Create Dangerously – The Immigrant Artist at Work

By Edwidge Danticat – 2010, 2011

A review by Steve Halpern

Several years ago I wrote a twenty-seven page history of the nation of Haiti. My paper only attempted to give a bit of the outline to Haiti’s history.

Edwidge Danticat lived in Haiti until she was twelve years old, and then became an immigrant in the United States. She has written an important book about what Haitian history has meant for the people who live in that country. In order to appreciate this history, I believe it is useful to look at a bit of background.

For hundreds of years, the production of sugar, using slave labor, was the most lucrative way of making money in the world. About thirty percent of the French income, in those days, came from sugar production. The French colony of San Domingue (former name of Haiti) was the most lucrative producer. In fact, during the revolution of the thirteen colonies, that became the United States, the kingdoms of both France and Britain viewed the Caribbean islands as more politically and economically important.  

Then, hundreds of thousands of slaves in San Domingue carried out a revolution led by Toussaint L’ Overture. In order for this revolution to be successful, the slaves needed to defeat the armies of Spain, Britain, and France. This is how the nation of Haiti was born.

France lost over 60,000 soldiers because of their defeat in Haiti. Because of this defeat, France needed money and agreed to sell their colony in Louisiana to the United States at a bargain basement price. The 828,000 square miles of land in the Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States. However, the Native Americans who lived on this land did not agree to this transaction, and continued the war to defend against the invasion of their homeland. 

Because Haiti was the only nation in the hemisphere, at that time, that freed all of it’s slaves, the surrounding nations declared sanctions against the new republic. Clearly, the slave owners from France, Britain, Portugal, and the United States didn’t want there to be any communication with a nation of slaves who won their freedom by means of revolution.

Because of the isolation of Haiti, the French government demanded reparations for the revolution that ended French rule of the island. The alternative to paying these insulting and exorbitant reparations would be further isolation and possible war against France.  So, the Haitian economy was further crippled by a debt that no rational person would feel they had any obligation to pay.

Then, in the year 1915, the United States military invaded Haiti. The Haitian people led by Charlemagne Péralte resisted the U.S. occupation forces. The U.S. military captured Péralte and murdered him while he was in their custody. They then took a photo of Péralte on a cross with a Haitian flag draped on his head. The U.S. military made thousands of copies of this photo and distributed them throughout the island. This photo was clearly designed to intimidate the Haitian people.

The Haitian reality

Edwidge Danticat began her book with an execution that took place in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1964 of Marcel Numa and Louis Drouin. Numa and Drouin attempted to organize a guerilla insurrection against the hated regime of François “Papa Doc” Duvalier.

Towards the end of her book Danticat wrote about how thirteen-year-old Daniel Morel viewed that execution. He walked over to the corpses and picked up the blood soaked glasses of Louis Drouin. Someone almost immediately snatched those glasses from the hand of Morel.

At that moment, Daniel Morel decided that he wanted to be a photo journalist to document the reality of what was happening in his homeland. During the years of the Duvalier dictatorship, taking controversial photos might be punished with a death sentence. This is why Daniel Morel needed to leave Haiti in order to take photos that unmask the reality of the world.

In 1980 Morel retuned to Haiti and made a living by taking photos of weddings and other family events. He also took photos of the many corpses that had been left in the streets by the repressive forces known as the Tonton Macoutes.

Danticat interviewed one of the victims of the Tonton Macoutes by the name of Alérte Bélance. Bélance had escaped Haiti and Danticat interviewed her in Newark, New Jersey.

Members of the Tonton Macoute were looking for Bélance’s husband who opposed the repressive forces in Haiti. They could not find him, so they kidnapped Alérte Bélance. Then, they attempted to murder her with machetes. They cut off pieces of her face, amputated her hand, and left her for dead.

Miraculously Alérte Bélance was rescued and cared for by talented doctors at a Haitian hospital. The Tonton Macoute then looked for her in the hospital and the doctors hid her. The Macoute had a reputation of taking people out of the hospital and murdering them.

When we think of these horror stories, we might also consider that the 2010 earthquake that erupted in Haiti cost the lives of thousands as well as the destruction of much of Haiti’s infrastructure. This earthquake destroyed homes, churches, schools, bookstores, libraries, art galleries, museums, movie theaters, and government buildings.

