal to defeat hunger and malnutrition in

the region through food security and diversity of crops. In

reality, this agreement can be seen as a continuation of the long

history of economic and trade dependency in the Caribbean.

Economic dependence has been a great deterrent to economic and

political development in Haiti and the rest of the Caribbean as

well. Haiti in comparison with other nations in the region has

22 Anne-Marie, Mouradian. "The Lomé Convention under Threat." Le Monde Diplomatique, English Edition June 1998. http://mondediplo.com/1998/06/08lome (accessed November 27, 2013).

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suffered from this dependency even more. Following the

revolution, a choice needed to be made and Dessalines made a

choice that would impact Haitian economics and politics for many

generations to come. Philippe Girard explains this question as,

Like Louverture before him, the most important decision Dessalines made

upon becoming dictator of Haiti was economic. Should he distribute the land

to the Haitian peasants, on which they would most likely grow subsistence

crops? Or should he force peasants to remain on large sugar plantations, a

more lucrative, but less popular, option? Following in Louverture’s footstep,

Dessalines opted for the latter option. Haitian power stemmed from its army

and commerce, which themselves were reliant on sugar and coffee exports. The

public good of the country had to supersede private hopes of land ownership.

On a more personal note, now that he had killed or exiled all planters,

Dessalines found himself at the head of dozens of profitable estates. He

directly benefited from the plantation system, and had little interest in

letting his people go”.23

Girard goes on to explain how the French whip became the Haitian

whip and the countryside began to resemble the colonial

countryside under new leadership. This showcases that from the

earliest years of the Haitian Republic, the leadership was

considered by many only slightly better than the French colonial 23 (Girard, 60-61).

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leadership and slightly only because they were not French in

origin. The impact that the ideals of the Enlightenment had on

Louverture translated into a dictatorial regime that oppressed

black peasants as well as mullatos and placed a large army in

control of the nation. Today in Haiti, the army has considerable

power in politics as well as the economy of the nation.

Dessalines’s further reliance on sugar exports to “benefit” the

economy set a stage for the import-export economy and future

economic dependence that has benefited nearly nothing to the

Haitian economy. This “agrocommercial” class continued to

dominate Haitian and Caribbean society.

Chilean poet Pablo Neruda denounced foreign multinational

corporations in his poem entitled “La United Fruit Company”; the

second stanza describes the concept of the “banana republic”.

The concept of a politically unstable nation with one or two

primary cash crop exports and a highly stratified society with a

large underclass and small elite ruling class who cling on to

power largely through outside political influence. The concept

of the agrocommercial class is relevant to the Caribbean economy

with regards to the export situation. The class situation is

Nelson 28

described by Winston H. Griffith as “The agrocommercial class, a

product of colonial times, dominated national activity in the

region. For example Barrow (1983:103) finds that national

corporate ownership in Barbados is closely tied to a few

agrocommercial families. In Jamaica, despite the emergence of a

national manufacturing class, the agrocommercial class still

plays a predominant role in the economy (cited in Ambursley,

1983b)”. He goes on to too quote former Jamaican Prime Minister

Michael Manley and state that the agrocommercial class

“reinforces the colonial tendency of the region toward export-

import orientation; that is, exports and imports constitute a

disproportionate share of gross domestic product while the amount

of goods produced for local consumption is very small”.24 It has

been argued rather successfully that the CARICOM leadership is

largely composed of this agrocommercial class. .

In many respects the political economic history of Haiti

parallels the economic path that the current CARICOM leadership

is taking today which can be described as a large scale export

24 Griffith, Winston H. "Caricom countries and the Caribbean basin initiative." Latin American Perspectives 17, no. 1 (1990): 33-54.

Nelson 29

orientated economy that benefits former colonial nations more

than it does the Caribbean community of nations. David Nicholls

examines the relationship between Haiti and France following the

revolution. “In 1825 President Boyer accepted as a condition of

the French recognition of Haitian independence an enormous

indemnity of 150 million francs to be paid to the dispossessed

French land owners. Haiti had to borrow large sums from Europe

to pay for the first installment of this debt and thus began

significant foreign financial involvement in the Haitian economy.

This was reinforced by the arrival of large numbers of foreign

merchants who have dominated the commerce of the country

throughout the nineteenth century to the present”.25 The Haitian

economy has long been at the hands of foreign, largely French

investors, however now the economy is at the mercy of CARICOM and

its blind support of liberalized export economics. The debt

issue still plays a large role in Haitian foreign relations to

this day and many in Haiti have demanded that France pay

reparations for its role in the underdevelopment of the Haitian

25 David Nicholls, "Cultural Dualism and Political Domination in Haiti,"

ed. Paul Sutton (London: Frank Cass and Co.Ltd, 1986).

Nelson 30

Republic. It has been argued that the Haitian economy has always

been dependent on the “mother country” during the colonial period

and the former colonial ruler during the period of the republic.

This relationship is seen in many other nations as well.

