We continue our series on Ayiti (“Haiti”) with the special insights of guest Sis. Èzili Dantò. In part one we examined the role of CARICOM and their Core Group US Empire sponsors in what is essentially a re-occupation following thirteen disasterous years (for Ayiti, at least) of the so-called United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). (1)

To lift the fog of confusion it is also necessary to dispel the myths about some of the militia (“gang”) that leaders like Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier are somehow revolutionaries, essentially trying to undermine the legacy of the real revolution. (2) Indeed, of all places, Ayiti has the benefit of a true revolutionary example and it is not one based on foreign patronage and terrorising the masses but on self-determination and “race vindication.” As the liberator Janjak Desalin (Jean-Jacques Dessalines) declared at independence (3):

“Citizens: It is not enough to have expelled the barbarians who have bloodied our land for two centuries; it is not enough to have restrained those ever-evolving factions that one after another mocked the specter of liberty that France dangled before you. We must, with one last act of national authority, forever assure the empire of liberty in the country of our birth; we must take any hope of re-enslaving us away from the inhuman government that for so long kept us in the most humiliating torpor. In the end we must live independent or die.” (4)

One under examined aspect of the so-called gangs that Sis. Èzili highlighted was the extent to which they are populated by the ‘children of MINUSTAH.’ The UN occupation of 2004-2017 brought in the abuse of women and girls (as well as boys and men) on an industrial scale, resulting in thousands of children, abandoned by their fathers, inflicting additional hardships on families. Petitions from Ayiti have been largely ignored by the UN in spite of its rhetoric about supporting the dignity and rights of those affected by sexual exploitation and abuse perpetrated by UN peacekeepers, rendering its own Office of the UN Victims’ Rights Advocate, useless. Many of the children of these encounters grow up isolated and disaffected, making them easy prey for unscrupulous gangs. (5) Perhaps in a similar way that South Africa took up the Palestinian cause against Israel at the International Court of Justice, a friendly state could likewise take up this issue – even though it only constitutes one aspect of the crimes committed against Ayiti.

The interventionist approach to Ayiti can reasonably be described as scorched earth, engendering economic, social, cultural, psychological, biological and environmental dimensions that could plausibly lead to genocide. For example, the international community seems adept at sending troops from countries with far higher rates of violence such as Jamaica, Belize and even Barbados with the inference they’ll be dealing with increasing eruptions of violence while on their Ayisyen detail. (6)

The US Empire approach has all the hallmarks of “low intensity warfare” that the late Dr Mutulu Shakur and others defined as:

“The use of political – military strategy to achieve political, social, economic, and psychological objectives. Such wars are often of a protracted nature and many of the major battles are fought in the diplomatic, economic, and social arenas in an effort to apply psycho-biological pressure on the resistors. Equally important is the fact that low intensity wars have as their main features the constraint on weaponry used and the intermittent eruptions of violence. Accordingly, low intensity warfare is suited for the use of subtle and sophisticated techniques. The use of suchtechniques is aimed at keeping the conflict disquired (e.g. using such techiques enables the state authorities to. label a military action a police action), preventing scrutiny by relevant in-country and out of country parties, and preventing the introduction into the conflict the application of international standards governing warfare and/or acts of genocide.” (7)

In addition to the righteous demand for reparations made by President in 2003 that precipitated his ouster in 2004, in addition to the 10,000 killed by cholera outbreak caused by the United Nations, in addition to the biological warfare waged through arsenic and cadmium laced rice dumped on the population, in addition to the theft of its natural resources, Ayiti has a compelling case for reparations based on the last twenty years alone aside from the previous centuries of oppression. (8)

Given that the aspects of reparations includes restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition, we can see that whether two, twenty or two-hundred years, all of these apply to Ayiti. Perhaps, most troubling in the current context is the persistant violation of “guarantees of non-repetition” that the transitional council is set to continue. (9)

Clearly, moral suasion is not going to shift the proverbial needle for these institutions. Ancestral guidance from Emporer Jan Jak is instructive:

“Konstitusyon se papye, babyonet se fe (A constitution is made of paper, but bayonets are made of steel).” (10)

In other words they will not move unless compelled to. The main task facing Afrikans globally is how to effect that compulsion. The case of Ayiti is a good place to start, we owe them that much.

