The Awakening by McBean Brett

Author:McBean, Brett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloodshot Books
Published: 2016-07-25T16:00:00+00:00

“It was late 1918. I was a farmer in the northern central plateau region, living on a small plot of land at the foothills of Morne Savanette, near the town of Pignon. I lived with my wife, Mangela, our daughter Felicia and her daughter, Rachel, who was six years old. We farmed mostly vegetables, but we also had some cattle. There were two huts—cailles, as they are called in Haiti—on our tiny habitation; one where Mangela and I lived, the other housed Felicia and Rachel. Our nearest neighbors were about a mile away, so we were fairly isolated, the area of the plateau where we lived being sparsely populated. We had part of the great mountain range, the Massif du Nord, behind us, but the view out our front door was flat and relatively treeless—not particularly scenic by Haitian standards. It was dry and dusty in the summer, constantly muddy during the rainy season. Like the vast majority of Haitians eking out a living in the mountains or on the plains, we were poor. We barely made a living selling our produce and occasionally meat at the Pignon market. It was a simple life, but we were healthy enough and, until recently, happy. Even though we were far from the cities where all the business with the marines was happening, recently, with the fighting between the rebels and the Gendarmerie igniting once again, the interior was becoming an increasingly dangerous place to be, especially if you lived in the northern regions—and we, like so many peasants, had been affected by this violence.

You see, almost four years earlier, America had sent its military to occupy Haiti. According to their government, it was on ‘humanitarian grounds’. They were coming over to help stabilize the country, and to look after the American citizens living in Haiti. At the time of the U.S. occupation, Haiti was in a state of disarray and continual bloodshed. Presidents were being overthrown by violent coups at an alarming rate, so the U.S. government sent marines over. But in truth, President Wilson sent marines over to protect his country’s financial interests, and because of his government’s concern over foreign parties gaining control over Haiti and her waters—America had recently completed the Panama Canal, and the war in Europe had begun.

While the Americans were in Haiti—they occupied the country for almost twenty years—they brought Haiti up to date with the rest of the so-called civilized world, Haiti being such a poor country and all. They constructed new roads and improved the old ones, built schools, hospitals, and set up irrigation and telephone systems. From afar it looked like they were doing good things for my country. Well, let me tell you, things often look good from a distance. It’s not until you get up close and see what’s really happening that you see how horrible and ugly the truth really is.

Along with their modern ways, the marines also brought with them their racist ideals. They saw our way of life—the

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