Ezili
Danto's Note: I first wrote this
piece on December 31, 2005. It's in our archives at
https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/ezilidanto/2005
- 12/msg00009.html).
Today, December 31, 2007, I see no need to completely rewrite this New
Years-Independence Day Haiti message. We are still spending another
Haitian independence day under occupation. The December 31, 2005 essay
is as applicable for January 1, 2008, as it was for January 1, 2006.
Different Haitians are dying, in jail and being abused, raped and slaughtered.
We are now under UN occupation instead of little Bush's imposed Boca
Raton regime and this past year the anti-Aristide film, Ghost of Site
Soley made it to major theaters, blockbusters and the internet (Youtube)
and thus must be countered. Other than this, the changes made for this
essay to fit the current situation in Haiti on January 1, 2008 are minimal.
I hope next year not to find this essay still an applicable template.
Happy Birthday Haiti (January 1, 1804 to January 1, 2008). We
shall fight from one generation to the next.
(1804
Independence Proclamation of Haiti's Founding father, General Jean Jacques
Dessalines "....if they find asylum amongst us, they
will be once more the schemers of our troubles and our divisions.")
*
January 1, 2008 - Another Haitian
independence day under occupation
Back on January 1, 1804 Euro/US barbarity and savagery received its
greatest blow in the Western Hemisphere. Haitians have been stigmatized
and forced to pay with their life and freedom for that achievement ever
since.
Tomorrow, January 1, 2008, marks Haiti's freedom day.
Oceans of our blood have poured and watered the soil to nourish civilized
co-existence on this planet earth and continues, this very minute, to
soak the earth needlessly simply because Haitians were the first to
counter, in combat, Euro/US biological fatalism, destroy its myth of
white superiority, and to do what even Spartacus could not.
How should Haitians mark this anniversary? Who should we confer with
about our awesome burden, our plight, our long struggle to be treated
as human beings by the Euro/US settlers?
Who should we approach about the 110 UN soldiers from Sri Lanka caught
sexually abusing and raping under age Haitian children and turning Haiti
into a brothel for foreign officialdom’s gleeful perversions?
Who should we approach about this International occupation holding our
people hostage. About the UN soldiers' massacres, rapes of our women
and repression of Haiti's defenseless poor? About the lies of the mainstream
media and awful anti-Aristide propaganda in so-called 'documentaries'
like the Ghost of Site Soley?
In this documentary, Eleonore “Lele” Senlis, there in Haiti,
like the UN Sri Lankan soldiers to offer ‘humanitarian’
assistance and ‘relief,’ has herself filmed, lustfully leering
at not one naked young Haitian male, but two Haitian brothers. Her cameraman
pans to them, each in turn, washing their genitalia sections in preparation
to sexually service this so-called ‘relief’ worker. (Go
to 1:38
minutes into Part 5). In the case of the brother 2Pac, he
is filmed entirely naked. Then the camera, - the so-called “documentary?"
camera - pans to the Frenchwoman lurking behind a curtain, fully dressed
in white privilege and a lecherous grin. (Go to 8:05
minutes into Part 6). Eleonore Senlis was then an HIV/Aid
education worker heading a large NGO in Haiti. But, she is filmed bringing
the ghetto chiefs drugs or "medicine," getting Bily's soldiers
to doctors when they've been shot, giving Bily money as he lies in his
bed with her alongside ("This is for you. Don't spend it on girls"
she says. - Go to 2:13
minutes into Part 5).
In the film, the Frenchwoman says she "...honestly admire more
Bily than 2Pac. I think in his heart. He wants to do good for Site Soley"
(Go to 3:13
minutes into Part 5). This footage hints at how the raw footage
of this film was cleverly cut and edited by Asger Leth to construct
his slick anti-Aristide propaganda. Because we hear the Frenchwoman
say she admires Bily more than 2Pac, but her words are NOT WRITTEN in
the captions. The film conspires to magnify 2Pac's nihilism, but instead
his disillusionment, young macho bravado, vulnerability, cry for help
and understandable insecurities shine through. It emphasizes 2Pac's
bitterness against the Aristide administration and "as truth"
Bily's violent nature. But falls short of making these cases altogether,
despite all the clever Leth's editing efforts. What we are left with
is simply two sad brothers living under unspeakable human poverty and
all sorts of deprivations and how a Frenchwoman, who found asylum with
them in Site Soley, Haiti, added to their misery, entered to brazenly
strum odious brotherly rivalry - fratricide. A perfect colonial blueprint.
