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English to Haitian-Creole - Rates: 0.10 - 0.12 USD per word Spanish to Haitian-Creole - Rates: 0.10 - 0.12 USD per word French to Haitian-Creole - Rates: 0.10 - 0.12 USD per word
English to Haitian-Creole: What my worst enemy taught me about gratitude / Kisa pi move enmi m aprann mwen sou gratitid General field: Other Detailed field: General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
Source text - English It's a TedTalk. It would be best to watch the video since the script is very long. https://ted.captionhub.com/projects/a29f9fdfa9
I was there to kill him.
I was a Navy hospital corpsman
deployed to Iraq,
when an Al-Qaeda militant we detained
had somehow obtained an envelope
with my family’s address.
He joyously taunted me
by waving the precious envelope.
He threatened my family.
I planned my revenge
and waited for a chance,
and three weeks later,
when enemy mortars and rockets
accidentally struck where he was housed,
I found my way into his compound,
its fence ripped open
by one of the rockets.
But instead of confrontation,
I found him grievously wounded.
As I came into his view
and he looked up at me,
I realized that any chance at survival
he had depended on me.
Should I use a tourniquet
in my left cargo pocket
or the pistol in my right hand?
His skin was dark and weathered.
His arm was broken
in at least two places.
With his good arm, he tried desperately
to pull himself away from me,
a hopeless task.
Right then,
I was surprised to feel grief, sorrow
to be in such a condition,
yet be so terrified as to try
to pull himself away from me.
Selfishly, I didn’t want to be seen
as the murderer I went
to his compound to be.
Suddenly, I felt responsible for his fear
for the perpetuation of war.
I wished I could stop it.
I felt an unexplainable empathy.
He had been sweating, and then he wasn’t.
It seemed to take all the energy
he had just to breathe.
His fingers didn’t penetrate
the concrete-like desert ground.
And finally, the wince,
the painful wince on his face just faded.
Finally,
he reached toward me with his hand,
palm up,
and I wondered what it was
that he was looking for.
Help?
Forgiveness?
He seemed so different
than three weeks earlier.
We were close enough
to hear each other breathe,
and he seemed to be muttering
some kind of a prayer in Arabic.
I found myself praying too,
and neither of us broke eye contact
before he died moments later.
Our interpreter, Sayyed,
approached the body and knelt slowly.
It was like a genuflection.
Two soldiers and I
turned the militant onto his back,
straightening broken limbs.
Sayyed noticed and then pulled a piece
of paper from the pocket over his heart.
There was Arabic writing on it,
but he read it aloud in English.
“If I told the sea what I felt for you,
it would have left its shores, its shells,
its fish, and followed me.”
I knelt at the man’s head
and put my hands under his shoulders,
keeping my elbows together like this,
so when we put him in the body bag,
his head wouldn’t just drop.
Later, when I thought
about the beautiful words he read,
I asked Sayyed if I could learn
more about the man.
And on my last day in Iraq,
he walked up to me,
with a thick Manila envelope
of the man’s translated personal effects.
The man’s name was Munawwar,
Sayyed told me,
and in one of these letters, he wrote:
“The world is comprised
of two kinds of people:
Those who see a miracle in nothing,
and those who see a miracle in everything.
Let’s be a part of the
second group, you and I.”
Sayyed handed me the envelope
and said, “I wish you gratitude.”
I returned from my deployment,
and over the next four years,
I didn’t think very much
about miracles or gratitude,
By then, I was separated with my family,
and I believed if I lay down,
pain and sleep medications and alcohol
would have spilled out
and stained the sheets.
I was crawling away
from all I feared, a hopeless task.
I spent nights sitting up
with the lights on,
awake for days at a time,
hunting knife in hand,
thinking about the monsters
in the closet I feared as a child.
Only then I thought I had become
the monster in the closet.
Like so many before me,
I had survived war
only to give it birth again,
beginning in my home and working outward.
But one day I walked by my closet,
and I reached in to Sayyed’s envelope,
which hung there untouched for four years.
I pulled out a random piece of paper.
Written across the top
was one of Munawwar’s quotes:
“If your heart is a volcano,
how shall you expect flowers to bloom?”
In the middle of the page
was biographical information.
Munawwar, as it turned out,
had been refugeed twice
in the 15 months before his detention.
He had lost both parents
and his only sibling, a sister,
in the crossfire of two battles
in the face of American Marine advances
in Iraq’s Al Anbar province.
The closest thing they owned to a weapon,
was a slingshot and a fishing pole.
At the bottom of the page,
he recounted an old folktale
in which a tree, sitting in the middle
of a devastating forest fire
questions Mother Earth
on its imminent death.
To which Mother Earth responds,
“You’ll return to the ashes
from whence you came,
where you’ll become
the world’s greatest fertilizer,
and you’ll have a hand
in a more green and lush forest
for all the generations that follow you.”
and the tree, although melancholy,
felt a renewed sense of purpose
and even gratitude.
My troubles persisted,
and after a police incident,
I found myself before a judge
who slammed his gavel
in a standing-room-only courtroom.
He offered me a simple choice:
I would go to counseling
or I would go to jail.
