Anti-Haitianism

Anti-Haitianism consists of a hostile, unsympathetic, or derogatory stance towards Haiti, its people, and culture. It is, therefore, a particular kind of bigotry: a prejudice against a specific nation and its citizens. Because of the background of the Haitian population, composed largely of persons of African ancestry, anti-Haitianism is permeated by racism and deprecating notions about people of African descent in general. However, it possesses special manifestations, traceable to the way in which the Haitian nation came to exist and to the specific milieu in which it emerged.

Origins of Anti-Haitianism

Anti-Haitianism is a relatively modern phenomenon. Its genesis could be traced to the slave rebellion in the French colony of Saint Domingue in 1791. Up to then there was not a specific ideology that maligned the black inhabitants of Saint Domingue/Haiti for belonging to a concrete community. Until the eruption of the slave revolution, Saint Domingue was regarded as an archetypical colony. Actually, other Caribbean colonies sought to replicate Haiti's economy. The astounding profits generated by it, based on the exportation of tropical staples, aroused the jealousy of many non-French bureaucrats, planters, and businessmen. The backbone of this colonial utopia was its slave population, composed of over 400,000 slaves, mostly Africans, submitted to a harsh work system.

According to the colonialists' view, black equaled African equaled slave. Moreover, Africans and their descendants were perceived as barbaric and incapable of attaining civilization, defined as white (that is, Occidental or European). Nonwhites in general were regarded as backward and as a potential menace to civilization. This incapacity for reaching civilization was a natural burden of the so-conceived inferior races. Slaves in Saint Domingue were depicted according to these notions, but this sort of prejudice affected Africans and their descendants everywhere.

The slave revolution and the creation of the Republic of Haiti (1804) modified this. From then on, Haitians acquired a particularly malevolent aura. Haiti came to symbolize the worst nightmare of colonial elites. It represented the victorious but dreadful rebellion of the nonwhite against the white; it epitomized the triumph of barbarism over civilization. According to sociologist Anthony P. Maingot, this image of Haiti produced a "terrified consciousness" in the Caribbean (Maingot, p. 53). Members of a particular community (Haiti) were regarded as a menace that jeopardized the stability of Caribbean societies based on slavery. This panic embodied the first form of anti-Haitianism. It resounded all over the Americas, where elites of European ascendancy based their privileged position on the domination of laborers of either African or Amerindian origins.

Vodou and Anti-Haitianism

Vodou, the religion of most of the Haitian population, was one of the reasons for the emergence of that terrified consciousness. Like other Caribbean religions, vodou's origins could be traced to Africa. It developed in Haiti among the slaves during the colonial period and was the main bonding force among the enslaved Africans, who came from a diversity of cultural backgrounds. For instance, vodou played a central role in the slave uprising of 1791.

Vodou was linked to witchcraft, cannibalism, and zombiism as a result of misconceptions that acquired popularity during the nineteenth century. These biases were a major influence in the emergence of anti-Haitianism. They reinforced the ideas about Haitians' backwardness and barbarism. Vodou was perceived as evidence of the imperviousness of Haitians to civilized forms of life. These images of barbarism were bolstered in the United States as a consequence of the military occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934. Literature, plays, travel narratives, movies, and popular magazines, as well as scholarly works, disseminated such ideas about vodou. In Haiti itself, vodou was chastised by the social elites. This internal discrimination against the religion of the vast majority of the population bolstered the anti-Haitian feelings of foreign onlookers. Haiti seemed to be shrouded in mystery, black magic, inhumanity, and wicked forces.

Genesis of Dominican Anti-Haitianism

In the Dominican Republic, the country that shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, prevails a particularly vindictive type of anti-Haitianism. Dominican anti-Haitianism is infused by a deep nationalism that often becomes chauvinism. Dominican anti-Haitianism began to develop during the colonial period, when Spain and France shared the island of Hispaniola. According to Dominican nationalist accounts, the emergence of a French colony in Hispaniola amputated the original territory of Spanish Santo Domingo. Accordingly, Haiti is depicted as an intruder.

However, during the colonial period Dominican elites saw Saint Domingue as a model colony. Their animosity was directed against the French, not against the plantation system itself or against the black labor force. But this changed with the slave uprising in Haiti. Dominicans were also terrified by the revolution. Conceived as a war of races, the revolution aroused the specter of the Africanization of Caribbean societies. This perception was furthered by the occupation of Santo Domingo by Haitian armies, the disruption of its economic activities, and the killing and forced emigration of civilians.

