[News] Greetings and Articles on Haiti's Bicentennial Celebrations

[News at freedomarchives.org]

From: "Pierre Labossiere" <pierrelabossiere at hotmail.com>


Dear Friends,

Best wishes for a happy and peaceful 2004 !!!

I recently returned from Haiti where I attended the bicentennial 
celebrations of the declaration of independence from France. It was a very 
inspiring week-long visit.

I was greatly dismayed by the gross inaccurate reporting of the festivities 
that I had witnessed both in Port-au-Prince and Gonaives. While in Haiti, I 
spent much time dispelling inaccurate stories that friends and relatives in 
the US were quoting from the NY Times and BBC among others.

The dissemination of these false stories, on this most special occasion for 
Haiti, Africa, Africans of the diaspora and freedom-loving people 
world-wide, follows in the tradition of negative portrayal of Haiti since 
its founding 200 years ago. This tradition, initiated by the US and French 
“slaveocracy”, lives on in the western media.

The article below by Haiti Progres is preceded by Frederick Douglass’ poem 
“Until She Spoke”. The article reflects what I experienced both in 
Port-au-Prince and Gonaives; it follows an informative article by Sara 
Flounders on the page *This Week in Haiti* 1/7/04,
<http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng01-07.html>

The San Francisco Bayview newspaper of 1/7/04, has a great article with 
photos of the bicentennial celebrations. It also reports on a solidarity 
conference of Haiti-based and other organizations from different parts of 
the world <http://www.sfbayview.com/010704/motherofliberty010704.shtml>.

In the same issue of the SF Bayview, Randall Robinson’s informative article 
is a must-read <http://www.sfbayview.com/010704/honorhaiti010704.shtml>

Pierre Labossiere
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Inspired by the high price paid by Haiti’s revolutionaries for the sake of 
freedom, Frederick Douglass, who was appointed consul general to Haiti in 
1889 and lived there for two years, left a lasting appreciation of his love 
and respect for Haiti in his poem “Until She Spoke”. ­   SF Bayview 12/24/03

** Until She Spoke **

Until she spoke, no Christian nation had abolished Negro slavery.

Until she spoke, no Christian nation had given to the world an organized 
effort to abolish slavery.

Until she spoke, the slave ship, followed by hungry sharks, greedy to 
devour the dead and dying slaves flung overboard to feed them, ploughed in 
peace the South Atlantic, painting the sea with the Negro’s blood.

Until she spoke, the slave trade was sanctioned by all the Christian 
nations of the world, and our land of liberty and light included.

Men made fortunes by this infernal traffic, and were esteemed as good 
Christians, and the standing types and representations of the Savior of the 
World.

Until Haiti spoke, the church was silent, and the pulpit was dumb.

Slave-traders lived and slave-traders died.

Funeral sermons were preached over them, and of them it was said that they 
died in the triumphs of the Christian faith and went to heaven among the just.

- Frederick Douglass -
******************************************************************************



- Haiti Progres 1/7/04 -

**Despite Opposition Boycott and Terror Campaign Haitians Joyously 
Celebrate Their Bicentennial**


Many tens of thousands of Haitians filled the streets around the National 
Palace in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 1, 2004 to celebrate the 200th anniversary 
of Haiti’s independence. A smaller celebration of about 7,000 took place 
later the same day in Gonaïves, the city where Jean-Jacques Dessalines, 
Haiti’s first head of state, declared independence for the world’s first 
black republic.

Despite threats of violence from the Washington-backed opposition and 
back-room pressure to dissuade them, many foreign delegations attended the 
bicentennial ceremonies. South African President Thabo Mbeki and his wife 
along with Bahamian Prime Minister Perry Christie shared center stage with 
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, First Lady Mildred Trouillot Aristide, 
Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, and his wife.

The vice president of Surinam, and the foreign ministers of the Dominican 
Republic and of Benin, among others, also headed high-level delegations.

France and the United States only dispatched their local ambassadors, 
although Washington’s Luigi Einaudi and Ottawa’s David Lee attended 
representing the Organization of American States, of which they are 
respectively Assistant Secretary General and Special Representative to Haiti.

Festivities began the evening of December 31, when tens of thousands filled 
the streets in all corners of the capital to watch fireworks, listen to 
bands, and gather in large jubilant crowds. Thousands milled in the 
capital’s central square, the Champ de Mars, to admire the normally white 
National Palace and the trees around it which were illuminated blue and 
red, the Haitian flag’s colors.

Thousands more danced to rara street bands in the suburb of Tabarre, not 
far from Aristide’s home. Another street party rocked the Caridad quarter 
of the capital, which, like many other neighborhoods, was festooned with 
tiny flags and had newly painted murals of Haiti’s revolutionary war heroes 
lining the avenue.

In Bon Repos, just north of the capital, several hundred people gathered 
around a makeshift roadside stage to listen to speeches by local leaders 
and music by local bands. As midnight struck, the mountainsides around 
capital erupted in dozens of firework displays.

Stores and restaurants throughout he city were open practically all night. 
Ceremonies in front of the Palace began the next morning at about 8 a.m. 
when the presidential couple hoisted the Haitian bicolor. In their 
excitement, crowds collapsed the fence surrounding the Palace grounds as 
well as a wooden viewing platform constructed for the occasion.

“May the determination of these former slaves to forge a nation in a world 
hostile to their very existence inspire us to always continue to struggle 
for human dignity that is the sacred right of all people,” Aristide 
declared in his speech, which outlined 21 accomplishments as well as 
projects “waiting for the 21 billion.” He was referring to the $21.7 
billion in reparations which Haiti has formally demanded from former 
colonizer France.

The ceremony featured marching bands, flag displays, the sounding of conch 
shells (used by Haitian maroons), and the release of doves of peace.

Later that afternoon, Aristide flew to Gonaïves where he delivered a 
similar address underscoring that he intends to serve out his full five 
year term, which ends in 2006. The opposition wants him to step down to be 
replaced by a 27-member “Council of Wise Men,” which is completely 
unconstitutional.

Haitians overwhelmingly reject the opposition and their proposal. Like 
those in the capital and Gonaïves, crowds along the highway between the two 
cities greeted passing vehicles with an open hand, to symbolize that 
Aristide should serve out his full term.

In an attempt to disrupt the celebrations, the opposition held a march of a 
few hundred in the capital on Thursday afternoon which deliberately veered 
off the agreed march route. When the police blocked their advance with 
tear-gas, the opposition demonstrators threw up barricades and went on a 
rampage through commercial and residential districts, smashing car 
windshields and storefronts, burning vehicles, throwing rocks and firing shots.

A similar terror assault was carried out in Gonaïves after ceremonies were 
successfully concluded. In the Dekawo neighborhood, opposition hooligans 
hid behind the houses lining the southern exit route from the city to pelt 
buses of celebrants with rocks. One car had its back windows shot out.

That evening at the National Palace, government officials, diplomats and 
invited guests viewed a musical and theatrical extravaganza, featuring a 
host of artists including U.S. actor Danny Glover, the Cuban-Haitian vocal 
group Desandan, and Haitian singers Joe Trouillot, Carole Demesmin and Erna 
Letemps. Afterwards, Aristide awarded Mbeki with the “Award of Pétion and 
Bolivar.”




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