Pan-Africanism and Négritude in the building of Haitian nationalism

Abstract

Haiti bore the responsibility of defending the humanity of blacks in the late 19th century. In order to react to colonialism in Africa and its racist theories, important Haitian intellectuals played a central role in the creation of the Pan-African movement that began in the later years of the century and then in the creation of the blackness movement in the 1920s. The thematic is analyzed from the perspective of the unequal and combined development of Haitian history in relation to contemporary history. Based on a historiographical critique and analysis of the theoretical and documentary production of the main authors, the article presents the themes that fueled the involvement of Haitian intellectuals in the debates about Pan-Africanism, the new nationalism after the US invasion in 1915 and the conflicts and disagreements which permeated the racist course of the Négritude movement led by the Griots group of François Duvalier. Two hypotheses for an understanding of the likely interrelationships with Haitian nationalism. First, that the Pan-African and blackness movements were essential in the attempts to construct or rebuild early 20th nationalism. Secondly, that the limits and restrictions of these two movements to an economic and social approach to issues of the blacks paved the way for a racist and authoritarian biologization of the discourse in defense of blacks and of nationalism itself, with probable repercussions on the current black identity movements.