Pointe-a-Pitre (Guadeloupe)
From our correspondent
In the squadron of bird names from the Guadeloupe Creole repertoire, there is a terrible one: “You Haitian. “” The insult is synonymous with ‘stooge’, of ‘asshole’ “, translated Johnny Désir. “Here, we are considered as inferior beings”, assures the young father of the family. Confined to thankless tasks, parked in unsanitary housing, the most vulnerable Haitians – that is, illegal immigrants, who are estimated to number in the tens of thousands in Guadeloupe – are hated by the West Indians.
Johnny Désir, he belongs to the category of the most integrated. He studied honorably and now teaches physics and chemistry in a high school in Pointe-à-Pitre. Landed twenty-three years ago, thanks to his grandmother, he has never been an easy target. His chin, which he keeps up high, and his frank gaze bear witness to this: no one, he seems to assert, will take away his dignity. If he has suffered few insults in the face, they are reported to him, numerous, by the little Guadeloupeans he meets. When he scours the schools for his association Tèt Kole (“solidarity”, in Haitian Creole), in order to make his culture known, he hears ” Everytime “ that the Haitian is “Ugly, too black, nasty and illiterate”, he recites in his head. Very early independent, in 1804, the island of Haiti has retained more traces of Africa than its Caribbean neighbors: the society is less mixed and, above all, voodoo remains very widespread there. “Some people try to run away from it or ignore it, but voodoo is essential to Haitian identity”, Johnny Désir concedes. A practice therefore assumed, but unknown to Guadeloupe, who often reduce it to a bloody cult, savage and very close to witchcraft.
Thus, for this retired teacher, interviewed by ethnologist Christiane Bougerol during a field study (1), Haitians act as “Backward”, “still driven by (the) superstitions”. In the old man’s opinion, the Guadeloupeans, French and Christianized, would be more advanced, especially in the modern fields of education and hygiene. Between the market stalls, Christiane Bougerol also crosses paths with this woman who assures her that “Haitian saleswomen are not clean at all”. According to a cruel rumor that persists, they water their lettuce “With dirty water, where there is pee”. In fact, as Johnny Désir confirms, “Our stalls have long been boycotted”.
In the past, however, the Haitian identity evoked respect and bravery in the West Indies. The Haitians, before all the others, had taken up arms and had succeeded in building the first black Republic. Praised by Caribbean intellectuals, including Aimé Césaire and Édouard Glissant, they proved to their neighbors that breaking free from the colonial system was possible and commanding admiration. Even today, the Haitian independence celebrations attract people to Guadeloupe. But history has gained ground: battered by a succession of dictatorial regimes, the descendants of Toussaint Louverture have become victims, forced into exile. Their reputation has crumbled in the collective imagination. “The evolution of the representation of Haiti and its inhabitants in the literature is marked by a considerable contrast between positive and negative images”, moreover attests Lydie Moudileno, professor of French-speaking literatures at the University of Pennsylvania (2). International media only visit the island during civil wars and famines: “We think that nothing good is happening there, and that, inevitably, nothing and no one good can come from it”, laments Johnny Desire.
The eternal burden of the Haitian migrant happens to be his country: “We are only told about that”, regrets Johnny. “I arrive in an evening, supposed to be festive, and they call on me to the country to be sad about what is happening there. I would like people to understand that we have other topics of conversation! “, annoys the teacher. Especially since his interlocutors have very often limited knowledge of Haiti. Many are surprised, says Johnny Désir, that there are beaches and luxury hotels.
One evening, when he was completing an intervention for Tèt Kole, he was arrested by a Guadeloupean. An old lady, he describes, who thanks him: “I realized that I didn’t really know Haitians. And yet, I told bullshit about them! “, she confides to him. Despite the Caribbean Sea and the Creole they share, despite more than forty years of Haitian immigration to Guadeloupe, some have never really met the others.
“It’s complicated to make efforts to integrate when you immediately know you have been rejected”, justifies Johnny Desire. All the more so as the community remains traumatized by the manifest xenophobia of which it was the victim in the 2000s. At the time, the media-friendly far-right city councilor Ibo Simon was unleashed in the program he hosts, on the very popular channel Canal 10. It treats the Haitians of “Vermin”, from “Scum”, going so far as to ensure that their life has less value “Than that of a dog”. In 2001, four associations filed a complaint for incitement to hatred and racial violence, the man was sentenced to a suspended sentence and prohibited from accessing the airwaves.
A historic victory for Haitians, “Who have taken the blows for too long without daring to say anything”, deplores Johnny Désir. Now organized in associations, with legal means, the new generations are no longer afraid of occupying space. Tèt Kole, in this sense, performs a real work of public utility. “By dint of settling all the problems of the community, with the prefecture, the court, the neighbors, we are known to all”, supports Johnny Désir. Antennae of the association have sprung up in different cities and help Haitian users to defend their rights. Volunteers also work to reconcile identities, by offering cultural, culinary, musical services – Guadeloupe people love kompa, a typically Haitian music.
“There is no longer any question of denying yourself”, assumes Johnny Desire: “Our culture is as rich as any other. “ Her son, barely 2 years old, is brought up in a mixture of Haitian Creole and French, zouk and kompa. He will go to public school and rub shoulders with Guadeloupe: “It is by sharing the same snack, by learning the same lessons that they understand that we are the same”, says Johnny, who notes ” progress “ in terms of tolerance among Guadeloupeans. This does not prevent the emergence of a new rumor, fueled by the success and emancipation of some Haitians: “We are in the process of redeeming Guadeloupe”, Johnny Désir reports. This time, he prefers to laugh about it.
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