Haiti Joins the African Union: A Special Relationship Endures
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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 Haiti's 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, Haiti's agricultural system has been devastated by environmental disasters.
Past environmental disasters, along with the advent of last fall's 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 Haiti's 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.
Africa's 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 L'Ouverture 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 L'Ouverture's 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 Haiti's mid-20th century diplomatic efforts, in which Haitians upheld the creation of African states; protested against Italy's invasion of Ethiopia; supported the Algerian war of independence against France; advocated for Libya's 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 1960's.
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 world's 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, Manning Marable. Patrick Delices is currently working on a book regarding the global impact of the Haitian Revolution.
The views expressed in this Op-Ed are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of Haitian Times.
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