Once again, American money will seep into Haiti by way of Baby Doc’s (BD) pocket, into which most, if not all, of it will remain. BD needs the cash: he’s broke and under arrest. BD became the “President” of Haiti “for life” on his father, Papa Doc Duvalier’s (PD)command after PD’s 14 year dictatorship. BD took his father’s secret police force (pogrom force), the Tonton Macoutes, to new heights. The macoutes (the bogyman in English) lived up to their name, maiming and killing over 100,000 innocent Haitians, whose bodies were splayed in remote, yet public areas for all to see as a terror tactic to keep Duvalier, and later his son, in power. Unfortunately, the death toll in Haiti has been so horrific for so long because of not only their abject poverty, but their isolation from the rest of the world, that more than half of the population is under the age of 25, and therefore, they have no first hand, or often even second-hand, memories of the Duvalier’s dictatorships; thus, in their current disparity will be, and already are, far too willing to welcome BD back into their country. However, there is at least one young Haitian unwilling to forget. I will call her Queen. Queen, a former student of mine in my Afro-Caribbean literature course at a Florida school, had first hand experience with the macoute. She told the story during our Krik! Krak! presentation week. She explained how the macoute came to her home when she was eleven years old, where she lived with her mother, grandmother, and a few female cousins. Queen reported that after the macoute raped her neighbor and friend, also eleven, they killed her friend’s mother and grandmother with machetes, and then demanded Queen’s family to come outside. Queen stated that the men lined up all the women in the house to determine which woman would be raped by which member of the macoute. When they reached Queen’s grandmother, she claimed that she was a cousin of one of the members of their group of macoute, which was verified on the spot. Because it is, in Haitian culture, disrespectful to kill or rape someone in one’s only family, Queen’s family of women and girls were spared. Afterward, Queen’s mother insisted that they take in the raped eleven year old girl from next door, because she was Queen’s best friend. Queen’s friend moved in with them, but never reconciled what happened to her at the hands of the macoute. Queen reported that the girl cried incessantly not for days, but for weeks, and remained inconsolable for the next three years, until she committed suicide. She was 14; and Queen found her dead body hanging from the closet hook in the bedroom she shared with her. When Queen concluded her story in class, everyone in the room was clapping and crying, including the two men in the class; including me. We applauded Queen’s bravery in Haiti and the classroom. We cried to show Queen our pain from her pain and to give her the support she needed, for which she was most grateful, as she’d never told the story to anyone before or after immigrating to Florida. The following week, which was also the last week of the semester, Queen came to class with a huge brown papered package and gave it to me as a present. When I opened it I was instantly awestruck. It is a painting, containing all the traditional colors of Haiti, but also one of the macoute in action: beautiful in color, painful in its depiction of the bogyman. I retell Queen’s story here for all who don’t know that there are tens of thousands of now adult women who have suffered at the hands of the macoute. There are also thousands of little girls who didn’t survive their girlhood, and thousands more, like Queen, who lost their girlhood far too young, and as adults, daily reflect on the rapes, suicides, and murders of their friends, mothers, grandmothers, and loved ones. I say all this to say that Baby Doc Duvalier should be exactly where he is–arrested–and should be held accountable for his actions against the parents and grandparents of the young Haitians of today, many of whom are not knowledgeable about Haiti’s past under the foot of the Duvaliers. The Americans who helped the Duvaliers for monetary gain should also go down with Duvalier’s ship, publicly and painfully. I hope that the old Haitians will teach the young Haitians and show them that peace and wealth in Haiti cannot be achieved under a Duvalier OR the Americans. I’d like to thank Edwidge Danticat for writing Krik! Krak!, and thank Queen again, not only for the painting, but for sharing her story, which I now share with you, the reader. Peace and Wealth to Haiti!
-
They Said What?
