Who Owns Haiti?: People, Power, and Sovereignty

209 Pages·2017·1.967 MB·English

by  Robert Maguire, Scott Freeman

Who Owns Haiti?
University Press of Florida
Florida A&M University, Tallahassee
Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton
Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers
Florida International University, Miami
Florida State University, Tallahassee
New College of Florida, Sarasota
University of Central Florida, Orlando
University of Florida, Gainesville
University of North Florida, Jacksonville
University of South Florida, Tampa
University of West Florida, Pensacola

Who Owns Haiti?
PEOPLE, POWER, AND SOVEREIGNTY
Edited by Robert Maguire and Scott Freeman
Foreword by Amy Wilentz
University Press of Florida
Gainesville / Tallahassee / Tampa / Boca Raton
Pensacola / Orlando / Miami / Jacksonville / Ft. Myers / Sarasota
Copyright 2017 by Robert Maguire and Scott Freeman
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
This book may be available in an electronic edition.
22 21 20 19 18 17 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Maguire, Robert E. (Robert Earl), 1948– editor. | Freeman, Scott (lecturer), editor.
Title: Who owns Haiti? : people, power, and sovereignty / edited by Robert
Maguire and Scott Freeman ; foreword by Amy Wilentz.
Description: Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 2017. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016035948 | ISBN 9780813062266 (cloth)
Subjects: LCSH: Haiti—Politics and government—1986– | Self-determination,
National—Haiti. | Haiti—History.
Classification: LCC F1928.2 .W47 2017 | DDC 972.94—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016035948
The University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing agency for the State University
System of Florida, comprising Florida A&M University, Florida Atlantic University,
Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida International University, Florida State University,
New College of Florida, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University
of North Florida, University of South Florida, and University of West Florida.
University Press of Florida
15 Northwest 15th Street
Gainesville, FL 32611-2079
http://upress.ufl.edu
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Foreword ix
Amy Wilentz
Acknowledgments xix
List of Abbreviations xxi
1. Introduction: Sovereignty and Ownership from the Inside and Out 1
Scott Freeman and Robert Maguire
2. Haitian Sovereignty: A Brief History 16
Laurent Dubois
3. Haiti and the Limits of Sovereignty: Trapped in the Outer Periphery 29
Robert Fatton Jr.
4. New Wine in Old Bottles: The Failure of the Democratic Transition
in Haiti 50
Francois Pierre-Louis Jr.
5. Brazilian and South American Political and Military Engagement
in Haiti 67
Ricardo Seitenfus
6. Who Owns U.S. Aid to Haiti? 85
Robert Maguire
7. Who Owns the Religion of Haiti? 106
Karen Richman
8. Sovereignty and Soil: Collective and Wage Labor in Rural Haiti 125
Scott Freeman
9. Street Sovereignty: Power, Violence, and Respect among Haitian
Baz 140
Chelsey Kivland
10. Conclusion: Reflections on Sovereignty 166
Robert Maguire, Scott Freeman, and Nicholas Johnson
List of Contributors 177
Index 181
Illustrations
Figures
Frontis. Map of Haiti ii
2.1. Painting by Dominique Fontus 27
6.1. Government of Haiti–U.S. government strategic alignment 90
6.2. Haiti’s development corridors 91
8.1. Contour canals dug on a hillside in southwest Haiti 129
9.1. Graffiti at Baz Grand Black 148
9.2. Baz Grand Black headquarters 151
9.3. Baz MOG 153
9.4. Description of an OJMOTEEB project 154
Tables
5.1. Characteristics of the principle of nonindifference 73
5.2. Latin American composition of MINUSTAH by country 73

Foreword
Amy Wilentz
Ever since I first began thinking about Haiti, the question this book addresses
has been a focus of my investigations, no matter which book or story I was
working on. Ownership is the core question at the heart of Haitian and, indeed,
of all African American history. Of course the question of sovereignty is para-
mount for any entity that calls itself a state, but there is also an undercurrent in
Haitian domestic politics and in foreign policy toward Haiti that is constantly
posing the foundational question for the Haitian nation. That question is not
just who owned and who owns Haiti, but who owns the Haitians themselves.
Who owns the government, who owns le terroir, who owns the people? Are
Haitians the masters of their fates, either as citizens or as individuals? Who
controls their destiny?
I arrived in Haiti for the first time at the end of January 1986 and witnessed
the fall of the Duvalier dynasty that year. Since then, I’ve watched a variety
of regime changes there, many of them including elections, some not. Dur-
ing almost all these relinquishings and takings of power, the manipulations
and counsel of the United States (and the other “friends” of Haiti, like France,
Canada, the Vatican, and especially the UN) were an extremely important (if
not the most important) factor. During each regime change, the United States
worked to find the candidate most acceptable to business actors in Haiti and
their friends and associates abroad. These candidates were usually moderates or
conservatives, often English-speaking, who had international connections and
were expected to stay an economic course that would help the export-import
sector as well as maquiladora owners and large landholders.
The exceptions to this rule were the elections of Jean-Bertrand Aristide and
(to a lesser degree) René Préval, who slipped around the American strategy on
a huge wave of popular support. Aristide’s course through the sieve of U.S. pol-
icy for Haiti provided evidence of how far the Americans were willing to go to