#dutty boukman

[guayaba-podrida]

Una voz, cuyo poder de pasar sin transición del registro grave al agudo daba un raro énfasis a las palabras. Había mucho de invocación y de ensalmo en aquel discurso lleno de inflexiones coléricas y de gritos.

Alejo Carpentier sobre Dutty Bouckman el cimarrón jamaicano

[caribbeangirlfolkloring]

On August 14, 1791, Cécile Fatiman, a Haitian Vodou priestess, and Dutty Boukman, a Houngan, led enslaved Africans from over a hundred plantations in Saint-Domingue in a Vodou ceremony at Bois Caïman, which was the catalyst for the Haitian Revolution that began a week later on August 21, 1791.

The Haitian Revolution ignited hope for liberty in the hearts of enslaved Africans throughout the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States. Remembering those revolutionaries and their legacy with gratitude today and always.

(video source)

Remembering the Haitian Revolution by C. L. R. James, an extract from his 1938 book The Black Jacobins.

[dailyhistoryposts]

On This Day In History

August 21st, 1791: Dutty Boukman and  Cécile Fatiman preside over a Vodou ceremony that becomes the beginning of the Haitian Revolution.

[user7038634357]

Dutty Boukman

[wizzard890]

Have you read 'A Declaration for the Rights of Magicians' by H.G. Parry and if so what are your thoughts on Necromancer Robespierre I am so very curious

Brief book thoughts: this book has like nine different types of magic (already exhausting, imo) and like many others of its breed, seems to have an allergic reaction to actually allowing that magic to have impacted the canon outcome of history in any way; one imagines that revolutionary France might not have struggled militarily against the rest of Europe if they'd had magic to draw on, or that the centuries-long possession of magic might have helped the Bourbons turn things around financially at several key points.

How in the world did like, France keep getting punched in the teeth with the English longbow during the Hundred Years War when they had access to weather magic? For that matter, how did the English Civil War ever get off the ground if their ruling class had magic? Was Oliver Cromwell a muggle or whatever? Why didn't the magical Bourbons just slide in on their heelies and help restore Bonny Charlie, who took shelter with them for years? What is going on here!!

But once you push that aside, I still find fantasy AUs like this pretty of juvenile. You take "magicians are oppressed" and lay that on top of the actual real world causes of the French Revolution, but the genre concept doesn't shed any light on what happened historically. It doesn't invite the reader to perceive events in a new way, or understand them with a deeper, if fantastical, nuance. It's often reductive when it comes to characters' motivations, and the narrative suffers for it.

Also, briefly, speaking of reductive: perhaps we should not say that the Haitian Revolution only took place after the slaves stopped being effected by magic "removes your willpower" potions. Indeed, perhaps we should not say that slavery takes place because of "removes your willpower" potions at all. Perhaps Haiti deserves better in the context of the larger French revolution and anti-colonial struggle. And perhaps, instead of having our narrators be Pitt the Younger, Robespierre, and a fictional enslaved woman, the author could have deigned to have Toussaint Louverture or Dutty Boukman in there. You know, so as not to reinforce the pernicious lie that Haiti did not have revolutionaries as named and brave and fucking noble as anyone in Paris.

However, you came here for my take on the book's take on Robespierre, and I bet by this point you can guess how that may go! The author certainly approaches him as a fully formed and sympathetic human being, the bare minimum of character writing, but not always what he gets, so points for that. But once we step outside of "once there was a man who had a beating heart just like the rest of humankind", we're in choppier waters.

In this book, Robespierre is a necromancer (a weirdly arbitrary choice), and a mesmerist, with the idea being that the latter accounts for the hold he had over the Convention and the people. Here we have man who is a poor public speaker, physically unremarkable, and something of a moral martinet. He doesn't have the charisma of some of his other colleagues, or their facility for making friends, or their intuitive political pragmatism. Give him magic, and he can mesmerize people into listening. Or leave him be, and explore how a man with all those qualities managed to stand at the head of a revolution, with people hanging on his every word. So, writer, who is a more interesting character? Who gives you more to sink your teeth into, even in a fantasy setting?

When the introduction of magic makes your characters worse, you've got a problem.

Also just going out on a limb here and saying that if Robespierre was a capable mesmerist, he probably wouldn't have gotten his shit wrecked on 9 Thermidor, one of history's most notable examples of losing control of a room.

