Who Made Haiti a “Failed State”?
An interview with Cécile Accilien
Cécile Accilien, a scholar of Haitian studies and president elect of the Haitian Studies Association, spoke with our editor-in-chief Jason Silverstein about the racist myth of Haiti as a “failed state,” the need to place interventions in economic and historical context, and the media’s role in the colonial project.
JS: We are facing the prospect of yet another foreign intervention in Haiti. The media is shaping a very particular story. What should readers know?
CA: It’s unethical and dangerous to be having conversations about foreign intervention without placing them in a wider social, political, economic, and historical context. You cannot just look at Haiti currently, or Haiti in the last two months, or Haiti in the last 16 or 18 months, and say it just happened.
The concept that Haiti is a “failed state”? When you look at the failure of that state, why is it a failed state? Who is supporting or encouraging that failure?
The concept that Haiti is a “failed state”? When you look at the failure of that state, why is it a failed state? Who is supporting or encouraging that failure?
It is important to understand that the U.S. was never interested in having a neighbor who had an ideal of democracy, similar to its own, but except Black. How dare a Black country have similar ideas of democracy?
People must remember that history. When Haiti became independent in 1804, the U.S. did not recognize that independence for nearly 60 years.
It is not useful or helpful for the U.S. and other countries, such as France and Canada, for Haiti to be stable.
When you look at the typical media, they say, these are a bunch of Black people who do not know what they are doing. That’s what the media wants to portray. So that it can justify its foreign intervention. We have a history of foreign intervention that has continuously failed.
When you talk about Haiti in the eighties, I’m not one to have nostalgia. I grew up under the dictatorship, part of my family disappeared. So this is very real for me. But there was a time when Haiti was able to feed itself.
When you look at the fact that the U.S. was sending extra crop, they completely destroyed the Haitian market. If you look at the rice debacle, what happened in the nineties. Thanks, Bill Clinton. U.S. rice cost so much less than the Haitian rice. This is how you destroy a country. Every time, they go under the guise of help.
JS: The narrative from the media right now is to manufacture the consent for intervention by saying, we're doing a good thing, we're going to help, and we're going to help people who can't help themselves.
CA: This is again the same colonial project that continues. When you look at the media, it's a way to justify that inhumane and unethical treatment of Haitians. This is all part of this colonial project.
Let’s present them as these people who are brainless, who are not capable of helping themselves.
The same thing happened after the earthquake. Supposedly all this money that was sent to Haiti, who was deciding? How insulting that it was Bill Clinton who was the co-chair of the committee, as if they were no Haitians who could do it. You have Haitians in Haiti and in the diaspora who are doctors, lawyers, policymakers. Why didn’t they say, let's look for someone who knows Haiti, who speaks the language? Let's look at who is at the table to have these conversations. Let's look at what language or languages these people are speaking.
To me this is all very telling, because it's perpetuating the stereotypes and the narratives of a failed state. It’s back to the U.S. occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934 that the average American knows nothing about. That the U.S. changed the Haitian constitution.
There are questions that need to be asked.
Haiti does not produce guns. Where are the guns coming from? Who is furnishing the guns? The gangs that have taken over Haiti. Who is supporting them?
JS: Now, the UN yet again wants to come help Haiti, even though they were responsible for the cholera outbreak in 2010. How do you respond to the UN’s offer that no one is asking for?
CA: The way we respond is, I think, Jason, is by looking at the work that the UN has done.
When the UN goes under the guise of stabilization and peacekeeping, they do the exact opposite.
The cholera outbreak, there has been no apologies, there has been no reparations at all.
Racism is the key to unlock all this. You have to look at racism, colorism, the paternalism.
The idea that when you read about the so-called failed state, all the vocabulary around Haiti, it is because Haiti is a Black country.
Hundreds of children born out of sexual assault by you and peacekeepers. Nobody's talking about that. They're not responding. How dare they. Just look at their records. They have done more harm than good.
This is because this is Haiti. The lack of respect, because Haitians are not seen as human beings. That's the bottom line with all this.
JS: It is because Haiti is a Black country.
CA: Racism is the key to unlock all this. You have to look at racism, colorism, the paternalism.
The idea that when you read about the so-called failed state, all the vocabulary around Haiti, it is because Haiti is a Black country.
It's this paternalism. The whites have to come and help Haiti. When you read the media from from the U.S., you will think that all the Haitians are just sitting around waiting for the white men to come save them, even though people are protesting.
When you dehumanize someone and you pretend that they are lesser than you — and that's what all these narratives contribute to.