I second Neter with this
Haiti Joins the African Union: A Special Relationship Endures | The Haitian TimesThe Haitian Times
Haiti and Africa, Long Before Columbus
Haiti always had a special relationship with Africa.
Contrary to popular belief, this special relationship did
not start with the transatlantic slave trade; it actually
started with the honorable trade in gold and
agricultural products. According to Dr. Ivan Van
Sertima, in They Came Before Columbus: African
Presence in Ancient America , Haiti was the first
Caribbean country to engage in pre-Columbian trade
with Africa, where Africans cultivated the banana crop
and established settlements in Haiti. Dr. Van Sertima
states that from 1307 to 1312, Abu Bakr III, Emperor of
Mali, commissioned West African merchants, the
Sarakole, who were also the founders of the ancient
empire of Ghana, to establish trading posts in Haiti.
In these trading posts, the West African merchants
introduced the gold trade and the art of alloying gold
with copper and silver to the natives in Haiti. In addition
to the gold trade, Van Sertima asserts that by 1462,
West Africans and Haitians were involved in trading
cotton in its natural state from Guinea, the birthplace of
Francois Mackandal and Jean-Jacques Dessalines as
claimed by most historians.
Nevertheless, despite this lucrative interaction and
transfer of good and services, Haiti and Africa
ultimately became impoverished by transatlantic slave
trade. With 80 percent of its population living in
poverty, Haiti is now the most impoverished country in
the Western Hemisphere. Due to the fact that Haiti
exercises a free market economic system where
agriculture is the main sector of Haitis economy, Haiti
does not produce enough food crops and livestock to
feed its people. Haiti imports 60 percent of the food it
needs including 80 percent of the rice it consumes.
Moreover, Haitis agricultural system has been
devastated by environmental disasters.
Past environmental disasters, along with the advent of
last falls Hurricane Sandy have flooded agricultural
land in Haiti which resulted in the loss of corn, bean,
and banana harvest where 3.3 million Haitians are
without food. The 2010 earthquake with about 52
aftershocks measuring at 4.5 or greater injured about 3
million Haitians with an estimated of 230,000 people
being killed, and 1 million rendered homeless.
Moreover, roughly 250,000 residential areas and
30,000 commercial businesses were seriously damaged
or destroyed.
As a result, various nations in Africa have pledged their
financial and social support to Haiti. For instance, the
Democratic Republic of Congo pledged $2.5 million to
assist Haiti in recovering from the environmental
devastation. In addition, the Senegalese government
extended their land and universities as social safety nets
where displaced Haitians could take shelter and reside.
By 2011, the government of Haiti set forth a vigorous
marketing campaign to attract foreign direct investment
by way of Africa, where sustainable development and
sovereignty could be injected and maintained.
On February 1, 2012, Haitian Ambassador Ady Jean
Gardy (who is also the Chief of Cabinet of the Minister
of Foreign Affairs) met President Thomas Boni Yayi of
the Republic of Benin, who also serves as the president
of the African Union, to confabulate about Haitian
students struggling in Benin and other matters plaguing
Haiti. At their meeting, Ambassador Gardy was able to
secure Haitis status as a Member Observer of the
African Union. Ambassador Gardy also made a
requisition to the African Union for Haiti to become a
full Associate Member of the Union of Heads of State
and Government of Africa.
As a result, later this year, Haiti will become a full
Associate Member of the Union of Heads of State and
Government of Africa. To date, with the exception of
Haiti, not one Black country outside of Africa has made
a motion to join the African Union. This is a legacy of
former President René Préval, whose administration
began the application process.
Africas Role in the Haitian Revolution
Once Haiti joined the African Union, the African heads
of state gave Haiti encomiums for becoming the first
Black republic outside of Africa that established a
formidable military which abolished slavery and
suppressed the transatlantic slave trade. In 1791, the
inspirational words spoken by Boukman Dutty at Bois
Caiman were Congolese words calling on Ogun, the
orisha and lwa of war, politics, and iron, to reignite the
revolution efforts as set forth by Francois Mackandal in
1754. Many scholars confirm that the brilliant military
strategy of the Haitians came directly from the military
tactics of Congolese veterans and warriors.
According to CLR James in The Black Jacobins: Toussaint
LOuverture and the San Domingo Revolution, by 1791,
African-Haitians numbered over 700,000 of the total
population in Haiti were a great majority at least two-
thirds were African-born, particularly from the Congo,
followed by Dahomey (Togo and Benin) and Guinea.
Moreover, James asserts that 60 percent of African
captives in the Americas were held captive in the
plantations of Haiti.
By 1804, the liberator of Haiti, Emperor Jean-Jacques
Dessalines, mandated that all Blacks who emigrated to
Haiti would be citizens of Haiti, and no whites would
own property in Haiti nor would they call themselves
masters. Furthermore, to maintain and stabilize order in
Haiti, King Henry I (Christophe) recruited African
warriors from Dahomey known as the Royal Dahomets.
As a matter of fact, most scholars claim that Toussaint
LOuvertures father was Gaou Guinou, the son of the
King of Arrada in Dahomey who was captured and sold
into slavery. It is also a well-known fact that Vodou was
imported to Haiti by way of Dahomey.
Nonetheless, to showcase their union with Africa, the
leaders of the Haitian Revolution also established a
naval presence on the coastal shores of West Africa to
halt the transatlantic slave trade. As a result, by 1807,
the British abolished the African slave trade, and the
following year, the United States banned the forced
importation of Africans.
Members of the African Union also praised Haitis
mid-20th century diplomatic efforts, in which Haitians
upheld the creation of African states; protested against
Italys invasion of Ethiopia; supported the Algerian war
of independence against France; advocated for Libyas
independence; and assisted the African Democratic
Rally (RDA) regarding the decolonization of Africa.
Senegalese President Leopold Senghor, Martinican Poet
Aime Cesaire, and Guianan Writer Leon Dumas, known
as the founders of the global Negritude Movement,
would often cite the Haitian Revolution as giving birth to
the movement. Many scholars also claim that the
Haitian Revolution fueled Pan-Africanism, as evident in
its influence on Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, Gabriel
Prosser, Frederick Douglass (who became United States
minister in Haiti), Marcus Garvey, Patrice Lumumba and
countless revolutionary leaders of the African
decolonization movement during the 1960s.
The Benefits of Joining the Union
The relationship between Haiti and Africa will hopefully
reconnect others in the Diaspora with Africa where
economic empowerment, political independence, and
cultural sustainability could create various sovereign
nation-states within and outside of Africa.
Currently, seven out of ten of the worlds fastest
growing economies are in Africa. With 29 stock
exchanges that represent 39 nations capital markets,
Africa is a major global economic player. African Union
member status for Haiti should create a Pan-African
market entry and economic strategy for African and
Haitian investors that could assist in economic
development by creating employment opportunities and
providing higher wages where technological know-how
and intellectual property are kept in house. Moreover,
joining the African Union should assist in eradicating
poverty and lessen the dependence on western aid.
Hence, the focus of such a union should be on Pan-
African trade, innovation, technology transfer, food
security, health care, environmental sustainability,
gender equality and empowerment, education and the
production of knowledge all areas that would ensure
global African sovereignty at home and abroad.
Dr. Patrick Delices is a Haitian scholar who taught the
History of Haiti, Caribbean Politics, African-American
Politics, and African-Caribbean International Relations
at Hunter College; and served as a research fellow at
Columbia University for the late, Pulitzer Prize-writing
historian.