Africans urge Haitians to return home and then make America and France pay

It is interesting, even instructive, to see how Haitians, displaced by last month’s earthquake, are reacting to offers by Africans to “return home.” Because, if nothing else, their reaction should put the (final) nail in the coffin of Pan-Africanism.

Here, for the record, are two of the more widely reported offers Africans have made in the beleaguered spirit of pan-African brotherhood:

Haitians were sons and daughters of Africa since Haiti was founded by slaves, including some thought to be from Senegal… Senegal is ready to offer them parcels of land – even an entire region.

(Spokesman for President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal – pictured here)

Haiti’s history as a creation of the slave trade and the world’s first black republic creates a special obligation for African Union members. It is out of a sense of duty and memory and solidarity that we can further the proposal … to create in Africa the conditions for the return of Haitians.

(African Union President Jean Ping)

But I trust Africans will not be too offended by the fact that reaction amongst Haitians has ranged from consternation to indignation.  In fact, one would be hard-pressed to find a single Haitian (government official or private citizen) who thinks these offers to return home are even worthy of consideration.

And who can blame them. I know if I were Haitian, I would consider rebuilding my country in the Caribbean – surrounded by relatively rich, stable, and charitable countries – far more preferable to being relocated to “tribal lands” in Africa – surrounded by relatively poor, unstable, and parasitic, if not predatory, countries.

Not to mention that, given the pandemic of corruption, incompetence and civil strife that continues to plague virtually every country on this continent, “returning” to Africa for Haitians would be tantamount to the proverbial jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

Perhaps Haiti is fated to loom amidst the islands of the Caribbean as Africa does amidst the continents of the world – as a dark, destitute, diseased, desperate, disenfranchised, dishonest, disorganized, disassociated, dangerous and ultimately dysfunctional mess.

[Haiti’s living nightmare continues … unabated, TIJ, March 7, 2005]

By contrast, with every developed country in the world now vested in its future, Haiti stands to benefit from a nation-building effort the likes of which the world has not seen since the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Western Europe after World War II. (This, notwithstanding President Truman’s Point Four Program, which was intended to be a Marshall Plan for Africa, Asia, Central and Latin America.)

So on behalf of our Haitian brothers and sisters: thanks, but no thanks Africa.

(By the way, in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, rescue teams and emergency supplies from countries all over the world, including Israel, poured into Haiti.  There are 54 countries in Africa.  How many of them do you recall participating in this rush to aid these “sons and daughters of Africa” in their hour of earth-shattering despair…?)

Meanwhile, all Haitians should be heartened by the irony of having the United States and France compete to be the father of their national rebirth.  After all, it was the US and France that led other nations in a conspiracy to ensure that Haiti would suffer crib death as a nation after winning independence in 1804.

The Americans participated in this attempted infanticide because they deemed it politically untenable to have a nation of black revolutionaries enjoying democratic freedoms in their backyard. No doubt they feared the embers from the revolutionary fires that liberated black slaves in Haiti might ignite similar fires to liberate black slaves in America.

The French participated merely to avenge their humiliating defeat.  Never mind the irony that these Haitian revolutionaries merely emulated the way American revolutionaries defeated the British … with the help of the French. Which only compounds the racism and hypocrisy inherent in the United States and France treating Haiti this way.

But that, as we say, is ancient history.  This is why it strikes me as just an academic exercise, which does nothing to further Haiti’s national interest, for commentators to be conjuring up this 19th century conspiracy. For it can only serve as a specious reason for the chronic growing pains Haitians have suffered since independence, and will prove a fatally flawed basis on which to demand reparations for those pains.

Mind you, this is not to say that the US, in particular, has no obligation to come to Haiti’s aid.  In fact, I’m on record asserting quite emphatically that it does:

American presidents are almost as responsible for creating the nightmarish living conditions in Haiti as the succession of incompetent, corrupt, and ruthless leaders they’ve sponsored throughout Haiti’s modern History… The American government must honor its unfulfilled obligations to help build a Haiti than can sustain itself, govern itself and police itself.

[The plague of Haitian migrants in the Caribbean, TIJ, March 31, 2005]

But these commentators blaming the Americans for Haiti’s dystopia is rather like Robert Mugabe blaming the British for Zimbabwe’s. After all, the foreign aid the world has given Haiti over the past 50 years should have compensated for much of the damage this founding conspiracy caused. So the lion’s share of the blame for “destroy[ing] the dream that was Haiti” rightly belongs to Haitian leaders like Papa Doc, not foreign ones like Bill Clinton.

Haitians are living a serial nightmare. And even though white foreign faces appear as evil forces from time to time, black indigenous faces (like those of the Tonton Macoutes, FRAPH, and even Lavalas devotees) are the constant, central and catalytic characters….

[Haiti’s living nightmare continues … unabated, TIJ, March 7, 2005]

That said, I am hopeful that what will distinguish this latest round of foreign aid is the vested interest all donor nations are taking in Haiti’s sustainable development.  Indeed, nothing militates against billions more being squandered quite like having former U.S. President Bill Clinton, instead of local leaders, managing this nation-building project. Especially considering that one could be forgiven for thinking all Haitian politicians are congenitally incompetent and corrupt….

(Incidentally, don’t worry about Clinton being rushed to the hospital yesterday.  His heart just needed a little tuning up. In fact, his doctor insists that, after a day’s rest, the best prescription for him is to resume his very full work load.)

China, Brazil, Venezuela and France have all made politically opportunistic attempts to lead this effort.  But the Haitian government endorsed America’s exceptional standing in this respect by granting the US exclusive and indefinite command and control…

The US is not only providing the vast majority of all emergency supplies and financial aid, but an advance team of military forces were already handing out supplies and helping the Haitian police enforce law and order.

[Haiti’s Three Rs: Relief, Recovery and Reconstruction, TIJ, January 15, 2010]

Moreover, once government institutions and the rule of law have been established, Clinton will clearly be the person best suited to attract the private investments that will be the engine of Haiti’s economic growth. And the billions he garners in annual corporate pledges for his Clinton Global Initiative is a testament to this fact.

Although, frankly, without this very high-profile and foreign oversight, even the most jingoistic Haitian would have to concede that nobody would have any reason to believe that Haiti would be any better off 10 years from now than it was the day before the earthquake hit – despite billions in charitable donations.

Finally, it cannot be overstated that, with over 200,000 dead, Haiti’s earthquake was a tragedy of biblical proportions.  But the blessing in disguise is that no people have ever had a better opportunity to form a more perfect union than Haitians have today.

Let us pray they make the most of it.

More on Reparations

France may well have a special obligation to pay reparations to Haiti, not only for the institution of slavery but also for the $21 billion in adhesive and unwarranted reparations the world forced the newly independent Haiti to pay France (in installments from 1825 to 1922) in order to be recognized.  Of course, the inconvenient truth is that it wasn’t just France that extracted this payment, but the entire world….

But surely no country has a greater obligation to pay reparations than the US, not only for slavery but also for the systematic discrimination it practiced against the descendants of black American slaves for over 100 years after Abolition.

Yet, just as supervening events (like Affirmative Action) make reparations in the American context impracticable, if not redundant, similar events (like foreign aid) make reparations in the Haitian context even more so.  Indeed, there’s a reason why the US, the richest and most generous country in the world, has never paid reparations for its institution of slavery.

Related commentaries:
Haiti’s living nightmare continues
The plague of Haitian migrants…
Haiti’s Three Rs: Relief, Recovery, Reconstruction
Fatally flawed demand for reparations…