And because I love
simple choices, I chose jail,
because jail meant I was free -
free of dispiriting intake forms
and tests and evaluations
and counselors looking at their
computer screen the entire appointment.
I could hear the judge’s fingers
tapping on this huge wooden desk.
He slammed his gavel again,
and, overruling me,
he sent me to a counselor
named Robert for the next 26 weeks.
I committed to the bare minimum,
but I knew then in my heart that I was
ready for a gentle place to rest my head.
Now, Robert was tall,
he had gray hair and huge hands.
When we shook hands, his hand
wrapped around mine, like an envelope,
and instead of the crushing I expected,
it was a gentle hold.
On our first appointment,
he took his arm like this
and he cleared his desk
of all those dispiriting intake forms
and tests and evaluations.
He folded his hands,
and he looked me in the eye,
probably wondering
what it was that I wanted:
Help?
Forgiveness?
The first time Munawwar’s letters came up,
we agreed to read them together,
and it wasn’t very long
before we read this quote:
“For blessings are mine,
and they are plentiful.
For struggles are a privilege given
to those who can bear the weight by God.
Yet I’m still a fearful young tree
bending in a howling wind,
without the hindsight to understand
that my roots have become stronger,
as a result of that wind.”
Munawwar
seemed to infer regret at times
at showing me the envelope that night.
In fact, in his own words,
he said that he felt responsible
for the perpetuation of war by doing so.
And he recommitted himself
to something his mother had taught him
when he was younger,
and that’s that:
“Two men filled with gratitude find it
impossible to wage war with one another.”
To be sure, through his grief
and war’s destruction
and unimaginable loss,
he had shown me a kind of gratitude
I didn’t recognize in my own life,
gratitude that required
fortitude and stamina.
And what about me?
Did I need to see a miracle
with my own two eyes
before I’d believe miracles were possible?
And did it have to be a miracle
that I approved of
in my comparatively privileged life
in order to feel gratitude for it?
I often wondered if my family's letter
had been translated and read
as his letters were.
Munawwar also wrote, “What I would wish
for an enemy of mine
is that he has a mother who loves him
as my mother had loved me.”
He compared his mother’s love
to that of a Jericho rose,
or what’s known as a resurrection plant,
and if you’re unfamiliar with them,
they look like an oval-shaped tumbleweed,
as dead as a doorknob in appearance,
but they can be revived
at the slightest hint of rain
or with enough moisture
or humidity in the air,
to the extent that they bloom flowers.
Like a miracle!
I wondered if that was
where the miracle began for me,
and in the middle
of an arduous and bitter war,
I had encountered an enemy
whose humanity had transcended that war.
I had learned courage from a man
whose most dangerous possession
was a slingshot or a fishing pole
and gratitude from a man
whose most valuable possession
was a stack of letters written to ghosts.
He had no living family members left.
I’m still filled with wonder
at the odds of his letters
escaping the burn pit
and finding their way to me,
and then now today
finding their way to you.
Along the way, I learned
that I didn’t have to wait
for all to be well in my life
to feel gratitude for life’s blessings.
Maybe now is a good time for me
to share Munawwar’s words again:
“This world is comprised
of two kinds of people.
Those who see a miracle in nothing
and those who see a miracle in everything.
Let’s be a part of the
second group, you and I.”
I wish you gratitude.
Thank you.
Translation - Haitian-Creole
Mwen te la pou mwen touye l.
Mwen te yon èd laswenyay
nan marin an Irak.
lè yon militan Al-Qaeda nou te kenbe
te rive jwenn yon anvlòp
ki te gen adrès fanmi m ladann.
Li t ap fè m grimas, dan l deyò,
pandan l ap souke anvlòp presye a.
Li te menase fanmi m.
M planifye vanjans mwen
epi t ap tann yon chans,
epi twa semèn annaprè,
lè mòtye ak wòkèt lenmi yo
t al frape pa aksidan kote l t ap viv,
m te jwenn jan pou m antre nan kay li a,
youn nan wòkèt yo te kraze baryè li a.
Olye pou ta gen konfwontasyon,
mwen te jwenn li blese grav.
Lè mwen parèt devan l
epi li leve je li li gade mwen,
Mwen te konprann nenpòt ti kras chans
li ta genyen pou siviv te depann de mwen.
Èske pou m ta itilize gawo
ki nan pòch kago goch mwen
oswa zam ki nan men dwat mwen an?
Po li te fonse epi te parèt vyeyi.
Bra li te kase
nan de (2) kote pou pi piti.
Ak bon ponyèt li, li eseye
rale kò l lwen m men sanzespwa,
yon aksyon dezespere.
Nan menm moman an,
m te sezi jan m te santi chagren, tristès
pou yon moun nan yon kondisyon konsa,
poutan li te tèlman panike pou jan
li t ap eseye ale lwen m.
Nan yon fason egoyis, m pa t vle yo wè m
an asasen tankou lè m te fèk rive
nan kay li a.
Toudenkou, m te santi mwen responsab
laperèz li pou lagè pèpetyèl la.
Mwen te swete m te kapab kanpe sa.
