Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Haiti Needs Freedom, Not Tears
Mireille Fanon Mendes France
16 Aug 2023
🖨️ Print Article
Haiti Needs Freedom, Not Tears
Banner reads, We are people we have to live like people." (Photo: Marvens Compere for The Haitian Times)

The people of Haiti are once again facing attack, now with the use of Black nations as a cover for an impending invasion and occupation. Haitians are still resolute in fighting for their freedom.

Originally published in Fondation Frantz Fanon.

Is it enough to meet the Haitian people, to affirm a political solidarity far, far removed from compassion and morality, to forget the obligation to live the luminous beauty of their suspended lives in the rendered-ugly streets of Port-au-Prince?

The torrential rains carry the detritus abandoned by the privileged inhabitants of the heights to the port and the dreaded CitĂŠ Soleil. If structural racism is indeed present, it is expressed in the metaphor of compartmentalized garbage management.

Beyond the near-impossible management of household waste, there remains the refused arrival of a multinational force led by Kenya. The West delegating its dirty work to the African brothers of the Haitians who, in their time, had inspired their brothers in chains to free themselves from the horrors of the oppressor. Their only quest was DIGNITY.

Stunned and alienated by the idea of progress brought about by the white hegemony, the African brothers refused to understand that what they were going to impose on their brothers in blackness would be applied to them the very next day. In so doing, they are writing INDIGNITY in blood.

The Haitians who bear in their flesh the struggle of their heroes announce, with pride and courage, their refusal of this violent servitude.

Never a knee to the ground!

Never bow your head!

Resist, prepare to fight, fight, fight for the emancipation of peoples, for the right to self-determination and sovereignty of black people.

Haiti stands firm in the face of plans to systematically plunder its land.

But Haiti stands alone, ignored by its Caribbean neighbours, their backs to the wall, thinking they can avoid imperialist fury.

We have to understand: today Haiti, tomorrow one of the CARICOM states that has agreed to armed intervention will be next on the list of the financial system that feasts on the remains of murdered states.

The Haitian people, against their bankrupt leaders, against the long teeth of the WB and IMF, are preparing to resist.

The Haitian people are on their feet.

Will we leave them alone?

Will we warn our eyes from a foretold massacre?

Will we assume solidarity by simply weeping over the fate of Haiti?

Will we continue to praise Haiti's poets and art when we've contributed to its extinction?

What is the beauty of the freedom offered by the Haitian people worth if today we participate in re-chaining them?

With the Haitian people, let's save our Dignity.

Haiti needs Freedom, not tears.



Mireille Fanon Mendes-France is founder and co-chair of the Frantz Fanon Foundation. She served as former United Nations expert chair of the Working group on People of African Descent. Mireille works on issues of International law and has worked as professor at different levels of the National Education, at Unesco and as legal adviser at French National Assembly. Mireille Fanon Mendès-France is the daughter of the world renowned revolutionary, psychiatrist and political author, Frantz Fanon.

Haiti
Haiti Occupation

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • black bourgeoisie
    Raymond Nat Turner , BAR poet-in-residence
    My Wise Country Cousin On de Blak Boozewahzee
    08 Mar 2018
    Dey cum buck dancin’, ‘bout ebry 2 ta 4 years, Afta dat, is dey ‘bout scarce as Lepercon ears? Is dese spooks ‘bout korrup as de day is long—
  • Lessons, Successes and Failures of the West Virginia Teacher Strike
    Bruce A. Dixon , BAR managing editor
    Lessons, Successes, Failures of the West Virginia Teachers Strike
    08 Mar 2018
    The 9 day West Virginia school strike was a long time coming, and contains a number of useful, if not new lessons.
  • The Healthcare Bait-and-Switch: From the Clintons to Obama and Back Again
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    The Healthcare Bait-and-Switch: From the Clintons to Obama and Back Again
    08 Mar 2018
    “Cory Booker and others are joining the pro-single payer bandwagon to weaken it from the inside.”
  • A Black Radical Defense of the Second Amendment
    Patrick D. Anderson
    A Black Radical Defense of the Second Amendment
    07 Mar 2018
    “Black communities have differentiated individual firearm ownership from structured self-defense organizations.”
  • Freedom Rider: Black Panther Movie: A Black Face in a High Place
    Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Black Panther Movie: A Black Face in a High Place
    07 Mar 2018
    “Questioners are ‘hoteps’ who are too woke to have fun.”
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us