[rockofeye]

On Haiti's day of ancestral remembrance, one of my siblings shared this letter with us. It is a monumental letter; it has not been often that Africa has collectively spoken to and about Haiti. It's a sad and beautiful love letter, and speaks some really deep truths. They are right; Haiti is dying right now and it is past time that the international community take responsibility for what hundreds of years of international interference has wrought. I hope this is the impetus for action because the reality of Haiti right now is worse than can accurately be described.

Below is an English translation of the above linked article.

EMBARGO: January 1 , 2023

And especially my body as well as my soul,

be careful not to cross your arms

in the sterile attitude of the spectator,

because life is not a spectacle,

because a sea of ​​​​pains is not a proscenium,

because a a screaming man is not a dancing bear.

Aimé Césaire, Excerpt from Notebook of a Return to the Native Land (1939).

Captured in the valleys once trodden by Afarensis, or from Zanzibar, Madagascar, Gorée, El Mina, Bimbia, Benguela, Luanda, Cabinda, savannahs and forests, Ségou, Benin, Sokoto, the banks of the Congo or Oubangui, or along other great rivers, Ogooué, Casamance, Niger, Sanaga, having left the cosmogony that still binds them today to the mother of all continents, enslaved Africans arrived centuries ago in the Americas . In the worst forced migration of all time, the transatlantic slave trade took some of these men, women and children to Kiskeya, also known as Hispaniola, the island now shared by Haiti and the Republic Dominican Republic in the Caribbean Sea.

A land immersed in African traditions, Haiti, the "Pearl of the Antilles" or "Mountain Country" in the Taino language, is the nation where black slaves have shown the greatest resilience.

On August 14, 1791 in the forest of Bois Caïman, the voodoo priest Dutty Boukman organized a ceremony with the support of the priestess Cécile Fatiman, a "mambo" who performed sacrifices. On that memorable stormy night, the enslaved participants solemnly swore that servitude would be doomed, taking an oath to fight or die. They will later obey the orders of Toussaint Louverture in the revolt orchestrated by the remarkable leader. His epic – rare, if not unique – victory over one of the worst crimes ever committed against humanity continues to be recounted by many. Toussaint, a Caribbean island strategist and visionary, defeated the stubborn Napoleon, an island native from Corsica. This historic victory has been sung by great poets like Aimé Césaire.

On January 1, 2023, the first black republic celebrates the 219th anniversary of its glorious independence. However, the Pearl of the Antilles is dying.

Haiti was forced to pay a ransom to France as compensation to French slave owners for lost property, or else slavery would be reimposed and Haiti invaded. In May 2022, The New York Times published a well-researched series of articles titled “The Ransom: Haiti Lost Billions” [ The Ransom: Haiti Lost Billions], which recounts this perfidy. Port-au-Prince has so far paid up to $115 billion to France, a staggering sum for Haiti, a ransom that has left the poor country heavily indebted. Poor governance, corruption and invasions add to an already unbearable burden for the Haitian people. In addition, the American military occupation, from 1915 to 1934, had a large New York bank as its main financial backer. Ultimately, all of these factors could only result in a failed state fueled for many decades by the adrenaline of violence and the jolts of anarchy and chaos. The ravages of earthquakes, massive deforestation and the exile of its citizens have worsened the plight of Haiti.

Tormented and neglected, installed in instability, Haiti seems close to shipwreck. The security situation is dire. Famine affects nearly five million people. Shortly after the 2010 earthquake, a cholera epidemic imported by UN peacekeepers broke out in Haiti after no case had been detected there for more than a century. In the face of these accusations, the then United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, had the courage and integrity to issue a formal apology. Today, the resurgence of cholera is causing more deaths. On December 21, 2022, addressing the Security Council, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed said that “Haiti finds itself in a deepening crisis of a magnitude and unprecedented complexity."

One of the biggest challenges is that much of Port-au-Prince – a capital of nearly 3 million people – is in the hands of gangs. Their names are taken from urban tragedies – 400 Mawazos , Chen mechan , Fire-eaters… . The list of gang leaders includes Barbecue, Gaspiyai… . Their only motivation seems to be financial and criminal. The gangs have taken the country hostage: they kill; they rape; they are flying. Sexual violence is the breeding ground for a future in which society may lack cohesion.

