The question of color, re-introduced into the political discourse by former Senator Moise Jean Charles, now a probable candidate to become president of Haiti, and joined by Daly Valet, an influential opinion maker in the Haitian media, might become a hot topic in the political debates leading up to the elections.

I have frequently written in my essays in Caribbean News Now that Haiti, along with Guyana, occupies the last train in the Caribbean locomotive on the economic, social and political landscape. This situation is due precisely to the question of color.

In Guyana, where the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) retains power with a disdain for the black minority, represented entirely by the People’s Congress (PNC), the issue of color has caused the country to be led by two heads in two different directions.

One head is made of the Indo and white Guyanese descendants of Portugal that represent 52 per cent of the population and the other head the black minority descendants of African slaves representing 48 per cent of the population. Imagine Haiti with two political parties, one for the black majority and another one for the mulatto minority. A land with two heads, one turning to the right and the other one turning to the left.

God bless Haiti! She does not have this catastrophic situation of parties made for and dedicated only to one ethnic group. But Haiti, with the political, social and economic situation after the assassination of Jean Jacques Dessalines two years after the country’s independence, is entrenched as a nation with two heads, one turning to the east and the other turning to the west, with no collegiality between the two parts.

Jean Jacques Dessalines wanted to build a nation-state hospitable to all. To symbolize this vision he wanted to marry his daughter to Petion, a mulatto; upon the refusal of the latter, his quest to have his Celimene in matrimonial union with Colonel Chancy, also a mulatto, failed. Chancy killed himself instead of taking the emperor’s daughter’s hand.

After some 200 years, and with all proportions taken in consideration, it can be said that there is more intermarriage in the United States than in Haiti, which has enjoyed the status of nation-state since 1804. By contrast, the United States has been a nation-state only since 1968, with the promulgation of equal civil rights. It is much harder to find a marriage between a black man and a mulatto woman in Haiti than in the United States, where marriages between black and white are frequent.

Henri Christophe was so disturbed by that situation that, upon being prevented from holding full power as the second president of the country with the connivance of the Parliament, helped by France, the former colonial entity, he took refuge in the northern part of the country.

On his way there, he ordered that all the mulattos be killed, murmuring to himself, “They will never become true Haitian people.” In fact, 200 years later there are very few mulattoes in this northern part of the island.

The kingdom of Christophe lasted only 17 years, while the Republic of Petion lasted 150 years, with a complete disdain for the black majority that took refuge in the countryside of Haiti with no state institutions except maybe a school with no equipment and the few teachers – and even those coming to school at 12pm to leave at 2pm.

That disdain continues, with these rural refugees invading pell-mell the slums of Cité Soleil and Cité du Peuple on the coastland or the mountains of l’Hopital, renamed Jalousie in Port au Prince, as the desolation of rural Haiti has intensified due to the degradation of the environment.

During Haiti’s lifetime there were only two initiatives for building a nation-state hospitable to all. The first one was in 1902 during the election contested by Nord Alexis and Antenor Firmin; and in 1930 during the ballot pitting Louis E. Roy against Jean Price-Mars. Both Antenor Firmin and Jean Price-Mars revitalized within the Haitian elite the concept that the whole society should seek its own road within its own soul: “the vocation of the elite”. But on each of these occasions, as in time of Henri Christophe, disloyal maneuvers concocted by the Parliament in cahoots with the international community thwarted the advent of this enlightened government.

Price-Mars during his campaigning used his pulpit to teach about the concept of negritude, which is nothing but the precursor of the concept that black is beautiful, the black color is as divine as the white color: “As told by the uncle, Ainsi parla l’oncle”. His philosophy of negritude was prostituted by writers like Lorimer Denis, Francois Duvalier, Dumarsais Estimé and René Piquion, who advocated the concept of noiriste. That concept is nothing but a bastardization of the concept of negritude. It called for the black population to occupy the space then occupied by the mulatto sector. It has spoiled the national patrimony for long enough; it is now our time to also enjoy our place in the sun.

This position has lasted 60 years. The right posture should have been to build a nation equitable to all, black and mulatto. The noiriste doctrine used by Estimé was ignored by Paul E. Magloire, who coined the rumor that Estime was a mulatto eater.

That doctrine was placed in prominence by Francois and Jean Claude Duvalier during their long reign of more than 30 years in power. It became a doctrine of clan (those who look alike should hold together: Qui se ressemble s’assemble). It has been the politics of the day, fed by Jean Bertrand Aristide (Lavalas clan); by René Préval (clan l'Espoir); and by Michel Martelly (clan redskin, shaved head, Ti rouge Tet Kale).

The political and financial elite have caused the majority of the Haitian population to be seen as outcasts, not deserving decent institutions and adequate infrastructure. The clan of Duvalieristes under the Duvaliers, as well as the clan Lavalas under Aristide and the clan l'Espoir under Preval, and including the clan redskin shaved head under Martelly, together represent the worst form of political imposture – pretending that their insatiable ambition is in harmony with the highest interest of the nation.

The Haiti of 2015 – like the Haiti of 1902 of Antenor Firmin, or the Haiti of 1930 of Jean Price-Mars – is at a turning point. We could see the emergence of a true nation-state, where the peasantry is seen as a national entity deserving good health, excellent education and incubation to prosperity. We could also see the right of the Diaspora to political participation becoming a vested entitlement that entails responsibilities towards the motherland.

The new government might, as did Paul Eugene Magloire, put into practice the political perspective that the question of color does not exist. It might continue the politics of grand mangeur of Préval, or the divisiveness of Aristide.

It might finally switch from a regressive past to a radical future, where the politics of social, economic and political discrimination against the peasantry, the culture of social and political discrimination against the Diaspora and lastly the culture of political discrimination against the mulattos, is over.

This culture of discrimination will not end with pious formulas. It will end only with affirmative action enrobed in economic incubation for those left behind. It will end also when political reforms are put in place that include the Diaspora in the election process. It will finally end when the mulatto is not excluded from holding the highest position in the land just because of his skin color.

This pioneering Haiti will enter proudly into the Caribbean market, as the social gangrene that metastasized in the nation, as well as in Guyana, dies as they take steps towards making their citizens happy at home. They will travel as tourists or merchants to the sister islands. They will need no visa to visit the United States and Canada, since they are no longer nomads that are forced to keep seeking a better and more hospitable sky wherever it can be found.

Haiti is seeking the candidate who will bring a new vision, one that stays away from the false prophets that keep the Haitian people in the desert of the caricature Canaan at the feet of Morne Cabris in the beautiful bay of Port au Prince, where there are no trees, no school and no opportunity. He will bring them instead into the true Canaan where milk and honey are in abundance.

May God bring peace and happiness to the Haitian people at last, consoling their bruised souls and drying their tears at home and abroad!

• Jean H. Charles, LLB MSW, JD, is a syndicated columnist with Caribbean News Now. He can be reached at: jeancharles@aol.com and followed at Caribbeannewsnow/Haiti. This is published with the permission of Caribbean News Now.

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