Atul Kohli argues that certain nations benefit in post-

independence development due to the nature of their colonial

experience. In the comparison of developing countries in the

Global South, Kohli claims that “The cumulative impact of

colonialism in some parts of the developing world laid the

foundation for what would eventually emerge as cohesive-

capitalist states, in other parts, as neopatrimonial states, and

in yet other parts, as fragmented-multiclass states”.26 In this

argument, developing nations and their success or failure in

industrializing will fall into the three categories previously

mentioned. The issue with this argument and Haiti is the amount

of capital the French government put into the island and the

production value that they received in return with the sugar and

coffee plantations in particular conflicts with the argument that

26 Aktul Kohli, State Directed Development: Political Power and Industrialization in the Global Periphery, (New York City: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 18.

Nelson 31

Haiti was colonized on the cheap as Kohli makes with Nigeria and

British colonialism in that nation as compared to India. While

many Anglophone Caribbean leaders claim that their experiences

with British colonialism have set up a fairly productive

parliamentary system of electoral politics combined with a fairly

positive trade relationship with the United Kingdom, the Haitian

situation does not fit within this fairly narrow paradigm that

Kohli presents. Another way of looking at a comparative history

of colonialism between the West Indies with the East Indies comes

from Sunil Agnani. Agnani argues that there are limits to these

comparisons in what she calls “Enlightenment Anticolonialsim”.

He utilizes the writings of Edmund Burke to examine both Haitian

and Indian anticolonialism. In examining the role that the

French revolution played on the Haitian Revolution, Edmund Burke

is quoted as saying:

Were we to give them [the settlers of French descent in Quebec] the

French Constitution- a constitution founded on principles dramatically opposed

to ours, that could not assimilate with it on a single point: as different

from it as wisdom from folly, as vice from virtue, as the most opposite

extremes of nature-a constitution founded on what is called the rights of man?

Nelson 32

But let this constitution be examined by its practical efforts in the French

West India colonies. These, notwithstanding three disastrous wars, were most

happy and flourishing till they heard of the rights of man. As soon as this

system arrived among them, Pandora’s Box, replete with every mortal evil,

seemed to fly open, hell itself to yawn, and every demon of mischief to

overspread the face of the earth. Blacks rose against whites [in St.

Domingue], whites against blacks, and each against one another in murderous

hostility; subordination was destroyed, the bonds of society torn asunder, and

every man seemed to thirst for the blood of his neighbour.”27

It was mentioned earlier the influence that Enlightenment

thinking had on Toussaint L’Ouverture and other leaders of the

Haitian Revolution ironically against a Napoleonic French regime

somewhat guided by the tenants of the revolution. Burke notes

how he is against the French revolutionary concept of “the rights

of man” and the apparent “Pandora’s Box” that It had opened in

the trans-Atlantic colonial world. This opinion was not uncommon

in the English speaking world at the time. Many English viewed

their governmental system and society was the epitome of

enlightenment liberalism and often did not understand why any

nation would want to rebel against it (i.e. the American

27 (Agnani, 138).

Nelson 33

Colonies) or the French in their revolution. Other writings by

British thinkers and politicians of the era showcase a similar

sentiment.

There are many arguments regarding Haiti’s place within

CARICOM, some argue that the nation is just too different from

the other members and that it is simply out of place within the

organization. Others argue that there is a push to ignore Haiti

and its problems in order to focus on other nations. Both of

these arguments possess merits and convincing statements to back

them up. Many Caribbean nations today wish to disassociate

themselves with Haiti, as mentioned earlier this reasoning has

historical reasoning behind it, “During the long years of the

rule of François “Papa Doc” Duvalier (1957-1971), the Black

Republic with a brutal dictator who declared himself president

for life seemed more foreign and remote to the Anglophone

Caribbean then recovering from the collapse of the Federation and

adjusting to independence. Few attempts were made to address the

horrors perpetuated by Papa Doc’s tonton macoutes. While the US

gave tacit support to the anticommunist Duvalier, those closer in

Nelson 34

proximity to Haiti were silent”.28 For the Caribbean, Haiti is

“the issue”, the question that everybody asks but few people are

willing to touch the issue politically. This was most deeply

expressed following the expulsion of Haiti from CARICOM during a

period of exceptionally bad political instability, a time where

Haiti needed the support of CARICOM more than ever before.

Following the exile of Dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier or

“Baby Doc”, the son of François “Papa Doc” Duvalier to France

onboard an U.S. Air Force plane, the people of Haiti elected a

former priest as their new leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was

elected President with 67% of the vote in what has been described

as an honest election. As a Catholic Priest, Aristide was a

major proponent of Liberation Theology; this played a role in his

dealings with the United States. The case that took Haiti out of

CARICOM was the second coup against Aristide in 2004 which

removed Aristide from office onboard an American jet. President

Aristide had called on France to pay reparations for the costs

incurred during the war for independence. “Last year, Aristide

28 Matthew Smith, "An Island among Islands: Haiti's Strange Relationship with the Caribbean Community," Social and Economic Studies, 54, no. 3 (2005): 176-195, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27866434 (accessed December 3, 2013).

