For Haiti, 2010 will be a year to forget. The 9 million Haitians had to suffer a terrible earthquake in January and its horrible consequences that followed, such as a cholera epidemic. 2010 ended with an internationally denounced election characterized by fraud, irregularities and violence (its second round is planned to be held at the end of February). Apart from this difficult year, Haiti is considered a failed state, mostly depended of foreign aid (governmental or from its Diaspora), where its population suffers from economic distress, lack of services (access to potable water, education, health) and insufficiency of food supply, as the 2008 food riots showed. How did Haiti get there? How come this small nation became the poorest of the Americas? Obviously, it is impossible to offer complete and satisfactory explanation for such a complex situation. However, it is clear that international implication has made an important “contribution”.
As surprisingly few people know, Haiti obtained its independence in 1804, second American colony to do so after the United-States. Even more interesting, it is the only successful slave revolution in History. The extremely rich sugar producing French colony of Saint-Domingue faced a slave uprising in 1791, which ended, after 12 years of combat, genocidal attempts and numerous massacres, with Haitian independence. The revolution let Haitians with blasted plantations, a divided population, a military elite, and a
n international punishment that will have long lasting consequences. At the time, slavery was still a very active part of the North-Atlantic economic system. Therefore, when France decided to make Haiti pay for its independence, it got a widespread international support. To compensate losses engendered to plantation owners (white slave owners), France compelled Haiti to pay an indemnification, which the Haitian government was forced to agree in 1825 to insure access to the international market and be finally recognized as an independent state. President Boyer was also “convinced” by French warships isolating the island threatening to maintain a blockade. The amount was set at 150 million gold francs, ten times the annual governmental revenues. Obviously, it did not possess the capacity to pay such amount and started borrowing to pay this indemnification, exclusively to french banks of course. Therefore, Haiti became the first country to enter the foreign debt spiral. It made payments until 1947.This means that for the first 150 years of existence, Haiti used the vast majority of its economic resources to pay for having dared to fight for the end of slavery and for its independence.
International implication has also hurt Haiti in the last decades, for a totally different reason. Since the 60s, International Aid has constantly augmented in Haiti, to the point that it now represents its main economic activity. Without entering in the vast, and in many ways frustrating, debate about international aid, it is worth mentioning one important aspect. Most Haitians privilege rice as their principal food item, since it is cheap and can be grown locally. By wanting to offer food to poor Haitians, and probably lend a hand to American producers, US aid programs have given free rice in large quantities, notably to feed Port-au-Prince. Until the 80s, Haiti was self-sufficient regarding rice production. Coincidentally, under IMF pressure to liberalize commerce, the Haitian state lowered tariff on rice from 35% to 3% in 1995. So if you combined the entry of subsidized rice, mainly from the United-States (called Miami rice in Haiti), to constant sending of free rice, you get very cheap rice. Isn’t good news? Cheap food in a country facing poverty problems? No, this international attempt to “help” basically destroyed peasant agriculture. Small farmers cannot sell their rice, are forced to cultivate something else or leave for the city. Keep in mind that exporting food is almost impossible for small farmers, considering infrastructure problems and lack of volume. Furthermore, Port-au-Prince has very little jobs to offer. Numerous peasants ended up as urban poor, with very little economic perspective. I am not sure if we should laugh or cry, but American authorities have recently started to discuss the necessity to promote “self-sufficiency” for Haitian agriculture. It could be simple hypocrisy or a plain misunderstanding of the situation.
Haiti’s problems do not solely come from ill advice international or American interventions such as those mentioned or other (American occupation 1915-1934, President’s Aristide suspicious expulsion in 2004). Political instability, corrupted elite, destruction of natural resources or popular hope for a “savior” all contributed to Haiti’s dramatic situation. However, it must be recognized that Haitians, for all their perseverance and ingenuity, never had a real chance to build their nation and local communities.