(1) Afrika Speaks with Alkebu-Lan on Voice Of Africa Radio (15/0/23) AHow Can We Re-Liberate Ayiti? https://www.mixcloud.com/AfrikaSpeaks/how-can-we-re-liberate-ayiti-pt-1-150424/

(2) Kim Iversen (13/03/24) CANNIBAL GANGS Have Taken Over Haiti! The Truth From On The Ground Journalists.https://app.podscribe.ai/episode/97697508

(3) Jacob H Carruthers(1985) The Irritated Genie: an Essay on the Haiitan Revolution. Kemetic Institute. p. 116-9

(4) Jean-Jacques Dessalines (1804) The Haitian Declaration of Independence. https://today.duke.edu/showcase/haitideclaration/declarationstext.html

(5) Sabine Lee &Susan Bartels (17/12/19) ‘They put a few coins in your hands to drop a baby in you’ – 265 stories of Haitian children abandoned by UN fathers. https://theconversation.com/they-put-a-few-coins-in-your-hands-to-drop-a-baby-in-you-265-stories-of-haitian-children-abandoned-by-un-fathers-114854. One infamous case was at the least 134 Sri Lankan peacekeepers exploited nine children in a sex ring from 2004 to 2007

(6) Gary Grass and Babette Grunow (10/06/23) In Haiti, ‘gang warfare’ is a cover for imperialist intervention. https://sfbayview.com/2023/06/in-haiti-gang-warfare-is-a-cover-for-imperialist-intervention/; Eli MacKinnon (08/10/12) Did Army Spray Harmful Chemicals on US Cities? https://www.livescience.com/23795-large-area-coverage-dangers.html

(7) Dr.Mutulu Shakur, Anthony X Bradshaw, Malik Dinguswa, Terry D. Long, Mark Cook, Mateos Adolfho And James Haskins (1988) Genocide waged against the Black Nation, through behavior modification/orchestrated by counterinsurgency and low-intensity warfare in the U.S. penal system. The research committee on international law and Black Freedom Fighters in the United States. p. 16-7. http://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC513_scans/Mutulu_Shakur/513.genocide.waged.against.black.nation.12.1988.pdf

(8) Constant Méheut, Catherine Porter, Selam Gebrekidan and Matt Apuzzo (20/05/22) Demanding Reparations, and Ending Up in Exile. hhttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/world/americas/haiti-aristide-reparations-france.html; Ed Pilkington (04/05/20) UN response to Haiti cholera epidemic lambasted by its own rights monitors. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/04/united-nations-un-haiti-cholera-letter-rights-monitors; HaitiLibre (26/02/2024) Haiti – FLASH : American rice exported to Haiti contains twice as much arsenic as Haitian rice. https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-41755-haiti-flash-american-rice-exported-to-haiti-contains-twice-as-much-arsenic-as-haitian-rice.html; Dr. Tim Sandle (22/02/24) US rice exported to Haiti may be harmful to health. https://www.digitaljournal.com/life/us-rice-exported-to-haiti-may-be-harmful-to-health/article#ixzz8Xz0wqoHq; Luma Nichol (2023) Exploiting Haiti through the Global Fragility Act. https://socialism.com/fs-article/haiti-and-the-global-fragility-act/

(9) International Commission of Jurists (10/09/02) Background information concerning the right to remedy and reparation. https://www.icj.org/background-information-concerning-the-right-to-remedy-and-reparation/; Olatunji Heru (2007) STRIKING BACK: Righteousness, Radicalism, Reparations in The Whirlwind Edition 5. Soul Force Promotions

(10) Robert Perito, Jasenka Jocic (01/01/08) Paper Versus Steel: Haiti’s Challenge of Constitutional Reform. https://www.usip.org/publications/2008/01/paper-versus-steel-haitis-challenge-constitutional-reform

we ask the question

How do we re-Liberate Ayiti? Part 2

1) Why are some people promoting “gangs” in Ayiti as revolutionaries?

2) What is MINUSTAH’s legacy in Ayiti?

3) Is Ayiti being subject to ‘Low Intensity Warfare’?

4) Can the the international institutions be compelled to do right by Ayiti?

Our Special Guests:

Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and an Afrikan-Centred Education Consultant. Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of over 40 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An African-Centred Approach To Excellence.

Sis. Èzili Dantò: is founder of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network, a network of lawyers, journalists, activists and grassroots human rights and cultural organizations dedicated to institutionalizing the rule of law and protecting the civil and cultural rights of Haitians at home and abroad. She also runs the Ezili Dantò website (https://ezilidanto.com/), eyewitness project, Free Haiti Movement, the on-line journal, Haitian Perspectives and You Tube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@EziliDanto). Sis. Ezili is dedicated to correcting the media lies and colonial narratives about Haiti. A writer, performance poet and lawyer, . Ezili Dantò is a pro-democracy Haitian-American activist who was once legal advisor to President Jean Bertrand Aristide of Haiti. She is a gifted spoken word artist and the writer, performer and producer of the “Red Black & Moonlight” series – her critically acclaimed one-woman Jazzoetry Vodun dance theater works and the author of Vodun Woman: A Performance Poetry Collection and the Kenbe La books.

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