Mwen te santi yon konpasyon
m pa ka eksplike.
Li t ap swe, epi annaprè
li pa t ap swe ankò.
Se kòmsi l pran tout enèji
l te genyen, jis pou l respire.
Dwèt li pa t antre nan beton an
menmjan nan tè ki nan dezè.
Epi finalman, grimas la,
grimas doulè ki te nan figi l la jis ale.
Finalman,
li lonje men l ban mwen,
pla men li anlè,
epi mwen t ap mande tèt mwen
kisa li t ap chèche.
Èd?
Padon?
Li te parèt tèlman diferan pase
twa (3) semèn anvan.
Nou te pre ase pou
koute youn lòt k ap respire,
epi li t ap eseye mamonnen
yon priyè an Arab.
M te vin santi m
m t ap priye tou,
epi ni youn pa t sispann gade lòt
jouk li mouri yon ti tan aprè.
Entèprèt nou an, Sayyed pwoche kò a
epi li mete ajenou tou dousman.
Se te tankou yon jenoufleksyon.
De (2) sòlda ansanm avèk mwen
vire militan an sou do,
redrese manm li ki te kase yo.
Sayyed te wè epi rale yon bout papye
nan pòch ki sou kè l la.
Li te gen ekriti Arab sou li
Men li te l byen fò an anglè.
“Si m ta di lanmè a sa mwen santi pou ou,
li t ap kite rivay li yo, kokiyay li yo,
pwason l yo epi l t ap suiv mwen.”
Mwen desann sou jenou m bò tèt mesye a
epi mete men m dèyè zepòl li yo,
kenbe koud mwen yo ansanm konsa,
pou lè n ap mete li nan sak mòg la,
tèt li pa tonbe pa dèyè.
Annaprè, lè m ap reflechi
ak bèl pawòl li te li yo,
M te mande Sayyed si m ta kapab
aprann plis sou mesye a.
Epi nan dènye jou m nan peyi Irak,
li mache sou mwen
ak yon gwo anvlòp jòn
ki gen ladann zafè pèsonèl mesye a,
yo te tradui.
Sayyed te di m:
“Mesye a te rele Munawwar,”
epi li te ekri nan youn nan lèt yo:
“Mond lan gen
de (2) kalite moun ladan li:
Sila ki wè yon mirak nan anyen serye,
epi sila ki wè yon mirak nan tout bagay.
Mwen ak ou,
annou fè pati dezyèm gwoup la.”
Sayyed remèt mwen anvlòp la
epi li di “Mwen swete w gratitid.”
Mwen sòti nan deplwaman mwen
epi pandan kat (4) dènye lane yo,
M pa tèlman reflechi
ak mirak ni gratitid,
Nan lè sa, mwen ak fanmi m nou te separe,
epi m panse si m te kouche
medikaman pou doulè ak dòmi
epi alkòl la
m t ap rann yo
epi t ap sal dra yo.
m t ap ranpe pou sove de
tout sa m te pè, yon aksyon dezespere.
Mwen pase anpil lannuit chita
ak limyè limen,
Je m kale pandan plizyè jou,
yon kouto lachas nan men m,
m ap panse ak mons sa yo
nan pandri m te pè lè mwen te timoun nan.
Se lè sa m vin wè m te vin tounen
mons sa ki te nan pandri an.
Menmjan ak yon pakèt lòt moun anvan m,
mwen te chape anba lagè
sèlman pou retounen ak li,
kòmanse lakay mwen epi fè l pran deyò.
Men yon jou, m te pase devan pandri a,
epi m te jwenn anvlòp Sayyed la,
ki te la, san manyen pandan kat (4) lane.
Mwen te rale yon ti bout papye oaza.
Sa ki te ekri nan tèt la
se te youn nan sitasyon Munawwar:
“Si kè w se yon vòlkan,
kijan ou ta vle pou flè yo boujonnen?”
nan mitan paj la,
te gen enfòmasyon biyografik.
Ebyen, pou m byen di w, Munawwar
te yon refijye de (2) fwa nan
15 mwa anvan detansyon l.
Li te pèdi tou de (2) paran l yo
ansanm ak sèl grenn sè li a,
nan mitan dife kwaze de batay yo
devan marin ameriken yo k ap vanse
nan pwovens Al Anbar nan Irak.
Bagay ki sanble ak zam yo te posede
se te yon fistibal ak yon kanapèch.
Anba paj la,
li te rakonte yon kont tout moun konnen
kote te gen yon pyebwa,
nan mitan yon dife forè k ap fè dega,
k ap poze manman latè kesyon
sou lanmò ki pandjye sou tèt li.
Epi manman latè reponn:
“W ap tounen nan sann sa ou te sòti a,
kote w ap vin
pi bon angrè nan mond lan,
epi w ap mete men
pou yon forè ki pi vèt ak chaje pyebwa
pou tout jenerasyon k ap vin dèyè w.”
epi pyebwa a, menmsi ak kè grenn
te vin santi yon nouvo sans objektif
ansanm ak gratitid tou.
Pwoblèm mwen te pèsiste
epi aprè sa ki te rive ak lapolis la,
mwen t al prezante devan yon jij
ki te frape mato l nan
yon sal odyans moun kanpe sèlman.
