Bòn
Ane 2009 ! New Year Message from President
Jean Bertrand Aristide from , December, 2008 (Audio
Recording -JBA_2009)
Bòn Ane
2009 !
Sè m, Frè
m,
Nan lespri Mèm Amou an,
Minouche avè m kontan
Vin anbrase w fratènèlman
E swete w yon Bòn Ane 2009.
Jan Jezi ta di w nan lang ebre a : (_____)
Ki vle di : Bòn Ane ! (______) Bòn Ane !
Anpil afeksyon pou ti moun yo !
Yon gwo akolad espesyal pou
Tout viktim lekòl ki efondre yo
Ak tout viktim dènye siklòn yo,
Pandan n swete solèy 2009 la
Va klere nan yon pi bèl Ayiti.
Limyè ak chalè solèy la pran
8 minit 18 segonn pou rive sou tè a.
Pèmèt mwen pran kèk segonn
Pou m fè chalè salitasyon an rive
Nan tout seksyon kominal
Kòm nan tout katye popilè :
Okap, Okay, Jeremi, Pòdepè, Fò Libète, Gonayiv,
Ench, Jakmèl, Miragwan, Sen Mak, Tigwav,
Site Solèy, Lasalin, Bèlè, Solino, Matisan,
Gran Ravin, Kafou, Taba, Laplenn, Delma,
Petyonvil, Kenskòf, kòm nan Pòtoprens
Enfen, nan kè Ayisyen lakay kòm lòt bò dlo,
San bliye frè nou Lovenski Pierre-Antoine.
Chak premye janvye toujou sanble
Ak yon paj blanch nan kaye listwa.
Nan paj premye janvye 1804 la,
Gran Gran Paran nou yo te ekri
Yon kokenn Testaman Diyite
Pou tout Ayisyen te ka viv nan
Libète – Egalite – Fratènite.
Testaman an vin blaze men li pa efase.
Testaman an chifonnen men li pa dechire.
Pandan nou youn ap swete lòt
(_______) Bòn Ane,
Nou salye memwa tout moun
Ki sakrifye lavi yo nan defann
Dwa ak Diyite Pèp Ayisyen.
Onè pou Papa Jan Jak Desalin le Gran !
Respè pou Jeni ras la, Tousen Louvèti !
An 1802, kignapig Tousen Louvèti
Te reprezante nan listwa d Ayiti
Yon pwen alaliy e non yon pwen final.
Jodia plis ke jamè, Tousen Louvèti
Rete yon gid pou save nan syans sosyal.
Jeni sa a se yon Ewo entènasyonal
Pou tout Pèp vanyan ki swaf jistis :
Jistis sosyal kòm jistis ekonomik.
Anvan kignapig ane 1802 a,
Tousen tap fè louvèti pou Ayiti.
Youn nan pi gwo tonton zam
Tousen te itilize, se te sèvo l.
Sèvo pa l te toujou branche
Sou sèvo Pèp vanyan an.
Pèsonn pat reyisi jwe nan may Tousen
Pou dekonekte sèvo l ak sèvo Pèp la.
Sontonaks eseye, nad marinad.
Edouvil eseye, anyen menm.
Prejije Napoleyon Bonapat
Te anpeche l konprann kijan
Tousen te gen yon sèvo lòt nivo.
Sèvo Tousen kòm sèvo tout moun
Peze 2 pou san pwa kò a, men
Li konsome 20 pou san oksijèn
Ak san k ap sikile nan kò a.
Si yon moun pase 3 a 5 minit
San l pa respire oksijèn,
Moun sa a deja tou pre lanmò.
Pou Tousen Louvèti, libète se tankou oksijèn.
Kote ki gen lesklavaj, Tousen pat ka respire.
Soufrans mas Pèp la se te soufrans pa l.
Lè flèch tribilasyon an pike youn nan yo,
Tousen te santi doulè a nan pwòp kè pa l.
Jiskaprezan, se menm bonte sa a
Ki ret tache sou Pèp Ayisyen an
Tankou yon pafen ki santi bon.
