Haiti's poverty-stricken situation has been a reality for a long time. My small attempts at making my own drop in the bucket over the past five years have been reinvigorated and impassioned by the terrible disaster that has occurred through the earthquakes of the last weeks. (I don't consider a 5.9 or 6.1 shake merely an aftershock no matter what the technicalities are.) Part of my own interest is to uncover the long-term root of the impoverishment there in order to help put my drops in a bucket of long-term solutions rather than short-term band-aids.
Losing a dear friend in the rubble, and waiting to hear about a child's fate with whom we are connected regularly only strengthens that concern.
So here is what I have discovered in reading so far:
1. It started with colonialism.
Haiti was the jewel of the Antilles, a rich little island with rich soil and great exportation capabilities. When Spain colonized the little island and forced its native Taino Indian inhabitants into slavery. Small pox wiped out most of the population in combination with relentless and ruthless work forced on them by Columbus and his heirs in the Spanish mines.
More and more french explorers and settlers poured into Haiti to take advantage of its resources as well. They founded Saint Domingue and imported thousands of African slaves to capitalize on its riches. The result was the genocide of the Taino Indian population through brutal slavery and sometimes outright murder, and the reinhabiting of the island with European colonizers and African slaves. Haiti at one time produced 50% of France's Gross National Product. It was a cash cow driven by nearly free human labor. Among other things, Haiti produced coffee, sugar, tobacco, cocoa, cotton, and indigo dye.
2. Colonialism became culturally entrenched.
A very small population of Haitians found a way through the impossibly difficult standards of productivity to earn freedom. They broke their backs for freedom. Others, born of one white parent and one black, the mulattos, found freedom by nature of their lighter skin color and white ancestry. This small elite group of Haitians learned the power of cheap labor and wealth accumulation for their own interests and carried it well beyond colonial times into the present era. It was the heritage of their white colonialists greed.
3. After revolution, colonialism continued.
Haiti was the second nation in the world (after the US) to free itself from colonial control. On January 1, 1804 General Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared Saint-Domingue was no longer in existence and Haiti was now born. That same year an international coalition decided they didn't like the idea of an entire nation of freed slaves, and they instigated a boycott. The jewel of the Antilles could not find a buyer until 1838 and that was at a high price. The French demanded a payback for the loss of "their" land during the Revolution. It was land they conquered and claimed by force, so when it was overturned by force what right did they have? The right of might, economic might. They demanded 150 million francs of repayment (a massive sum at the time), which Haiti finally accepted in the form of debt in order to be able to trade. The Haitians could not pay it off until 1922 by which time they had paid the 150 million francs several times in interest on the debt alone. It was economic disaster. The US, England, among other countries were all complicit in the boycott of 1803 which set up the debt demand of 1838.
4. The United States forcefully occupied Haiti 1915-1934.
German influence was growing in Haiti in the early 20th century through intermarrying with the mulatto elites ( French, British, and U.S. inhabitants were less willing to do so ironically() in order to be able to own land. Germans were also financing multiple rebel coups in order to be able to financially gain from them. United States investors banded together to take over the only Haitian national bank, then the U.S. sent 300 marines to quell the unrest in order to "protect United States and international interests". The marines were told to protect U.S financial interests. The press was told it was to quell coups, violent rebel groups, etc. The U.S. on one December day killed 2,000 Haitian civilians in order to put down an attempted revolution against the U.S. backed mulatto elite government structure. It was at this point that Hoover decided to investigate the occupation he inherited and eventually ordered disengagement which Eisenhower finalized in 1934 (Eisenhower wrote the resented constitution for Haiti which many non-elites refused to accept but was forced through). The U.S. maintained large control of Haitian external finances however through the mid-1940s. This reinforced in many minds, including many in the NAACP, the fact that U.S. involvement was primarily about protecting private financial interests in the island all along.
5. Aid-based support of corrupt government.
Post 1946 the United States has continually offered "aid" packages to oppressive but America-friendly governments to keep them in power and keep anti-American governments out. The goal was never to impoverish or oppress the Haitian people, just to protect American military and financial interests in Haiti...the result was the support of corrupt government in Haiti which oppressed large portions of the population in Haiti.
The upside of U.S. involvement was thousands of miles of roads, bridges, and the laying of piping for drinking water to major population centers. This mixed package makes it difficult to disentangle benefit from detriment in U.S. involvement.
6. Escape to and Destruction of the Mountains.
The mountainous regions became the place of retreat for the non-elite creole speaking Haitian population from the oppressive French speaking elite Haitian run governments. The only fuel being wood, the trees have been continuously chopped down and not replanted. Erosion of the rich and fertile soil has resulted denigrated the countries ability to increase exportation.
7. French language maintains control.
Just as many other Creole languages, creole emerged as a creative blending of grammars from some languages (many suggest African) and vocabulary from others (Spanish and French) as a second language for parents which becomes the primary language for the next generation. The result is an entire population with a mother tongue that the ruling class deems "degnerate" and therefore not a full language. French then is the official ruling language of the educational system and the government in Haiti, leaving ninety percent of its population functionally illiterate since they speak Creole. This functions to create a permanent underclass.
There are many other more detailed elements, but this is a beginning.
What are your thoughts regarding the roots of poverty in Haiti? What long term solutions do you see working given this complex history and current condition of poverty in the nation?
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