(See, 1804
Independence Proclamation of Haiti's Founding father, General Jean Jacques
Dessalines "....if they find asylum amongst us, they
will be once more the schemers of our troubles and our divisions.")
For, as her protective camera rolls, the Frenchwoman publicly emasculates
the powerless, dependent but pro-Aristide Brother Bily, telling him:
"...Since not long, since a few days, I have some guy. But the
guy is your brother. OK. So that's the situation now...I'm not joking."
(Go to 8:58
minutes into Part 6). Both brothers, 2Pac and Bily are now
dead. Bily was disappeared on December 1, 2005 as the anti-Aristide
Boca Raton regime (allied to the US/France/Canada-supported Guy Philippe/Jean
Tatoune/Louis Jodel Chanblain death squad thugs that this so-called
"documentary" portrays, in the end, as "liberators of
Haiti") shot 107 prisoners point blank while still in their cells
at the UN-“guarded” Haitian National Penitentiary. The brothers'
small children have been left, as most of the 2004 coup d'etat victims,
penniless and fatherless. But France, like Canada and the US are happy
with Haiti now. For the first time in history, a French
president is scheduled to land in Haiti. The Frenchwoman,
Eleonore Senlis moves on. Perhaps next to sell her wares and add more
Black scalps to her belt in some poor country in Africa? No?
How do we get justice? Who do we tell about the 107 poor Haitian
prison detainees shot dead by Boniface/Latortue prison guards, some
while still in their jail cells back in 2005; the Site Soley massacres,
the IOM/USAID soccer match massacres, the Machete Army slaughters, the
imprisonment of Haiti's children, just because they are homeless, live
in poor neighborhoods or upset some big-men wearing French boots on
Dessaline's soil; their tiny souls just yearning to be set free, to
see their mothers, to eat a decent meal instead of enduring soul disfigurement
by being locked up for just existing? How should we Haitians, who still
live and breathe free, fight on for ourselves, our children, for those
who don't?
In the book, Two Thousand Seasons, Ayi Kwei Armah writes:
".... How have we come to be mere mirrors to annihilations? For
whom do we aspire to reflect our people's death? For whose entertainment
shall we sing our agony? In what hopes? That the destroyers, aspiring
to extinguish us, will suffer conciliatory remorse at the sight of their
own fantastic success? The last imbecile to dream such dreams is dead,
killed by the saviors of his dreams...."
And so, it is an exercise in futility to go to the perpetrators and
executors of human rights crimes in Haiti in hopes of getting justice
for our people. Those who oustered the constitutional government of
Haiti and rendered the Preval/Alexi government mere puppets of these
international profiteers; the UN who acts as proxy to maintain this
international crime, the Haitian lackeys and their State Department
masters, are dead inside and cannot hear the cries of the Haitian masses.
It's not their mission or mandate. For, they don't represent life, liberty,
democracy, development and decency, but its opposite. This Officialdom,
this authority rains death, despotism, destruction, cruelty, inhumanity,
injustice and represent all that civilized peoples worldwide struggle
to overcome. They write laws, but are too "high tech" to live
them. They mouth words of "justice" and fairness but their
words are DEAD.
To further quote Ghanaian writer, Ayi Kwei Armah: "Those utterly
dead, never again to awake, such is their muttering."
See, for yourself, my people, Canada's recent mutterings on the state
of affairs in Haiti:
"The Honourable Maxime Bernier, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today
issued the following statement offering the best wishes of the Government
and people of Canada to the people of Haiti as they mark their country’s
Independence Day on January 1.
