October 17, 2009 - Haiti's Holocaust and Middle Passage Continues
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Haiti's First Declaration of Independence
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Vodun Konbit and Vodun Lakou
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The Pivotal Point
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Ezili/Aset/Isis
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Ezili Dantò on Ban2 Radio, London
w/ Griot Chi, Oct. 4, 2010 (26:08)

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Ezili Dantò on Ban2 Radio, London
w/ Griot Chi, Nov. 1, 2010 (59:09)
Note: 10 MILLION was paid in interest on loans Haiti never received. CDC says most likely comes from South Asia. The 2000-2004 aid embargo against Pres. Aristide prevented Haiti water delivery projects. Haiti paid around $10 million in interest for loans that were never dispersed.
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Ezili Dantò on Yves Point Du Jour’s Washington Broadcast, Oct. 30 2010 (8:03)
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Avatar Haiti

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2011- Seismic Shifts: Haiti Freestyling to murder Tarzan, Jane & their Uncle Toms
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The Story of Janjak: The Greatest Hero who ever Lived
(45- minutes Storytelling Theater Dance presentation) by Ezili Dantò, inspired by:
Haiti’s Founding Father - The Women who Influenced him, his Ideals and Legacy
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(Born September 20, 1758, assassinated October 17, 1806)

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...Look out on an October's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They would not listen
They did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now

For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And on a dark October's day
on that old Pon Rouj bridge
They took your life like haters often do
But I could have told you, Janjak
This world was never
meant for one as beautiful as you.

Now I think I know ---
What you tried to say to me

How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They would not listen
They're not list'ning still
Perhaps they never will

[Lyrics from Vincent by Don Mclean ]

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Ezili Dantò storytelling theater dance
The Story of Janjak - The greatest hero who ever lived

"Weaving song, story, music and theater dance, award wining playwright and performance poet, Marguerite Laurent, known as Ezili Dantò, will tell the story of a September long ago and of an October that nobody knows.

It’s the story of Jan Jak, who was born enslaved on a rich island by the sea and became the greatest hero who ever lived. Janjak did what Spartacus could not do. Using popular recorded music and song, we learn about Janjak’s people, their culture, the women in the hero’s life and why he is so loved today on the Island not too far away.

The storytelling is an interactive improvisational presentation. The lyrics and jazzy movements highlighting Janjak’s story range from classic music by Nina Simone, Peggy Lee, Bob Marley, Don Mclean, Tina Turner to evocative drumming folk songs and spirituals." (Further storytelling, see Ezili Dantò's performance piece, Seismic Shifts: Haiti Freestyling to murder Tarzan, Jane & their Uncle Toms; and workshop descriptions and presskit.)

Ezili's HLLN Pays Homage to Father Gerard Jean Juste

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You may support the work of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network by making financial contributions for us to continue this critical work. Go to- Donate to this work and/or by booking an Ezili Dantò workshop or presentation

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Lovinsky Pierre Antoine Head of Haiti's largest human rights organization, disappeared in UN-occupied Haiti , August 12, 2007. No investigation reported

FreeHaitiMovement
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Oct 17 – Day of Heroes In Haiti- See also
Dialogue between Two Haitians and Moving On

What's in a name?
Some names horrify enslavers, tyrants and despots, everywhere...

Dessalines' Law
Jean Jacques Dessalines

Haiti 2010: Even on these ashes, we will continue to fight for freedom

Desalin 2009 -500 lane depi w (blan kolon) vle efase n, Jodi a ou vle m kwè se sèl ou ki ka sove n --- Edike from Dadi Beaubrun's Lataye

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October 17, 2009 - Haiti's Holocaust and Middle Passage Continues

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October 17, 2009 Jean Jacques Dessalines - The women who influenced him, his ideals and legacy remembered (born, September 20, 1758, assassinated October 17, 1806)
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October 17, 2009 The Story of Janjak: The Greatest Hero who ever Lived
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Haiti Forum 2009