The police are either overwhelmed or complicit. The Haitian army, that not-so-distant Macoute memory, was dismantled by the international community in the 1990s. Demobilized soldiers were never properly reintegrated into society. The judicial system is moribund. To date, the international community has been able to fund less than 20% of Haiti's current humanitarian needs, while elsewhere in the world billions of dollars are generously flowing in to alleviate other humanitarian crises.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere is caught in a recurring nightmare, as if the country relives the adventures told in " The Comedians ", a masterpiece published by Graham Greene in 1966. The novel, located under the reign of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his Tontons Macoutes, explores the political repression and terrorism that are rampant in Haiti, and particularly in Port-au-Prince.

However, Haiti should not be viewed solely as a tragic and brutal story. The country of Makandal, Toussaint and Dessalines is endowed with magnificent creativity and sustained by remarkable hope. Haiti has always been culturally brilliant and intellectually stimulating.

The iconic Hotel Oloffson in Port-au-Prince once attracted bands such as the Rolling Stones. Afterwards, hellish processions of the Ra-Ra by the "root music" group RAM invaded the hotel. Haiti is also the country of the talented musician Wycleff Jean; the Tabou Combo group; or even the unforgettable Jean Gesner Henry, alias Coupé Cloué or “the African”, the king of kompa mamba, a catchy musical style widespread throughout the world. Writers, playwrights, filmmakers, poets, artists, educators, musicians and artisans abound. The stunning beauty of the countryside is praised in the books of Haitian neurologist, novelist and poet Jean Métellus (1937 – 2014), such as in Jacmel at Dusk. Christophe, tragic king, is immortalized in a masterpiece by Aimé Césaire, the literary giant of neighboring Martinique. For more than a century, Haiti has also given birth to magnificent authors and poets: Joseph Anténor Firmin, Louis Joseph Janvier, Justin Lhérisson, Jean-Price Mars, Félix Morisseau-Leroy, Charles Moravia, Frankétienne, Anthony Phelps, Dany Laferrière , Louis-Philippe Dalembert, Edwige Danticat, René Depestre… and many others.

The biggest tragedies, like the 2010 earthquake, certainly killed and maimed many people, destroying infrastructure. But these dramas have not shaken the soul of this astonishing and endearing country. Like the intrepid Haitian woman, Haiti remains surprisingly upright, and its culture vibrant.

The international community, sub-regional and regional organizations, academics, media, communicators, the private sector, the Haitian comprador bourgeoisie: all have a responsibility towards Haiti. It's not an easy conversation. Migration issues are a hot topic in most Western countries. In September 2021, images of American guards on horseback armed with whips pushing back Haitian migrants at the border with Mexico caused a stir around the world. But these whiplashes from the time of the slave trade cannot rewrite the heroic history that Haitians wrote with their blood, sweat, tears and courage. Haiti is the only slave-led military uprising that was able to overthrow a slave-holding colonial power.

The international community was called upon to step in and fight the gangs. Just as the corrugated iron walls of Haiti's slums will not stop stray bullets, our physical estrangement from Haiti will not prevent tragedy from piercing our souls and our comfort zones. In light of past failures, one can honestly wonder if foreign military intervention in Haiti would provide a lasting solution. Either way, inertia is not an option. Any intervention must revisit history and learn from it, prioritize security, actively promote and support justice while helping to build trust and good governance. The situation must be addressed as a whole, without delay.

What the international community will or will not do is of crucial importance. Nevertheless, we support Haitian citizens who want an end to anarchy and violence, who want justice. To measure the strength and value of a family, one must observe the solidarity with which it protects the most vulnerable of its members. The first black republic, perhaps the most fragile of the family of Nations, lacks food, drinking water, fuel, peace, justice.

We issue this urgent call: let us act now, with a new and genuine benevolence, whatever the risks, and without individual geopolitical intentions. Haitian populations are in danger. History will not be kind to those who remain inactive or who choose to look elsewhere.

It would be non-assistance to a people in danger.

It is difficult to envisage the resolution of this Gordian knot without outside intervention. The Haitian people will only be able to vote and freely choose their leaders if there is security.

A member of the family of nations is held hostage by the contours of historic injustices, recurring bad governance and the brutality of armed gangs: the whole family must step in to free this member from the hostage takers as well as the contingencies of previous failures. Haitians would fly with with their wings towards the heights of human development, we sincerely hope so.