Danticat’s chapter on this earthquake is titled “Our Guernica.” Guernica might be Pablo Picasso’s most famous painting. This depicted the effects of a Nazi bombing of a Spanish town. This bombing supported the repressive forces of Francisco Franco. I believe Danticat felt that this painting also began to portray the horror of the effects of the 2010 Haitian earthquake.

We might also consider that the destruction by earthquakes can be prevented. While earthquakes routinely destroy residential buildings, oftentimes, commercial skyscrapers survive. This is because buildings can be constructed to withstand earthquakes. Clearly this did not happen in Haiti, a nation that is one of the poorest in the world.

While the earthquake was, in part, a natural disaster, the so-called international relief effort can only be called criminal. A huge amount of money was allegedly donated to Haitian relief. $500 million of that money went directly to the military of the United States that allegedly participated in this so-called relief effort.

Another $300 million went into the Caracol Industrial Park. Before the earthquake Haiti became a center for the production of clothes, toys, and the baseballs used by the major leagues. The capitalists who contributed to Carocol believed that this industrial park would continue to generate profits for investors. However, while they claimed Carocol would aid in Haitian development, that never happened.

Former President William Jefferson Clinton supervised much of the so-called relief effort to Haiti. We might consider that Clinton’s home state of Arkansas was a part of the Louisiana Purchase. As I mentioned, this sale was made possible because of the Haitian Revolution.

One of Clinton’s first acts as President was to break one of his campaign promises. Clinton had promised to give Haitian refugees asylum in the United States. Then, he reversed this pledge and refused to give thousands of Haitians asylum. Capitalist investors found Clinton’s record with respect to Haiti acceptable to place him in charge of large amounts of money in the so-called Haitian relief effort.                 

The Cuban response

The Cuban government has made a priority of human needs over profits. While the capitalists of the world make investments in order to maximize profits, Cuba gives aid to nations throughout the world because there is a need.

Cuban doctors have been in Haiti for many years. Because of their contribution, Haitian health care made significant improvements. Cuba also trained about 500 Haitians to become doctors.

When we see the immense problems that Edwidge Danticat had documented in Haiti, we see how the problems we face have an international character. Human needs are more important than the drive to maximize profits. I believe that the history of Haiti gives us one more example of how we all need to promote a world without borders, that will make human needs our only priority.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Directed by Cheiwetel Umeadi Ejiofor

Starring: Maxwell Simba as William Kamkwamba,

Cheiwetel Umeadi Ejiofor,

& Lily Banda

The idea of this film is taken from the book of the same name.

Available on Netflix

A review

By Steve Halpern

Recently I viewed the powerful and moving film, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. The director and one of the stars in the film is Cheiwetel Umeadi Ejiofor. Ejiofor is an experienced actor, and also portrayed Solomon Northup in the film, Twelve Years a Slave.

This is the story of 13 year-old William Kamkwamba, who lived in a small farming village in Malawi. Malawi is a landlocked African country bordered by Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia.

The theme of this film begins with Kamkwamba being expelled from school because his parents could not afford to pay the tuition of $80 per year. In spite of this setback, Kamkwamba utilized a bare bones library to begin to understand the basic principals of wind-powered turbines. Then, he, his friends, and family managed to get materials from a junk yard, as well as wood from local trees, to build a wind-powered generator that irrigated the crops on his family’s farm.    

While that is the theme of the story, the background to Kamkwamba’s accomplishment gives us a unique view of what life is like for hundreds of millions of people in the world. In real life, Kamkwamba experienced five months when his family barely had enough food to eat. In the film, Kamkwamba’s beloved dog starved to death.

We also see in the film how many farmers in this village felt compelled to sell their land, because they didn’t feel there was a future in farming. The corporation that purchased this land cut down trees that would be sold on the market.

Because there were fewer trees, flooding became a more serious problem and farming became more difficult. In nations like Malawi, people also cut down trees for fuel to cook food. While we just turn on the stove to heat our food, people all over the world need to collect wood to cook their food.

Then, we see one of the elders of this village protesting this sale of land and asked for government support. He was beaten and eventually died of his wounds. This is the kind of corruption we see in nations where the people live on the knife-edge of survival.

Then, we see a meeting of Kamkwamba and his father with someone who works for a corporation that profits from the sale of farm products. Kamkwamba’s father asked for assistance to keep his farm running after a poor harvest. We might keep in mind a few facts about farming while considering this meeting.