***Oct 17, 2007
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October 17, 2006
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October 17, 2005
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From Slave to Emperor, His Majesty, Jean Jacques Dessalines, The greatest story marginalized and never told...
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Diskou Desalin Premye Janvye 1804, Gonaive, Haiti
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“Haiti's First Declaration of Independence was signed not on Jan. 1, 1804 but on Nov. 29, 1803 after last battle defeating Napoleon's armies - Battle of Vertieres & signed by three Black generals who won our freedom: Dessalines, Clerveaux & Christophe. Later on, Dessalines strategically consolidated his victory & on Jan. 1, 1804 more generals signed Haiti's Declaration of Independence including Mulatto generals who did not fight at Vertieres - Petion/Boyer. But Thomas Madiou, who wrote Haitian history, counts only the 2nd Declaration of Independence. He was a French-centric Diaspora Affranchi, like mulatto Petion, by then living in "Petionville," helped found "Lycee Petion" at a time immediately after Dessalines' assassination when Dessalines' name was forbidden to be spoken (for 42years during reigns of mulatto generals-Petion/Boyer). Haitians have been objecting to neocolonialism ever since ...” (For more info, see I HAVE AVENGED AMERICA!!!- Jean Jacques Dessalines.)

Kouwòn pou Defile by Michel Sanon
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Three Historical Documents on Dessalines' Assassination

Mesi Papa Dessalines
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Three ideals of Dessalines

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Who killed Dessalines, Haiti's founding father?

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Defile Manman "Chimè"? by Jafrikayiti
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What's Destabalizing Haiti?: The massacre and imprisonment of Haiti's Innocents
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Haiti's Sins: Fighting to live and be free from European and American Chains, 2004
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The Revolutionary Potential of Haiti, its creeds, values and struggle
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Vodun Konbit and Vodun Lakou
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You may support the work of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network by making financial contributions for us to continue this critical work. Go to- Donate to this work

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"Buffalo soldier, dreadlock rasta
There was a Buffalo soldier, in the heart of America
Stolen from Africa, brought to America
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival" (Bob Marley)

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2009 FreeHaitiMovement Demands
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Haiti 2010: Even on these ashes, we will continue to fight for freedom
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Haiti 2011 - Video-CrossTalk: Year of Agony

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Haiti 2011 - Disaster Capitalism in Haiti, New Orleans, Congo & Pakistan

Dessalines Is Rising!!
Ayisyen: You Are Not Alone!

October 17, 1806 marks the date of the first coup d'etat in Haiti, the assassination of Haiti's revolutionary hero and founding father, Jean Jacques Dessalines, who stood and fought for a more humane and civilized world.

Jean Jacques Dessalines, said, "I Want the Assets of the Country to be Equitably Divided" and for that he was assassinated. That was the first coup d'etat, the Haitian holocaust - organized exclusion of the masses, misery, poverty and the impunity of the economic elite - continues (with Feb. 29, 2004 marking the 33rd coup d'etat). Haiti's peoples continue to resist the return of despots, tyrants and enslavers who wage war on the poor majority and Black, contain-them-in poverty through neocolonialism' debts, "free trade" and foreign "investments." These neocolonial tyrants refuse to allow an equitable division of wealth, excluding the majority in Haiti from sharing in the country's wealth and assets. (See also,"Et revient la question. Et ceux dont les pères sont en Afrique, ils n'auront donc rien").
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The Haitian National Anthem | La Dessalinienne
| Dessaline's Song |La Desalinyen (audio)
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Dessaline's Song
Lyrics: in Kreyol, French, and an English translation of the French
(adopted in 1919 during first US occupation)
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Ezili Danto's Note - On the Translation of Haiti's 1804 Act of Independence: The famous Boisrond Tonerre drafted the Haitian act of Independence. It was presented by Haiti's founding father, General Jean Jacques Dessalines, and then signed at Haiti's Janurary 1, 1804 Independence ceremony by a select group of generals from the elite Haitian army of Independence at Place des Armes, in Gonaives, Haiti. There could be a more precise and flowing English translation then the one below. And, maybe HLLN we'll take it on in the next years. For now, Noe Dorestant's English translation is available. For a fuller and perhaps more precise approximation of Jean Jacques Dessalines' words, please also refer and compare the French but especially the Kreyol, which is a direct translation of Boisrond Tonerre own words as published in his biography; and the second Kreyol version translated by Met Bell Angelo. Both the French and Kreyol (Lakou NY); and 2nd Kreyol/Met Angelo version are also posted herein for your enlightenment and educational convenience. Ezili Dantò, Jan. 1, 2009 (updated).
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Document describing the Site Soley massacre by UN Soldiers in Haiti through declassified documents obtained through the freedom of information act by Keith Yearman. (The Cite Soleil Massacre Declassification Project Keith Yearman, Assistant Professor of Geography, College of DuPage)