Kit se bonte sa a, kit se zantray Peyi a
Ou rasin kilti a, tout gen pafen santi bon.
Dayè, pou jan Peyi nou an nan mìzè,
Si se vre zo a pat gen ni vyann ni mwèl,
Ou kwè ta gen tout koudeta sa yo ?
Dènye koudeta kidnapig 29 fevriye 2004 la
Kase tout kolonn vètebral Peyi a bout pa bout
San poutchis yo pa janm jwenn bout ki gen sèvo a.
Mennen koulèv la lekòl se youn, fèl chita se de.
Pèp la granmoun depi nan zòtey rive nan tèt.
An bon kreyòl : Pòch li vid men tèt li pa
vid.
Ann gade byen ! Jodia atravè
lemonn,
Chak 40 segonn, yon moun swiside tèt li.
Pi fò swisid sa yo fèt nan peyi moun rich.
Erezman bò lakay, sèvo moun pa tonbe
Nan tantasyon sa a pou ti krik ti krak.
Solidarite moun ak moun bay anpil vitamin
Pou fòtifye 100 milya selil ki nan sèvo a.
Gen yon gwoup nan selil sa yo ki rele neronn.
Selil neronn yo espesyalize nan kominike youn ak lòt.
Kominikasyon sa a pèmèt sèvo a kòmande tout
rès kò a.
Bò dwat sèvo a kòmande tout bò goch kò
a.
Bò goch sèvo a kòmande tout bò dwat kò
a.
E 2 bò sèvo a kominike antre yo
Gras a yon matyè ki kole yo ansanm.
Matyè sa se tankou yon lakòl blanch
Ke save yo rele “kòpous kalosoum.”
Lè koudeta fann yon peyi 2 bò,
Fòk minorite a rekole ak majorite a
Tankou 2 bò yon sèvo ki kole
Ak “kòpous kalosoum.”
Wi, lè koudeta fann yon peyi 2 bò,
Fòk minorite a rekole ak majorite a
Tankou 2 bò yon sèvo ki kole
Ak “kòpous kalosoum.”
Inite sa a endispansab paske sèvo a bezwen
Ni vitamin ki soti nan manje moun manje,
Ni vitamin ki soti nan solidarite moun ak moun.
Souwè Bòn Ane ki pataje ak senserite,
Pa egzanp, ka bay bon vitamin solidarite.
Kanta pou tout bon souwè ki soti nan
Bèl solidarite 15 jiyè a menm, se pa pale !
Pèmèt mwen pwofite di n 15 mil mèsi
Pou kokenn temwayaj solidarite sa a.
Jan Tousen Louvèti te aprann nou an,
Sèvo nou ap toujou branche youn nan lòt.
Pami 100 milya selil ki nan sèvo moun,
Gen yon lòt gwoup yo rele selil gliyal.
Selil gliyal yo espesyalize nan pran swen
Lòt gwoup selil ke yo rele neronn yo.
Chak gwoup selil sa yo gen espesyalite pa yo.
Men, youn bezwen lòt pou gen bon fonksyonman.
La a toujou, nou obsève yon bèl sous enspirasyon
Pou ranfòse solidarite ant Ayisyen ak Ayisyen.
Trè souvan, absans amoni lage latwoublay
Andan sosyete a kòm anndan sèvo moun.
Atravè lemonn, sou chak 4 moun,
Gen youn ki soufri twoub mantal.
Nan lane 2020, pral gen plis moun
Kap fè depresyon sou depresyon,
Plis moun kap soufri strès ou vin fou.
Dayè, 75 pou 100 nan moun
Ki soufri twoub mantal pa gen kòb
Pou chèche bon jan tretman kay doktè.
Konsa, yon senp twoub mantal
Konn transfòme an maladi mantal.
Soti nan twoub mantal ou nevroz,
Tonbe nan maladi mantal ou psikoz,
Se soti nan ti depans tonbe nan gwo depans.
Lè sa a, pa gen ni lapè nan tèt ni lapè
nan vant.
Pou gen lapè nan tèt ak
lapè nan vant,
Fòk pa gen asid batri nan trip moun.