Li te mete yon senp chwa devan m:
swa m al wè yon sikològ
oswa m ale nan prizon.
Epi paske m renmen
bagay ki senp, mwen te chwazi prizon
paske prizon te vle di mwen lib
san fòmilè admisyon dekourajan
ak tès oswa egzamen
ak sikològ k ap gade
ekran òdinatè yo pandan tout randevou a.
Mwen te kapab tande dwèt jij la
k ap frape sou gwo tab an bwa a.
Li frape mato a ankò,
epi san l pa menm koute desizyon m nan,
li voye m al jwenn yon sikològ ki
rele Robert pandan lòt 26 semèn yo.
Mwen te angaje m yon ti kras,
men m te konnen nan kè m m te pare
pou yon kote trankil pou m poze tèt mwen.
Bon, Robert te wo,
je li te gri epi li te gen gwo men.
Lè li te ban m lanmen, men l
te vlope men m tankou yon anvlòp,
m te atann mwen li ta pral kraze men m,
poutan se te yon lanmen swa.
Nan premye randevou nou an,
li te sèvi ak bra l konsa
epi l te retire l sou biwo li a
tout fòmilè admisyon dekourajan yo
ansanm ak tès ak egzamen yo.
Li te kwaze men l,
epi te gade m nan je,
siman l ap mande tèt li
kisa m te bezwen:
Èd?
Padon?
Premye fwa lèt Munawwar yo te rive,
nou te dakò pou n te li yo ansanm,
epi li pa t long pase sa
jouk nou rive sou sitasyon sa:
“Paske benediksyon yo se pou mwen
epi yo agogo.
Paske konba yo se yon privilèj yo fè kado
ak sila ki kapab pote chay la nan Bondye.
Poutan m se yon ti pyebwa tou kapon
k ap kobi anba gwo van k ap wouke,
san m pa fè bak pou konprann
rasin mwen te vin pi fèm poutèt van sa.”
Munawwar
te genlè gen regrè
poutèt li te montre m anvlòp lannuit sila.
Anfèt, ak pwòp mo pa l,
Li te di l te santi l responsab
gè pepetyèl la nan jan l te aji a.
Epi li te angaje tèt li ankò
ak yon bagay manman li te aprann li
lè l te timoun,
epi se te:
“De (2) gason plen ak gratitid te santi l
enposib pou fè lagè youn ak lòt.”
Pou l k sèten, pandan chagren li
ak demolisman gè a
ansanm ak pèt moun pa kapab imajine,
li te montre m yon estil gratitid
mwen pa t rekonèt menm nan pwòp lavi m,
gratitid ki mande andirans ak rezistans.
E mwen menm menm?
Èske pou m ta wè yon mirak
ak de (2) grenn je m
anvan m ta kwè mirak posib?
Èske li te dwe yon mirak
mwen te apwouve
an konparezon ak lavi m
ki te sanble privilejye
pou m ta gen santiman gratitid?
Dèfwa m mande tèt mwen
si yo te tradui lèt fanmi m yo epi li yo
jan sa fèt pou lèt pa l yo.
Epitou, Munawwar te ekri:
“Sa m ta swete pou yon enmi m
se pou l ta gen yon manman ki renmen l
menmjan manman m te renmen m.”
Li te konpare lanmou manman l
ak yon woz Jeriko,
oswa sa yo rele yon plant rezirèksyon.
epi si w pa konnen l,
li sanble ak yon fèy ki gen fòm oval,
tou mouri tankou yon manch pòt,
men ki ka reviv ak ti kras lapli
oswa ak ase imidite oswa imidite nan lè a,
nan yon nivo pou flè yo fleri.
Tankou yon mirak!
M te mande tèt mwen èske se lè sa
mirak la te kòmanse pou mwen,
epi nan mitan
yon gè ki difisil epi anmè kou fyèl,
mwen te rankontre yon enmi
imanite l te depase gè sa.
M te aprann kouraj nan yon nonm
sa l te gen nan men l ki te pi danjere
se te yon fistibal oswa yon kanapèch
epi gratitid nan yon nonm
sa l te gen nan men l ki te pi presye
se te yon lo lèt li te ekri bay lespri yo.
Pa t gen okenn manm
nan fanmi l ki te vivan.
M toujou santi m plen ak admirasyon
sou ki chans ki ta genyen pou lèt li yo
ta chape nan fòs dife a epi
vin jwenn mwen,
epi jounen jodi a rive al jwenn ou.
Nan mitan wout la, m te aprann
m pa t oblije tann
pou tout bagay ap byen mache nan lavi m
pou m ka gen gratitid pou byenfè lavi.
Genlè kounye a se bon moman pou
m pataje ankò sa Munawwar te di yo:
“Mond lan gen ladan li de (2) kalite moun.
Sila ki wè yon mirak nan anyen serye
epi sila ki wè yon mirak nan tout bagay.”
Mwen ak ou,
annou fè pati dezyèm gwoup la.”
Mwen swete w gratitid.
Mèsi.
