The Books
Tim tim? Bwa sech! Keskiya a kiskeya?
Tim tim? Bwa sech! Sprang out of a deep nostalgia for the Haiti of yesteryears. Whether raised in a well-to-do or in a poor family, in Port-au-Prince or in the countryside, few Haitians growing up in the 1930–1970s could honestly claim to have never partaken directly or indirectly in nocturnal story-telling sessions. Where have the yesteryears now gone?
With Keskiya a kiskeya?, on the one hand, I intend to revive and enrich the aforementioned cultural heritage. On the other, I wish to bring back into the Haitian consciousness the lives and evolution of the two main folk heroes, Bouki and Malis, who peopled our young imagination.
These folktales are often used as pretexts to unveil our shortcomings and to display the ills that continue to plague our society. The malediction of our history and the damnation of our geography transpire throughout the tales.
In a way, these embody my Zolaan “J’accuse!”
The Betrayal
There is a thought that has been attributed to the Haitian Molière, or Alcibiade: “All countries are developing while Haiti is enveloping.”
When one reads the following 1903 letter written by the nationalist physician Dr. Rosalvo Bobo, it could be easy to swear it was just written a minute ago. It is hard to believe since its independence was officially declared on January 1, 1804, that not much has changed in Haiti. Indeed, not much has changed.
The following letter is a vibrant testimony to our societal stagnation and to our national degradation, both of which are symptomatic of the sum of our individual failures as citizens. Nations do not fail. Their citizens fail them. Personal successes are irrelevant to concerned citizens. Haiti has sadly become a country without elites. Most, alas, have become pitiful racketeers.
Theater and Diplomatic Illusions in Haiti: The United States of North America and Haiti Facing the Pact of San Jose of Costa Rica.
The United States is not a compilation of states, men, and circumstances. They adhere to a principle. They meet certain prerequisites. To speak on behalf of the America of Tocqueville, one must, at the very least, be its true and verified emanation. How can one represent the greatest democracy in the world without reflecting the values of the citizens who constitute it? Intellectually, this contradiction cannot be overcome!
In his Recommended Letter to the American Embassy, Dr. Jacques-Raphaël Georges derailed a huge diplomatic machine that wanted to make the First Black Republic Independent of the world a “SUB-COUNTRY” from where, from time to time, on the occasion of the carnival, the exhibition of an Indian chief dressed in a loincloth or a raid among the transvestites of the Côte- des- Arcadins, some grotesque clichés or stupid exoticism accommodates an eroticism that is no less so.” But by closing with a double turn anything that could draw attention to the crimes against the Haitian people. “GENTLEMEN- ASSASSINS YOU MAY BEGIN!” -Me. Gérard Georges
