Bøger om Haiti

I Det uperfekte menneske - Director's cut har Jørgen Leth udvalgt yndlingstekster fra sine fire erindringsbøger, Det uperfekte menneske (2005), Guldet på havets bund (2007), Et hus er mere end en ting (2012) og Mine helte (2015). Han slutter med en statusopdatering fra 2016.

I anledning af Jørgen Leths 80-års fødselsdag 14. juni 2017 udkommer Men jeg er her jo, der er en lille meditations- og erindringsbog skrevet i Rom og Haiti. I Rom beskriver Jørgen Leth et liv i irritation og manglende inspiration og hans desperation over livets vrimmel og påtrængende fantasier. I Haiti er han alene og meget optaget af at studere et par skildpadders seksualliv. Imens vælder minderne frem, og mens skildpadderne parrer sig, og bølgerne knuses mod stranden, hvirvler Jørgen Leth sit liv op – rejserne, forholdet til skriften, tiden og døden.

Den franske adelspige Isas dramatiske og tragiske skæbnerejse i 1700-tallet begynder om bord på en armeret fransk fregat, hvor hun frelser den unge sømand Hoels liv og indleder et kærlighedsforhold til ham. Hoel arresteres og anbringes på et dystert fangeskib, men det lykkes Isa sammen med sin veninde Mary at befri ham, hvorefter trioen på slaveskibet »Marie-Caroline« sætter kurs mod handelsstationen i Juda. Her oplever de den fremmedartede, stolte afrikanske kultur og de hvides grusomheder over for den sorte befolkning. »Marie-Caroline« fortsætter med sin last af »ibenholt«, det vil sige slaver, mod den franske koloni Saint-Domingue, i dag Haiti. Slaverne begår mytteri, men opstanden ender i et blodbad, og ankomsten til Saint-Domingue bliver skæbnesvanger for Hoel og Isa. Denne samlede udgave af »Vindens passagerer« indeholder de fem oprindelig bind, der udkom på dansk første gang 1981-1984: »Pigen i agterkahytten«, »Fangeskibet«, »Handelsstationen i Juda«, »Slangetimen« og »Sort som ibenholt«. I det enogtyvende århundrede har François Bourgeon genoptaget den klassiske saga i fortsættelserne »Barn af Kaimantræet« og »Kirsebærrenes blod«. Denne nye udgave af samlebindet er udvidet med Bourgeons flotte leksikale tegninger af det historiske skib ”Marie-Caroline”, som fragter Isa, Hoel og Mary først til Afrika og siden til Vestindien, med tilhørende noter om skibets indretning og funktioner. Endvidere er noterne til selve tegneserien udvidet.

I ‘Øen under havet’ befinder vi os på øen Sainte-Domingue, øen som efterfølgende skal komme til at hedde Haiti. Her følger vi den unge Zarité, der som bare niårig i slutningen af 1700-tallet sælges til den rige franske sukkerplantageejer Toulouse Valmorain. En skæbnesvanger fortælling om livet som slavegjort til lige pludseligt at være frikøbt kvinde i New Orleans. I bogen får Zarité dog en stor rolle i Valmorains live, da hun skulle vise sig at blive hans konkubine og mor/stedmor til hans børn. Selvom der opstår dette intime samspil, blomstrer der aldrig nogen form for kærlighed, de er slavinde og ejermand. Da slaveopstanden for alvor slår igennem, vælger Valmorain at flygte til Louisiana for at starte et nyt liv op under forhåbentlig bedre omstændigheder. Da vi både har muligheden for at følge en slavinde og en plantageejer belyser Isabel Allende mange kendetegn fra tiden omkring slavernes befrielse. Som læser får man nemlig et helt anderledes syn ved at få adgang til underkuede og den overlegnes synsvinkler på livet.”Gribende og stærkt underholdende.” Ekstra Bladet

Sonja og hendes veninder er endelig tilbage!Milliardæren Sonjas testamente forandrede hendes nærmeste veninders liv. Nu er Rebecka, Maggan og Susanne – og Sonja – endelig tilbage i en selvstændig roman fuld af varme og livsglæde.Syv år efter Sonjas død – og den arv, der blandt andet gav hendes bedste veninder et hotel i London, et fantastisk hus på Mallorca og en restaurant i Paris – kæmper Sonjas veninder med livet. De har alle tre brug for forandring, og de er klar over, at det er på tide at opfylde Sonjas sidste ønske: at sprede hendes aske rundt omkring i verden. I løbet af rejsen lærer de gennem en række breve fra Sonja hendes hemmelige, lidenskabelige kærlighedshistorie at kende og bliver dybt berørt af den.Samtidig sker der ting for veninderne på hjemmefronten, som ingen af dem havde regnet med, og pludselig er venskabet mellem dem det eneste i deres liv, der er klippefast og uforandret. Mens rejsen fører dem ud i verden, tvinges Rebecka, Maggan og Susanne til at træffe afgørende beslutninger i livet. Og hverken jordfaldshuller i Norge, naturkatastrofer på Haiti eller spontan dans i Madrid kan forhindre dem i at give Sonja – og sig selv – en chance til.Sonja får en chance til er en skøn roman om venskab mellem kvinder og kærligheden efter de halvtreds. Om det selvfølgelige i at støtte sig til sine venner, både i glæde og i sorg, og om at turde ændre sit liv.Åsa Hellberg (f. 1962) har tidligere udgivet romanerne Sonjas sidste vilje, Verden er lille og Toscana tur og retur.