“As Haiti celebrates its national day, we are reminded of the
progress the country has made, particularly in terms of security and
in the political arena. Institutions at all levels are led by elected
officials dedicated to rebuilding their country on the foundations of
good governance and the rule of law.
“Canada’s efforts in Haiti are a compelling example of how
we can work in our own neighborhood, the Americas, to help countries
struggling to make a better life for their people. We are proud to maintain
a close relationship with the Haitian government and to provide the
resources the country needs to continue implementing an effective and
transparent machinery of government. This in turn helps foster economic
opportunity, improve security and advance our fundamental values of
freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
“It is against this backdrop of optimism that Canada warmly welcomes
the strong partnership that has developed between our two countries—a
partnership we look forward to continuing.” (See, Canada
Congratulates the People of Haiti on the Occasion of their Independence
Day, December 31, 2007, No. 188 http://news.gc.ca/web/view/en/index.jsp?
articleid=370759&categoryid=16 ).
But as you read Canada's bare-faced, immoral lies masking the truth,
recall that in 2003, another Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs hosted
a secret meeting in Ottawa, where Canada joined in with the US, France,
OAS and the Roger Noreiga-ilks of this world to plan the destruction
of Haiti's democracy, security and its entire political landscape, committing
to replace it militarily with what we have in Haiti today, a Western-run
UN protectorate. (See The
Ottawa Initiative: Canadian Officials Initiate Planning for
Military Ouster of Aristide - http://www.margueritelaurent.com/law/ottawai.html
).
Such a 'neighborly' Canadian effort, resulted in the slaughter of more
than 10,000 Haitians between 2004 and 2006, the imprisonment of over
4,000, the hunting down of hundreds of thousands of Lavalas pro-democracy
partisans in Haiti and the forceful deportation/exiling of over 20,000
Haitians, including Haiti's duly elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide.
This ‘neighborly’ Canada, like the rest of the Euro/US world
are countries that REFUSED to celebrate Haiti's bicentennial and independence
and wouldn't deign to formally wish a FREE HAITI good wishes back on
January 1, 2004, on the occasion of Haiti’s 200th-year anniversary.
But this year, in 2008, when Haiti is under occupation and with the
successful implementation of Canada’s Ottawa Initiative, this
is when Canada wishes Haiti “Happy independence day” with
a straight face! (See, Canada
Congratulates the People of Haiti on the Occasion of their Independence
Day, December 31, 2007 - http://news.gc.ca/web/view/en/index.jsp?
articleid=370759&categoryid=16 )
The Boca Raton regime that Canada, the United State and France upheld
instead of Haiti's democracy, from 2004 to 2006, is known only for its
barbarity, corruption; its signing of massive loan packages to the World
Bank, IMF and other such international financial institutions, in preparation
for the massive privatization being legitimized under the current Preval
puppet government. But such economic tyranny and human rights nightmares
and the occupation that Haiti lives under today appears to be what the
Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier refers to, in the release,
as "..economic opportunity, improve security" and the advancement
of Canada's "fundamental values of freedom, democracy, human rights
and the rule of law."
In this "New World", according to such Canadian "fundamental
values" it seems that tyranny, occupation and economic exploitation
of Haiti's poor is defined as "progress" that is worthy of
international support - of Canada, US, France, UN security council,
OAS and European Union support.
Thus, for Dessalines' descendants, these zombie's mutterings are meaningless.
Ayi Kwei Armah further explains what's to be done with such predators
and their blan-peyi Haitian lackeys, for they are dead: "Leave
them in their graves. Whatever waking form they wear, the stench of
death pours ceaseless from their mouths. From every opening of their
possessed carcasses comes death's excremental pus. Their soul itself
is dead and long since putrefied. Would you have your intercourse with
these creatures from the graveyard? "
NO. Leave the dead in their graves, speak your righteous message not
to these "long rotted ash..." but address your message, my
people, to the living and look only to Dessaline's descendants worldwide.
His legacy is liberty. Speak to liberty lovers. Empower the world's
lovers of liberty.
On freedom day, raise up peaceful co-existence in the name of Dessalines,
the father of Haitian independence, author of the concept that a "Haitian"
is a "freedom lover,'" no matter his or her skin color or
from which branch of that Black woman, mother of all the races –
our ultimate root, he/she heralds from.
