February 23, 2010
The Role of Soulouquerie in Haiti's Notorious Bad Press (1)
With the publishing of "The Serpent and the Rainbow" in 1985 (2), Wade Davis soared onto best-seller lists in America and other parts of the world as the entrepreneurial Harvard anthropologist who journeyed into the heart of Voodoo-land (Haiti) and returned home with what can be called the Holy Grail of Haitian witchcraft: the much vaunted, supposedly magic formula used by Haitian sorcerers to bring the dead back to life. This daring tale of adventure couched as a genuine scientific investigation, and the aura of Harvard to boot, gave Davis instant recognition as the preeminent authority on the Haitian zombie, if not as an expert on life after death, in general. But, despite the worldwide acclaim and the warm accolades it ended up generating for the author, Davis's investigation of the Haitian zombie actually did nothing to clarify the zombie issue as it exists in the Haitian folklore. More than anything, it has solidified Haiti's reputation as a place where the strangest things happen, needlessly contributing to the negative portrayal of the country, a common fare in the international press.
Indeed, Davis's claim to fame rests on the mistaken belief that he actually uncovered the mystery of the Haitian zombie legend, providing unrefutable scientific evidence of the zombie's reality as a true living dead, the product of a magical voodoo intervention. In reality, Davis accomplished none of such things. His work is peppered with theories and hearsay evidence that have no scientific validity. He first argued that zombification was the result of a surreptitious Tetradotoxin (TTX) poisoning carried out by Voodoo sorcerers. But then, toxicology experts were quick to refute that theory, pointing out, among other things, that TTX has no known zombigenic properties, and that individuals recovering from accidental TTX intoxication show no evidence whatsoever of physical or psychological damage (3, 4.) Stung by the critics of his TTX-theory, Davis conceded the point and went on to theorize that zombification might then be a psychological process initiated by a magical Voodoo spell, a theory that cannot possibly be taken seriously, given the inherent incompatibility between science and the supernatural. This assertation is nothing more than an opinion, not a fact, even if it is from a "Harvard scientist." In the end, what Davis managed to do was to give credibility to Voodoo as a supernatural force and to its ability to produce miracles, which is of course nonsense. Indeed, whatever the virtues of Voodoo, it should be beyond dispute that it cannot confer God-like powers to anyone, and the idea that Haitians routinely resurrect their dead to make zombies should strike any reasonable person as illogical. But then again, when it comes to Haiti, people seem predisposed to accept the most absurd iterations as truth. What seems to matter is to keep Haiti in the spotlight as a punch-line and the whipping boy of the world. Such is the power of what we call "the Soulouquerie legacy."
The power of that legacy became manifest soon after the guns fell silent with the triumph of the Revolutionary Army under the joint-command of Jean Jacques Dessalines and Alexandre Petion. Chosen by the military high-command to lead the newly minted independent nation, Dessalines lost no time building consensus. He ordered the mass murder or genocide of all French citizens remaining on the island, depriving the country of their potential benefits, declared himself Emperor Jean-Jacques I of Haiti and created a military aristocracy. On the pressing issue of land ownership, he is said to have favored an equitable distribution of the land to include the entire population of former slaves. Unfortunately, he had to contend with the intransigence of the mulattoes who saw themselves as the legitimate heirs of the departing French and, therefore, saw no need to compromise. In the end, few blacks, mainly those in the military high command, were awarded enough acrage to be counted among the wealthy landowners. The great majority of the population was then left as landless pariahs in the new nation. On October 17, 1806, that is, two years into his reign as Emperor of Haiti, Dessalines was assassinated by his political enemies. His mutilated body was abandoned by the roadside and was feasted on by wild animals. There was no State funerals for the Emperor or, for that matter, for the war hero. No gratitude! No mercy! Not even respect for the dead!
General Henri Christophe, another leading figure in the War of Independence, was then installed to succeed Dessalines as President. But soon after his nomination, he came to fear for his life. He abandoned the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince, retreated to the North of the country where he established his own little Empire (separate from the rest of the country) and declared himself King Henri I of Haiti. His rule, which lasted until he died of natural cause, was despotic and ruthless. He was however able to bring prosperity to the North with the adoption of stringent laws and the effective continuation of the colonial plantation system. The irony of a slaves-revolution that ended up in the establishment of a monarchy did not get lost on the French sense of humour. And needless to say, this turn of events gave them plenty of reason for schadenfreude.
