March 12, 2006
La Frontera: An Issue of Anti-Haitianismo or Anti-AfricanismoOver the past few weeks there have been several reports on the deportation of Haitians from the Dominican Republic, as well as killings. Deporting Haitians from the Dominican Republic is nothing new. It’s been happening for quite some time and more so over the past few years since the 1937 Haitian Massacre
Reading the headlines from Dominican, Haitians, and International newspapers give the impression that only illegal Haitians are being expelled from the Dominican Republic. Far from the reality are Haitians with their identity cards or cedulas, Haitian descendents, and even black Dominicans are expelled from Dominican Republic. Many families have been torn apart, separated due to this ongoing situation.
There is a long history between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. A history filled with occupation, massive slavery of the Haitians working in the sugar plantations as well as a history of collaboration. Most of the border history between Dominicans and Haitians has been cooperative not adversarial.
[i]Haiti invaded three times the DR and on the third one governed and dominated for twenty two years. Haiti invaded the eastern end of the island-a Spanish colony- in 1805 with Dessalines. In 1822-1844 Haitians unify the island. It is after 1844 where Haiti will now attempt three unsuccessful invasions into the new Dominican Republic. After 1856, there are no military wars between the two nations.
[ii]The situation brought more fear and hatred towards Haitians as they were former slaves ruling those who saw themselves as white and Spanish descendents.
The issue of anti-Haitianismo or what I call anti-Africanismo is the denial and rejection of anything that has to do with Africa, can be traced back to the introduction of slavery on the island of Hispaniola. As slaves from Africa were considered inferior type incapable of any intelligence, developed and made France one of the richest colonies at that time. The legacy of colonization was that of prejudice and racial discrimination that still pervades most of Latin America and the Caribbean.
While the Tainos, aboriginals who populated Hispaniola until the arrivals of the Spaniard, the majority of them were decimated by the mid sixteen century due to the slave conditions that they were put into, the Dominicans describe themselves mainly as Indios.
For quite some time in the DR there was no acknowledgement that Africa is part of the country and if was not for Africans there would not have been the DR. Now there is acknowledgment and there is a growing black consciousness movement in the DR today. The claiming of Dominicans’ black roots dates back to the 1970s.
[iii]To truly grasp the situation at the Dominican Republic, we must look at the government of Rafaël Trujillo from 1930 to 1961. In 1929 Haiti and the Dominican Republic signed a border delimitation agreement.
[iv] To finally establish the permanent limits of their respective border, Presidents Sténio Vincent of Haiti and Trujillo signed further agreements for both countries.
The border was usually filled with Haitians and Dominicans trading, visiting friends and family members. Soon after realizing that the border agreement did not change the situation at the border, that people from both sides kept going from one side to another ignoring the border as they had been doing for decades. In October 1937, Trujillo ordered the massacre of the Haitians living in the Dominican Republic. Although there is some discrepancy regarding the number of Haitians who were killed by Dominican soldiers, thousands of innocent people lost their lives including black Dominicans. One of the greatest crimes in humanity was committed that day.
Since then, Trujillo and countless other Dominican presidents and political leaders have used this incident as an opportunity to rally Dominicans against Haitians under the banner of nationalism, the case of Dominicans protecting their border against the invasion of Haitians. Trujillo anti-Haitian ideological framework is based on this xenophobia.
This massacre represents a much larger picture as Dominicans were in the process of whitening their country. By whitening I mean, presenting the country as white, populated solely by European descendents. This process has been done throughout the Americas. In Brazil for example, the idea to whiten the country started even before the end of slavery in 1888. Abolitionists and Brazilian elites were thinking of ways to replace the slave population after abolition and prevent a labor shortage. They wanted to put Brazil at the level of European nations and the only way that this could be achieved was through the importation of European immigrants and preventing other ethnic group from entering Brazil especially blacks. The Brazilian government paid for the passages of thousands of European immigrants. The elites were hoping that within a few years there would not be any trace of black blood in the new Brazil.
As blacks throughout the region are presented as illiterates, descendents of slaves, and inferior and whites in the region are European descendents, educated, and superior. To be of African descent or blacks in the DR is to admit that one is Haitian or of Haitian descent. The Dominicans are not blacks, they are proud Spanish descencts and the brave indios. This situation has created an environment of fear and contributed to much hatred. This view of the situation has failed to draw the attention of the international community because it is mainly seen as the deportation of illegal Haitians.
The number of Haitians living in the Dominican Republic varies. It is very difficult to estimate the number of legal from illegal Haitians. According to Minority Groups International, Haitians and Dominicans of Haitians descendents in the Dominican Republic is estimated at 500,000 to 700,000 in 1999.
[v] It is not very clear the number of legal Haitians living in the DR, and the number of those born there.
The situation on la Frontera is horrifying. The military has continuously rounded up people at the border for deportation. How do they distinguished Haitians from Dominicans? What we know is that blacks are deported from the DR. The black population especially legal or illegal Haitians and those of Haitian descents have lived under horrible conditions of discrimination, no access to education or medical health care, no rights to citizenship, and economically exploited.
Most white Dominicans and also black and mulatto Dominicans have always refused to work in sugar fields because that type of work was too degrading. Since then, most of the Haitians sugar cane workers have established themselves in the Batayes. Thus turning Haitians cane workers into permanent slaves.
The international community has continuously failed to address the issue of blacks, of Haitians in the Batayes, and at the Frontera. As the world closed its eyes one of the most brutal crimes in History, the 1937 massacre of thousands of Haitians and black Dominicans in the Dominican Republic, today the situation in the DR is totally ignored.
The situation in the DR is not just a Haitian problem, there is blatant and a great deal of racism against blacks. Blacks are at the bottom of the economic and social echelon. They suffer from high unemployment rate because they are denied access to higher paying jobs, they have the highest illiteracy rate and lack of access to basic health care.
This situation in the DR has gone for too long. When will it stop? When will the international community stand up to its committment to stop human right abuse and xenophobia?
In peace,
Nzingha
nzinghayaa@hotmail.com
But as a black woman, I have witnessed the outrage of girlfriends when the ex failed to show up for his weekend with the kids, and I've seen the disappointment of children who missed having a dad around. Having enjoyed a close relationship with my own father, I made a conscious decision that I wanted a husband, not a live-in boyfriend and not a "baby's daddy," when it came my time to mate and marry.
I had a vision: one of neither religious nor prophetic importance, but still an arousing vision.
