Welcome to the latest edition of Woy Magazine’s biweekly newsletter, providing you with must-know news and commentary on Haiti and our Diaspora.
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Kafou a pou nou de The crossroads belongs to us all
CHAY LA | Main Story
Fòk kanal la fèt
The Rivyè Masak is a river that Haiti and the Dominican Republic share that forms an international border to the north. It is the site of the Parsley Massacre, where the Dominican army killed thousands of Haitians at the command of dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1937, although the river got its name from a previous massacre. Today, this river is again a site of contestation and conflict between the two countries.
The Dominican president, Luis Abinader, ordered the closing of all borders Friday morning in response to a canal that Haitians are building in Wanament and Ferye to irrigate 3,000 acres of land along the river. Abinader claims the canal is illegal. Yet, there are legal grounds for the Haitians’ quest for water under a 1929 treaty that oversees the sharing of the natural resource that is the Rivyè Masak between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Moreover, when the late de facto President Jovenel Moise started the construction two years ago, there were high-level meetings between the two governments to iron out the details, and the Dominican Republic recognized that the proposed canal wouldn't divert the river’s trajectory. Soon after, Jovenel Moise was killed, and the project came to a halt. Former Haitian ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Smith Augustin, in an interview with Radio Magik9, explains in detail the negotiations and agreement that took place between Haiti and the DR in 2021.
To date, the Dominican Republic has made 11 interventions to channel water to its land from this river, while Haiti has none. Two years since the halt of the canal project, Haitian farmers in Wanament and Ferye have taken matters into their own hands and decided to carry on with building the canal without the support of the Haitian government. As one initiator of the canal project explained to Ayibopost in the video below, the project was a decades-long community development project that politicians who came along promised to carry out. Since politicians failed to complete it, the citizens decided to finish it themselves.
The Haitian government was silent for a week before initiating talks with the Dominican Republic. Representatives of the two governments were in talks for two days when the Abinader administration unilaterally decided to close the Haiti/DR borders as a pressure tactic to stop the building of the canal. In response, the Haitian government has stopped the negotiations. Meanwhile, the people of Wanament have shown no signs of letting up.
Many legal experts have analyzed the documents that exist to help govern these shared natural resources and confirmed that Haitians have the right to build the canal. Haitians didn't need the legal documents to tell them of this right, but without the diplomatic intervention of the current government, this community development effort might not endure.
Such acts of self-determination are important, particularly in this moment of deep political crisis in Haiti. Combined with local practices and values of konbit, this initiative has the potential to spark many other Haitian-led development efforts throughout the country — a much-needed breath of fresh air and hope for Haitians. Besides, we know the importance of feeding one's self. To free one's self one must feed oneself.
When you have 400 quarts of greens and gumbo soup canned for the winter, no one can push you around or tell you what to say or do.”- Fannie Lou Hamer (Source: Springer
How can those who are in solidarity with Haitians help? Learn more about the issue and if you're in a position to do so, consider donating to the effort to build the canal. One trusted organization called Gwoup Konbit is raising 1,000,000 Gourdes to donate to the community building the canal. You can find information on how to give on their Facebook page here.
politik/polemik
Kafou Fèy
Over the past ten days or so, the neighborhood of Kafou Fèy, which has been under attack by armed groups for the last few weeks, has been calm since the police intervened with snipers supported by people who live in the area. Thousands of people were displaced from their homes and have yet to return, including noted artist Rodney St Eloi and renowned novelist Gary Victor.
Le moral était au plus bas à Carrefour-Feuilles et ce, jusqu’à hier après-midi, alors qu’une équipe de tireurs d’élite de la PNH est revenue dans les hauteurs environnantes. Montée sur le toit de maisons, avec leurs mallettes contenant leurs armes démontées, l’équipe s’est installée pour viser au loin les assaillants armés.
Le samedi 26 avril, une intervention similaire avait aussi ramené un peu d’espoir, mais le répit avait été de courte durée. (Source: Deyè Mòn)
politik/polemik
Magnicide News
On Thursday, a retired officer of the Colombian army, Germán Alejandro Rivera Garcia, pleaded guilty for aiding the group of mercenaries in the assassination of the late President Jovenel Moise. He is facing a life sentence and is being tried in the US since part of the assassination plot is said to have taken place in Florida.
According to court records, the plan was not to murder Jovenel but to kidnap him, however the situation devolved. An American investigation is also pointing to the motive being a grab for power where Moise would be replaced by Christian Sanon, who is currently in the US and being tried for smuggling bulletproof vests used in the operation.
“They had been promised lucrative infrastructure projects and contracts to supply military equipment and security forces to Mr. Sanon's future government in exchange for Mr. Moïse's abduction, the prosecutors detailed.” (Source: Loop)
MIGRASYON
As greater numbers of Haitians are fleeing the country due to the worsening security situation over the last four years, countries around the Western Hemisphere are tightening their borders and preventing asylum seekers from seeking refuge from the violence and turmoil plaguing the country. Notable examples include the US, Canada, Panama, and Columbia, who, individually or in joint efforts, are choking off points of entry for asylum-seekers.
Those who do manage to make it are met with anti-Black racism, which isn’t surprising or new — in the context of a modern world built largely on colonialism, the slave trade, and overt discrimination against most, if not all, non-white people.
In this instance, we’ve seen 14,000 Haitian migrants being brutalized or threatened at the U.S.-Mexico border by U.S. border patrol officers and more than 17,000 deported back to Haiti in the midst of some of the worst violence the country has seen to date.
“Countries in the Western Hemisphere are failing to respect the rights of Haitian people or treat them with dignity. Once Haitian migrants land in new countries, governments provide them with few rights and few legal pathways to legal residence, and our research shows that many international NGOs and service providers are not reaching Haitian migrant populations. Although Haitians make up a significant proportion of migrants in numerous Latin American countries, they face restrictive (im)migration policies that prevent status regularization, as well as linguistic barriers and anti-Black racism that compound the impact of these policies.” (Source: NACLA)
As Haitians continue to be faced with racism and discrimination of all sorts across the board, the Hemispheric Network for Haitian Migrants’ Rights was created to provide an avenue for solutions and advocacy in consort with Haitian leaders and advocates. The organization also seeks to pool resources to power demands for the equitable and humane treatment of Haitians trying to navigate an acute crisis.
For more on this situation and the issues at stake, check out this article.
KILTIRÈL
Labor Day Parade
The annual New York Labor Day parade took place on September 9th, bringing with it the colors, joy, dancing and sounds of Haitians and peoples across the Caribbean.
On Thursday, Rachèle Magloire's new film called “Simitye Kamoken” premiered in Port au Prince. This documentary tells the story of the 1964 massacre, one of the Duvalier regime's bloody repressions against its "revolutionary democrat" opponents and the peasants of the South-East. Check out this interview with the director for more on the making of the film and the history behind it.
DEGI | Recommendations before you go
Aid State: Elite Panic, Disaster Capitalism, and the Battle to Control Haiti | Jake Johnston
The City with no Government | Jacob Kushner for Pulitzer Center
Quand l’État fermera-t-il le Ministère d’Emmelie Prophète ? La loi de ma bouche
MANJE KUIT PA GEN MÈT: Cooked food does not have an owner! | By Judite Blanc for Medium
The beautiful work you guys share. Thank you for efforts!! I also want to highlight that the Criterion collection is showcasing a series of Caribbean films from the Miami based Third Horizon Film Festival. It features films from Haitian filmmakers, such as Gessica Généus’s amazing documentary about her mother and mental health in Haiti, “Douvan jou ka leve.”