“The Unity That's Never Wavered / Ezili’s HLLN teaches that in Haitian history there was one pivotal unity and it wasn’t the hypocritical unity between the generals who fought on the side of Napoleon’s armies against both Toussaint and Dessalines, but the unity at Bwa Kayiman of the amalgamated African tribes. That unity – Ayisyen-African identity - forged at Bwa Kayiman is THE UNITY that's never wavered in Haiti. One people, one African culture, one Kreyòl language, one Vodun spiritual imperative - to live free or die. That's the consensus, the-"Linyon Fè la Fòs Haitian union, that's never wavered. It’s not the fragile “union” between the anti-Duvalier economic elites with the popular sector in 1990 that soon, like the Petion and Dessaline’s truce was destroyed. No. And Haitians must ALWAYS be clear power doesn't concede ANYTHING if it doesn't HAVE to. Compassion and benevolence are not recognized currencies to those vested in the feudal profit-over-people system –whether old time French/Black Affranchi or modern time Oligarchy/merchant/petit bourgeoisie technocrats. That “unity” won’t lift up the popular sector’s needs for long. No. We saw that with the 1990 Lavalas unity between the anti-Duvalier-economic elites/technocrats (called "moderates" by blan kolon) and the popular sector. Such folks just want to replace the Oligarchy for themselves, will mostly sell-out the masses when bribed, or when visa, grants, position, privilege, trickle down power and Euro-centric approval is extended. And it’s futile to expect people to give up their privileges. So, thus far the struggle continues, universal disenfranchisement promulgated by a small click as electoral democracy - no change for the masses who are relegated as consumers and to slave-wages as their only “comparative advantage” and use. But since inception, Haiti’s mission is a sacred trust– the world of billions similarly enslaved await as our masses reach for Dessalines’ legacy. At HLLN we highlight the strategic diplomatic maneuverings of Janjak Desalin as well as his Law – that Haiti shall be a Black ruled independent country where the assets of the nation are to be primarily used to equitably benefit all Ayisyen: "...Never again shall colonist or European set foot on this soil as master or landowner. This shall henceforward be the foundation of our constitution.” Dessalines' Law. See The Unity That's Never Wavered;Vodun Konbit and Vodun Lakou and, Haiti's First Declaration of Independence.)

This Feliks Moriso Lewa piece on the IMF may also be applied to USAID, same prospects. As you listen to Lewa's piece, substitute IMF (FME) to "USAID". Text of Moriso Lewa's FME.

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You may support the work of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network by making financial contributions for us to continue this critical work. Go to- Donate to this work.

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Black is the Color of Liberty

Red, Black & Moonlight: Memoir of a Poet by Ezili Dantò (c) 2000 Ezili Dantò/Marguerite Laurent, Special 2000 Edition - A call and burnt offering to the Ancestors for Bwa Kayiman, 2006

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Nago Marguerite Laurent/Ezili Dantò performs the Yanvalou for So Much Like Here (See text and RBM 2004 Video Reel)

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Jean Jacques Dessalines - The women who influenced him, his ideals and legacy remembered (born, September 20, 1758, assassinated October 17, 1806)

September 20th is the birthday of Haiti's founding father, Jean Jacques Dessalines. Born a slave under European ideology and put in chains to serve France and the European nations in worldwide power, he lived to change the course of humanity. He did what Spartacus couldn't and much more.

There is so much about our African and Haitian ancestors we don’t know because US/European modus operandi was about the destruction of Africa’s past, African identity and world history in order to build and create their own societies and future.