But if any one person deserves credit for making Haiti the undisputed laughing stock of the world, it ought to be Faustin Elie Soulouque. Elected President in 1847 by the mulatto elite who expected him to do their bidding in accordance with the time-honored quid pro quo, the illiterate Soulouque, to the consternation of the mulattoes, surprised everyone. He reshuffled the army brass, consolidated power in his own hands, routed his political enemies, and crowned himself Emperor Faustin I of Haiti. He created a bloated black aristocracy, surrounding himself with hundreds of Princes, Princesses, Dukes, Duchesses, Barons, Baronesses and other sycophants, with ruinous results for the economy.
A Voodooist in his own right, Soulouque even organized Voodoo ceremonies in the National Palace. The mulattos were dumbfounded. On the other side of the Atlantic, Parisians could not conceal their delight. They coined the word "Soulouquerie," from the name of Faustin Soulouque, to refer to the tasteless extravaganzas and wasteful spending of the regime. It did not take long before the French media began to draw comparison between Soulouque's profligacy and the wasteful spending at Versailles, poking fun at their own Emperor Louis Napoleon. "Soulouquerie jokes" became the rage. They were so virulent and effective at ridiculing Napoleon and his entourage that an imperial edict banned the use of the word "Soulouquerie" in France.
Not to be completely deterred, the French media then took to criticizing and mocking Soulouque more ferociously than ever, adroitly avoiding the forbidden word and any direct reference to the French Emperor in their discourses or writings. But by then, no one in Paris needed to be told that Soulouque had long become a scapegoat, a whipping boy for the French Monarch, in other words, a synonym for Napoleon. In the end though, Haiti itself became synonymous with Soulouquerie, a metaphor for every act of stupidity, waste, or gross mismanagement in the affairs of the State (5.) Since then, it has become a habit among foreign reporters or writers dealing with Haitian society to look for "le weird," the irrationel, and to report any such nonsense as truth. And that is where real zombie, voodoo, necromancy and stories of cannibalism in Haiti fit in. The intent behind such stories is to titillate and, sometimes, mock. (Of course, the subtext of the punch-line has always been Africa and the black race as people seemingly addicted to Soulouquerie, and perhaps too feeble-minded to adapt to modernity. One should not be fooled!)
But in the aftermath of the earthquake that leveled a large swath of the country, leaving thousands dead or gravely wounded, Soulouquerie was exposed to the world, and what the world saw was not at all funny. On that fateful day when the earth shook and, all of a sudden, cities were reduced to rubbles while thousands laid buried underneath, nobody from the state apparatus rushed to the rescue. None! In what can be described as the ultimate act of Soulouquerie, not a single State Authority expressed sympathy for the victims and let the public know that emergency help was underway, if anything, to give them comfort and hope. Instinctively, they all ran home to tend to their own. Most remarkably, though, there was no public outcry against this massive dereliction of duty. The people remained stoic to the end. But then and again, since the birth of the Republic, er, Empire, no Haitian Head of State has ever behaved as, or pretended to be the Servant of the people. The people, as a result, have come to expect nothing from their leaders. Soulouquerie, they have learned, is not about good governance, the greater good, or collective responsibility. It is unmitigated, shameless egotism. Chacun pour soi! Winner takes all! has always been the guiding ethos of the power-elite. While some might find a reason to laugh about such a crass philosophy, the inhumanity of it all is appalling and, certainly, that is not funny.
1. Lawless, Robert. 1992. Haiti's Bad Press. Schenkman Books, Inc. Rochester, Vermont
2. Davis, Wade. 1985. The Serpent and the Rainbow. University of North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill
3. Yasumoto, T. and Kao, CY. Tetrodotoxin in "Zombie Powder." Toxicon, 1990. No 28, pp129-132
4.Tetradotoxin Poisoning Associated with Puffer Fish Transported from Japan. JAMA1996;275:1631
5. Sparks, J. Everett, E. Powell, JR. and Henry Cabot Lodge. New Life in China. North American Revew. 1891, Vol 153 pp 424-425