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Why Haiti Needs New Narratives
A Post-Quake Chronicle
Sales Date: 2015-05-25
A Haitian-American anthropologist makes sense of her homeland in the wake of the 2010 earthquake
Winner of the Haitian Studies Association Excellence in Scholarship Award (2015)
Mainstream news coverage of the catastrophic earthquake of January 12, 2010, reproduced longstanding narratives of Haiti and stereotypes of Haitians. Cognizant that this Haiti, as it exists in the public sphere, is a rhetorically and graphically incarcerated one, the feminist anthropologist and performance artist Gina Athena Ulysse embarked on a writing spree that lasted over two years. As an ethnographer and a member of the diaspora, Ulysse delivers critical cultural analysis of geopolitics and daily life in a series of dispatches, op-eds and articles on post-quake Haiti. Her complex yet singular aim is to make sense of how the nation and its subjects continue to negotiate sovereignty and being in a world where, according to a Haitian saying, tout moun se moun, men tout moun pa menm (All people are human, but all humans are not the same). This collection contains thirty pieces, most of which were previously published in and on Haitian Times, Huffington Post, Ms Magazine, Ms Blog, NACLA, and other print and online venues. The book is trilingual (English, Kreyòl, and French) and includes a foreword by award-winning author and historian Robin D.G. Kelley.
Foreword—Robin D. G. Kelley
Introduction: Negotiating My Haiti(s)
PART I: RESPONDING TO THE CALL
Avatar, Voodoo, and White Spiritual Redemption
Amid the Rubble and Ruin, Our Duty to Haiti Remains
Haiti Will Never Be the Same
Dehumanization and Fracture: Trauma at Home and Abroad
Haiti's Future: A Requiem for the Dying
Not-So-Random Thoughts on Words, Art, and Creativity
Sisters of the Cowries, Struggles, and Haiti's Future
Tout Moun Se Moun: Everyone Must Count in Haiti
Haiti's Earthquake's Nickname and Some Women's Trauma
Why Representations of Haiti Matter Now More Than Ever
Unfinished Business, a Proverb, and an Uprooting
Rape a Part of Daily Life for Women in Haitian Relief Camps
Haiti's Solidarity with Angels
Haiti's Electionaval 2010
If I Were President: Haiti's Diasporic Draft (Part I)
Staging Haiti's Upcoming Selection
Haiti's Fouled-Up Elections
PART II: REASSESSING MY RESPONSE
Why I Am Marching for Ayiti Chérie
Rising from the Dust of Goudougoudou
The Haiti Story You Won't Read
When I Wail for Haiti: Debriefing (Performing) a Black Atlantic Nightmare
Pawòl Fanm sou Douz Janvye
The Legacy of a Haitian Feminist, Paulette Poujol Oriol
Click! Doing the Dishes and My Rock 'n' Roll Dreams
Constant: Haiti's Fiercest Flag Bearer
Haitian Feminist Yolette Jeanty Honored with Other Global Women's Activists
Why Context Matters: Journalists and Haiti
PART III: A SPIRITUAL IMPERATIVE
Fractured Temples: Vodou Two Years after Haiti's Earthquake
Defending Vodou in Haiti
Loving Haiti beyond the Mystique
Coda: A Plea Is Not a Mantra
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Avètisman—Robin D. G. Kelley
Entwodiksyon : Negosye Ayiti Pa m
PREMYE PATI : REPONN APÈL LA
Avatar, vodou ak redanmsyon spirityèl blan
Nan mitan debri ak dekònm, devwa nou pou Ayiti toujou la
Ayiti p ap janm menm jan an ankò • Demounizasyon ak frakti : Twomatis lakay ak lòt kote
Avni Ayiti : Yon rekiyèm pou sa k ap mouri yo
Refleksyon sou mo, la, ak kreyativite ki pa tèlman pa aza
Sè koris, batay ak avni Ayiti
Tout moun se moun
Tinon tranblemanntè a ak twomatis kèk fanm
Sa k fè reprezantasyon Ayiti pi enpòtan kounye a pase tout tan
Biznis ki pa fini, yon pwovèb ak yon dechoukaj
Kadejak, zafè chak jou nan lavi fanm ayisyen
Solidarite Ayiti ak zanj yo
Eleksyonaval ann Ayiti an 2010
Si m te prezidan . . . : Apèl dyaspora ayisyen an (premye pati)
Teyat pwochèn seleksyon ayisyen an
Eleksyon ki gate ann Ayiti yo
DEZYEM PATI : EVALYE REPONS MWEN ANKO
Sa k fè m ap mache pou Ayiti Cheri
Leve soti nan pousyè Goudougoudou
Istwa Ayiti ou p ap janm li a
Lè m rele pou Ayiti : Fè prezante espektak yon kochma Atlantik Nwa
Pawòl fanm sou douz janvye
Eritaj feminis ayisyen Paulette Poujol Oriol
Klik ! Lave vesèl ak rèv « rock 'n' roll » mwen
Constant : Pòt drapo Ayiti ki pi djanm lan
Ochan pou feminis ayisyen Yolette Jeanty ansanm ak lòt militan fanm nan lemonn • Enpòtans kontèks : Jounalis ak Ayiti
TWAZYEM PATI : YON OBLIGASYON SPIRITYEL
Tanp fraktire : Vodou dezan apre seyis la
Defann vodou ann Ayiti
Renmen Ayiti pi lwen pase mistik la
Koda : Yon pledwaye pa yon litani
Remèsiman
Nòt
Avant-propos—Robin D. G. Kelley
Introduction : Négocier (mon/mes) Haïti(s)
PREMIERE PARTIE : RÉPONDRE À L'APPEL
Avatar, vodou et la rédemption spirituelle blanche
Au milieu des débris et des ruines, notre devoir envers Haïti demeure
Haïti ne sera plus jamais la même
Déshumanisation et fracture : Traumatisme à l'intérieur et en dehors du pays
