paired with “As a Child in Haiti, I Was Taught to Despise My Language and Myself”

Inviting students to explore some historical events and circumstances of Haitian history as it overlaps with the United States and France, this activity would be used as an out-of-class activity to prepare for a class discussion or follow-up on one.

Introduction

The Importance of Historical Context

DU: DeGraff’s essay is about residual colonial practices on the body – socially produced self-hatred of Haitian Creole – and about silencing the autochthonous sounds of “haitianness.” Indeed, voicing/silencing and hyper-visibility/invisibility are key questions that run through much of Haitian Studies and this reader. Encouraging students to learn more about Haitian history may be a productive activity with this essay. More historical context presents another layer of complexity to DeGraff’s positions. Instructors may generate a rich classroom discussion if this Op-Ed is discussed alongside little-known (or disavowed) historical events like the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) or the US occupation of Haiti from 1915-1934. Since the Op-Ed assumes familiarity with Haitian history, it may be productive for instructors to pair the activities below with DeGraff’s essay.

As we discussed this activity together, we shared some of our experiences teaching texts that are outside of our realms of expertise.  We imagine that many who may teach this text are not experts on Caribbean history. Following one of the overall projects of this reader – centering polyphony and transparency in practice, course design, and course delivery in the first-year writing classroom – it may be productive for instructors to consider teaching this text as “co-learners” with students.  When instructors open up about what they don’t know, students sometimes respond positively and are more engaged.  “Normalizing not-knowing” may be a productive rhetorical or horizontal pedagogical move to produce more authentic curiosity around the historical periods that DeGraff mentions throughout the Op-Ed.

This exercise may also allow for a deeper exploration with students around the complexities of historiography. We have to be mindful of not using The Office of the Historian’s representation of the U.S. Occupation of Haiti (1915-1934) as the only source for making sense of this period.  Elise Takehana shared how, in one semester, she had students read different historical accounts of the same event: the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Side-by-side comparisons of varying documents – a widely assigned U.S. high school textbook, a documentary film of survivors of the bombing, and a section of George Weller’s First Into Nagasaki  – made it abundantly clear to students that historical retellings are diverse and layered.

It is that multiplicity that makes building historical context challenging but rewarding. There are great stakes in how a history is told, and in that spirit, this activity invites students to explore historical context while encouraging them to embrace questions. In addition to sharing with students questions around historiography and the politics of Haitian Creole, another aim of teaching DeGraff could also be to deepen student’s understanding of the US in a hemispheric and Atlantic context (USA-Haiti-France).

Guide

Read: Lesser Known Historical Context

Choose one of the following little-known periods of Haitian history and read the linked text. As you are reading, pose several questions where further research could fill in a blank for you.

• The Haitian Revolution – OER Project’s video “The Haitian Revolution and Its Causes,” where Dr. Marlene Daut describes the life of enslaved Haitians, the beginning of the Haitian Revolution by slave revolts disrupting the economy, and its global significance.

• Haiti’s Debt Repayment to France – NPR’s Planet Money article, “‘The Greatest Heist in History’: How Haiti Was Forced to Pay Reparations for Freedom” on Haitians paying for their freedom by compensating their former slaveholders for their “property loss” retold in 2021 in the context of the Biden administration’s deportation of Haitians.
• The US Occupation – “U.S. Invasion and Occupation of Haiti, 1915-34” from the Department of State’s Office of the Historian on the US’s rationales for invading and leaving Haiti.

Revisit DeGraff Through His TedTalk

After reading the Op-Ed, watch DeGraff’s TED Talk “Language Has Super Powers: Can Destroy Souls or Build Nations” on his experiences with Haitian Creole.  What does he add that is not in the essay?  What is left out? Use the TED Talk to delve deeper into the questions raised by DeGraff’s work.

Reflection: The Blind Spot

Considering the questions you developed from the histories and the additional dimensions DeGraff’s TedTalk offers, write a paragraph reflecting on how much remains unknown to you on Haitian educational policy, its history, and even your own country’s history and educational policy. How does that sense of incompleteness impact you?