English to Haitian-Creole: Study of COVID-19 / Etid sou KOVID-19 General field: Medical Detailed field: Chemistry; Chem Sci/Eng
Source text - English As COVID-19 spreads, scientists are racing to studying it. Although journals have tried to speed up peer review, may authors bypass it altogether by uploading working papers to preprint sites. Flimsy findings can then travel as fast as the virus.
Most scholars who share preprints are doing their best to make vital discoveries. However, some authors seek to improve resumes by publishing underwhelming, repetitive or fake researchs. As safeguards are relaxed, journalists and governments need to be on high alert to spot such studies.
These articles mostly appear in “predatory” journals, which make use of the popular “open-access” model- charging fees to authors, rather than readers- to publish anything for money. That is according to Cabells, a firm that maintains a blacklist of such journals in English.
Some scammers are careless. Mikew Daube, a professor of public health, got his dog onto seven journals’ boards. Cabells uses 65 critera to spot frauds. “Severe” infractions, such as missing back issues, lead straight to blacklisting.
Geography is more revealing. Cabells lists only a few reliable Nigerian journals. India’s figures are 300 to 4,400. The authors of these papers are often from developing countries, but Western academics have been caught on the act as well. Many scholars claim to have been lured into using such journals.
Cabell’s guidelines will only start to catch dodgy studies in COVID-19 once they appear in predatory journals. But the fact that so many “scholars” use such outlets means that working papers on the disease should face extra-thorough scrutiny.
Translation - Haitian-Creole Amezi KOVID-19 ap gaye kò li, syantifik yo ap fè prese pou kapab etidye li. Menmsi jounal yo t ap eseye akselere egzamen ki fèt an gwoup de (2) moun, yon pakèt otè t ap kontounen l nèt nan voye dokiman travay yo sou sit ki enprime davans. Rezilta san fonnman kapab gaye rapid menmjan ak viris la.
Pifò nan save ki te pataje dokiman ki enpreme davans yo ap fè tout sa yo kapab pou fè dekouvèt ki gen nanm. Poutan, kèk nan otè yo ap chèche amelyore kourikoulòm yo nan pibliye rechèch ki desevan, k ap repete epi ki pa laverite. Kòm pwoteksyon yo kòmanse pa estrik ankò, jounalis yo ak gouvènman yo dwe mete yo an alèt pou mete lapat sou etid sa yo.
Atik sa yo parèt sitou nan jounal “predatè”, ki sèvi ak modèl popilè “aksè lib” ki se fè otè yo peye pou pibliye nenpòt sa li ye a, olye se ta lektè yo ki pou ta peye. Daprè Cabells, sa se yon sosyete ki genyen yon lis nwa sou jounal sa yo an anglè.
Kèk nan magouyè yo neglijan. Mikew Daube, yon pwofesè nan sante piblik, te fè chen li an antre nan konsèy administrasyon sèt jounal. Cabells sèvi ak 65 kritè pou mete lapat sou magouy sa yo. Enfraksyon “malouk” tankou mank ansyen nimewo yo mennen tou dwat nan mete w sou lis nwa.
Jewografi pi makan ankò. Cabells montre sèlman yon ti kal jounal Nijeryen ki fyab. Nan peyi End, genyen ant 300 ak 4 400. Otè jounal sa yo pi fasil sòti nan peyi devlope yo men yo te kenbe Akademi ki nan peyi oksidantal yo tou nan menm koze sa. Anpil save fè konnen yo te fòse yo itilize jounal sa yo.
Prensip Cabell yo ap kapab kòmanse mete lapat sou etid pa fyab sou KOVID-19 lè yo kòmanse pran lari sou jounal predatè yo. Men poutèt yon pakèt “save” sèvi ak jounal sa yo sa vle di dokiman travay sou maladi a ta dwe pase anba yon egzamen ki trè pwofon.
English to Haitian-Creole: Black Utopian / Ayiti: Ideyal pou Pèp Nwa yo General field: Social Sciences Detailed field: History
Source text - English https://culanth.org/fieldsights/haiti-black-utopia
In Saint-Domingue [Haiti], the indigenous culture of the plantation slaves learned how to fight while it was learning to breathe. It was a culture that was born in struggle. It wasn’t born before, it fought afterward. It was born because it was fighting.
—Michel-Rolph Trouillot
On August 14, 2021, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck southwestern Haiti, killing over 2,000 people. Between the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse a month prior and Tropical Strom Grace two days after, the earthquake contributed to a reading of Haiti as the impoverished island that simply cannot catch a break. For a few weeks after the earthquake, a wave of pity for Haiti cycled through foreign news media outlets. Yet international officials—namely, the US administration who had backed Jovenel Moïse despite his alleged human rights’ abuses—largely ignored people’s protests against rising fuel prices and the widespread kidnappings and even killings of Haitians citizens during and in the wake of Moïse’s presidential tenure.
