At the end of Master of the Crossroads, that "carefully drawn road map through hell", Smartt Bell reproduces a great document from his archival research: the "Classification of Races in colonial Saint Domingue" with the 210 different hues of humankind listed according to the amount of black blood - a five page tribute to how deeply engrained this institution was. A sample:
I. Combinaisons du Blanc.D'Un Blanc et d'une Négresse, vient... un Mulâtre.
D'Un Blanc et d'une Mulâtresse... Quarteron.
D'Un Blanc et d'une Quarteron... Métis.
D'Un Blanc et d'une Métive... Marmelouque.
D'Un Blanc et d'une Marmelouque... Quateronné.
D'Un Blanc et d'une Quateronnée... Sang-mêle.
D'Un Blanc et d'une Sang-mêlée... Sang-mêle, qui s'approche continuellement du Blanc.
D'Un Blanc et d'une Marabou... Quateron.
D'Un Blanc et d'une Griffonne... Quateron.
D'Un Blanc et d'une Sacatra... Quateron.
Faulty biology may account for this emphasis on mixed blood - the Sang-mêle quoted above, but this skewed and awful dislocation of race writ-large continues to haunt that society to this day. You can imagine old society ladies evaluating new parvenues according to this code.
The Kingdom of this World - by Alejo Carpentier
Alejo Carpentier's novel delves deeply into the lurid and lugubrious depths of the years after Haiti's liberation from francophone colonial rule under the black king, Henri-Christophe. This was an era of chaotic, brutal, and horrific atrocities that gave full vent to the casual cruelty of the races. The writing is hallucinatory and surreal which suits the violent period he is covering. I suppose this is what magic realism is all about. We follow the through the eyes of the old slave, Ti-Noel, a stoic guide to the Dante-esque corruption and superstition. The heights of sexual loathing are also emphasized here. Power and corruption are absolute.
Papa Doc and Les Tonton Macoute
The Comedians by Graham Greene
This 1966 novel deals with the macabre and grotesque era of "Papa Doc" Duvalier (1957-1986) that would carry on like a vicious hereditary disease under his son "Baby Doc" who now lives a life of comfort in exile in France. It's dictatorship as a theatre of the absurd, of pockets of arbitrary and savage violence erupting at will across the populace. As his author's introduction notes:
Poor Haiti itself and the character of Doctor Duvalier's rule are not invented, the latter not even blackened for dramatic effect. The Tonton Macoute are full of men more evil than Concasseur; the interrupted funeral is drawn from fact; many a Joseph limps the streets of Port-au-Prince after his spell of torture, and though I have never met the young Philopot, I have met guerillas as courageous and as ill-trained in that former lunatic asylum near Santo Domingo. Only in Santo Domingo have things changed since I began this book - for the worse.
Featuring an expatriate hotelier Brown, whose jaded, seen-it-all sensibility can't prevent him from getting embroiled in a doomed . This is not one of Greene's entertainments and how could it be? The subject matter of Haiti defies even tragicomedy. Incidentally for a very knowing look at Graham Greene see the following review: Sinner Take All - Graham Greene.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
Damn, Koranteng, there's a lot going on here - the writing is excellent and the information fascinating. The realtionship between environmental degradation and political decline/collapse makes an awful lot of sense.
I also agree that our media tends toward solipsism, though not more than most and certainly less than some.
I fear "we" (the West) sees parts of the world as beyond hope, as sinkholes beyond redemption - it is perhaps related to a "help those who can help themselves" mentality.
Thanks!
2 - Mac Diva
There are two solutions to Haiti's debacle. The first is immigration. That is what really frightens Americans, Koranteng. Though the country has absorbed millions of immigrants from Europe, an increasing number of Americans want to end immigration now that the color of most immigrants skin is darker than olive. The second solution is, of course, for France to pay Haitians the millions in reparations it owes them. That is what really frightens the French. I wish I could say I believe either solution will occur in my life time, but I don't.