A letter writer poses some serious questions in this current issue of Amandala, and a brief editorial comment would not suffice, so we will employ this whole editorial to address one aspect of the writer’s letter titled, “Activism in Belize”. We received JA’s letter last Thursday afternoon, too late for our early cutoff deadline for the Friday issue, and hopefully there will be some responses from our readers on the various matters touched. Essentially, it seems that, while JA respects the efforts of our activists and union leaders, he believes they are often “overreaching”, and should leave matters of “good governance” alone. In fact, he expresses a pessimistic view of past efforts toward achieving good governance, and cites examples where a lot of mass actions have proven futile in effectively changing the system and achieving much progress in stomping out corruption. He poses the argument that even “effective activism” (its final stage, in his opinion, being “revolution”) usually has adverse effects on the most vulnerable citizens, with the vast majority of the population gaining “nothing from the process.” And he uses the example of the terrible plight of Haiti, despite that country having staged “the most successful slave revolution in the history of the Caribbean.” And, “How has that revolt been beneficial to our brothers in that country or in the Caribbean?”, he asks.
While the letter concludes with a tone of futility and resignation, the matters raised do offer a “learning moment” for us to consider why our people’s efforts have often failed to garner the results desired; and thus, as the writer proposes, our activists/leaders may be in a better position, having greater knowledge of the hidden obstacles, to craft a path forward in their actions for the benefit of all our people. We will therefore take a small glance at the background to Haiti’s situation.
On the plight of Haiti, while the question put is “how has that revolt been beneficial?”, it is important to understand why things turned out the way they have. And we don’t have to guess at that. Briefly, what transpired AFTER the Haitian Revolution is somewhat similar to what happened to Cuba after their 1959 revolution, when the U.S. launched a cruel trade embargo that is still in effect today, despite the decades-long overwhelming call for its ending by the United Nations. However, with Haiti, it was far, far worse, as a number of big Western powers ganged up to strangle the new republic, which had dared to declare freedom to any enslaved person who set foot on Haitian soil.
As described at haitisolidarity.net:
“In 1791, 400,000 Africans enslaved in Haiti rose up against French colonial rule, launching a revolutionary war that culminated in Haiti’s independence in 1804, establishing the world’s first Black republic. From that moment on, Haiti has been in the crosshairs of white supremacist imperial powers. The United States led a worldwide boycott against Haiti and refused to recognize the new republic until 1864, knowing that Haiti was an inspiration to enslaved people everywhere and posed a grave danger to the US’s own system of slavery.
“In 1825, French warships encircled Port-au-Prince and forced Haiti to assume a debt to France of 90 million gold francs (equivalent to $21.7 billion as calculated in 2003) as reparations to the former slave owners for the ‘crime’ of freeing themselves from slavery. With the first payment of the debt, Haiti had to close its nascent public school system. In 1915, the US invaded Haiti and occupied the country for 19 years, taking over Haiti’s banking system, defeating a peasant-led insurgency and installing one puppet regime after another, culminating with the Duvalier dictatorships which terrorized the country for close to 30 years. Today we see the same US policies at work, once again devastating Haitian society.”
Perhaps it is true that the Haitian people have not benefited much in the long run so far; but their revolutionary sacrifice has benefited the liberation movements in all of South America and the anti-slavery movement elsewhere, including in the U.S., where the story of Haiti was an inspiration for freedom fighters. We all owe a debt of gratitude to the brave Haitian people, our African kinfolks across the diaspora, for what they accomplished on behalf of freedom everywhere. Their plight today and since then, has been the punishment being inflicted upon them for daring to stand up to those with the military power to dominate and exploit, which was what San Domingue (Haiti) was all about for the French colonial power, the then richest colony on the planet to be exploited for the greater wealth of the “mother country,” France.
If there is a lesson for us from the current predicament of Haiti, it is as the writer suggests: “the oligarchy will never surrender its status quo”. Even when “activism” or “revolution” may seem to have conquered and made some gains, the backlash of their conniving power could still send the masses backward, and that’s where the “genuine leadership” called for is important, to map a successful aftermath of the initial struggle and activism. Winning the war must be followed by winning the peace also. Economic warfare is real in this new millennium, and trading partners are vital for every nation, with trade arrangements clearly articulated for mutual benefit.
But if activists resign to “stay in their lane”, as JA suggests, how and when will we ever hope to “eradicate poverty” and end “racial discrimination” and “offer equal rights and justice for all”? Someone has to lead the struggle, whether from in front or from behind, where an enlightened people can create a groundswell mass movement to effect meaningful and lasting change.
There has to be a struggle, and sacrifice; maybe not necessarily lives, but a lot of energy and agitation must be put on the line, as “power concedes nothing without a demand”.
What is an important concern to recognize, is that leaders are generally targets to be harassed and prosecuted by agents of the status quo; and the more vigilant and visionary a leader, the more he/she is seen as a threat to those in power or control of resources, and the harder they may come down upon such a leader. It has long been the lament that many corrupt leaders in Africa have kept the continent suffering in poverty although the land is blessed with immense wealth from natural resources; but often overlooked is what has happened to the great leaders who have emerged across the continent – removal by assassination or military coups arranged and engineered by the exploiting colonial powers. In modern times, it happened in 2004 to Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti. Bob Marley sang, “How long will they kill our prophets, while we stand aside and look.”
Perhaps, what the writer is directing us to is a more enlightened activism and leadership, where the gains to be obtained from agitation and negotiation are clearly articulated and guaranteed so that there are no easy loopholes for those in power to avoid fulfilling their commitments to the masses. Transparency and accountability cannot just be buzz words, but backed by carefully legislated mechanisms “in black and white” to be followed through and verified by representative bodies of the people, and with real and substantial consequences for violations.
There is a sense of despair in the letter from brother JA. But, while “good governance” is an elusive goal that will always be aspired to, we cannot end the struggle towards change for the better. Indeed, the nation needs and thrives on the efforts and engagement of those we call activists, which really is any one of us who by words or deeds, becomes an agent of change, or takes a stand against perceived wrongs or injustice. The more activism is expressed by our people as a whole, the more corruption will be exposed and those involved brought to answer to charges. And, while JA concludes that “without genuine leadership, history will continue to repeat itself,” it’s a chicken or egg situation, as such leadership must come from among the people. Indeed, “Only the people can save the people!”