The Crimes Against Haiti and Haitians Continue
How the Western Colonizers Made Sure Haiti Never Had a Chance
September 10, 2024
I find it really hard to adequately convey the sheer extent and audacity of the crimes Western Colonizers—the U.S. in particular—have committed, and continue to commit, against Haitians. But now that Haitians are being publicly denigrated with the most racist of tropes by leaders of a major U.S. political party, including their nominee for POTUS and VP, I think I’ll give it a try.
Let’s start from the beginning, where Black African captives were packed onto slave ships for the Trans-Atlantic voyage, stacked side by side with less consideration than might be given to lumber or sacks of grain. They were often stacked on top of one another as if they were not living beings at all, left to gasp for air and defecate on one another. They were starved and raped and brutally beaten and thrown overboard if they became ill or hurt.
The unimaginable horrors continued at Saint-Domingue, which was essentially one, vast sugarcane-plantation-slash-torture-camp. Subjected to brutal working conditions and high mortality rates, the enslaved people of Saint-Domingue were finally driven to rebellion.
If there was one thing that could bring together the colonial rivals of the time, it was a mass uprising of black slaves daring to cast off the yoke of bondage. The liberated prisoners of Saint-Domingue fought not only the French, but also the British and Spaniards who each attempted to take control over the colony.
But in 1804, the people who would become known as Haitians made history. It was the first and only time that a slave revolt led to the establishment of an independent nation. Haiti was also the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere and the first country anywhere to permanently abolish slavery.
But even if you are learning all of this for the first time, you probably already figured out that if there was one thing that Western Colonizers could not stand for, it was a nation of freed black slaves enjoying anything resembling a happy outcome.
Even the nascent U.S., a country supposedly built on principles of inalienable rights and freedoms, refused to recognize the only other independent nation in the Americas.
Being the absolute monsters that they were (like all the other settler/enslaver states), France imposed a crushing financial burden on Haiti. Under threat of invasion and economic isolation, Haiti was forced to agree to pay 150 million francs (equivalent to billions today) to compensate former French slaveholders for lost "property" (including enslaved people).
Because the Western Colonizers could not allow Haiti to set a precedence of the formerly enslaved not only winning their freedom, but thriving, they all supported France in making sure the fledgling state would become a failed state. The payments crippled Haiti’s economy, as a significant portion of its national income was spent repaying the debt rather than investing in development.
U.S. Occupation (1915-1934): When instability predictably hounded Haiti during its first century, the U.S. opportunistically invaded and occupied the small, half-island country. The U.S. controlled Haiti's government, military, and economy, crafting policies intended only to benefit U.S. business interests at the expense of the Haiti people.
During the occupation, the U.S. centralized power, rewrote Haiti’s constitution to allow foreigners (especially Americans) to own land (which had been illegal since independence), and restructured the economy to prioritize American interests, particularly in agriculture. But even more galling, U.S. troops forced many Haitians off their land by gunpoint to transfer ownership to U.S. corporations. It’s hard to think of a more blatant example of armed robbery.
But it gets worse. Forced labor policies were imposed on Haitians, including many who had their land stolen from them, to work on infrastructure projects, exacerbating social unrest and deepening resentment. In other words, the U.S. found a way to become a slave state again. And of course, it targeted black folks.
The occupation ended in 1934, but U.S. control of Haiti's finances lasted until 1947. But U.S. meddling and self-enriching sabotage did not end there. The U.S. played a key role in supporting the Duvalier dynastic dictatorship which lasted from 1957-1986. The Duvaliers ruled Haiti with an iron fist, engaging in corruption, repression, and human rights abuses. And the whole enterprise was sponsored by the benevolent U.S. of A. to further its own economic and geopolitical interests, even though the Duvalier’s rule was economically disastrous for Haiti. This included many more forcible land seizures which ended up in the possession of U.S.-backed businesses.
The regime also embezzled large sums of public funds, which could have been invested in infrastructure and public services. When Baby Doc Duvalier was ousted in 1986, he fled to France with much of the country’s remaining wealth, leaving Haiti in further economic ruin. So here we are, in 1986, and the sad, infuriating tale shows no sign of turning for the better. Western Colonizers still refuse to allow Haiti its fair crack at stability, self-determination or prosperity.
Haitians were finally able to vote into power their first democratically elected government in the 1990s. But it was perhaps too late. Haiti had fallen far too behind to have any real chance of succeeding as a state. The colonizers and enslavers had gotten their way.
But the Haitians were not ready to give up. President Aristide, a former priest, promoted social reform and programs to redistribute wealth to help the poor. Unsurprisingly, Aristide’s populist policies were unpopular with foreign business interests, particularly those of the U.S. Staying true to brand, the U.S. backed a military coup to overthrow Aristide in 1991. He was reinstated in 1994, but then a U.S. and France-backed coup forced him into exile again in 2004.