Toussaint Louverture is a Haitian hero-considered one of the founding fathers of the nation. To understand who he was, we must begin the story with his father in West Africa in the 1720s. A king had just passed and two brothers were challenging to succeed the throne over the Allada people. The younger brother, named Gaou Guinou-Toussaint's father-went to war against his older brother Hussar for the rightful accession to power, but in the end was captured and sold as a slave bound for the French West Indies.Toussaint was the first born son of Gaou Guinou and worked in the manor house at the Plantation Breda in French Saint Domingue. Toussaint developed great skills in natural medicine, eventually becoming a veterinarian, a superb equestrian and horse trainer.His overseer, Bayon de Libertat, took a liking to the boy and admired his pride and guts when he would stand firm against members of the Petits-Blancs (white commoners) who worked on the plantation as hired help. By his early thirties Toussaint was emancipated by Libertat. At the start of the Haitian revolution, Toussaint was nearly 50 years old and initially allied with the Spaniards of neighboring Santo Domingo against the French. Toussaint demonstrated strength for military leadership, strategy, logistical operations and fighting capabilities. He trained and mobilized a lethal fighting force encompassing a highly trained and effective honor guard. And won many battles against the French Colonial Army.Toussaint switched his allegiance to the French when France officially abolished slavery in 1794 and went on to defeat the Spanish Colonial Army on their behalf.Louverture gradually established military and political control over the island and used his influence to gain dominance over his rivals. Throughout his years in power, Toussaint worked to balance the economy and security of Saint-Domingue as he restored the plantation system utilizing paid rather than slave labor, negotiated trade agreements with the United Kingdom and the United States, and maintained a large and well-trained army.This is the story of his Triumph prior to his eventual fall into Tragedy.

Toussaint Louverture is a Haitian hero-considered one of the founding fathers of the nation. To understand who he was, we must begin the story with his father in West Africa in the 1720s. A king had just passed and two brothers were challenging to succeed the throne over the Allada people. The younger brother, named Gaou Guinou-Toussaint's father-went to war against his older brother Hussar for the rightful accession to power, but in the end was captured and sold as a slave bound for the French West Indies.Toussaint was the first born son of Gaou Guinou and worked in the manor house at the Plantation Breda in French Saint Domingue. Toussaint developed great skills in natural medicine, eventually becoming a veterinarian, a superb equestrian and horse trainer.His overseer, Bayon de Libertat, took a liking to the boy and admired his pride and guts when he would stand firm against members of the Petits-Blancs(white commoners) who worked on the plantation as hired help. By his early thirties Toussaint was emancipated by Libertat. At the start of the Haitian revolution, Toussaint was nearly 50 years old and initially allied with the Spaniards of neighboring Santo Domingo against the French. Toussaint demonstrated strength for military leadership, strategy, logistical operations and fighting capabilities. He trained and mobilized a lethal fighting force encompassing a highly trained and effective honor guard. And won many battles against the French Colonial Army.Toussaint switched his allegiance to the French when France officially abolished slavery in 1794 and went on to defeat the Spanish Colonial Army on their behalf.Louverture gradually established military and political control over the island and used his influence to gain dominance over his rivals. Throughout his years in power, Toussaint worked to balance the economy and security of Saint-Domingue as he restored the plantation system utilizing paid rather than slave labor, negotiated trade agreements with the United Kingdom and the United States, and maintained a large and well-trained army.This is the story of his Triumph prior to his eventual fall into Tragedy.

Considers how popular Haitian films not only provide entertainment but also help audiences in Haiti and the diaspora think through daily challenges.

Spirals in the Caribbean responds to key questions elicited by the human rights crisis sparked in 2013 when the Dominican Constitutional Court's Ruling 168-13 denationalized hundreds of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent effective retroactively to 1929. Challenging the "fatal conflict" paradigm dominating views of the relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, it argues that this paradigm serves to mask lingering troubles resulting from the Haitian Revolution-a conflict between slavers and freedom-seekers transmitted over generations, repeating with a difference over time, and hiding behind anti-Haitian nationalist rhetoric.Taking as central material the literature, history, and cultural artifacts of both nations, Sophie Maríñez explores the colonial and imperial legacies of violence and subsequent connections across the island through the framework of the Spiral, a concept at the core of Spiralism, a Haitian literary aesthetic developed in the 1960s. The structure of the Spiral, which insists on interrelations, free association of ideas, and repetitions with meanings that overlap, turning around one central idea, serves as a framework for this book, where each chapter functions as a case study on three foundational episodes of violence. The first two episodes mirror and oppose one another: whereas one leads to pride and exultation-the Haitian Revolution-the other-the 1937 genocide perpetrated by Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo against the borderland population-elicits sorrow and shame. Their sequels, however, drive through and fasten history like a DNA double helix. The third episode of violence is chronologically the first-the massacre of indigenous populations by the Conquistadors.Across four chapters, Spirals in the Caribbean explores representations of these foundational moments of violence and subsequent connections in constitutional legislations, private and official letters, oral traditions, collective memories, Afro-indigenous spiritual and musical practices, and works of fiction, plays, and poetry produced across the island and its diasporas from 1791 to 2002.