Remember that "Black" as redefined by Dessalines means a "lover
of Liberty." Therefore any person, of whatever fabricated social
"race," who loves freedom and liberty is Black, not white
in the pejorative "tyrant" sense. For, to Haitians, any one
who is a tyrant, no matter what his or her skin color, is deemed "white"
, a blan, a stranger, not family.
Black is also, to Dessalines and his knowledgeable descendants,
the color and texture of liberty.
It is because of this Dessalines' philosophy and psychology that Haitian
beliefs are marginalized and why Haitians are forever marked for destruction
and annihilation. Our concepts, based on the observable facts of our
history, experiences and existence, threatens white supremacy and today's
world order, to its core. That is why most people in this world only
know the lies told and retold about Haiti, about Haiti's culture, its
psychology, philosophy.
I've written in the "Red,
Black, Moonlight monologue series" that,
"Reaching for Black, keeps me from bursting into flames."
For, it is that "reaching" which defines and gives texture
to our struggle.
Our independence and freedom is divine and "as black as primordial
space; as black as the firmament from which creation sprung...the color
of carbon, the key atom found in all living matter. All who are "Haitian"
carry particles of a culture, where every vibratory energy comes out
of the dark melanin seed, that Haiti and Africa owns, which captures
light and reproduces itself and various hues and shades, full of multidimensional
patterns, disparate energies, eternal seeds... "
*
"Kanga Mundele", said the spirit of Ezili
Dantò that mounted that great mambo Cecile Fatiman,
on August 14, 1791 at Bwa Kayiman, the ceremony that begun the great
Haitian Revolution.
Kanga Mundele means "kill the stranger" in Kikongo, "kill
the stranger within", "amongst us." - and also meant
long live freedom.
*
On January 1, 2008, we remember and celebrate the road traveled. Humbled
by the courage of the Haitians who left us a freedom legacy to live;
a liberated psychology to help free Africa's children from all sorts
of colonization, a philosophy to extend.
On Independence Day, January 1, 2008, we remember, respect and honor
our deep roots even as we continue to face Officialdoms’ bitter
lies, its white despotism and racists disdain. Its lies and half-truths,
such as written above by the likes of "The Honourable Maxime Bernier,
Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs", or, as being widely espoused
by Canada’s counterparts in Washington, Paris and by their various
corporate media chums, who continually call Haitians "fouled up",
"failed," "gangsters" while in sum, calling their
imposed UN protectorate "progress;" its bloody, pillaging
reign "partnership" and its massive slaughtering, raping and
incarceration of Haiti's peoples "improved security."
Said internationals are quick to find and pronounce, to all and sundry,
that today’s occupied Haiti, (which is suffering more misery,
more hunger, more kidnappings, more dependency, more indebtedness than
it ever did under the duly elected rules of Haiti’s free governments
from 1994 to 2004) is experiencing "progress... in terms of security
and in the political arena."
In fact, Canada’s Foreign Minister further announces in the press
release, that Haiti is today being “led by elected officials dedicated
to rebuilding their country on the foundations of good governance and
the rule of law.” Said Officialdom has no problem with such a
hypocritical pronouncement when, the bare truth is that their created
puppet Preval government is chock full of, at least ninety percent of
the corrupt 2004 Boca Raton regime imposters and international Haitian
sympathizers, Black overseers, who could never, EVER have been freely
elected or appointed in Haiti, if not for the foreign-sponsored 2004
coup d’etat and the 9,000 UN troops holding the Haitian masses
from expressing their wishes by the point of a UN gun.
Some of these international technocrats, like Raymond Joseph, the Haitian
Ambassador in Washington and as practically the entire Haitian Foreign
Ministry were imposed on Haiti in 2004 and still remain in the positions
they took by force to this day. The others took their positions by-selection
in the corrupt UN/US-run Haiti elections since 2004. Elections run by
computerized digital machines in a country without electricity. Elections
run by digital machines owned by the rich elites, with ballots printed
by the coup d’etat Boulos family and counted by their own illegal
electoral council.
