Where is my home? At the intersection of Caribbean Studies and Digital Humanities, this project maps the diasporic locations of Haitian writers exiled by the Duvalier Regime
Find Out MoreAs a Haitian American, born and raised in the *dyaspora*, I have always felt drawn to my culture. During my studies as a graduate student, I explored the literary and critical productions of my nation’s brightest minds. It is through their work that I began to truly understand the richness of Haitian culture and history. Political turbulence, natural disaster, and radical resistance are all familiar themes to those living in the Caribbean and even those living in the region’s diaspora. These themes come up often when we think of Haiti. As I researched and learned more about Haiti, I too became familiar with the impact its political instability had on writers and creatives. Their dangerous undertakings, to write despite the risk that sharing their thoughts with the world would have, was especially inspiring to me. The spirit of resistance is a generational heirloom inherited by every Haitian regardless of birthplace. Haitian writers during the father-son political dictatorship, the Duvalier Regime (1957-1986), increasingly grew familiar with the challenges of exile while pursuing communities in the dyaspora in which to safely reside. The regime proved to be a politically and socially catastrophic time in Haitian history when Haiti experienced the dictatorship of François Duvalier and Jean-Claude Duvalier. The 29-year-long regime induced a mass exodus of Haitian exiles who resided in Montreal, Quebec, the Tri-State Region (NY, NJ, CT), Miami, Orlando, Boston, and New Orleans, all communities with a growing Haitian presence. The regime forced a number of writers and creatives into exile while also establishing a divisive binary between Haitians in Haiti and in dyaspora. Michel-Rolph Trouillot reminds us that in the construction of history there is a blurred distinction between what has happened and what was said to have happened, highlighting how humans participate in history as actors and narrators. Scholarship on contemporary Haitian history takes on the challenge of clearing the ambiguity between what happened during the Duvalier regime and what narratives were constructed about the regime that work to silence the marginalized. Edwidge Danticat’s Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work draws attention to the ways Haitian artists produced their work in Haiti despite the challenging conditions the country faced. She tells the story of the public execution of Marcel Numa and Louis Drouin, ordered by François Duvalier. Both men come from Jeremie, a town in Haiti’s southern region, and went into exile with their families when François Duvalier began what would be a 15 year presidential term. During their time in the United States, they worked and studied while maintaining a friendship. Shortly later, they joined Jeune Haiti or Young Haiti, a group engaged in guerrilla warfare, leaving the dyaspora in hopes that their return to Haiti would eventually topple the Duvalier dictatorship. After months of fighting, Numa and Drouin were captured by Duvalier’s army, the Tonton Macoute, and were executed on November 12, 1964. Their story highlights the dangers of disobedience as Danticat claims but also the dangers of returning to home after living in the dyaspora. Their affinity to Haiti served as motivation to fight for the country’s political stability and safety. Yet the conditions under a Duvalieriste state proved to be more dangerous than the forms of resistance that take place in dyaspora rather than in Haiti. Her reflection on undocumented Haitians in the United States and even artists of Haitian descent such as, Jean Michel Basquiat, demonstrates how dangerous conditions for Haitian creatives not only appear in Haiti but also in the dyaspora. Danticat reduces the physical distance between Haitians in Haiti and the dyaspora while challenging the alienating use of the term when she weaves their stories together. Create Dangerously allows the field to further acknowledge the dangers present in exile for Haitian writers whose works echo the epistemologies of their homeland and contend the conditions that drew them away from Haiti. Haitian writers in exile are drawn to exploring the historical silences under a Duvalieriste Haiti but also a Haiti that experienced neocolonial intervention, state-sanctioned violence, immigration discrimination, and natural disaster. Foregrounding these silences in their works amplifies the marginalized voices in Haiti and abroad while allowing for Haitian writers to navigate their own complex multidimensional identities and affinities in burgeoning dyasporic communities. A number of digital projects in the field are dedicated to recovering lost voices and narratives from Haiti and its dyaspora across Haitian history. A number of scholars in the humanities have approached literature from Haitian writers exiled by the Duvalier regime. Very few scholars in the digital humanities have created projects that feature these writers as their main critical focus rather than the historical conditions that they lived through. I would like to continue to address this gap in Digital Haitian scholarship by first joining the tradition of recovering silenced voices established by the aforementioned projects. “Kote lakay’m?” maps the dyasporic locations of writers from Haiti during the Duvalier Regime (1957-1981). Haitian writer and literary critic, Yanick Lahens, describes the writers under Duvalieriste Haiti as the “lost generation”. Lahens’s “lost generation” focuses on writers in exile who faced censorship during the father-son dictatorship. “Kote lakay’m? ” offers a visualization of these writers' locations, highlighting how uprooted Caribbean subjects in dyasporic spaces echo Haitian epistemologies from their dyasporic communities that function as what Carole Boyce Davies describes as Caribbean spaces. My project