HAITIAN FLAG DAY, A CELEBRATION FOR ALL BLACK PEOPLE
By: Manes Pierre
Haitian Flag Day, which is celebrated on May 18th, is a major celebration for many Haitians, young and old. Those living in Haitian and those living outside of Haiti.
Every nation in the world has a flag and many if not all have a day to celebrate their flag. In the United States, Flag Day is July 14th, but Flag Day for Haitian people seem to have a meaning more special than for other people.
The reason for this may be rooted in the Haitians people valiant fight for their freedom and ultimate victory over the three (3) greatest military powers in the world at that time (Spain, England, and France).
So Haitian Flag Day becomes a celebration of the Haitian revolution.
With this being the case, then all people of African descent or Black people regardless of where they or their parents were born should join the Haitian people and the Haitian community in celebrating Haitian Flag Day for the following reasons:
1.
The Haitian revolution was the only successful slave revolt in world history and a Black revolution at that, resulting in a free nation.
2.
Haiti became the second free republic in the Americas, after the United States.
3.
In order to achieve freedom, the Haitian people had to defeat the
three (3) greatest superpowers in the world at that time; Spain, England & France.
They used guerilla warfare almost 200 years before we heard about it being used by the Vietnamese.
They dug trenches and foxholes with spikes in them, which were camouflaged with brush.
They would lure the European soldiers into these ditches where they would fall in and their bodies would be impaled.
They were said to outrun bullets and vanish into thin air.
They used Machiavellian tactics; whereby, they pitted one side against the other.
They joined the Spaniards against the French, then joined the French against the Spaniards & British, resulting in the death of some 40, 000 British & 60, 000 French soldiers being killed.
4.
The Haitian revolution sparked slave revolts throughout the Caribbean which forced the eventual end of slavery in the British and French Caribbean.
It also inspired the three (3) major slave revolts in the U.S.: Gabrielle Prosser in 1800, Denmark Vesey in 1822, and Nat Turner in 1830.
5.
The Trinidadian born C.L. R. James stated that the Haitian revolution was the first in the chain of Pan African revolts that led to independence throughout Africa.
6.
U.S. abolitionist Frederick Douglas said that he regarded Haiti as “The original pioneer emancipator of the 19th century.”
7.
The Haitian revolution proved not only to Black people, but to White people that African people whom Europeans had depicted as ignorant, stupid and undisciplined could unite under Black leadership - outsmart and defeat them as well as organize and run a country.
8.
The defeat of the French army by the Haitian people ruined Napoleon
Bonaparte's plan to expand the French Empire in the west, by forcing France to sell the Louisiana Territory to the United States at 4 cents an acre. This doubled the size of the U.S.; 828, 000 square miles (from Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains, from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada.
This was considered the biggest land deal in the history of the U.S.
Many African scholars say that the Haitian revolution in essence vindicated Black people all over the world and avenged the African race.
After the Haitian Revolution, the various Haitian presidents made appeals to Africans throughout the Diaspora to migrate to Haiti to freedom.
Haitian nationality was extended to all Africans and Indians and their descendants that came to Haiti.
A recorded 13, 000 Africans from the U.S. migrated to Haiti.
They are credited with making the Protestant religion (Baptist) accepted and popular in Haiti.
Isn’t it ironic that Haitian Flag Day is celebrated on May 18th and Malcolm
X’s birthday is on the very next day May 19th. I think it is appropriate to discuss what the two have in common.
Even though there were several key personalities involved in the Haitian revolution (Macandal, Boukman, Touissant L’Ouverture, Jean Jacques Dessalines, Henri Christophe), I feel that the philosophy of Boukman and Dessalines more closely resembles the spirit of Malcolm X. (Dessalines was a protg of Boukman).
Also, under the leadership of Toussaint, the slave trade was ended, but it was under Dessalines’ leadership that Haitian people actually won their independence.
Therefore, Malcolm X will be compared to Dessalines as being perhaps the most significant figure in the Haitian revolution.
Oba T’Shaka stated in his first volume of the “Art of Leadership” that, “In the tradition of Dessalines, Malcolm X left a creative imprint on the Black Liberation movement.” Oba also wrote in the “Legacy of Malcolm X” that “To understand the political legacy of Malcolm X, one must understand that Malcolm was part of an African warrior tradition in the Americas.
The fighting spirit that beat in him was the same that beat in the hero-warriors of the hearts of the Haitian rebels.”
After the betrayal, deceit, kidnapping and deportation of Toussaint L’Ouverture by the French, Dessalines assumed the role as leader of the Haitian revolution.
Unlike Toussaint, Dessalines returned to the plan and vision of Macandal and of Boukman, which was “race vengeance,” “liberty or death, “and “conquer or die.” Dessalines remained true to the Haitian people’s desire for freedom and independence.
And like Dessalines, Malcolm was a man of the people who built his revolutionary program on African people’s vision for freedom and independence.
Malcolm and Dessalines were both clear about who the enemy was, as stated by Dr. Carruthers in his “Essays on the Haitian Revolution.” “Black solidarity was the cornerstone of Dessalines’ revolutionary philosophy, meaning that Blacks were brothers and sisters and whites were the enemies.” Those who knew Malcolm or anything about his teachings and preachings know that he voiced similar convictions.