Sitting idly by is not an option.

So let's gather our forces for success in Haiti, and as Césaire predicted, there will be room for everyone at the rendezvous of victory .

Otherwise, we will all be guilty of not having helped this heroic people in danger.

Let us respond to the poetic exhortation of Jean Métellus. From his exile a few decades ago, his poem was a beautiful cry, “  Au pipirite chantant ”. His lament has not aged a bit. This is the plea of

“Haitian peasant who with singing pipirite,

despises memory and makes plans

He revokes the past braided by plagues and smoke

And from daybreak he tells his glory on the fresh galleries

of young shoots”

We stand with the Haitians. Let's act now. For Haiti, for humanity.

(*) Signatories:

Adama Dieng , the initiator of this forum, is a former United Nations Under-Secretary-General. He served in the UN as a former Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide and Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. He is also a former board member of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA).

Macky Sall , President of Senegal, President of the African Union.

José Ramos-Horta , President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste; co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996.

Moussa Faki Mahamat , Chairperson of the African Union Commission; Former Prime Minister of Chad.

Alpha Oumar Konaré , former President of Mali; former Chairperson of the African Union Commission; former President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan , former President of Nigeria; Mediator of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Catherine Samba-Panza, former Head of State, Central African Republic.

The Right Honorable Michaëlle Jean , former Governor General of Canada; former UNESCO special envoy to support reconstruction efforts in Haiti; former Chancellor of the University of Ottawa; former Secretary General of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF).

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka , former Vice-President of South Africa; former Executive Director of UN Women; Former Co-Chair of the United Nations Descendant Senior Officials Group (UNSAG).

Epsy Alejandra Campbell Barr , former Vice President of Costa Rica; President of the Permanent Forum for People of African Descent.

Graça Machel , President of the Board of the Graça Machel Foundation ( Graça Machel Trust ).

Miguel Ángel Moratinos , former High Representative of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations; former Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE; former Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.

Sir Dennis Byron , former President of the Caribbean Court of Justice; former President of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute ; former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR); Chairman of the United Nations Internal Justice Council.

Serge Letchimy, President of the Executive Council of Martinique and former member of the French National Assembly.

Mujahid Alam (Retired General), Principal of Lawrence College , Ghora Gali, Murree, Pakistan.

Sonia Maria Barbosa Dias , Education Specialist, São Paulo, Brazil.

Mbaranga Gasarabwe , former Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA); former United Nations Resident Coordinator in Mali; former United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security.

Souleymane Bachir Diagne , Philosopher; Director of the Institute of African Studies and Professor of French and Philosophy at Columbia University.

Andrew Thompson , Professor of World Imperial History at Oxford University and Full Professor at Nuffield College , Oxford.

Othman Mohamed , former Chief Justice of Tanzania and Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry into the death of Dag Hammarskjöld.

Amadou Lamine Sall , Winner of the 2018 edition of the Tchicaya U Tam'si Prize for African Poetry; Winner in 1991 of the Prize for the influence of French language and literature, awarded by the French Academy.

Sheila Walker, Ph.D. , Author; Cultural anthropologist and documentary filmmaker; Executive Director of Afrodiaspora, Inc.

Jean-Victor Nkolo , former spokesperson for three Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly; Worked in ten UN peacekeeping operations, including in Haiti.

Euzhan Palcy , Director, screenwriter and film producer (Martinique, France).

Bacre Waly Ndiaye , Lawyer at the Bar of Senegal; Former member of the Truth and Justice Commission in Haiti.

Willem Alves Dias , Film Editor, Brazil.

René Lake, Journalist and Expert in international development.

Doudou Diène, Senegalese lawyer; former UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

Ben Kioko , Judge, former Vice-President of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights.

Aver-Dieng Ndaté , Lawyer at the Geneva Bar, Vice-President of the African Peace Conference.

Akere Tabeng Muna , Lawyer and International Legal Consultant on Governance and Anti-Corruption; former President of the Pan-African Lawyers Union; former President of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council of the African Union (ECOSOCC); former Chair of the Panel of Eminent Persons of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).

