(...)
Papa Doc ruled Haiti’s 10 million wretched people by a combination of supernatural fear and terror. Once a simple country doctor, Duvalier became Haiti’s leading voodoo hongan. Haitians believed he could turn himself into a crow, lay spells, raise the dead and kill at long distance.
If Haitians were not sufficiently cowed by voodoo magic, Papa Doc had his dreaded paramilitary thugs, the TonTon Macoutes (bogeymen in Creole). Dressed in blue denim from head to foot, the heavily armed TTM’s terrorized Haitians, abducting suspects, and imposing “street tax” on passersby. I had numerous run-ins with the TTM’s, all near-death experiences.
Papa Doc was a paranoid monster who routinely had his foes, real or imagined, shot at the yellow-painted Fort Dimanche. The executions were carried live on radio.
However brutal, Duvalier was supported by Washington which feared a Cuban-style takeover of Haiti. Castro’s Cuba was only 80km from Haiti across the strategic Windward Passage and looked like heaven compared to Haitian Hell.
When Duvalier died in 1971, his tubby, 114 kilo son, Jean-Claude, was put into power as a figurehead by the TonTon Macoutes, the wealthy mulatto business elite and Uncle Sam. He was a miserable creature, afraid of his own shadow, terrified, like many Haitians, that Papa Doc might rise from his grave like the evil voodoo deity, Baron Samedi. Full story...
Related posts:
Papa Doc ruled Haiti’s 10 million wretched people by a combination of supernatural fear and terror. Once a simple country doctor, Duvalier became Haiti’s leading voodoo hongan. Haitians believed he could turn himself into a crow, lay spells, raise the dead and kill at long distance.
If Haitians were not sufficiently cowed by voodoo magic, Papa Doc had his dreaded paramilitary thugs, the TonTon Macoutes (bogeymen in Creole). Dressed in blue denim from head to foot, the heavily armed TTM’s terrorized Haitians, abducting suspects, and imposing “street tax” on passersby. I had numerous run-ins with the TTM’s, all near-death experiences.
Papa Doc was a paranoid monster who routinely had his foes, real or imagined, shot at the yellow-painted Fort Dimanche. The executions were carried live on radio.
However brutal, Duvalier was supported by Washington which feared a Cuban-style takeover of Haiti. Castro’s Cuba was only 80km from Haiti across the strategic Windward Passage and looked like heaven compared to Haitian Hell.
When Duvalier died in 1971, his tubby, 114 kilo son, Jean-Claude, was put into power as a figurehead by the TonTon Macoutes, the wealthy mulatto business elite and Uncle Sam. He was a miserable creature, afraid of his own shadow, terrified, like many Haitians, that Papa Doc might rise from his grave like the evil voodoo deity, Baron Samedi. Full story...
Related posts:
No comments:
Post a Comment