Even when farmers use the most efficient farming methods, they, at times, rely on government support. While farmers supply humanity with all the food we eat, they are subject to unpredictable weather conditions. However, when Kamkwamba’s father asked this official for support, that official was adamant in refusing this legitimate request for assistance.

Then, we see how the entire region where Kamkwamba lived became desperate to obtain food. While Kamkwamba’s family had an insufficient crop and needed to ration their food, much of that food was stolen by people who were starving.

Under these conditions, Kamkwamba was able to build his wind-powered generator that irrigated his family’s land during the dry season. I’m no farmer, but I understand that farmers who have an irrigation system have a real advantage over farmers who rely completely on the weather in order to water their crops.

In real life, Kamkwamba’s achievement became famous. He received the resources that allowed him to complete his basic education in Malawi. Then, he received a full scholarship at Dartmouth College, and now is building more wind and solar powered generators in his homeland.

While this is a compelling story, there is another story this film doesn’t attempt to portray. That is the extreme disparity between the reality of Malawi and the reality of developed nations like the United States of America.

While the people of Malawi were desperate in their search for food, much of the food in this country is thrown out. This food is being destroyed while about fifty million people in the United States routinely live in hunger. While hundreds of millions of people in the world don’t have enough food to eat, the government in this country spends hundreds of billions of dollars on the so-called defense department. This money has been used to go to war against some of the poorest people in the world.

America First?

Recently President Trump refused to pay about 800,000 federal workers for about one entire month. He did this because congress and the senate refused to allocate billions of dollars in funding to extend a wall on the southern border of the United States.

This is a clear example of how President Trump has made the scapegoating of immigrant workers the center of his political priorities. These same immigrant workers are the ones who work on farms, and in restaurants to provide everyone in this country with the food we need. They also work in some of the most technical jobs of research and development, as well as health care.

Recently Michael Cohen a former lawyer for President Trump testified before Congress. He argued that the President is a liar and a racist. While all of this was happening, President Trump threatened the people of Venezuela because he doesn’t like the President that they elected.

After all of this, the President spoke to a conservative meeting where he started by embracing the flag of the United States. While his politics were being denounced all over the world, Trump appeared to be happy. Why?

When we look at the military campaigns the flag of this country has been used for, we might begin to see why President Trump appeared to be happy. We can start with the genocide against Native Americans. Then, there was the horrendous institution of chattel slavery. While the Civil War brought an end to slavery, the armed forces were then used to defend the institution of Jim Crow segregation that denied Black people citizenship rights. Then, there were the wars against the people of Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Those wars were a nightmare to the people of those countries.

However, while all these horror stories were taking place, school boards throughout this country asked children to stand up every morning, to place their hands on their hearts, and pledge allegiance to a flag they claimed represented liberty and justice for all.

So President Trump was happy and even ecstatic because he sees how all the horror stories of the world allow him and a few hundred others to sit on billions of dollars worth of assets. He also understands that while the democrats might argue against his policies, they are also tied firmly to the capitalist system. As long as this is the case, he has nothing serious to fear from his so-called Democratic Party opposition.

Junkyard parts and satellites that circle the globe

When I looked at the primitive wind generator and pump Kamkwamba built out of junkyard parts, I thought about the advanced technology we all take for granted in this country. We take for granted that we have access to both electricity and running water. Most of us have an automobile that gives us a considerable amount of flexibility. We also have cell phones that receive signals from satellites in the atmosphere.

Understanding this reality, I believe it is reasonable to say that the resources exist to eliminate hunger and poverty in the world. Today, people who live in nations like Malawi justifiably resent the fact that corporations from developed nations profit off of their dire poverty. If working people in this country used the immense resources here to give basic assistance to the nations that desperately need it, those attitudes would begin to change.

Because we live in a capitalist political economic system, giving sustained and meaningful aid to impoverished nations is out of the question. The reality has been that factories in this country have closed, and moved to nations where wages are between $1 and $10 per day. This transfer of wealth has saved the international capitalist system from complete collapse. However, that collapse will not be postponed forever.

For me the film, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind gives us an idea of the ingenuity that workers and farmers have under some of the most dire conditions. I believe that understanding this, we can also say that the working people of the world have the capacity to deal with the immense challenges we will face. Yes, we can develop a mass movement that demands that new governments make a priority of human needs and not profits.