Boulvès trajik mwa avril 2008 yo
Reveye chofè tèt mato k ap dòmi
Sou volan kamyon bwat mizè a,
Men, nou toujou panche 2 wou anlè
Bò falèz malè pandye - pi ta pi tris la.
Pèsonn pa bezwen linèt gwo loup pou wè
Pèp la pa rantre tout bon, se sou twotwa a
Li kanpe ak menm asid batri a nan vant li.
Lavichè sa a fè yon lòt seri dega ki pa twò
vizib
Men, viktim yo la e y ap ogmante nan divès peyi :
Chak ane 18 milyon ti moun fèt tou andikape mantal.
Pouki sa ? Paske yo manke yon vitamin ki rele yòd.
An jeneral, ti bebe ki gen ant 6 a 24 mwa
Toujou bezwen bon jan vitamin yo rele fè a.
Absans vitamin sa a, malerezman, ralanti
Devlopman mantal 60% nan ti bebe sa yo.
Tank kalamite sa yo fè dega nan sèvo moun,
Se tank yo fouye twou lanmò toupatou sou tè a.
Konsa,
• Chak jou, 25 mil moun mouri grangou nan lemonn.
• Chak 5 segonn, m di byen, chak 5 segonn,
yon ti moun mouri grangou.
• Chak ane, 9 milyon moun mouri grangou.
Pou tablo trajik sa a parèt pi klè toujou pou nou,
Ann imajine n yon peyi ki menm gwosè ak Ayiti
E ki genyen menm kantite popilasyon moun ladann.
Nan lespas yon sèl ane, tout moun nan peyi sa a disparèt.
Se egzakteman malè sa a k rive chak ane atravè lemonn.
Sè m, Frè m,
Ou kwè Tousen ta ret bra kwaze, bouch be
Devan konsekans esklavaj modèn sa a ? Jamè.
Tousen tap fè sèvo l mache pou mobilize
Tout moun ki vle tout moun viv kòm moun.
Nan sans sa a, fòk Fanmi Lavalas toujou loreya
Nan mobilize Pèp la pou defann enterè Pèp la.
Pasifikman ! Fòk Fanmi Lavalas toujou loreya
Nan mobilize Pèp la pou defann enterè Pèp la.
Ak rezon, paske toupatou se mèt kò ki veye kò.
Anvan kidnapig 29 fevriye 2004 la, lespwa te fè viv.
Jodia, boujon lespwa a pa fleri anba wòch trayizon.
Li klè, boujon lespwa a pa fleri anba wòch trayizon.
Aletranje lè yo pa montre Ayisyen kap manje tè,
Kamera a fikse sou bòl ble lacharite silvouplè a.
Soufrans sa a pou nou tout,
Sof pou sèvo ki nan koma.
Pandan tout ane 2009 sa a,
Fòk n ede sèvo ki nan koma yo
Reveye pou n met men ansanm.
An 2007, sèvo yon Polonè ke yo rele
Jan Grzebski te reveye byen vivan
Aprè msye te fin pase 19 lane nan koma.
Wi, lè a rive pou yon revèy san parèy, paske
Imilyasyon Ayiti se imilyasyon tout Ayisyen.
Se pa pou lawont sa a Tousen te sakrifye lavi l.
Paske imilyasyon Ayiti se imilyasyon tout Ayisyen,
Fòk nou tout pote kole pou nou chanje sa
Nan mobilize ni matyè griz, ni matyè blanch.
Anndan sèvo tout moun ki nòmal,
Pa gen matyè griz san matyè blanch.
Plis selil sa yo ponpe enèji nan sèvo a,
Plis n ap jwenn kouraj pou nou refè
“ L’Union fait la Force.”
Konsa, Testaman an pap ni blaze ni dechire.
E nou tout, na santi nou pi fyè pou nou viv
Nan yon lòt Ayiti, kidonk yon Ayiti ki pi bèl.
Se nan lòt Ayiti sa a menm
Nou kase yon randevou istorik :
Randevou MEM AMOU AN !
