Haiti: Debts to collect
By Jorge Gómez Barata
More than 200 years had to elapse after the French Revolution, and the worst tragedy of the modern era had to occur for a President of France to visit Haiti – like a deity descending from Olympus and received with “mourning protocol” – spend there four hours and promise US$400 million in aid. That’s US$100 million per hour; not much, to be sure.
What was a lot were the 150 million gold francs with which France penalized Haiti for its independence. Today, that sum would be the equivalent of US$25 billion. Those who know how to subtract can figure out that $25 billion minus $400 million equals $24.6 billion. Another detail is the fact that while the money with which the Haitians paid their debt went into the French coffers, the aid promised by Sarkozy has still to arrive.
According to history, after trying to regain its former colony by force, France decided to charge the leaders of the young republic a compensation for the value of the slaves, the cattle, the facilities, the land, equipment and other losses the Revolution cost the European nation. By that logic, Robespierre would have been in debt to the French royalty and the Haitian government could have demanded indemnification for three centuries of slave labor in French plantations.
Taking into account that, around the same time, in 1803, France sold Louisiana to the United States – about 2 million 100 thousand square kilometers that today encompass Arkasas, Missouri, Iowa, part of Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, Wyoming and, naturally, Louisiana – for US$15 million, the amount charged to Haiti was out of all proportion.
Except that, to understand it, it makes no sense to review history, much less individualize responsibilities for deeds that are part of the processes that encompassed historic epochs.
The French colonists did not invent slavery. Instead, they can be credited for producing (with work, not by plunder) sugar and coffee and building in Haiti the most prosperous colony in the New World. There, inspired by the ideas of the French Revolution, took place the only revolution staged by slaves in all history. Sarkozy did not send the troops that clamped chains on L’Ouverture and did not demand from Haiti money in exchange for freedom.
Because Haiti was the most prosperous colony in the New World, and because – with half a million slaves and 25,000 settlers – it produced enough sugar and coffee to supply France and much of Western Europe, the French rulers and bankers, like the Americans and the Germans, tried hard to control the finances of the newborn republic, which at the time was not as poor as it is now.
In 1834, with money collected from plantations’ profits, taxes and credits obtained in French, American and German banks, Haiti began to pay off the debt. In its search for solvency (as it would later happen throughout Latin America) the young nation opened its doors to foreign capital. American investors acquired land and plantations and obtained advantageous concessions for the construction of a railroad and other infrastructure work.
In 1910, a consortium of American banks took over Haiti’s finances. Citibank acquired shares in the National Bank, the institution that issued currency. With low levels of production and besieged by creditors, Haiti deteriorated. Fearing for American interests, President Woodrow Wilson sent in the marines. The occupation contributed nothing positive for Haiti’s society and economy; all the opposite. When in 1934 Frankly D. Roosevelt ordered the troops’ withdrawal, the country was poorer and worse governed than 19 years earlier.
Battered by the injustice of colonial France and U.S. imperialism, and ill-governed by native oligarchs, Haiti can boast one major accomplishment. It is the only place where, in 10,000 years of human history, a revolution was staged by slaves. It is the only black republic outside Africa and long ago was, under French rule, the most prosperous of all the New World’s colonies.
At this difficult time in its history, when authentic international solidarity mobilizes and numerous countries assume the right position, we had missed France, a country with whom Haiti has deep ties and great obligations. As we welcome Sarkozy’s visit, we hope that his call to “turn over the page” will be the beginning of a new era. Haiti needs it and France can do it.
Jorge Gomez Barata, a Cuban journalist, lives in Havana.