On October 16, 2021, 17 missionaries (16 US Americans and 1 Canadian) were kidnapped after leaving an orphanage in Port-au-Prince. The international media concern for the missionaries juxtaposed against the indifference toward Haitian kidnapping victims—including the missionaries’ Haitian bus driver—underscores the systemic devaluing of Black lives. What’s more, Haiti quickly went from victim to villain, earning a new title: “kidnapping capital of the world.” This new distinction joined Haiti’s other monikers: “poorest country in the Western Hemisphere” and “land in perpetual crisis.” In effect, the narrative pendulum between “Haiti as victim or villain” reflects an anti-Blackness that (re)produces Haiti and the Haitian people through rigid and dehumanizing stereotypes.
In line with Gina Ulysse’s (2015) call for new narratives and resisting the discursive frame of Haiti only as a “problem,” I examine here Haiti’s beginnings as a Black utopia premised on the intrinsic value of Black lives amid global anti-Blackness. Haiti, as Black utopian symbol, played a key role in showing how other worlds are possible.
Utopian thought and imagination—based upon the pillars of liberation, justice, and freedom—have been central to Black existence in the Americas (Zamalin 2019, 7; see also Kelley 2002). While the sum total of Black diasporic experiences may seem nothing short of dystopian, “a utopian kernel was . . . lodged at the beginning of the Black experience. The subjection of slaves created a transcendent culture in which spirituals embodied the prophetic faith in reaching the promised land of freedom,” or a place of Black belonging, free from white supremacy (Zamalin 2019, 7). This promised land was often a spiritual, rather than a physical, destination. In Saint-Domingue, the counterpart of Black American spirituals—the songs of the Vodou religion—not only allowed people to imagine the promised land but also gave instructions on how to create it on earth.
On August 14, 1791—exactly 230 years before the 2021 earthquake—enslaved people gathered for a Vodou ceremony on a plantation near present-day Cap Haïtien to lay plans for realizing liberation on the very soil upon which they were enslaved. The ceremony at Bwa Kayiman (or Bois Caïman) was the imaginative or creative force behind the slave insurrection that would lead to the Haitian Revolution, an “unthinkable” event even as it happened (Trouillot 1995). Haitian anthropologist Michel-Rolph Trouillot ([1977] 2014, 31) positions Bwa Kayiman as both a religious ceremony and political meeting. “It was a Vodou ceremony that was, at the same time, the biggest political guarantee [the enslaved] could make with each other before they decided to turn Saint-Domingue upside down.” As Alex Zamalin argues, “utopia is a fruitful site for political theory [because] it lives on the precipice of human imagination, beyond the border of the possible” (2019, 6, italics added). Thus, in combining utopianism with political planning, Bwa Kayiman, I argue, was an early exemplar of Black utopian political theorizing.
More than twelve years after the ceremony at Bwa Kayiman, Haiti emerged as a Black utopia. As Franklin Knight writes,
Intellectually, the ex-colonists gave themselves a new, if not entirely original name—Haitians—and defined all Haitians as “black,” thereby striking a shattering psychological blow against the emerging intellectual traditions of an increasingly racist Europe and North America that saw a hierarchical world eternally dominated by types representative of their European-derived somatic norm images. In Haiti, all citizens were legally equal, regardless of color, race, or condition. (2005, 395, italics added)
Haiti was, therefore, an island of Black belonging in an otherwise white supremacist world. So, what happened? Why did Haiti fall so far short of its utopian beginning? Scholars of Haiti have examined myriad reasons for the country’s current state: systemic, global anti-Blackness; the indemnity Haiti had to pay France for recognition of its sovereignty, which began a cycle of debt and dependency; US political and economic interference in Haiti; the demonization of the Vodou religion and culture; deep socioeconomic inequalities; et cetera.
While it is important to chronicle precisely why and how Haiti became a failed Black utopian project, it is equally important to reflect on how Haiti inspired other enslaved peoples to envision and fight for Black utopias of their own. Indeed, the Haitian Revolution was a source of inspiration for Black populations from Cuba to Virginia. For instance, historian Ada Ferrer (2014) finds evidence that enslaved people in Havana planned their own Bwa Kayiman weeks into the Haitian Revolution. Moreover, the marks of Haitian influence run through Nat Turner’s Rebellion, which occurred on the 40th anniversary of the slave revolt that launched the Haitian Revolution. Alfred Hunt (1988) even shows that the Haitian Revolution contributed to attitudes and thoughts that led to the US Civil War. Furthermore, Haiti gave early Black utopian thinkers, like Frederick Douglass, hope for a future of Black political independence and freedom.
Black utopian political projects since the Haitian Revolution have taken the forms of insurrections and revolution, as well as repatriation missions and artistic and civil rights movements (Kelley 2002). And while these projects have not resulted in Black utopias per se, they have contributed to increased freedom for all peoples.
Today, amid (un)natural disasters, climate change, social crises, and systemic racism, countless Haitians continue to envision, demand, and fight for justice and the right to breathe. Haiti continues to show us that Black utopian dreaming and action are essential to realizing better worlds, now.
Nan Sendomeng [Ayiti], kilti endijèn esklav plantasyon yo te aprann jan pou li te goumen pandan li t ap aprann respire. Se te yon kilti ki te fèt nan goumen. Li pa t fèt anvan, li te goumen an aprè. Li te fèt paske li t ap goumen.