Nan lang Swahili,
Upendo huo huo !
Sa vle di :
MEM AMOU !
An natandan Minouche avè m
Vin kanpe bradsou bradsa avè w
Nan randevou Mèm Amou an,
Nou anbrase w fratènèlman e di w
An Swahili : Tutaonana Ayiti !
Sa vle di : Na wè an Ayiti !
Ana kwa ana ! Sa vle di : Fasafas !
Tutaonana Ayiti ! Na wè an Ayiti !
Ana kwa ana ! Fasafas !
Upendo huo huo ! Mèm Amou !
Pretoria, Desanm 2008
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(Audio
Recording -JBA_2009)
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Ezili Danto's Note:
I first wrote this piece on December 31, 2005. It's in our archives
and at http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/Jan1_08.html#08
).
January 1, 2009 - Another Haitian Independence Day under occupation
Today, January 1, 2009, I see no need to completely rewrite this New
Year's-Independence Day Haiti message. We are still spending another
Haitian independence day under occupation. The December 31, 2005 essay
is as applicable for January 1, 2009 as it was for January 1, 2008.
Different Haitians are dying, in jail and being abused, raped and slaughtered.
We are still under UN occupation, a USAID/NGO shadow government that
cancels out Preval's puppet government, weighing it down in capricious
international provisions, rules and supervisions rather than as before,
living under little Bush's imposed bloody Boca Raton regime. This past
year, Klorox hunger exploded into the April 2008 famine crisis used
to unseat Haiti's Prime Minister, Jacques Edouard Alexis. And the four,
back-to-back September 2008 hurricanes and storms killed almost 1,000
Haitians, while the school
collapse that killed almost 100 school children is evidence
of what happens when a duly elected Haitian president is ousted by right
wing powers, letting anarchy run amok, leaving the Haitian people and
children totally without protection. This year, in 2009, HLLN shall
continue to counter the colonial narrative and push to end the UN occupation,
restore Haiti's sovereignty, advocate for a more humane US-Haiti relationship
as outlined in our postings and at What
Haitian-Americans Ask of the New US Congress and President.
Other than this, the changes made for this essay to fit the current
situation in Haiti on January 1, 2009 are minimal.
I hope next year
not to find this essay still an applicable template. Happy 205th Birthday
Haiti (January 1, 1804 to January 1, 2009). We
shall fight from one generation to the next. Nothing much
has changed, see The
Crucifixion of Emmanuel "Dread" Wilme by U.N. Troops: A historical
perspective, where one learns the Haitian revolution warriors'
song that they chanted into battle is still applicable today: - Grenadye
alaso sa ki mouri zafè a yo. Nanpwen manman, nanpwen papa. Sa
ki mouri zafè a yo!!!! Or, if you know Boukman's
Prayer at Bwa Kayiman, another verse may well also end with:
Sa ki mouri n ap vanje yo!.
The
Haitian struggle is the greatest David vs. Goliath battle being played
out on this planet.
Haiti pays and is paying over and over again
an Independence
Debt. The 1804
Independence Proclamation of Haiti's Founding father, General Jean Jacques
Dessalines, warned: "....if they find asylum amongst
us, they will be once more the schemers of our troubles and our divisions."
Men, nou pap bay legen.
Èzili Dantò
Li led li la
January 1, 2009
*
January 1, 2009 - Another Haitian
independence day under occupation
January 1, 2009 marks Haiti’s freedom day.
205 years ago - Jan. 1, 1804 to Jan. 2009 - Haiti won its independence
in combat with all the Euro/US powers in a Haiti struggle that was anti-slavery,
anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism and anti-racism, setting forth the
standard for universal freedom on this planet.
The sons of France turned these stunning gains back assassinating Dessalines
on Oct. 17, 1806. With the assassination of Haiti's founding
father, Jean Jacques Dessalines, neocolonialism found footing in Haiti
and has yet to let go.
Today we acknowledge Cuba for its 50-years of a successful revolution
against Euro/US neocolonialism.