Carol Christine Hilaria Pounder-Kone , aka CCH Pounder , Actress and philanthropist; Art collector; HIV/AIDS activist; co-founder of the Boribana museum in Dakar.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.21 (before 1900)

959 – Eraclus becomes the 25th bishop of Liège. 1140 – Song dynasty general Yue Fei defeats an army led by Jin dynasty general Wuzhu at the Battle of Yancheng during the Jin–Song Wars. 1169 – Battle of the Blacks: Uprising by the black African forces of the Fatimid army, along with a number of Egyptian emirs and commoners, against Saladin. 1192 – Minamoto no Yoritomo becomes Sei-i Taishōgun and the de facto ruler of Japan. (Traditional Japanese date: the 12th day of the seventh month in the third year of the Kenkyū (建久) era). 1331 – King Stefan Uroš III, after months of anarchy, surrenders to his son and rival Stefan Dušan, who succeeds as King of Serbia. 1415 – Henry the Navigator leads Portuguese forces to victory over the Marinids at the Conquest of Ceuta. 1680 – Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from the Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt. 1689 – The Battle of Dunkeld in Scotland. 1716 – Seventh Ottoman–Venetian War: The arrival of naval reinforcements and the news of the Battle of Petrovaradin force the Ottomans to abandon the Siege of Corfu, thus preserving the Ionian Islands under Venetian rule. 1770 – James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales. 1772 – King Gustav III completes his coup d'état by adopting a new Constitution, ending half a century of parliamentary rule in Sweden and installing himself as an enlightened despot. 1778 – American Revolutionary War: British forces begin besieging the French outpost at Pondichéry. 1791 – A Vodou ceremony, led by Dutty Boukman, turns into a violent slave rebellion, beginning the Haitian Revolution. 1808 – Battle of Vimeiro: British and Portuguese forces led by General Arthur Wellesley defeat French force under Major-General Jean-Andoche Junot near the village of Vimeiro, Portugal, the first Anglo-Portuguese victory of the Peninsular War. 1810 – Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshal of France, is elected Crown Prince of Sweden by the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates. 1821 – Jarvis Island is discovered by the crew of the ship, Eliza Frances. 1831 – Nat Turner leads black slaves and free blacks in a rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, which will claim the lives of 55 to 65 whites and about twice that number of blacks. 1852 – Tlingit Indians destroy Fort Selkirk, Yukon Territory. 1858 – The first of the Lincoln–Douglas debates is held in Ottawa, Illinois. 1862 – The Stadtpark, the first public park in Vienna, opens to the public. 1863 – Lawrence, Kansas is destroyed by pro-Confederate guerrillas known as Quantrill's Raiders. 1878 – The American Bar Association is founded in Saratoga Springs, New York. 1879 – The locals of Knock, County Mayo, Ireland report their having seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary. The apparition is later named “Our Lady of Knock” and the spot transformed into a Catholic pilgrimage site. 1883 – An F5 tornado strikes Rochester, Minnesota, leading to the creation of the Mayo Clinic. 1888 – The first successful adding machine in the United States is patented by William Seward Burroughs.

[history-today]

On This Day In History

August 21st, 1791: Dutty Boukman and  Cécile Fatiman preside over a Vodou ceremony that becomes the beginning of the Haitian Revolution.

[meccaakagrimo]

🇭🇹🩸• @pascalebelony 👑 This photo deserves a space of its own on my timeline. Haitians and allies united under our flag, fueled by our motto “L’Union Fait La Force”, dedicated to sharing Haiti’s history and reshaping her narrative. But most importantly, we are a diaspora committed to the rebuilding and advancement of her motherland!‼️ We are descendants of the revered Toussaint L’ouverture, the unstoppable Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the Dahomey warrior, Aunt Toya, the brave Sanité Belair, the powerful Cecile Fatima, the revered Dutty Boukman, the fearless Makandal, and the mighty queen Anacaona!‼️ Their blood still courses through our veins. Their courage, résilience, and strength become our generational inheritance. These attributes move us forward through modern day trials , foreign intervention, governmental corruption, and socio-political complexities. As long as I live, I will never stop fighting and advocating for Haiti. My ancestors abolished slavery, defeated three world powers, and helped liberate several countries in Latin America! Haiti redefined liberty and established a standard for universal human rights as the world’s first, free Black Republic. This is why I strongly believe and proudly say this “Haiti is planted, not buried. HAITI IS RISING. ✊🏾” • Thank you @noulaworldwide for being a bridge that connects the Haitian diaspora‼️ #AyitiWasBornInMe (at Little Haiti Cultural Complex) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl4bJTNupw4/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[scrollofthoth]

