Haiti's echoing victory

Like many former slaves and leaders of the Haitian Revolution, King Henri Christophe was obsessed with safeguarding the hard-won liberty of Haiti's former slaves and ensuring the country's new independence from France. To protect these precious freedoms, he had some 20,000 former slaves work for 15 years to build Citadelle Laferriere, a huge stone fortress that sits at the summit of a mountain, its jutting, enormous prow of a facade facing the sea on Haiti's north coast. Though untold thousands died in its construction during the early 1800s, it gave Henri what he -- and Haiti -- needed. From the Citadel's unobstructed vantage point, King Henri could easily see any massing of French troops. With enough warning, his men, he knew, could repulse any French attack. They had done so many times before.

Never permit the French to come again to Haiti: This was the watchword of the newly independent colony. Nou pa vle blan, the Haitians had declared. "We don't want whites." Although the Citadelle is now abandoned, it still stands as a timeless and impressive monument to Haitian independence. If a visitor is willing to climb on foot in the heat or hire an exhausted donkey to take him up the steep ascent, he can see the northern plain and the coast from King Henri's point of view, a vast staging ground for onslaughts against the new country. In Haitian Creole today, the word blan simply means "foreigner."

It seems painful timing, then, that "Avengers of the New World," Laurent Dubois' stern and brilliant new book on the Haitian Revolution, should be published at the very moment when French soldiers once again -- for the first time since Haiti declared its independence in 1804 -- are patrolling Haitian soil. Of course, this time the French, American and other troops came from the air and could not be stopped by such ancient fortifications as the Citadel -- or by Haitian pride. Indeed, many Haitians welcomed them and paved the way for their arrival.

After reading Dubois' book, it becomes clear how foreign interference became a commonplace in Haitian politics and why, even during the revolution, such intrusions into their political affairs were sometimes permitted even by the greatest of the rebel leaders. At the time, the world's major powers were fighting over the right to buy Haitian sugar and coffee. (As the colonial power there, France had a monopoly on Haitian goods.) They were also fighting over the right to sell their own wares in Haiti, which -- because almost all its arable land was used as a workhouse to produce exclusively for France -- was a huge importer both of necessities and luxuries. Pirate ships of all nations plied the waters off the island, stealing rich booty in acts of virtual war. Today, Haiti remains a net importer of necessities such as rice and clothing.