196 Books: Haiti

 Kannjawou by Lyonel Trouillot

This is Haiti:

This is the summary:

In this energetic celebration of Haiti and its capital in the early 2000s, Trouillot embodies the nation's indomitable spirit in the voice of his narrator. This anonymous, world-weary, 20-something male student keenly depicts a country entering a new era after years of dictatorship, oppression, corruption, and the chaos wrought by the most recent foreign arrivals: the international peace-keeping forces sent to restore order after the departure of the U.S. Marines, known as "the Big Boots." In a series of journal entries, the young protagonist introduces readers to his world within a world—a community center in Port-au-Prince peopled by a motley group of friends, lovers, revolutionaries, compatriots, dreamers, schemers, and mentors, all living under the watchful eye of Mam Jeanne, the proprietress. Readers meet the "gang of five," among whom are two beautiful young women who work at the local bar, Kannjawou, and the men who pursue them; the wise older veterans scarred by the torture of past regimes; the nonchalant tourists and foreign officials who populate the bar; and the gentle mentor, rival in love, and father figure to the group, known lovingly to all as "the little professor." In KANNJAWOU Trouillot has penned a love song and a swan song to that era of dispersion for Haiti's people, who, even when they are far from home carry with them the kannjawou spirit.

I feel like a lot of the country books I've been reading lately are stories about occupied countries. It's so interesting to me that this sort of thing still happens. I guess in this case it was somewhat justified, as there had been a regular election, and then a coup d'etat that put a dictator in place. It was called Operation Uphold Democracy, which I find annoying for some reason. The next phase, the time in which this book is set, was the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti. But the way they went about it was to mostly bring in a bunch of military and police so...*shrug.* Anyway, here are my highlights. 

"But an occupied country is a land without a sky or horizon, where it would be wrong to believe that as long as there's life, there's hope." The narrator talked about how there were two sides to the city: basically the rich and the poor. The foreigners had their nice homes and cars, were protected if they broke a law or something bad happened to them, and they stay away from the poor areas. When I went on a Caribbean cruise a couple of years ago I saw this. Everything at the port was built up and nice, but just a couple of miles away were dilapidated shacks. It was so sad, and it made me feel like an asshole for being a part of that system. 

"Yes, there was all of that. But the worst was when the boots came." Mam Jeanne is talking to the narrator and the little professor about the past, and how the occupation was the worst thing to happen. She recalls a hurricane, a epidemic, and droughts, but says occupation was worse than all of that. The narrator says the past is all lumped together in Mam Jeanne's head, except for that time. 

"A goose and an ostrich." They kept calling some guy a goose and an ostrich. I don't even know what it means, but it was cracking me up.

"The little professor likes to believe that we are what we do with our hands." I thought this was beautiful. Think about it-are you using your hands to hurt? To dry tears? To give or take? To play music? To share knowledge? 

"Children are traveling all the time--rising up to the sky, descending into the depths of the sea,, dancing with colors and words, bringing together the living and the dead and the young and the old, replacing reality with dreams whenever reality is bad, showing you a dream while saying, 'Look, this is real' and looking at you with a challenge in their eyes whenever you'd like to say that their dream isn't true." This was also beautiful. Kids have so much imagination and wonder about the world, and we lose it as we get older. Sure we still daydream, but it's not nearly the same as the daydreams you have as a kid. 

As with all books from poorer countries, it's sad to find out how they live. And these people weren't in a terrible position-they all had housing, food, and jobs. But it's sad hearing about the stark contrast between the rich and the poor, and how it makes the poor people just lose hope.