Today, the price for freedom Haiti pays for its 1804 victory is evidenced
by a foreign military occupation, endless debt and US/Euro humanitarian
imperialism. The price for freedom Cuba pays goes on with an inhumane
embargo, demonization, vilification and an isolation that Haiti understands
very well as that has also been Haiti's fate.
Ours has been a long struggle. It started in 1503 when the first kidnapped
African captive set his enchained foot on what is now known as Haitian
soil.
Back on Jan. 1, 1804, European/ U.S. barbarity and savagery received
its greatest blow in the Western Hemisphere. We continue to face the
guns, greed and odious cruelties of the white man, but we also continue
to celebrate our victories against him. Haitians have been stigmatized
and forced to pay with their lives and freedom for that achievement
ever since.
Oceans of our blood have poured and watered the soil to nourish civilized
co-existence on this planet Earth and continue, this very minute, to
soak the earth needlessly, simply because Haitians were the first to
counter, in combat, European/ U.S. biological fatalism, destroy its
myth of white superiority and to do what even Spartacus could not.How
should Haitians mark this anniversary? Who should we confer with about
our awesome burden, our plight, our long struggle to be treated as human
beings by the European settlers?How do we get justice?
In the book “Two Thousand Seasons,” Ayi Kwei Armah writes:
"For whose entertainment shall we sing our agony? In what hopes?
That the destroyers, aspiring to extinguish us, will suffer conciliatory
remorse at the sight of their own fantastic success? The last imbecile
to dream such dreams is dead, killed by the saviors of his dreams.”
And so it is an exercise in futility to go to the perpetrators and executioners
of human rights crimes in Haiti in hopes of getting justice for our
people. Those who ousted the constitutional government of Haiti –
the U.N., which acts as proxy to maintain this international crime,
the Haitian lackeys and their State Department masters – are dead
inside and cannot hear the cries of the Haitian masses.
It’s not their mission or mandate. For they don’t represent
life, liberty, democracy, development and decency, but its opposite.
This officialdom, this authority, rains death, despotism, destruction,
cruelty, inhumanity, injustice, and represents all that civilized peoples
worldwide struggle to overcome. They write laws but are too “high
tech” to live them. They mouth words of “justice”
and fairness but their words are DEAD.
To further quote Ghanaian writer, Ayi Kwei Armah: “Those utterly
dead, never again to awake, such is their muttering.”
So what do we do with the mentally colonized Haitian lackeys and collaborators?
What do we do with the Stanley Lucases, Boulos, Apaids, Latortures,
Mr. 30%, a Puppet Haitian government, the Haiti Democracy Project gang,
coup d’etat folks and their Washington masters? We remember as
Ayi Kwei Armah wrote, that: A zombie’s mutterings are meaningless.
Change will come.
Ayi Kwei Armah explains what’s to be done with predators, destroyers
and their blan-peyi Haitian lackeys, for they are dead: “Leave
them in their graves.
Whatever waking form they wear, the stench of death pours ceaseless
from their mouths. From every opening of their possessed carcasses comes
death’s excremental pus. Their soul itself is dead and long since
putrefied. Would you have your intercourse with these creatures from
the graveyard?”
NO. Leave the dead in their graves. Speak your righteous message not
to these “long rotted ash” but address your message, my
people, to the living and look only to Dessalines’ descendants
worldwide. His legacy is liberty. Speak to liberty lovers. Empower the
world’s lovers of liberty.
On freedom day, raise up peaceful co-existence in the name of Dessalines,
the father of Haitian independence, author of the concept that a “Haitian”
is a “freedom lover,” no matter his or her skin color or
from which branch of that Black woman, mother of all the races –
our ultimate root – he/ she hails from.
Remember that “Black” as redefined
by Dessalines means a “lover of Liberty.” Therefore, any
person, of whatever fabricated social “race,” who loves
freedom and liberty is Black, not white in the pejorative “tyrant”
sense. For, to Haitians, anyone who is a tyrant, no matter what his
or her skin color, is deemed “white,” a blan, a stranger,
not family.