The subsequent interim governments were aligned with U.S. interests but did little to stabilize the economy or improve the lives of Haitians. By now it should be abundantly clear that the U.S. and France never found it in their hearts or their conscience—or wherever the residue of moral reckoning might accidentally accumulate—to allow Haiti even a sliver of opportunity to form a stable government in its two-plus centuries of existence.
But this does nothing to dissuade white supremacists from invoking Haiti as an example of how people of African lineage are incapable of governing themselves. And it does nothing to bring shame to the U.S. imperialists who continue to find ways to bilk Haiti out of what little it might still have at its disposal to properly care for its citizens.
The U.S. has used trade policies to this end, shaping Haiti’s economy in ways that siphon funds to U.S. coffers while stunting the country’s development. For instance, in the 1980s, under pressure from the U.S. and international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Haiti reduced tariffs on rice imports. This opened the floodgates to cheap, subsidized American rice, which quickly undercut local rice farmers and decimated Haiti’s domestic rice production.
As a result, Haiti became overly dependent on imported rice, which hurt local agriculture and food security. Even today, Haiti imports about 80% of its rice, primarily from the U.S.
IMF structural adjustment policies forced Haiti to reduce government spending on education, healthcare, and public services, further destabilizing the country’s economy and contributing to social inequality.
Foreign aid, particularly from the U.S., has been another trojan horse employed against Haiti. While aid is essential due to Haiti’s dire economic situation, it often comes with conditions that prioritize foreign interests over local development.
Much of the aid funneled into Haiti over the years has been mismanaged or poorly targeted, benefiting foreign contractors and NGOs more than the Haitian people. For example, after the devastating 2010 earthquake, billions of dollars in international aid flowed into Haiti, but little of it reached the communities most in need. Much of it was paid to U.S. contractors, and many took full advantage of the situation, cutting corners and providing shoddy work for the amounts of money they pocketed. Much of the infrastructure that was paid for was never completed or failed to meet promised standards. Yet another heist.
And the list of crimes goes on. Repeated foreign interventions in Haiti's internal politics and economy have prevented the country from developing stable governance structures and economic independence. The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), which included heavy U.S. involvement, operated in Haiti from 2004 to 2017. While it was aimed at stabilizing the country after the U.S.-backed coup that ousted Aristide’s government, MINUSTAH troops were involved in abuses such as the introduction of cholera, which caused thousands of deaths and further destabilized Haiti.
To summarize, the U.S. and Western Colonizers deprived the people of a government focused on returning at least a small portion stolen from them. But in its place, they received the gift of deadly disease.
The western powers of the world were set against Haiti from the very beginning, mercilessly sabotaging the nation every step of the way since. We have to ask, what more could the Haiti people have done to counter this relentless and crushing monstrosity to materially improve their circumstances?
You would think U.S. leaders and its informed citizens would recognize all the irreparable harm their country has unjustly inflicted against this small underdog who heroically delivered themselves from the worst of atrocities imaginable only to be forever pillaged and plundered by far stronger nations as their reward.
But the U.S. has shown virtually no mercy at all, as is evident by the restrictive immigration policies designed to target Haitians disproportionately. For example, during the 1990s, the U.S. intercepted Haitian refugees fleeing political violence and economic hardship and sent many of them back to Haiti.
The Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act (HRIFA) and other measures helped some Haitians gain residency in the U.S., but the overall approach has often been inconsistent. The U.S. has even added obstacles to make it more costly and difficult for Haitian immigrants to contribute remittances to their home country. Haiti relies heavily on remittances from abroad, like many other developing countries.
And as we are currently seeing, those comparatively few Haitians who have been permitted to live and work in the U.S. are subjected to vile and fabricated racist tropes, such as this latest weird claim about Haitian immigrants eating the pets of their neighbors. Such disparagement has real-world effect. It inevitably leads to less opportunities for work, housing and future immigration while instigating harassment and violence. But that is exactly what it is designed to do.
The bottom line is this: The culpability of Haiti’s struggles does not lie at their own feet. Instead, it lies entirely at the feet of the Western Colonizers, the U.S. and France in particular. Every failing is our failing. But our dealings with Haiti and Haitians are not merely failings. It is a sign of an abject moral rot that we would systematically inflict the people of Haiti with all this abuse and exploitation over the years, ruining and stealing countless lives, all for the sake of racist resentment and undeserved spoils. We not only refuse to offer recompense of any kind, but we also double down on the injustices and dehumanization. It shows an utter lack of basic decency as a nation. If America has any chance of being “great” (or even good), it must genuinely begin caring about and rectifying such things.
