Revolution and Continuing Resistance in Hayti: A Radical Refusal to Be Defeated
An ethical philosopher, author, holder of two doctorates, and professor and chair of the Department of Africana Studies at California State University, Long Beach, Maulana Karenga (File Photo)
As we celebrate and commemorate this month of revolution and resistance, we call Black August, we pay just and special tribute to the people of Haiti that marks August 14th.th 231 of themstr anniversary of the Bwa Kayiman Liberation Gathering of men and women to plan their world historic struggle which would result in a victorious revolution that has deep and lasting meaning for the search, concept and practice of freedom worldwide.
Indeed, they dared to achieve in history what no other enslaved people had done, they defeated their captors and the allies of the slaves in battle, freed themselves and built a republic, taking away the light and the possibility of liberation for all people oppressed and at war.
Not wanting to rest on their laurels, they expanded the sphere of freedom in the Western Hemisphere and the world, helping the peoples of Latin America in their struggle for freedom by providing arms, money, materials and soldiers. Indeed, they achieved what no other revolution and people in history have done, including the American revolution, freed the enslaved people, outlawed slavery, and thus expanded the scope of human freedom in the world in a new and more essential, reaffirming the inalienable and equal dignity and human right to freedom of all human beings.
This is the source of the pathology and perversity of the racist oppression imposed especially on Haiti by the US, France, Canada and other European imperialist powers, the so-called Core Group. And this fundamentally evil imposition is not only to plunder and rob the Haitian people of material and human resources, but also to penalize, punish and oppress the Haitian people in the extreme. That is why we say that whatever natural disasters Haiti has suffered, and they have been terribly devastating, they have not been as devastating as the unnatural disaster of White supremacist and racist imperialism of the White West.
The list of barbaric and barbaric impositions placed on the people, children, women and men of Haiti in collective punishments are first and foremost a brutal occupation; denial of human rights at any level; a series of criminal dictatorships imposed with sham elections masquerading as democracy; widespread gang violence used as a tool of terrorism and oppression against the people; privatization and looting of land and human resources; and imposing extreme poverty, misery and dependency on people, undermining their freedom of action and thwarting their righteous aspirations. In a word, the imperialists and conquerors have made Haiti an enslaved people and state, but the people continue to resist and offer a constant and radical refusal to be defeated.
Our responsibility and that of all freedom-loving peoples of the world and committed to freedom and justice everywhere in the world is to stand in active solidarity in the struggle with Haiti and the Haitian people as they continue their relentless resistance to achieve liberation from the imperialist. occupation and intervention and extraordinary efforts to repair and rebuild their lives in their own image and interests.
But as I have said before, there can be no just reconstruction of Haiti without respecting the capacity of the people to govern themselves, to rebuild their economy, to effectively utilize the rich resources of their culture, to nurture and to take care of their children in their own way. , and restore the democracy for which they have fought so long and hard.
Haiti does not need the occupation, militarization and privatization of the country and the plundering of human and natural resources by the US. Moreover, as I have said, a just reconstruction is not achieved by donations, loans and investments that increase the domination of others and the dependence of Haiti, but by educating, mobilizing and organizing an entire people and putting them in work to build rights, the good and sustainable society that everyone wants and deserves.
Indeed, as Nana Frantz Fanon asserts, it is essential to understand that “the measures are equal to the problems they encounter”, that it is not enough for a few hundred to discuss and decide on a plan, “but that all men plan and decide , even if it takes two or three times longer.” Because it is not only about building things, but also and especially, about building people and respecting them rightly.
To truly stand in serious and lasting solidarity with Haiti, the committed must move from general human empathy to respect for people’s rights and dignity and an active and ethical partnership with them in this wonderful work and struggle ahead. theirs. Again, empathetic identification with the poor, the less powerful and the suffering is a human tendency and value, but a genuine respect for the rights and dignity of a people must accompany it if it is to be more than an initial concern. that changes over time. in indifference or contempt.
To respect a people is to value them not just as human beings, but human beings with a unique, equally valid and valuable way of being human in the world. It is important, especially in the case of Haiti, to respect its history, the struggle and history of the people to liberate themselves and to establish themselves as a nation and to sustain themselves with an insurmountable resistance, resilience and resourcefulness against such powerful internal. and external suppressors.
And again, as I have often noted, if we are to work with the Haitian people in the ways of our ancestors that affirm dignity, improve lives, and preserve the world, it is important to establish from the outset that Haiti’s vulnerability to natural disasters, poverty and conditions of extreme and prolonged suffering and misery are not hers. It is neither rooted in their religion nor comes from the order of heaven, but is anchored in more earthly realities, such as imperialist and colonialist history and human evil and oppression.
Indeed, Haiti was born in revolutionary and triumphant resistance to one of the greatest evils of human history, the Holocaust of African slavery. This righteous resistance was a contribution to the expansion of the sphere of human freedom, a light raised up to the captives and oppressed of the world and a warning to their slaves and oppressors.
Thus, we must face the cold fact of the US government’s role in the occupation, impoverishment, gang violence, environmental degradation, and other related evils and injustices inflicted on Haiti. Like Nana Dr. Martin Luther King, we must recognize not only that this country is “the greatest apparatus of violence in the world,” but that it is also imposing that violence on Haiti and the Haitian people, as well as other vulnerable peoples around the world.
And it should not do this on our behalf or with our silent, passive or active complicity. Because we are morally bound to constantly expose and constantly resist oppression, evil and injustice wherever it is and in whatever ways we can, especially in the African world community. And we must turn to the Haitian people and their organizations in Haiti and here and ask how we can help them in their just and relentless struggle.
Because it is not only a struggle to liberate Haiti, but it is also a struggle that is at the heart of the history and future of the African world community, indeed, it reflects and models the righteous resistance to the threat and global violence of empire and her. imperialist aggression, exploitation, degradation and destruction of the world and everything in it. And it also, of course, provides models and mirrors to emulate, that is, the endurance, resourcefulness and continued resistance of our peoples everywhere, who in a just and ruthless struggle offer a continuous radical refusal to was defeated.
Our fight in solidarity, then, is and must be based on this fundamental principle that encourages us not to leave the battlefield until the war is won. Indeed, we must embrace the meaning of just and merciless war. For how Atty. Ezili Danto, lawyer and human rights activist and founder of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN), says, “as long as we don’t win the battle fit’sMAómanse” which in Creole means “while we haven’t won (the war), the battle has just begun”.
So, regardless of setbacks, disappointments, desertions, betrayals, battle fatigue and those settling for a comfortable place in oppression, we must intensify and continue the fight in a radical refusal to be defeated!!!
Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair of African Studies, California State University-Long Beach; Executive Director, African American Cultural Center (We); The creator of Kwanzaa; and author of Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community, and Culture AND Essay on War: Position and Analysis, www.AfricanAmericanCulturalCenter-LA.org; www.OfficialKwanzaaWebsite.org; www.MaulanaKarenga.org.