When I hear Haitians and now even some embolden foreigners, talk about Haitians must forget 1804 and the triumphs of Jean Jacques Dessalines, the general of the native army of Haiti, stop referring to them and look to the future; when I see on Haitian forums discussing the mistreatment of Haitians in the Dominican Republic the advice that Haitians ought to stop talking about the 30,000 Haitians that Trujillo had slaughtered in 1937, I am reminded that the destruction of our African past, our Haitian reality, what Haitians witness to every nanosecond of the day is still the global US/European modus operandi. Haitian self-determination is being destroyed by UN occupation, paternalism, privatization, free trade agreements, debt, wage slavery and forced assimilation.

Haitians are asked to copy and paste what whites and their overseers see as their reality, their experience, and their history. But Jean Jacques Dessalines, in creating the nation of Haiti, broke from that modus operandi. He did not copy and paste what white minds saw as civilization, justice and democracy. Jean Jacques Dessalines looked at his own world and day to day experiences, took in what he could see with his own two eyes, what he could hear with his own ears, what he could envision with his own precious heart, his own unbowed soul and created a nation, a Haiti, that reflected that reality, that vision and the future that would best serve his people. His legacy has yet to be herald. His great ideals still remain obscure, his humane vision of humanity and for peaceful and self-affirming co-existence still denied.

In fact, after the mulatto sons of France assassinated Dessalines, during both the administration of the mulatto generals, Petion and Boyer, Dessalines’ name was forbidden to be spoken in Haiti under threat of imprisonment. Dessalines' assassination, two years after the creation of Haiti, was the first foreign-influenced coup d’etat in Haiti. The 2004 bi-centennial coup d’etat of Bush the son, was the 33rd coup d’etat to try to eradicate the influence of the Haitian revolution, which legally abolished slavery, forced assimilation, direct colonialism and the Triangular Trade in Haiti.

At Ezili's HLLN we recapture Dessalines’ three major ideals, his law, his name for Haiti, its meaning, history, revelations and explain why Dessalines was so ahead of his time and so threatening to the white nations. In the Ezili’s Free Haiti Movement, we set out October 17th, the day of Dessalines’ assassination to discuss Dessalines’ life, vision, ideals and what he represents to Haiti and the world.

Our history was so destroyed that it is only fairly recently that Haitians actually had a date for Dessalines’ birthday. Before, all we were taught was the date of his death. But Haitian scholars have done more work and now in Haiti, we have this day to celebrate. It is so very important this recapturing of our history, our people, what they witnessed to, how they reacted, what they created. We still have so little information. Still must rebuild. Still must put flesh, bone, blood and soul to those who were so destroyed, so corralled into ships and sold as property.

We still don’t have enough information about Victoria Montou (known as "Toya"), the Haitian woman who taught the greatest warrior that ever lived how to fight in hand-to-hand combat and how to throw a knife. Gran Toya guided Dessalines in his youth and he called her "aunt." She was an extraordinary warrior and commanded her own indigenous army. We still know so little about her. We know only that she taught Dessalines the physical maneuvers of effective hand to hand combat, how to shoot and how to throw a knife. We know she was old because she is affectionately called Gran Toya. Imagine her life! Imagine the inspiration she could be today to our young Haitian women. No.

Imagine the inspiration she could be to the world’s women and men! But our Black history was destroyed so we could be enslaved, so we could find nothing good in ourselves, our forefathers, their thinking. And still today, I’m reading on Haitian forums we should not resurrect the past, but move on because only today matters, - with our collective Haitian persona so vilified, maligned and brutalized and with white heroes, white cultural hegemony ruling. On that ground, we are told we should deploy ourselves into this world.

This morning I was blessed to be a participant on a Radio Kajou interview celebrating the holy day that's the birthday of Haiti's forefather, Jean Jacques Dessalines and I learned from a colleague in that discussion that Dessalines’ mother was a woman named Marie Elisabeth. I did not know this. Until this morning's panel when Haitian historian and scholar, Jafrikayiti said this, I did not know the name of Dessalines’ mother or that this enslaved African-Ayisyen, founder of the nation of Haiti, even had a mother who could be positively identified. Most of us are told our African ancestors were enslaved, we were sold as property, families separated and thus it’s impossible to know who gave birth to the which child. And that is that.

But there are Haitian scholars unearthing our stories, our stolen identities and lives. This job is ours to do. I want to know more, to empower more. I want to know more about Marissainte Dédé Brazil, (known as Defile), the Haitian woman who gave Dessalines a proper burial after he was chopped up in pieces and left in the Pont Rouge bridge as garbage. The old historians of Haiti called her crazy Defile, as if who would give honor and burial to the father of a Black nation.

