• barsoap@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    Yes. As are the French. Quick historical rundown:

    1. Haiti isn’t Haiti but together with the Dominican Republic one island inhabited by indigenious people.
    2. France and Spain split the Island. France imports tons of slaves to their part, setting up a very lucrative plantation economy, practically all Haitians are slaves there’s only owners and owned. Way more erm balanced on the Spanish side.
    3. Revolution, both in Haiti and France.
    4. A quarter century later, the French demand Haitians pay for their freedom, or else. The remnants of that debt were sold to what’s now citibank, who continued to collect, with aid of the US army. That’s what makes the US as a state complicit in this shit.

    Haiti finally paid off everything in 1947, leaving a completely barren country behind, not just of an economy because everything was extractive but also literally: Compare the number of trees in Haiti vs. the Dominican Republic, Haiti was deforested to pay debt. Speaking of, relations between the two states are strained at best: More or less directly after France imposed the debt Haiti conquered the Dominicans and squeezed them to pay it.

    That debt, and it long-term effects, is why you have two so very disparate states on the same island. France still hasn’t paid reparations. The US at least is doing stuff like bankrolling Kenya’s mission there. Haiti needs, in about this order: 1) material security, 2) internal peace, 3) enough investment in people and economy to make it catch up to the Dominicans. The French should keep out of all of it except for paying the fuck up.