—Michel-Rolph Trouillot
Nan jou ki te 14 dawou 2021, yon tranblemanntè 7.2 te frape Gransid peyi Dayiti. Li te ale ak nanm plis pase 2.000 kretyen vivan. Ant asasinay Prezidan Jovenel Moïse yon mwa anvan sa ansanm ak siklòn Grace de jou aprè tranblemanntè a, tranblemanntè sila a te fè anpil moun gade Ayiti tankou yon zile pòv ki pa janm ka pran souf. Pandan kèk semèn aprè tranblemanntè a, yon vag lapenn pou Ayiti t ap sikile sou jounal etranje yo. Poutan, otorite entènasyonal yo—a savwa, gouvènman Etazini an ki t ap bay Jovenel Moïse bourad malgre yo te tande li konn vyole dwa moun—te fè kòmsi yo pa t tande manifestasyon pèp la sou pri gaz la k ap monte tèt nèg ak kidnapin nan k ap vale teren ansanm ak pil Ayisyen k ap mouri ni pandan ni aprè manda prezidan Moïse la.
Nan jou ki te 16 oktòb 2021, yo te kidnape 17 misyonè (16 Ameriken ak 1 Kanadyen) aprè yo te fin kite yon òfelina nan Pòtoprens. Medya entènasyonal la te preyokipe anpil pou misyonè yo, poutan yo te rete de bra kwaze devan fenomèn Ayisyen yo k ap viktim kidnapin—menm chofè ayisyen ki t ap kondui bis misyonè yo. Tout sa montre kijan yo pa bay lavi pèp nwa yo valè. Sa k pi rèd la, Ayiti sòti nan estad viktim, li pase nan estad mechan, li vin gen yon lòt tit: “kapital mondyal kidnapin.” Nouvo tit sa ajoute sou lòt ti non yo konn bay Ayiti: “peyi ki pi pòv nan zòn oksidantal la” ansanm ak “tè ki toujou anba kriz.” Epi pandil narasyon ant “Ayiti tankou viktim oswa mechan” montre yon antinwaris ki (re)pwodui Ayiti ak pèp ayisyen nan itilize estereyotip ki mechan epi ki denigran.
An akò ak apèl Gina Ulysse (2015) lanse pou nouvo istwa epi pou kenbe tèt ak fòm diskou ki wè Ayiti sèlman tankou yon “pwoblèm,” m ap suiv kòmansman Ayiti tankou yon ideyal nwa ki chita sou valè esansyèl lavi nwa yo nan mitan fenomèn antinwaris mondyal la. Ayiti, kòm yon senbòl ideyal pou nwa yo, te jwe yon wòl enpòtan nan montre posiblite pou gen lòt mond.
Reflechi epi imajine yon mond ideyal—ki se poto mitan liberasyon, jistis ak libète—te fondèt egzistans nwa yo nan Lamerik la (Zamalin 2019, 7; gade tou Kelley 2002). Pandan total tout eksperyans nwa ki nan dyaspora yo ta sanble ak lanfè sou latè pou kèk moun, gen “baz yon lòt ideyal ki t ap . . . devlope nan kòmansman eksperyans nwa yo. Dominasyon sou esklav yo te anjandre yon kilti ki ale pi wo kote spirituals[1] yo te reprezante lafwa nan pwofesi pou rive jwenn pwomès bout tè libète a,” oubyen yon kote ki pou nwa yo ki pa anba dominasyon blan yo. Pi souvan, tè pwomiz sa te yon destinasyon espirityèl, li pa fizik. Nan Sendomeng, omològ spirituals nwa ameriken yo—ki se mizik vodou a—pa sèlman pèmèt moun imajine tè pwomiz la men tou li ba yo eksplikasyon sou kijan pou yo mete l sou tè a.
Nan jou ki te 14 dawou 1791—egzakteman 230 lane anvan tranblemanntè 2021 an—pèp ki te nan esklavaj la te rasanble pou yon seremoni vodou nan yon plantasyon tou pre kote yo rele Kap Ayisyen jounen jodiya pou yo te kapab mete sou pye plan libète yo menm kote yo te fè yo tounen esklav la. Seremoni nan Bwa Kayiman se te fòs imajinasyon ak kreyasyon ki te chita dèyè leve kanpe esklav yo ki ta pral eklate sou revolisyon pèp ayisyen an, yon evènman ki te “enpasab” menm nan lè li te fèt la (Trouillot 1995). Antwopològ ayisyen Michel-Rolph Trouillot ([1977] 2014, 31) wè Bwa Kayiman ni kòm yon seremoni relijye ni kòm yon reyinyon politik. “Se te yon seremoni vodou ki te, nan menm moman an, pi gwo garanti politik [esklav yo] t ap kapab fè youn ak lòt anvan yo deside pou vire Sendomeng tèt anba.” Jan Alex Zamalin pale de sa, “ideyal la se yon tè donab pou teyori politik [paske] l ap viv nan bòday imajinasyon lòm nan, pi lwen pase limit fwontyè sa nou panse ki posib la” (2019, 6, se lotè tèks sa a ki mete fraz la an italik). Poutan, nan kole ideyal ansanm ak planifikasyon politik, Bwa Kayiman, m ap di sa, se te yon premye egzanp sou teyori politik ideyal nwa.
