From: David Sangurima <sangu@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Date: 05 Oct 92 18:55 PDT
Subject: IPS:Columbus:Haiti's Tortuous 500 Y
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1473800335:000:6914
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!sangu    Oct  5 18:55:00 1992


From: David Sangurima <sangu>
Subject: IPS:Columbus:Haiti's Tortuous 500 Years

/* Written  9:37 am  Oct  4, 1992 by hrcoord in cdp:native.1492 */
/* ---------- "COLUMBUS: HAITI'S TORTUOUS 500 YEAR" ---------- */
From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: COLUMBUS: HAITI'S TORTUOUS 500 YEAR

/* Written 12:04 am  Oct  4, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: COLUMBUS: HAITI'S TORTUOUS 500 YEARS /SERIES/

an inter press service feature

by jan van beek and frans bieckmann


the first spanish settlement in the new world -- navidad:
christmas.

locked since then in a cycle of violence and poverty, the
country has become a byword for underdevelopment: poorest nation
in the western hemisphere, one of the poorest on earth.

christopher columbus and his crew bounced into hispaniola, the
island haiti shares with the dominican republic on his first
voyage -- almost literally, one of his ships ran aground. on nov.
5, 1492, columbus glimpsed a bay, now called mole saint nicolas.

he thought it was china, as cuba had to be japan. seven weeks
later, just before christmas, ~the 'santa maria' ran aground on a
reef near cap haitien. the keel ripped open. the ship was a total
loss. with the help of the indians and their chief guanaca~gari,
it was broken up.

today, on the streets of this desperately poor city, colourful
and noisy, the air unpleasant, the pace laid-back, there is no
fondness for the memory of the explorer.

''there must be a reason that the countries that colum~bus
first discovered are still extremely poor after 500 ye~ars,'' says
claude, a young haitian. ''san salvador, with no means of
existence; cuba, economically close to the edge; the domi~nican
republic, for some time bankrupt; haiti, overw~helmed by garbage
and totally pauperi~zed.''

claude holds europeans responsible. he rejects the assertion
that haiti gained indepen~dence some two centuries ago and thus
its own people should be blamed.

who committed genocide on the original population, the
taino2dindians ? he asks. who ~dragged african slaves to the
caribbean ? who evoked their violent feelings ? who stole the gold
and exploited the natural resources ? who created the
institu~tions, fashioned the leaders ?

parts of columbus' wrecked vessel were used to build the first
spanish settlement in the new world. forty-three crew members
remained behind. when colum~bus returned on his second voyage,
they were dead: guanacagari and his people had had enough of the
spaniards' insatiable appetite for gold and women. (more/ips)

columbus: haiti's tortuous 500 years    /series/(2)

columbus: haiti's (2)

a detailed description of the way in which those first spanish
settlers acted is supplied by father bartolome de las casas in his
'brief account of the destruction of the indies'. de las casas
visited 'the indies' at the beginning of the 16th century.

''the great de~struction, misery and extermina~tion of these
unfortu~nate people, began on the island hispaniola, where the
christians first went ashore,'' he wrote. ''the spani~ards took
the wives and children from the indians and abused them. they ate
all the indians' food...''

he wrote of how the spaniards made bets with each other about
chopping someone in two with a single stroke of the sword, or
splitting his head with a pike. they tore away new-born children
from the breasts of their mothers and smashed their heads against
rocks.

thirteen indians at a time were hanged on the gal~lows, a
ritual glorifying the saviour and his 12 apostles.

claude studied all of this history. he teaches at a primary
school a few hours a week, does some street-trade, and agitates in
one of the small parties which supported jean bertrand aristide,
the charismatic presi~dent forced to flee last year after a coup
d'etat.

this capital ~pulsates to the rhythm of the street trade and
the mini-buses, colourful 'tap-taps' which carry passengers for a
few centimes. elsewhere, garbage remains uncollected, buildings
are in disrepair, sanitation standards are low -- evidence of
decay abounds.

gardens around the presidential palace and the park of the
heroes of indepen~dence are well kept. mismana~ge~ment by
political opportunists has squeezed haiti dry~. only institu~tions
of terror have been preserved.

life expectancy is 50 years. there is a 77 percent illiteracy
rate. estimates put the average income of the five and a half
million inhabitants at 300 u.s. dollars a year, or 25 dollars a
month. many haitians do not earn that amount in three years, so
wide is the rich-poor divide.

with their street trade -- three tomatoes and an onion here,
some screws and nuts there, used slippers, an old transistor radio --
the poor haitian earns one gourde (25 cents u.s.) a day.

haiti became a french colony when spain ceded the western part
of the island of hispaniola in the 17th century. a slave uprising
between 1791 and 1803 established an independent state in 1804.

hostility between the black population and the mulattos
continued throughtout the 19th century. in 1915, amid political
turmoil, and influenced also by haiti's failure to pay its debts,
u.s. marines invaded the country and ruled it until 1934.
(more/ips)

columbus: haiti's tortuous 500 years    /series/(3-e)

columbus: haiti's (3)

mulatto presidents remained in power until 1946, when a black
president, dusmarsais estime, was elected. power switched between
despots several times until 1957 when francois duvalier, a rural
physician, was elected president. his dictatorship, brutal in the
extreme, continued until his death in 1971; his son, jean-claude,
then 19, took on the mantle.

haitians forced jean-claude to leave aboard a u.s. aircraft in
february 1986, only to find that members of the government that
replaced him were duvalierists in disguise.

sham elections, a referendum for a new constitution, new
elections, attempted elections, strikes and protest, coups and
counter-coups kept haiti hovering on edge of an even deeper abyss
throughout the rest of the 1980's.

finally, presidential and legislative elections took place in
december 1990. by a huge majority jean bertrand aristide, a 37-
year-old priest whose ideas were moulded by liberation theology,
was elected president.

an attempt by old-style duvalierists to prevent his swearing in
gave a harbinger of the mayhem to come. aristide, a product of the
teeming slums, known as 'titid' to his multitude of followers, was
eventually sworn in on february 7, 1991.

~by september that year he was ousted in a military coup and
forced into exile. a brutal reign of terror against aristide
supporters forced many to leave. the cycle of violence and poverty
into which haiti has been locked for 500 years was continuing to
turn. (end/ips/ip-ce/jb-fb)