Today we celebrate the Greater Feast of Dutty Boukman, hougan, leader, revolutionary, and Saint of Emergent Magick. Dutty Boukman exemplifies the Emergent Magick philosophy of using magick to change the culture and change the world. A Muslim cleric in his homeland, Boukman was enslaved and taken to the French colony of Haiti. There he became a Vodou priest (hougan), and used that religion to unite the slaves that came from all over Africa. Boukman presided over the Vodou ceremony at Bois Caïman, which was the spark that ignited the Haitian Revolution, creating the first and only black African nation run by former slaves in the Americas. Vive la revolution! Hail Dutty Boukman! Long live Haiti!

“The Good Lord who created the sun which gives us light from above, who rouses the sea and makes the thunder roar–listen well, all of you–this god, hidden in the clouds, watches us. He sees all that the white people do. The god of the white people demands from them crimes; our god asks for good deeds. But this god who is so good demands vengeance! He will direct our hands; he will aid us. Throw away the image of the god of the whites who thirsts for our tears, and listen to the voice of liberty which speaks in the hearts of all of us.”

— Dutty Boukman

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

By Stephen Millies

News of the French Revolution reached Haiti and created a political ferment as it became known to people in slavery. Dutty Boukman, an African originally enslaved in Jamaica, started a revolt in August 1791. Over 1,800 plantations were burned. Boukman was eventually killed, bravely fighting. But new leaders like Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines arose. The rising of Haiti’s enslaved people could not be stopped, and it found support among the French poor.

[dailyhistoryposts]

On This Day In History

August 14th, 1791: The Haitian Revolution starts, with a Vodou ceremony led by oungan Dutty Boukman for plantation slaves.

[ancestralvoices]

"If you want to win, cast aside your white god and embrace your Afrikan spirit" -Dutty Boukman👑 via Memnon Uzan #nofilter #nofilterneeded #dutty #boukman #jamaica #jamaican #jamaicaman #hougan #ougan #manbo #spiritofrevolution #revolution #revolutionary #revolutionnow #voodoo #vodu #vodun https://www.instagram.com/p/CC9fXeJDN8x/?igshid=1v1pnfxskaool

[peonycats]

Can you draw Haiti, in a military uniform during the Haitian Revolution? Thank you very much for wonderful and historical art

“The Good Lord who created the sun which gives us light from above, who rouses the sea and makes the thunder roar–listen well, all of you–this god, hidden in the clouds, watches us. He sees all that the white people do. The god of the white people demands from them crimes; our god asks for good deeds. But this god who is so good demands vengeance! He will direct our hands; he will aid us. Throw away the image of the god of the whites who thirsts for our tears, and listen to the voice of liberty which speaks in the hearts of all of us.”

The Haitian Revolution took place between 1791 and 1804, and was an insurrection by the slaves of Saint Domingue, now Haiti, against French colonial rule. To this day, it is considered the only successful slave rebellion, establishing an independent society of liberated slaves.

Historical Footnotes (+ bonus sketches!):

I TRIED ON THE LIGHTING.... I TRIED

The quote from before is Dutty Boukman’s speech, one of the early leaders of the Revolution. Born in Senegambia, he was captured, enslaved, and sent to the new World, where he ended up in Haiti as a carriage driver and a vodou priest. He played a key role in northern Haiti, where he presided over a religious ceremony in 1791 that would kick off the revolution. He is said to have give this speech during the ceremony!

You’ll notice that her uniform looks remarkably similar to those of the American Revolution. This is because the two events took place very close to one another- in fact, many of the freed people of color in Haiti had served in the American Revolution themselves.  

Women played a large role in the Revolution. People like Suzanne Belair had leadership positions in the army, as well as countless other women who served integral roles in the information networks that organized the rebellion.

I probably should’ve added golden embroidery on her collar and wristcuffs but I legit forgot IM SORRY

This was the original sketch for this, cuz I wanted to try to doing more dynamic poses, but it just didnt feel right to me? Part of the reason I took so long to do this was because I took months to mull over it until I had a better vision of what I wanted!

sketch I did to get her features down!

[chriskageink]

DUTTY boukman