When Doctors Kill: Who, Why, and How by Joshua A. Perper Stephen J. Cina

Author:Joshua A. Perper, Stephen J. Cina [Cina, Joshua A. Perper, Stephen J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: 1441913688, 9781441913685
Published: 2011-07-20T06:17:53+00:00

128

13 Judge, Jury, Executioner, and Doctor

“Papa Doc”

Dr. François Duvalier, known as “Papa Doc” (1907–1971), was the President of Haiti from 1957 until his death. He was born in Port-au-Prince, the capital and the largest city on the island, the son of a teacher, journalist and Justice of the Peace.

His mother was a mentally unstable woman who worked in a bakery and eventually had to be hospitalized in an asylum where she died in 1921. The invasion of Haiti in 1915 by the United States Marines followed by the ruthless repression of any political dissent by the ruling class significantly impacted upon the political views of young Duvalier. He was also acutely aware of the deep resentment that the poor Black majority bore towards the small but powerful Haitian elite, a class composed predominantly of mulattos.

He studied medicine at the University of Haiti and graduated in 1934 with his M.D. degree. After completing his training he worked in several local hospitals as a staff physician. His adoring patients called him “Papa Doc,” a nickname he liked and continued to use in later years when he saw himself as the father of his nation.

By 1938, Dr. Duvalier had developed a deep interest in the African roots of Haitian culture, even helping to found “Le Groupe des Griots,” an enclave of writers committed to Black Nationalism (negritude) and religious mysticism. Duvalier became involved in both activities and personally conducted an ethnological study of Vodou (a mixture of West African beliefs and Roman Catholicism), Haiti’s native religion.

Negritude and Vodou (anglicized to Voodoo) would eventually become the horses that would carry his chariot of ambition to ultimate political victory.

In the early 1940s, Dr. Duvalier became involved in a U.S.-sponsored campaign to control the spread of contagious tropical diseases in Haiti. He even spent a year in training at the University of Michigan studying public health. He was praised for his commitment to reducing the human devastation caused by a variety of infections among Haiti’s poor including malaria and yaws. Yaws is an infectious disease of the skin, bones, and joints caused by a bacterium related to the micro-organism that causes syphilis; it is not sexually transmitted. Later in his political career, he was quick to bring up his selfless dedication to his poor and sick patients. Though he was prone to exaggerating his contribution to public health, at least this was not a bald-faced lie (as many of his later pronouncements turned out to be). In 1946, Duvalier joined the government of President Dumarsais Estimé becoming Director General of the National Public Health Service. Two years later he was promoted to Minister of Public Health and Labor. However, in May 1950 President Estimé was overthrown in a military coup and Paul Magloire became President of Haiti.

Dr. Duvalier left the government and returned to medical practice but behind the scenes he became very politically active and by 1954 he was the leader of the opposition faction. Pursued by the military-sponsored government for his defiance Duvalier went underground, hiding in the interior of the island and practicing medicine.

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