Black is also, to Dessalines and his knowledgeable descendants, the
color and texture of liberty.
It is because of this Dessalines philosophy and psychology that Haitian
beliefs are marginalized and why Haitians are forever marked for destruction
and annihilation. Our concepts, based on the observable facts of our
history, experiences and existence, threaten white supremacy to its
core. That is why most people in this world only know the lies told
and retold about Haiti, about Haiti’s culture,
its psychology, its philosophy.
For within
what cannot be seen by sight lies only the divine and sacred. But Euro/US
archetypes, concepts, philosophies and societies teach that what cannot
be seen is simply black and black is bad, death, criminal, demonic and
needs the light of bourgeois freedom, of a benevolent-tyrannical Western
God and colonial narratives and their
irrational ejaculations and duality to be 'right,' 'good,'
'civilized,' 'progressive' and 'saved' - to get salvation. For the Haitian
revolutionaries and Vodouist, these bullets are dust. We see
the African Ancestors in the unseen realm; we can see in the dark and
within self and outside of conscious attention lies only one power –
good.
One God, good (Bondye). One future – good. And
we live to extend it with the help of our Ancestral spirit and revelation
- Lwa yo. Ginen Poze.
By the blood of the Ancestors we stand, joining a long line going back
to the beginning of time. By the blood of all the lambs of Ayiti: the
blood of the exterminated Taino-Haitians, all the captive African-Haitians
who lost their lives for liberty during 300-years of Spanish/French
enslavement and post-independence during 200-years of unrelenting US/Euro
neocolonialism. By their blood and sufferings we stand, we stand, we
stand with the unrecognized autochthon Black going back to time immemorial.
There is only one reality and it's to extend a good not a good/tyrannical
god, its to extend universal not bourgeoisie
freedom and that love has already been demonstrated by the
Haitian warriors, our Ancestors. One people, one love that's already
proven its worth way back on January 1, 1804. "Se pa kado blan
te fè nou, se san zanset nou yo ki te koule" (Haitian
National Anthem) - "Haiti wasn't gifted to us by the white colonists,
it's ours by the blood of our Ancestors."
I’ve written in the “Red,
Black & Moonlight”
monologue series, “Reaching for Black, keeps me from bursting
into flames.” For it is that “reaching” which defines
and gives texture to our struggle. Our independence and freedom is divine
and “as black as primordial space; as black as the firmament from
which creation sprang … the color of carbon, the key atom found
in all living matter. All who are ‘Haitian’ carry particles
of a culture, where every
vibratory energy comes out of the dark … seed that
Haiti and Africa owns, which captures light and reproduces itself and
various hues and shades, full of multidimensional patterns, disparate
energies, eternal seeds.”
Remember and celebrate the road traveled
Humbled by the courage of the Haitians who left us a freedom legacy
to live, a liberated psychology to help free Africa’s children
from all sorts of colonization, a philosophy to extend, on Independence
Day we remember, respect and honor our deep roots even as we continue
to face officialdom’s bitter lies, its white despotism and racist
disdain. We face its lies and half-truths, such as written by the US
Embassy, USAID, State Department reps, Christian NGOs or their various
mainstream press chums, who steadily and continually call Haitians “fouled
up,” “failed,” “gangsters,” “corrupt,”
“incompetent,” while calling their bloody, wasteful and
abusive UN occupation and the rule of their NGO benefactors in Haiti,
“progress.” And the farcical reign of their elected-under-occupation
Haitian puppets' “democracy,” that is “worthy”
of their international support. Haiti's material misery witnesses to
the deeds of their good but tyrannical god as comfortably and continually
re-imaged, extended and demonstrated in their US-Haiti
relationship.
On our Independence Day, Haitians shall come together to stand tall
within ourselves against the empire’s lies and stigmas. We’ve
survived. We know who we are, what we are and that we’ve got roots
to keep us strong.
Our history of survival is our greatest asset and rallying point. We
exist still because we have ALWAYS defined ourselves, extended ourselves,
given value to ourselves, our life, strengths, ancestors, history and
heroes, when the world’s greatest armies, media and superpowers
have not.