Yet, Defile, an enslaved woman who freed herself, thought for herself, took action even some warrior men may have been hesitant to take, and left us a legacy of courage. Manman Defile went against the mob violence and group thinking, preserved our nation's dignity, faced the powers of the mulatto generals, and faced France to honor our fallen founding father. Who was the woman named Defile? Really. How did she get so much focus, courage, and so much gumption? We want to know so we can tell the next generation of Haitian the non-colonial narrative on Haiti. (See, Kouwòn pou Defile.)

We want to know about Marie Claire Heureuse Félicité Bonheur, Dessalines’ wife.

We are told, she was so kind, so elegant, so gentle, so beautiful that even the murderers of her husband bowed down to her. The mulatto general, General Petion, who became President of Haiti after the assassination of Jean Jacques Dessalines, actually wrote to Dessalines’ wife, Marie Claire Heureuse, to tell her not to worry she would be the "adoptive spouse" of the nation and taken care of by the nation, for life. (See, Three Historical Documents on Dessalines' Assassination.) Why did this woman, the wife of General Petion's archenemy, deserve such notice, admiration, and accolades? Why? We want every Haitian child, every women in the world, to know more about Marie Claire Heureuse. The little history we know tell us that during the Haitian revolutionary war against colonialism, forced assimilation, the Triangular Trade, and slavery, Marie Claire Heureuse took care of the sick soldiers, of the prisoners of the Revolutionary War, that she rode out onto the battlefield and even the French stopped their canon firing while she ministered to the dying, the wounded on both sides of the battle.

It has been said that this black Haitian woman named Marie Claire Heureuse was the first Red Cross. The world needs to know more about this woman, this hero, her model for human interaction. We should want to teach our children that one of the greatest, fiercest warriors on planet earth - the African warrior General Jean Jacques Dessalines - whose very name still scares the hell out of US/Euro writers and history scholars, still horrifies enslavers, tyrants and despots everywhere, that this man was taught how to fight and throw a knife by a woman named Toya and that he married a woman, a healer, a pacifist, who insisted he not bring his weapons inside their home and he lovingly complied with his beloved wife’s request. This, in a time and at a place where the First World War was happening in the world, where all the nations-of-power had converged on small Haiti to annihilate it and Dessalines’ weapon was his life. Who was this man! This beautiful woman, this wife, lover, nurse, herbal healer and pacifist?

What you read in history books on Haiti of hundreds of pages will mostly not tell you, what I’ve just put down in these few paragraphs about the people of Haiti. No. For, how many of us know greater details about sergeant Suzanne Bélair, known as Sanit Belè, the fierce Haitian woman who taught the African warriors of Haiti how to die with dignity as the French executioner's bullets shattered her to shreds?

Sanit, fell into the hands of the French. In the hope of saving her life, her husband, Charles Belair, voluntarily gave himself up. But his chivalrous action went for naught. The two, husband and wife, were sentenced to death by firing squad and executed the same day. When her hateful executioners tried to blindfold her because she was a woman, Sanit refused. She considered it an insult to a woman's bravery and courage to be executed any differently than her husband. And, after watching unblinkingly while her husband was executed, Sanit Belè boldly presented her breast to receive the firing squad's fatal shots.

What more do we know about Marie-Jeanne Lamartinière, the fearless Haitian woman who stood tall and striking - wearing a long white floating dress, her waist knotted with a white sash, a red scarf around her head, saber strapped down her shoulders, and rifle in hand - as she urged forward to victory against the 12,000 French, the 1,000 outgunned and outnumbered indigenous Haitian army, on the bloody days at the famous and decisive battle of Crête-à-Pierrot?

It is rumored that after the murder of her husband, Brigade Commander Lamartinierre, Marie-Jeanne became the lover of the native General, Dessalines. Not much else is recorded. We just have her picture in our minds from the various paintings and oral stories, our Haitian lullabies, depicting Marie-Jeanne in the midst of the inferno, a wounded soldier at her feet, or in the line of fire outside the Crête-à-Pierrot fort, fighting alongside her officer husband, Lamartinière.