questions, where did Haitian writers under the Duvalier era seek safety? What does this say about Caribbean space outside of the region? I offer a visual aid to Haitian studies that allows graduate students, scholars at all stages, and the general public to see Haitian writers in Caribbean spaces that challenge the binary arranged by François Duvalier and Jean Claude Duvalier. I am hoping that this project will continue the critical work surrounding Danticat’s Create Dangerously where scholars are able to question the dangers of writing in exile during the Duvalier Regime. I envision this project also serving as a tool for graduate students in Caribbean studies, particularly those interested in transnational and cross-Caribbean dialogues. I also see this project as productive for Haitians outside of the academy, those who like many of my family members engage in heated debates at dinner tables due to their own experiences with forced migration under the Duvalier Regime. It is there, in Haitian communities, that I hear the echoes of Baby Doc’s divisive rhetoric on exile and choosing dyaspora over remaining in Haiti. “Kote lakay’m?”, directly translates to ‘where is my home’. My intention with this title is to evoke the sentiments of longing for a return home expressed by Haitian writers of exile from the Francophone Caribbean such as René Depestre, Jacques-Stephen Alexis, Jacques Roumain, and Émile Ollivier. I built the project first using a free minimal theme on Jekyll. This worked really well for me since my experience with HTML is quite limited. Additionally, a minimal design for the site ensures that it is more accessible in areas that experience issues with internet connection. In future iterations of the project, I ultimately aim to construct a downloadable pdf that can be shared so that the site can be even more widely accesible. I used google my maps for similar reasons. The platorm is incredibly simple to use and with minor adjustments, it is visually accesible. There are some restrictions with the Jekyll theme that make it a bit challenging to customize. I initially wanted to include biographical information on the writeers included, however, the formatting of the theme does not accomadate additional links on top of the images. Furthermore, I experienced significant trouble navigating the browser icon settings. With more practice, I hope to rebuild and improve Kote Lakay'm so that it fulfills my initial vision.
A number of scholars in the humanities have approached literature from Haitian writers exiled by the Duvalier regime. Very few scholars in the digital humanities have created projects that feature these writers as their main critical focus rather than the historical conditions that they lived through. I would like to continue to address this gap in Digital Haitian scholarship by first joining the tradition of recovering silenced voices established by the aforementioned projects. “Kote lakay’m?” maps the dyasporic locations of writers from Haiti during the Duvalier Regime (1957-1981). Haitian writer and literary critic, Yanick Lahens, describes the writers under Duvalieriste Haiti as the “lost generation”. Lahens’s “lost generation” focuses on writers in exile who faced censorship during the father-son dictatorship. “Kote lakay’m? ” offers a visualization of these writers' locations, highlighting how uprooted Caribbean subjects in dyasporic spaces echo Haitian epistemologies from their dyasporic communities that function as what Carole Boyce Davies describes as Caribbean spaces. My project questions, where did Haitian writers under the Duvalier era seek safety? What does this say about Caribbean space outside of the region? I offer a visual aid to Haitian studies that allows graduate students, scholars at all stages, and the general public to see Haitian writers in Caribbean spaces that challenge the binary arranged by François Duvalier and Jean Claude Duvalier. I am hoping that this project will continue the critical work surrounding Danticat’s Create Dangerously where scholars are able to question the dangers of writing in exile during the Duvalier Regime. I envision this project also serving as a tool for graduate students in Caribbean studies, particularly those interested in transnational and cross-Caribbean dialogues. I also see this project as productive for Haitians outside of the academy, those who like many of my family members engage in heated debates at dinner tables due to their own experiences with forced migration under the Duvalier Regime. It is there, in Haitian communities, that I hear the echoes of Baby Doc’s divisive rhetoric on exile and choosing dyaspora over remaining in Haiti. “Kote lakay’m?”, directly translates to ‘where is my home’. My intention with this title is to evoke the sentiments of longing for a return home expressed by Haitian writers of exile from the Francophone Caribbean such as René Depestre, Jacques-Stephen Alexis, Jacques Roumain, and Émile Ollivier.
I built the project first using a free minimal theme on Jekyll. This worked really well for me since my experience with HTML is quite limited. Additionally, a minimal design for the site ensures that it is more accessible in areas that experience issues with internet connection. In future iterations of the project, I ultimately aim to construct a downloadable pdf that can be shared so that the site can be even more widely accesible. I used google my maps for similar reasons. The platorm is incredibly simple to use and with minor adjustments, it is visually accesible.
There are some restrictions with the Jekyll theme that make it a bit challenging to customize. I initially wanted to include biographical information on the writeers included, however, the formatting of the theme does not accomadate additional links on top of the images. Furthermore, I experienced significant trouble navigating the browser icon settings. With more practice, I hope to rebuild and improve Kote Lakay'm so that it fulfills my initial vision.