The bitterness of Dominicans increased during the Haitian Domination (1822–1844), when Haiti occupied Santo Domingo. Nationalists argue that Santo Domingo's economic and cultural potential was hampered during this period, limiting its possibilities of becoming a modern nation. They claim that the aim of Haitian policies was to abate Santo Domingo's national identity and to integrate its territory into Haiti. This allegation was reinforced after Santo Domingo's independence from Haiti (1844), when the two countries engaged in several wars. Thus, during the mid-nineteenth century Haiti was perceived as a threat to the existence of the Dominican nation.

Twentieth-Century Dominican Anti-Haitianism

Haiti had desisted from regaining the Dominican Republic by the late nineteenth century. By then, the conflicts between the two countries revolved around their territorial limits. The border problem has haunted the two nations ever since, even though they have signed several frontier treaties. This issue and the emigration of Haitians to the Dominican Republic fostered anti-Haitian feelings in the latter country. During the first decades of the twentieth century, Haitians were mainly laborers on the sugar plantations. In addition, thousands settled in the Dominican side of the border.

During Rafael L. Trujillo's dictatorship (1930–1961), anti-Haitianism became a state policy. Such Dominican intellectuals as Manuel A. Peña Batlle (1902–1954) and Joaquín Balaguer (1906–2002) developed historical interpretations that agreed with the anti-Haitian ideology of Trujillo's regime. They depicted the presence of Haitians in Dominican territory as a pacific invasion. Likewise, they emphasized the primitiveness of the Haitians and the misfortunes suffered by the Dominican Republic as a result of being ravaged by its neighbors. In line with these views, in 1935–1936 the government revised the frontier treaty of 1929. It also took drastic measures to halt the occupation of Dominican land by Haitians. Thus, in 1937 thousands of Haitians were massacred in the frontier region.

Anti-Haitianism intensified in the Dominican Republic during the late twentieth century. The flow of migrants increased as economic conditions worsened in Haiti. Both in the countryside and in urban settings, Haitian laborers, peddlers, and the homeless became omnipresent in the Dominican Republic. This deepened the impression that the so-called pacific invasion was leading to the Haitianization of Dominican society. Though not always publicly acknowledged, often this apprehension was based on racial notions, on the idea that Haitians contributed to the darkening or the Africanization of the country. Although persons born in Dominican territory are constitutionally defined as nationals of the country, the offspring of Haitians often faced systematic discrimination. State agencies, the media, and the armed forces have been particularly active in fostering the discrimination against Haitians and their Dominican offspring.

Other Manifestations of Anti-Haitianism

Dominican anti-Haitianism is but one specific form of anti-Haitian feelings. Other forms of anti-Haitianism proliferated during the late twentieth century. A deteriorating economy and increasing political instability propelled the emigration of thousands of Haitians from the 1980s on. Because of its proximity to Haiti, the United States has been the principal destination of Haitians fleeing from poverty and political violence. Most of these immigrants try to enter the country illegally, crossing the sea in small and fragile ships. For this reason, these immigrants are known as boat people.

But the U.S. government has been reluctant to grant asylum to Haitian boat people. The official U.S. policy has been to return Haitians to their homeland, where most likely local authorities will harass them. This practice contrasts with the policy regarding Cuban boat people, who are granted sanctuary if they are able to reach the U.S. coast. This different treatment is justified by claiming that Cubans escape from tyranny while Haitians flee their country for economic reasons. However, Haitians and human rights organizations have condemned this selective policy as a veiled form of anti-Haitianism. Often this new form of discrimination is based on health reasons. Thus, the high prevalence of AIDS/HIV in Haiti has been used as an argument to deny admission of Haitians to the United States. While some of these arguments are a response to legitimate concerns, some may reflect new forms of sheer prejudice. After all, it is conceivable that racism, as well as old anxieties and prejudices, might still survive cloaked in scientific issues and uttered in modern language.

See also AIDS in the Americas; Haitian Revolution; Voodoo

Bibliography

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Inoa, Orlando, ed. Bibliografía haitiana en la República Dominicana. Río Piedras: Centro de Investigaciones Históricas, Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1994.

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pedro l. san miguel (2005)