Nelson 35

demanded that France pay Haiti over 21 billion U.S. dollars, what

he said was the equivalent in today’s money of the 90 million

gold francs Haiti was forced to pay Paris after winning its

freedom from France as the hemisphere’s first independent black

nation 200 years ago”. The article goes on to reiterate the

claim that “… the massive toll that France exacted on Haiti

played a large part in the Caribbean country’s subsequent descent

into stark poverty and under-development”.29 The issue of

restitution from former colonial nations has often been dismissed

by the CARICOM leadership and many in power in the region as

unproductive to their primary mission of regional integration and

trade promotion. Having said this, the CARICOM leadership at the

time came out strongly against the coup and removal of Aristide

from office. CARICOM head and Jamaican Prime Minister P.J.

Patterson is quoted as saying “Mr. Aristide’s downfall sets a

dangerous precedent for democratically elected governments

anywhere and everywhere, as it promotes the removal of duly

29 Jackson Miller, Diane. "Haiti: Aristide's Call for Reperations from France Unlikely to Die.." Inter Press Service News Agency, March 12, 2004. http://www.ipsnews.net/2004/03/haiti-aristides-call-for-reparations-from-france-unlikely-to-die/ (accessed December 5, 2013).

Nelson 36

elected persons from office by the power of rebel forces”.30

Aristide eventually was overthrown and exiled to South Africa and

Haiti was reinstated back into CARICOM as a full member.

Following the end of Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s regime, the

country eventually was led by the current President Michel

Martelly who was elected in 2011 following the horrendous Haitian

Earthquake of January 2010. Martelly, the former musician and

businessman promised to reintroduce the army following its

dissolution by Aristide in the 1990s. Martelly’s music has been

called “The soundtrack for dictators and coups d’état”, and that

he entertained many of the leaders of the successful coup against

Aristide and possess a strong nostalgia for the Duvalier years.31

30 "After Aristide, what?" The Economist, March 4, 2004.

http://www.economist.com/node/2474164 (accessed December 5, 2013).

31 Miller, Michael. "Michel Martelly is Haiti's New President. But the

Former Palm Beach County Resident Has a Dark Side.." The Broward Palm Beach

New Times, June 09, 2011.

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2011-06-09/news/michel-martelly-is-

haiti-s-new-president-10-but-the-former-palm-beach-county-resident-has-

10-a-dark-side/ (accessed December 16, 2013).

Nelson 37

The military is poised to become a large part of the Haitian

economy for many years to come. The scenes from the 2010

earthquake broadcast around the world again put Haiti back into

the headlines as the question of how Haitian infrastructure and

development combined with political corruption had got to the

proportions that it had in 2010. The scene of many Haitian

people cheering vocally and silently at the collapse of the

Presidential Palace in Port-Au-Prince really says something about

the faith that Haitians hold in their government institutions.

If the future of Haiti was written at this point it would not

merit a positivist outcome. This is not to promote negativity

but reality. Haiti is sadly not at a crossroads because the

current political leadership is following the same routine of

economic dependence, corruption, caste warfare and fake

nationalism that has plagued the nation since the early days of

the revolution. While the methodology may have evolved from

enlightenment thinking to a more modern third world political

thinking, the results have largely been the same. The

relationship between Haiti and CARICOM must be strengthened for

any semblance of change to occur for Haiti, the political class

Nelson 38

of Haiti must be abolished and the military must remain a small

defense force and not the largest branch of the island’s economy

as well as the originating circle for coups and political

assassinations. The political and economic history of Haiti

cannot be explained simply with one theory, the multiple forces

at work presents a complex tapestry where interweaving of faith

and ethnicity as well as fear and nationalism play a prominent

role in what we know of Haiti and what Haiti knows of itself.

The Haitian Creole proverb states “Kreyon Bondye pa gin gom” or

“God’s pencil has no eraser”.32 Haiti is what it is at present

and the past cannot be erased and some may argue that the future

has already been decided, but to the millions of Haitians in

Haiti and around the world in the Diaspora, the Haitian Republic

still represents a hope for the world, for the pan-African and

pan-Caribbean world and should not be ignored or resented for

what it is but should be celebrated so that the global community

may look towards the future and may finally solve the case of

“Haitian Exceptionalism”.

32 (Bellegarde-Smith, 173).

Nelson 39

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Bellegarde-Smith, Patrick. Haiti: The Breached Citadel. 2nd ed. Toronto:Canadian Scholar's Press Ltd., 2004.

Britell, Alexander. "Haiti's Martelly Urges Caribbean on Climate Change, Integration." The Caribbean Journal, February 18, 2013. http://www.caribjournal.com/2013/02/18/haitis-martelly-urges-caribbean-on-climate-change-integration.

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Nelson 42

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