The revolution and current political climate in Haiti provide insight into what defines the capacity to be free and human, said Associate Professor of Africana Studies Barrymore Bogues in a Thursday night lecture titled "The Haitian Revolution and its Meanings for Freedom."
The lecture, which drew a crowd of about 30 to Wilson 302, focused on how issues pertinent to the revolution 200 ago are echoed in Haitian politics today. It was planned well in advance of the current political upheaval in Haiti, and was originally intended as a celebratory gesture to mark the bicentennial of the Haitian Revolution as part of Caribbean Heritage week.
The topic changed after the recent rebellion in Haiti and President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Feb. 29 resignation.
Bogues emphasized the complexity of the situation, saying Haiti's former colonial status and history of popular infighting in part caused current instability. His historical evaluation pointed primarily to centuries-old neglect of the importance of the Haitian Revolution.
"The revolution has been silenced by history, thought of and written about as a mere slave revolt," he said.
But because the nature of the Haitian Revolution differed from the French and American revolutions, Bogues claimed it provides a different insight into the nature of liberty. Unlike the analogous struggles in France and the United States, revolution in Haiti was founded not on a political assertion of inalienable rights, but on a more visceral need for freedom from enslavement.
Bogues contrasted the foundations of the Haitian constitution, signed in 1805, with those of the U.S. Constitution.
"The U.S. Constitution provided for universal equality only in rhetoric," Bogues said. "Neglected were women, African Americans and Native Americans - the ghosts of America."
Haiti, however, stated in its constitution that all men and women were equal. For a time, women even successfully demanded "equal wages for equal work," preceding the American feminist movement by decades.
But disparity eventually arose among the inhabitants of Haiti, one cause of the nation's current troubles, Bogues said. He discussed the Haitian class system, made pronounced by the subjugation of the primarily black peasantry by elite, French-influenced mulattos.
"I have never met an elite class with such hostility toward the popular majority," Bogues said. "There is hatred and disdain there that you cannot imagine."
Bogues said this hostility is a result of cultural dissonance. The elite, with Western "sensibilities" acquired from their French rulers, looks down upon peasant practitioners of voodoo and other "backward" cultural behaviors. This cultural condescension is also what impedes Haiti in international affairs, Bogues said.
As an example, he pointed to a recent segment on the current situation in Haiti on the Fox News Channel's "O'Reilly Factor," which degenerated into merely "a seven-minute filler about the voodoo culture in Haiti," according to Bogues."
He also cited broader political trends that undermine the international reputation of the Haitian people.
"The Western question is, do Haitians have the moral competency for effective self-government?" Bogues said. "The questions we as Americans should ask ourselves is to what extent can we rightfully impose our concepts of democracy on other nations?"
Bogues faulted the U.S. government for its removal of Aristide from office. He claimed that by mandating that Aristide resign in order to be escorted safely out of Haiti, the U.S. undermined the Haitian constitution, which states that a president, legally elected, maintains the right to hold that office for six years. Aristide's term would have ended in February 2006.
"The difference between (February 2004) and (February 2006) in a political time frame is not that great," Bogues said. "If Aristide needed to be removed from office, it could have been done via a legal election (in 2006).
"In forcibly removing him, the powers that be have opened the gates for the rebel military faction headed by Guy Philippe to assume power," he added. "These people are thugs, soldiers in the death squads of the '90s."
Asked with whom the people of Haiti sided, Bogues said the majority of the population has no strong allegiances to Aristide and his party, opposition parties or the militant faction that now currently occupies the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Bogues noted the historical tendency of Haitians to withdraw from reliance on the state in turbulent times, the product of a long-held tradition of cynicism. The people feel betrayed by Aristide because he failed to follow through on plans for economic improvement, but they have no great desire to side with Philippe and his army, he said. Nor, he said, are they given great reason to trust the international community.
"There is a Haitian proverb: after the mountains, more mountains," Bogues said. The tribulations of the Haitian population, he said, are not likely to end or lessen at any point in the near future.