In fact, Officialdom and its Haitian blan-peyi lackeys are united solely
in their refusal to recognize Haiti’s value, its sovereignty and
right to self-determination. Death, imprisonment, suffering and sacrifice
may be our perennial plight in this, Bartholomew De La Casa’s
“New World.” Yet try as the pathetic likes of the line of
US Ambassadors and USAID mission directors to Haiti may, to tell Haitians
what we are worth, how exclusionary elections are “our due”
and that repression is liberty and bourgeois freedom is “progress”,
they fool and shame only themselves and their restavek Haitian lackeys.
Ayi Kwei Armah writes, “A people losing sight of origins is dead.
A people deaf to purposes is lost. Under fertile rain, in scorching
sunshine, there is no difference: their bodies are mere corpses, awaiting
final burial.”
As flesh and blood, endowed by our creator with the right to life, we
claim the natural right to just retribution, to self-defense, to equal
application of international laws governing human and civil rights.
For we are certain, if not in this lifetime, then in our children or
great-grandchildren’s time, the day will come when the fiendish
‘Bourgeoisie Freedom’ advocates of this world will answer
for the Haitian lives they’ve helped to destroy down the centuries
and generations.
Every tomorrow will be our Independence Day. Every tomorrow we Haitians
shall extend our independence, blocking re-colonization, its modern
day applications and their new rods of empire – endless foreign
debt, NGOS shadow governments and elections-under-occupation. We won’t
relent
but shall recount our glorious history of struggle, until no doubt remains
that we are indeed Dessalines’
descendants.
My peoples, leave the dead in their graves and look to Dessalines descendants.
Gather the living un-coopted Haitians, drink soup joumou, call on Makandal,
Boukman, Toya, Defile, Marijan, Marie Claire Heureuse, Kapwa Lamò,
Dessalines and celebrate our living history. Keep making that history.
Remember and celebrate the dignity of all those who fought and died
to stop the current foreign occupation of Haiti, those still languishing
in indefinite detention since 2004, and the Ezili
Dantò goodness and courage of Haiti’s women
warriors. Remember our roots, our struggle – its vast glory.
Those roots are our living way, our legacy, our path to freedom and
our light
that’s impossible to lose. Its remembrance calls us, animates
us and keeps us moving through these unspeakable sufferings and grief.
On our Independence Day, Jan. 1, and on every other tomorrow to come,
we shall forget the dead living amongst us, sucking our blood like the
vampires they are. These parasites have lost sight of Haiti’s
origins – its sanctity, divinity and goodness, its gift of liberty
and fraternity, when all around the Europeans settlers were bringing
only depravity.
Dessaline’s descendants hold a sacred trust. Our mission is to
live free or die trying, not to live as dead zombies, corporate or U.N.
sell-outs, servile to gluttonous and inhuman greed like the Stanley
Lucas, Guy Philippe and Andre Apaid restaveks and their vampirish “free-trade”
masters.
“Kanga
Mundele!” said the spirit of Ezili Dantò that
mounted that great mambo Cecile Fatiman, on Aug. 14, 1791, at Bwa Kayiman,
the ceremony that began the great Haitian Revolution. Kanga Mundele
means “kill the stranger” in Kikongo – “kill
the stranger (the colonized/delusional stranger) within,” “amongst
us” or, "kill the dead in spirit who walk amongst us"
– and also means “long live freedom.” Indeed our freedom
still lives. Despite 505 years of grief, Haitians are still here –
standing on truth, living without fear. Nou La! We don’t get much
press, but we’re here. Nou la! Kanga Mundele!
Èzili Dantò
Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network ("HLLN")
January 1, 2009
erzilidanto@yahoo.com
Djab la di l ap manje m, se pa vre
( from the Haitian spiritual: "Ogou oooo, wa dèzanj,
djab la di la manje mwen se pa vre. Se pa vre Timoun yo, se pa vre.
Sa se blag Timoun yo, sa se jwet. Gen Bondye, geyen lè sen yo.
Djab la di l ap manje nou, se pa vre.....")
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