When Dessalines proclaimed that all whites who had committed crimes against Blacks had to be punished.
He expressed the popular will of the Haitian people as much as Malcolm X did when he stated.
“We assert the right of self-defense by any means necessary and reserve the right of maximum retaliation against our racist oppressors, no matter what the odds against us are. From now on in, if we must die anyway, we will die fighting.” Malcolm had a way of saying what others thought and wanted to say, but did not have the courage.
Dessalines was known for the same candor.
When Dessalines stated in his oath of office speech (Apr.
28, 1804) that “Never again shall a colonist, or a European set his foot upon this territory with the title of master or proprietor.” This sounds as resolute in the defense of Black liberation as Malcolm’s statement that Black people in the U.S. shall free themselves by “Any means necessary.”
In a speech delivered by Dessalines on Haiti’s first year of independence, he stated, “Let us intimidate those who might dare to attempt depriving us of it again; let us begin with the French.
Let them shudder at approaching our shores, if not on account of the cruelties they have committed, at least at the terrible resolution we are going to make. To devote to death whatsoever native of France should soil with his sacrilegious footstep this territory of liberty.”
Does this not sound as tenacious, audacious, daring, fearless, bold, and courageous as Malcolm’s, “If it takes violence to get the black man his human rights in this country, I’m for violence.” And “I firmly believe that Negroes have the right to fight against these racists, by any means necessary.”
Dessalines and Malcolm were both deeply spiritual.
Dessalines drew from his traditional African spiritual belief system and Malcolm from Islam.
They both called on their spiritual belief systems for strength and depended on it for divine intervention and guidance.
Boukman, Dessalines spiritual and revolutionary martyr charged that, “God who is good to us orders us to revenge our wrongs….throw away the image of the white man’s god.” Dessalines, himself warned the Blacks in Haiti that if a spiritual revolution did not take place, then the military battle would have been in vain. He challenged them to renounce French and European values and way of life.
Likewise, Malcolm X stated that, “The only true world solution to the oppression of black people in the U.S. was “a government guided by true religion—of the spirit.” For Malcolm, that religious spirit was Islam.
He stated that Islam was the only religion—that had the power to stand and fight the white man’s ‘Christianity’ which he felt was used by the white man to enslave and oppress black people.
The following statement written about Malcolm X by John Henrik Clarke can also be said for Dessalines, “No man aroused fear and hatred in the white man as did Malcolm, because in him the white man sensed an implacable foe who could not be had for any price.
A man unreservedly committed to the cause of liberating the black man.”
It was because of the uncompromising position of both Dessalines and Malcolm in defense of Black people that probably led to their eventual deaths.
Malcolm was preparing to take the U.S. government before the United Nations on human rights violations and criticized the Nation of Islam for refusing to participate in the broader struggle for human rights.
Malcolm was assassinated while organizing his new vision of Black people controlling their own communities politically and economically.
Similarly, Dessalines most important decree was that the land of Haiti would be shared equitably, among all the Haitians.
This did not go over well with many of the affluent citizens of Haiti, whether they are black or mulatto.
His policy of equitable land ownership was a revolutionary policy that was designed to see that in Haiti there would be no class of rich and poor.
Dessalines demanded vengeance from the white people for all the atrocities they committed upon black people.
And more than a 150 years later, in different places, Malcolm X in the spirit of Macandal, Boukman, and Dessalines demanded retaliation and atonement.
Oba T’Shaka wrote in the Art of Leadership that “Great leaders are created by their people, and they become inspirations to their people.
A ……..Dessalines and a Malcolm X were shaped in the fire of the people’s struggle.
They lived with their people, learned from them, and in time, shaped a vision of liberation that improved upon the people’s vision.
Inspiring their people to improve to greater heights.”
Black people around the world have a lot to learn from the Haitian revolution.
Dessalines revolutionary scheme had four (4) basic components: “Black solidarity,” “independence or death,” total war”, and “race vindication.”
• Dessalines united the various groups (African slaves, free Africans, mulattos) around their common African identity and common experience of oppression by Europeans.
He kept insisting that they had nothing in common with their white oppressors.
• Dessalines emphasized that the people must not depend on their leaders to give them or maintain their freedom.
The people themselves must be committed to doing this because leaders could be compromised.
• Dessalines understood that total freedom meant total sacrifice.
He insisted that people be willing to give up all of their accumulated possessions and comforts as we had done.
• And finally Dessalines believed that revenge was the proper way to correct all the horrors that Blacks had suffered.
When the French brought man-eating dogs to attack the Blacks, Dessalines response was to kill the dogs and feed them to the French.
After the French hung 500 Black prisoners, Dessalines then hung 500 French officers.
Let all Black people regardless of nationality unite around the celebration of Haitian Flag Day. The Haitian revolution is significant not just for the people of Haiti, but to people throughout the Caribbean, in the United States and throughout the world.
As Dr. Carruthers stated, Haitian was the “Irritated Genie” that avenged the atrocities that were committed against all African people.
In the spirit of the Haitian revolution & Malcolm X birthday
Janice Boursiquot
Inter-Ethnic Coalition
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