Protesters demand the removal of Prime Minister Ariel Henry in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on September 7, 2022.
Haiti has suffered under western occupations and interference in its affairs. The people of that nation are struggling to break free from that domination and can look to mass movements in Francophone Africa.
There have been nine coups in the past three years in former French colonies in Africa– Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Tunisia and recently Gabon. Some in Francophone Africa have realized something that Haitians once knew over 200 years ago under the leadership of Jean Jacques Dessalines: The meddling in the affairs of an independent nation will not be tolerated simply because the dominion of that nation is under the control of non-white people. This is especially true of people from the global south who have been plundered by the parasitic elites of Europe and their Western progeny since the age of Columbus.
As a Haitian, I understand the way the stench of French colonialism lingers in its former colonies. The curse of that French language in the mind of its former colonized makes the victims of those French dogs in love with the idea of being accepted as a French blood sucker. And more so, there is no worse colonized-minded Negro than a French speaking colonized-minded Negro. Franz Fanon discussed these realities of French colonialism in his classic work: “Black Skins White Masks”. In fact, I would argue that what contributed to Fanon’s brilliant understanding of the horrid nature of colonialism was his being a Black psychiatrist raised in a French Caribbean colony. Many of his pronouncements are reminiscent of ones from one of the greatest early Haitian polemicists on the nature of colonialism: Baron De Vastey, the chief intellectual writer and political consultant to King Henri Christophe of Haiti.
The Francophone Africans have realized that France and its NATO allies are not to be trusted. Countries like Niger, which have almost no electricity, yet provide France with mass quantities of Uranium, ensure that French electricity is plentiful. All of Francophone Africa is trapped in the CFA Franc system which pauperizes 14 nations. These realities have caused Francophone Africa to understand it must break from France and seek alliances with Russia and China. Such a solution only seems radical to Westerners so steeped in propaganda that they don’t realize the number of countries applying to join the BRICS nations, of which Russia and China are the dominant forces. The number of countries applying to the BRICS has already doubled. The Global South is pivoting to the East, including rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran. They realize they can no longer deal with the charade of liberal democracy, pseudo-justice, and so-called “human rights” sponsored by America and her NATO allies. For Francophone Africa, France has been the bane of their existence. It is only the toxic enticement of French culture paid for in colonial blood that denies many in the American Black Diaspora to realize how racist the French are, even compared to the British. In fact, this link will take you to a great YouTube resource entitled: “The Difference between British and French Colonialism in Africa.”
Haiti Must Pivot
Since the U.S. occupation of Haiti between 1915-1934 Haiti has actually been a country without sovereignty, barring the Presidency of Dumarsais Estime: 1946-1950, likely the greatest president Haiti has had in the 20th century. All the subsequent major presidents: Magloire, Papa Doc, and Baby Doc were playing a cold war dance only to side with the Americans and crush any socialist or communist movement in Haiti. Aristide was public enemy number one to the Western world after the fall of the Soviet Union made the international capitalist order so drunk with power that even Aristide’s mild liberation theology was grounds for a U.S. supported 1991 coup.
Problematically, when Aristide returned in 1994, he signed structural adjustment packages at the behest of Bill Clinton that privatized state assets and allowed several Clinton cronies to plunder Haiti’s coffers. Aristide also signed an agreement that doomed Haitians in perpetuity. At the behest of Bill Clinton, who wanted to kill Haiti’s rice production to flush Haiti’s market with Arkansas rice, Aristide dropped the Haitian internationally produced rice tariff from 50% to 3%. This allowed Haiti to be flooded with cheap Arkansas rice that caused the complete collapse of Haitian rice production to this day. Haiti, once one of the greatest rice producers in the Caribbean, is now forced to beg foreigners for the ability to afford rice.
Haiti, the first Black nation-state in the West, has suffered from the threat of foreign invasion since its 1804 independence. The idea of formerly enslaved Black people militarily defeating the trifecta of the Spanish Empire, British Empire, and finally Napoleonic France, to gain freedom from slavery and independence, has always been too much for post Columbus Western “so-called” civilization, to countenance.
However, in 2003 a new type of demon was amassed to deny Haitians a Bicentennial Celebration and give them a second Aristide coup lead by a coterie of the most treasonous Haitian Black elites joining forces with the international Haitian oligarchy made up mostly of Syrian and Middle Eastern descendants who have been a buffer class of parasites in Haiti since the early 20th century. Regardless of the myriad of Aristide mistakes, siding with the traditional enemies of Haiti who birthed the 2003 Ottawa Initiative that created the CORE Group of France, the United States, Canada, the European Union, Germany, Brazil, and the Organization of American States, was a treasonous act worthy of a firing squad, if such things were legal.
Look how much damage the Core Group, with the United States, France, and Canada at the helm, has done to Haiti since 2004, especially after the 2010 Earthquake. All these foreign interventions the Core Group and the United States keep demanding, from MINUSTAH to the current request for Kenyan soldiers, are all a pretext. Especially when the Haitian oligarchs, who have always worked at the behest of the U.S. State Department in the past, are the ones sponsoring the gangs and arming them in Haiti. Canada has “sanctioned Middle Eastern descended Haitian oligarchs for allegedly gun trafficking to gangs in Haiti. Yet there have been no arrests. All of this is being done because the Core Group, including the United States and the mining giant Canada, want to purge Haiti of Haitians, just like Biden’s new visa program allows, so they can capture all the underground resources that have been discovered in Haiti since the 1990s.
Canada has already been mining gold in Haiti. And right after the 2010 Haiti Earthquake, suspiciously, contracts for iridium and oil were executed for Core Group exploitation (see article, “Haiti For Sale.”) Why should Haiti trust any of these Core Group blood sucking parasite nations, especially the United States, Canada, and France? This is why Haitians must make the first intelligent demand for Haiti since the revolution of 1946. . Haitians must follow Francophone Africa and pivot to Russia and China for assistance. Both countries have already tried to block U.S. intervention requests for foreign military occupation of Haiti since the assassination of Jovenel Moise, who was killed, likely with U.S. assistance, because he was reaching out to the Russians for help. “The Intercept,” has already written articles alluding to U.S. involvement in the assassination.
Haiti is one of perhaps four countries in the Caribbean that even recognizes Taiwan. This was done under the Cold War 1956 Vice President Nixon ally hard core anti-communist president Paul Magloire. This policy has to be made obsolete and Haiti must embrace both Russia and China, but China especially has already sought out Haiti to be its ally as discussed in this article.
"The Haitian masses, who have never received anything from the state since 1806, and who have been constantly protesting US and Western imperialism, are on the right path. What about the other sectors in Haiti and throughout the Diaspora? These people must follow the lead of the Haitian masses and stop being pawns of our Core Group enemies. Haiti must pivot to the BRICS, especially Russia and China. The nation of Dessalines used to lead the world in radical liberatory politics. Now, after 32 years of humiliation, Haiti must follow its Francophone African brothers to freedom.
Pascal Robert is co-host of THIS IS REVOLUTION podcast and a contributing editor of Sublation magazine.
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