Don’t Underestimate the Haitian People

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Dear friends,

If you have been reading the headlines, you know that the people of Haiti are suffering as much as they have in modern times. Deep corruption, a presidential assassination and severe and prolific gang violence are harshly perpetrated upon the people of this Caribbean nation every day.

Early events from the summer of 2018 were harbingers of today’s reality. By September 2019, I was back in Virginia where I have remained. Since 2013, I have served alongside our partners there, and that work continues.

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Daily contact with friends and colleagues keeps me in the loop, along with a barrage of news stories from the region. Most of it is horrible news, in line with the many ways the people of Haiti have been nearly overcome by forces outside their control.

More than half of Haitians are desperately hungry, many on the verge of malnourishment.

A couple of months ago, a friend sent me a page from her notes taken during her January 2015 trip to Haiti. In her notes, she quoted me, “Haitians will fix Haiti.”

Signs of hope arise, though. And in my decade of walking with these extraordinary descendants of heroes (remember that in 1804 those who had been enslaved by the French rose to declare Haiti the First Free Black Republic).

Not long before he was assassinated, President Jovenel Moise had initiated a project near Ouanaminthe to build a canal off the Massacre River, a meandering water source that runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the north along the border with the Dominican Republic.

It’s important to remember that the nations that share the island of Hispaniola have a tortured history. Relations between them have not improved much since the people of the Dominican Republic, formerly enslaved by Spain, won independence from Haiti 18 years after the 1804 victory.

It’s complicated. But for purposes of this story, long-lasting animosity between the countries play a role in what has happened, as does the fact that Haiti, with its chronic hunger issues depends greatly on its neighbor for food imports. Much of that produce comes through the northern border at Ouanaminthe, home of the controversial canal project.

The canal project Moise supported was to supply water for a crucial agricultural zone that had been devastated by the continuing drought.

After the president’s assassination in July 2021, the project ended, however.

In the spring farmer groups took it upon themselves to continue the canal for much-needed water for crops. Through a process of loosely organized groups of people working together known in Haiti as “konbit,” hundreds of farmers began digging by hand. They funded the project, including shoring up the canal with concrete. This is important because in four years of severe criminal insecurity, “konbit” had become almost obsolete, especially with such a public project.

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And it became more public when Dominican Republic officials began to voice their opposition to the project. In September, the President of the Dominican Republic Luis Abinader demanded that the project stop. He claimed that a 1929 treaty prohibited such use of the shared river, but Haitians countered that the Dominican Republic had built similar projects.

If the canal construction is not stopped, Abinader said in September, he would close all borders, thus blocking the precious food imports Haiti needs.

But Haiti called Abinader’s bluff.

The farmers refused to stop the canal project. Even though the Dominican Republic closed the border, preventing commercial goods from crossing over, the farmers persisted.

A few weeks later, realizing that Dominican food sellers were losing millions of dollars in profits, Abinader agreed to open the borders for commercial goods.

And how did the Haitians in the north respond?

They refused to open their side of the border.

It’s a remarkable story of will and the “konbit” attitude that so well describes the people of Haiti.

In an editorial in The Haitian Times, Haitian photographer and filmmaker Pierre-Michel Jean wrote that Abinader thought he could bully Haiti as a weak country without a legitimate government. The move, Jean continued, was as much to curry favor with Dominican nationalists as he approaches a re-election bid.

“Unfortunately, Abinader did not take into account the pride that burns in the chest of local farmers in Haiti, who initiated the canal building movement in Ferrier and Ouanaminthe,” Jean wrote.

The message – to Abinader and others – is clear. Don’t underestimate Haiti. And as I stated in 2015, Haitians will fix Haiti. Just wait.

Cindy