Ours, has been a long struggle.
It started for us-Haitians in 1503 when the first kidnapped African
captive set his enchained foot on what is now known as Haitian soil.
We continue to face the guns, greed and odious cruelties of the white
man. But we also continue to celebrate our victories against him.
On January 1, 2008, Haitians shall come together to stand tall within
ourselves against the Empire's lies and stigmas. We've survive. We know
who we are, what we are and that we've got roots to keep us strong.
Our history of survival is our greatest asset and rallying point. We
exists still because we have ALWAYS defined ourselves, extended ourselves,
given value to ourselves, our life, strengths, ancestors, history and
heroes, when the world's greatest armies, medias and superpowers have
not.
In fact, White Officialdom and its Haitian blan-peyi lackeys are united
solely in their refusal to recognize Haiti's value, its sovereignty
and right to self-determination.
Death, imprisonment, suffering and sacrifice may be our perennial plight,
in this, Bartholomew De La Casas' "New World." Yet, try as
the pathetic likes of these Foreign Ministers may, to tell Haitians
what we are "worth'", how exclusionary elections are "our
due", or, that Preval’s puppet government’s reign is
"progress" and repression is liberty, he fools and shames
only himself and his restavek Haitian lackeys.
As flesh and blood, endowed by our creator with the right to life, we
claim the natural right to just retribution, to self-defense, to equal
application of international laws governing human and civil rights.
For we are certain, if not in this lifetime, then in our children or
great-grandchildren's time, the day will come when these fiendish Officialdoms
of this world will answer for the Haitian lives they've helped to destroy
down the centuries and generations. The day will come, as surely as
the moonlight outside my window heralding that tomorrow is already here.
Every tomorrow will be our Independence Day. Every tomorrow we-Haitians
shall extend our independence blocking Euro/US re-colonization, its
modern day applications and their new rods of empire (i.e., endless
foreign debt, massive privatization and elections-under-occupation).
Every tomorrow, even if placed in jail like the men and women of Site
Soley and labeled bandit “chimeres”, or in exile, or contained
in poverty, we won't relent but shall recount our glorious history of
struggle ad nauseum, until no doubt remains that we are indeed Dessalines'
descendants.
On January 1, 2008 my people, leave the dead in their graves and look
to Dessaline's descendants. Gather the living un-coopted Haitians, drink
soup joumou, call on Marijan, Kapwa Lamò, Desalin and celebrate
our living history. Keep making that history. Remember and celebrate
the dignity of all those incarcerated right now in Haiti because they
stood up against this occupation, remember the Ezili Danto goodness
of Haiti's women warriors, remember our roots, our struggle - its vast
glory.
Those roots are OUR living way, our legacy, our path to freedom and
our light that's impossible to lose. It is that remembrance that calls
us, animates us, keeps us moving through these unspeakable sufferings
and griefs.
On our Independence Day, January 1, 2008, and on every tomorrow to come,
we shall forget the dead living amongst us, sucking our blood like the
vampires they are. These parasites have lost sight of Haiti's origins.
Its sanctity, divinity and goodness. Its gift of liberty and fraternity
when all around the Europeans settlers were bringing only depravity.
As Ayi Kwei Armah writes in his book, Two Thousand Seasons:
" A people losing sight of origins are dead. A people deaf to purposes
are lost. Under fertile rain, in scorching sunshine there is no difference:
their bodies are mere corpses, awaiting final burial."
Dessaline's descendants hold a sacred trust. Kanga Mundele!
Our mission is to live free not to live as dead zombies, corporate or
UN sell-outs, servile to gluttonous and inhuman greed. Despite 505 years
of grief, the African who became "Ayisyen" (Haitian) in the
land of the Taino/Arawaks are still here – standing on truth,
living without fear. Nou La! We don’t get much press. But we’re
here! Nou la!
Marguerite 'Ezili Dantò' Laurent, Esq.
Li led li la
Chair and Founder, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Netowrk (HLLN)
December 31, 2007
***********************
|