"Rise Up Through the Words": Postcolonial Haitian Uncoverings of Anacaona

This paper investigates the literary presence and modern significance of Anacaona, leader of the last Taíno kingdom during the Columbian conquest of Ayti. After briefly exploring and analyzing her characterization in narratives by Christopher Columbus and Bartolomé de Las Casas, the paper focuses on Anacaona's representation in three works by Haitian diaspora writers: the play Anacaona by Jean Métellus (1986); the poem "Anacaona" by Danielle Legros Georges (2001); and the young adult novel Anacaona, Golden Flower, Haiti, 1490 by Edwidge Danticat (2005). As these authors re-present Anacaona, they each do so in a way that opposes the tragic, cooperative image presented by contemporaneous accounts. By invoking Anacaona as a native origin figure, one who exists both before and beyond European presence, these authors attempt to reclaim a kinship with the land of Ayti that creates the possibility of resistance and a renewed future for the postcolonial Haitian nation.