As a freelance editor, I will, for added pay, take on a book project that has little to do with Africa. Well, directly at least. The current manuscript, forthcoming from a publisher in Princeton, is on Haiti circa 1959 when Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba--and the effects this historic period had on Haiti as a whole. The well-informed writer, Bernard Diederich, a former NYT correspondent and publisher of what was then Haiti Sun, writes brilliantly for the most part, with a keen and sympathetic eye.
Last night, as I put the finishing editorial touches on one of the chapters, I noted something that was gravely disturbing. Then, in 1959, under the dictatorial reign of Duvalier (Papa Doc), the very same issues that plague the Haitian populace today--poverty, severe hunger, inability to buy food--were at a time also rampant in the countryside. Yes, even then: We are talking at least 49 or so years ago. One year shy of a half a century. And little (if any) progress to show for it. Heartrending. One might say the same, in fact, progress-wise (but with fewer years of national liberation) about a certain country in southern Africa where a recent election has been irascibly contested. Despotism, indeed.
[Photo of the desecrated grave of Papa Doc]
No comments:
Post a Comment