L'avenir d'Haïti : Un requiem pour les mourants
Quelques pensées pas si aléatoires sur les mots, l'art et la créativité
Sœurs des cauris, luttes et le futur d'Haïti
Tout moun se moun
Le sobriquet du séisme haïtien et le traumatisme de quelques femmes
Pourquoi les représentations d'Haïti sont plus que jamais importantes
Affaires inachevées, un proverbe et un déracinement
Le viol, une composante du quotidien des femmes dans les camps de secours haïtiens
La solidarité d'Haïti avec les anges
L'électionaval d'Haïti en 2010
Si j'étais président : L'appel à la diaspora d'Haïti
Mise-en-scène de la prochaine sélection haïtienne
Les élections ratées d'Haïti
DEUXIEME PARTIE : REEXAMINER MA REPONSE
Pourquoi je m'engage pour « Ayiti cheri »
Se lever des cendres de Goudougoudou
L'histoire d'Haïti que vous ne lirez pas
Lorsque je gémis pour Haïti : Compte-rendu (Performance) d'un cauchemar de l'Atlantique Noire
Mots des femmes sur le 12 janvier
L'héritage de la féministe haïtienne Paulette Poujol Oriol
Déclic ! Faire la vaisselle et mes rêves en Rock 'n' Roll • Constant : Le plus fervent des porte-drapeaux d'Haïti
La féministe haïtienne Yolette Jeanty honorée avec d'autres activistes internationales
Pourquoi le contexte importe : Les journalistes et Haïti
TROISIEME PARTIE : UNE NECESSITE SPIRITUELLE
Des temples fracturés : Le vodou deux ans après le séisme
Défendre le vodou en Haïti
Aimer Haïti au-delà de la mystique
Coda : Un plaidoyer n'est pas un mantra
Remerciements
Notes
GINA ATHENA ULYSSE is an associate professor of anthropology at Wesleyan University. Born in Haiti, she has lived in the United States for over thirty years. A performance artist, multimedia artist, and anthropologist, she is the author of Downtown Ladies: Informal Commercial Importers, a Haitian Anthropologist and Self-Making in Jamaica. ROBIN D.G. KELLEY is the Distinguished Professor of History and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in United States History at UCLA.
"Wesleyan anthropology professor Ulysse (Downtown Ladies) mixes memoir, commentary on her relationship with Haiti, and analysis of the dominant narrative surrounding the country in the wake of the 2010 earthquake. Readers interested in a broader and sympathetic perspective on Haiti will enjoy Ulysse's work toward jumpstarting a new narrative."
~Publishers Weekly
""Wesleyan anthropology professor Ulysse (Downtown Ladies) mixes memoir, commentary on her relationship with Haiti, and analysis of the dominant narrative surrounding the country in the wake of the 2010 earthquake. Readers interested in a broader and sympathetic perspective on Haiti will enjoy Ulysse's work toward jumpstarting a new narrative.""
~Publishers Weekly
""In her trilingual (English, Kreyòl, French) collection of op-eds, essays, reviews and news articles (including pieces from Ms. and the Ms. blog), Ulysse rejects the colonial framework through which Haiti is often viewed and reasserts the validity of its sovereignty.""
~Ms. Magazine
"Five years after Haiti's devastating earthquake, Gina Ulysse smashes clichés, defends Vodou, and reminds us of her homeland's complex history. Her compelling as-it-happened reports and analyses are crucial to our understanding and empathy for the republic and its people.""
~Katherine Spillar, executive editor, Ms. magazine
"Ulysse's clear, powerful writing rips through the stereotypes to reveal a portrait of Haiti in politics and art that will change the way you think about that nation's culture, and your own."
~Jonathan M. Katz, author of The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster
"Taking us through entangled and liberating possibilities, Gina Ulysse introduces us to Haiti, the kingdom of this world. Embedded in the interstices of words and of aesthetic sensibilities that summon the past into the present, the powerful promise of a people is revealed. Ashe.""
~Arlene Torres, coeditor of Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean
"This compilation is the gut-felt testimony of an insider/outsider that resounds like a thunderclap in the desert. Trapped in the alienating context of sterile academia, a neoliberal political economy, populations displaced, shock therapy and general geopolitical shifts, the author uses the gift of polysemy to open horizons. Through thought, action, word, poetry, song . . . flow yet-unbounded prospects.""
~Rachel Beauvoir-Dominique, professor, Université d'État d'Haïti
"This is a beautifully written and profoundly important work of engaged anthropology. Gina Ulysse steps bravely into the public domain bringing a nuanced and sophisticated analysis of things Haitian to a large group of general readers as well as to a broad audience of scholars. Publication of this book marks a kind of 'coming of age' for anthropological bloggers and public anthropology."d"
~Paul Stoller, author of Yaya's Story: The Quest for Well-Being in the World
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