Journal Article

Twin Pillars of Resistance

Past, Mariana F.

2021

Overview

Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s first book, Ti difé boulé sou istoua Ayiti [Stirring the Pot of Haitian History] (1977), exposes the foundational role of Haitian Vodou and the Kreyòl language in Haiti’s Revolution (1791-1804). This essay analyzes selected passages from Ti difé boulé that explicitly incorporate Vodou songs, prayers, and terminology to illustrate how Trouillot provocatively deploys oral sources of historical narrative and memory in his groundbreaking work. The young activist, writing in Haitian Kreyòl from New York City during the Duvalier régime, powerfully contests official versions of Haitian history by emphasizing the agency of the Haitian people. Vodou and Kreyòl, born out of struggle within a repressive colonial framework, are the cohesive forces underlying Haitian resistance. Ti difé boulé examines neocolonial patterns of oppression emerging during the nineteenth century and reassesses revolutionary icon Toussaint Louverture. The government that Louverture established harnessed Vodou to continue systematically subjugating the Haitian people; these class interest-based patterns evolved into Haiti’s deep-rooted predatory State. Trouillot’s innovative yet understudied masterpiece offers contemporary readers “new narratives” of Haiti, recentering its people, spiritual practices, and native language. Vodou and Kreyòl, as twin pillars of Haitian resistance and cultural identity, remain a vital and vibrant part of the American heritage. They merit more nuanced understandings within a cultural and political context where they have increasingly come under siege, inside and outside of Haiti.

• Publisher: Latin American Literary Review,Latin American Research Commons
• Subject: Anthropologists / Criticism and interpretation / Haitian language / Haitian literature / Haitian Revolution / Kreyòl / Michel-Rolph Trouillot / Trouillot, Michel-Rolph / Vodou