Plis pase douz lane aprè seremoni Bwa Kayiman, Ayiti parèt kòm yon ideyal nwa. Jan Franklin Knight ekri,
Sou plan entelektyèl la, ansyen kolon yo te bay tèt yo yon nouvo non, menmsi li pa t fin twò orijinal—non Ayisyen—epi defini tout Ayisyen kòm “nwa,” sa ki te bay yon gwo kou sikolojik ki te kraze an miyèt moso tout tradisyon entelektyèl ki t ap fèk parèt nan yon Ewòp ak Nò Amerik ki trè rasis, menm kote sa yo ki te konprann lemonn dwe toujou nan yon sistèm kote se reprezantan ki sanble ak imaj fizik ewopeyen pa yo a ki pou ap gouvène. An Ayiti, tout sitwayen te egal ego devan lalwa, san gade sou koulè po, ras ak kondisyon. (2005, 395, se lotè tèks sa a ki mete fraz la an italik)
Kidonk, Ayiti te yon zile pou nwa yo poutan li nan mitan yon mond ki anba dominasyon blan. Ebyen, kisa ki te pase menm? Poukisa Ayiti tonbe ba konsa sòti nan kòmansman ideyal li a? Kèk moun save ki etidye Ayiti te pase je yo sou plizyè rezon ki ta ka eksplike poukisa peyi a nan eta li ye la: yon kalite sistèm mondyal ki kont nwa yo, dèt Ayiti te gen pou l te peye Lafrans pou l te ka rekonèt endepandans li, ki te anjandre yon lo dèt ak depandans, Lèzetazini ki pa janm sispann foure bouch li nan zafè politik ak ekonomik Ayiti, fè moun konprann relijyon ak kilti vodou a se baka sèlman yo gen ladan yo, gwo eka inegalite sosyal ak ekonomik yo, elatriye.
Menmsi li enpòtan pou bay detay egzat sou poukisa epi kijan Ayiti te vin yon pwojè ideyal nwa rate, konsa tou li enpòtan pou reflechi sou kijan Ayiti te enspire lòt pèp ki te nan esklavaj yo pou vizyonnen epi goumen pou gen pwòp ideyal nwa pa yo. Vrèman vre, Revolisyon Ayisyèn nan se te yon sous enspirasyon pou lòt pèp nwa sòti nan Kiba rive Vijini. Pa egzanp, istoryèn Ada Ferrer (2014) jwenn prèv ki montre pèp esklav yo nan Lavann te mete sou pye pwòp Bwa Kayiman pa yo kèk sèmen aprè Revolisyon Ayisyen an te kòmanse. Anplis de sa, mak enfliyans Ayisyen an ap travèse rebelyon Nat Turner, ki te fèt nan karantyèm anivèsè revòlt esklav yo ki te deklannche Revolisyon Ayisyen an. Alfred Hunt (1988) te menm montre Revolisyon Ayisyen an te bay patisipasyon l nan konpòtman ak lide ki te mennen sou Gè Sivil Etazini an. Epitou, Ayiti te bay premye pansè sou ideyal pou pèp nwa yo tankou Frederick Douglass, lespwa pou yon endepandans politik ak libète pou nwa yo.
Pwojè politik sou ideyal nwa yo depi Revolisyon Ayisyen pran an te fòm yon leve kanpe ak revolisyon, menmjan ak misyon rapatriman, mouvman atistik ak mouvman pou dwa sivil (Kelley 2002). Epi menmsi pwojè sa yo pa bay yon rezilta ideyal nwa an swa, yo bay patisipasyon yo pou ogmante libète pou tout pèp yo.
Jounen jodiya, nan mitan dezas natirèl (ki pa natirèl), chanjman klima, kriz sosyal ak sistèm rasis la, yon bon valè Ayisyen kontinye ap reve, mande epi goumen pou jistis ak dwa pou yo respire. Nan moman an, Ayiti kontinye montre nou rèv ansanm ak aksyon ideyal pèp nwa yo esansyèl pou mete sou pye mond ki miyò.
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Bachelor's degree - Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana
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Bio
Hi there! I am Danielle, Haitian Creole native speaker with 4 years and 9 months of translation experience. I translate from English/Spanish/French to Haitian Creole.
I am a Haitian Creole Content Reviewer at Tedtalks; I lead the French and the Haitian Creole at Respond. In my journey, I have worked as a volunteer translator with over 40 organizations, I have also worked with individuals and agencies. In my free time, I enjoy translating books for kids and I got to work with a few authors, some of the books have been published on Amazon.
I have also worked on the transcription in Haitian Creole and translation into English of some parts of the movie "The Exorcist Believer" which came out in 2023.
I love what I am doing and have taken a lot of courses, participated in a lot of webinars to master the translation field. I mostly translate legal and medical-related documents, since my everyday work is to work with refugees, asylum seekers and lawyers.
It will be a great pleasure working with you!!
Keywords: haitian creole, english to haitian creole, translation, localization
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