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 CitĂ© 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


  • Yash Tandon
    G20: The Second Berlin War Against Africa
    25 Jul 2017
    by Yash Tandon With German bankers in the lead, the West is waging economic war against Africa, as was evident at the latest G20 meeting. “The conference’s real effect is to deepen Europe’s…
  • Bruce A. Dixon , BAR managing editor
    White Liberal Guilt, Black Opportunism and the Green Party
    20 Jul 2017
    by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon Building a new kind of left party isn't easy, or it would have been done a long time ago. The Green party's annual meeting in Newark last week revealed some of…
  • Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    Black Women in the Killing Fields
    20 Jul 2017
    by BAR executive editor Glen Ford A white woman from Australia was gunned down by militarized police in Minneapolis – part of the collateral damage that flows from the U.S. mass Black incarceration…
  • Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Kamala Harris and America’s Oligarchs
    19 Jul 2017
    by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley California’s new senator is actively being vetted as the “next Obama, “ or “Obama 2.0” -- a youngish, biracial corporate Democrat and a woman.…
  • Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
    Jay-Z and the Rest of his Class Belong in the Dustbin of History
    19 Jul 2017
    by BAR contributor Danny Haiphong Jay-Z’s album 4:44 confirms his deep loyalty to the capitalist system and profound disdain for the people that buy his records. He is a parasitic preacher of I-…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us