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  • From Ti difé boulé sou istoua Ayiti
  • Michel-Rolph Trouillot (bio)
    Translated by Mariana Past (bio) and Benjamin Hebblethwaite (bio)

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Entre Deux Eaux. Mixed media on aluminum in artist frame. 57 x 94 cm. ©2009 Edouard Duval-Carrié. Private collection.

[End Page 74]

Ti difé boulé sou istoua Ayiti, or Controversial Issues in Haitian History (1977) was the first book published by Michel-Rolph Trouillot. He wrote it soon after emigrating to the United States from Haiti to escape the Duvalier dictatorship. This narrative historical account of the Haitian Revolution, from 1791 to 1803, has received little attention because it was composed in Creole, was not circulated widely, has been out of print for decades, and has never been translated. But Trouillot’s book, henceforth Ti difé boulé, is important because it shows how Haiti’s Revolution holds the clues to interpreting and critiquing the country’s more recent history. Instead of following the epic tradition glorifying revolutionary heroes, Trouillot delivers an iconoclastic critique of the European-inspired traditions of governance displayed by the rebel generals—Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessa-lines, Henri Christophe, and Alexandre Pétion—while re-examining the fundamental but underappreciated contributions of the Haitian slave masses in the revolution.

In a well-documented yet accessible manner, drawing from Haiti’s popular storytelling tradition, proverbs, expressions, and songs, Ti difé boulé explores the rivalries, murders, and gamesmanship that mark the formation of the Haitian state and traces their harmful effect upon the evolution of the state in independent Haiti. Each chapter opens with lines of verse that draw the reader into the analysis by creating the sense of an informal oral performance. In this way Ti difé boulé calls readers to engage with Haiti’s problems through an inalienable Haitian frame of reference, asserting the pivotal role of the Haitian people and the Creole language in the continuing struggle for liberation. As Laurent Dubois observes in a recent Transition article about Trouillot (issue 109), woven into Ti difé boulé are the “central themes that would guide and shape Trouillot’s work over the coming decades: respect for multiple historical perspectives, the centrality of the Caribbean peasantry in the region’s past, present, and future, the power of silence, and the power of breaking silence.” As part of a broader movement to write in Creole, including novelist Frankétienne’s famous 1975 novel Dézafi (an excerpt of which is included in this volume), it was, Dubois writes, an attempt to “bridge the gap between the French language historiography [End Page 75]


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Palmier. Mixed media on aluminum in artist frame. 47 × 47 cm. ©2009 Edouard Duval-Carrié. Private collection.

Kòd Noua pou maré ti kochon

li vann viann……ak tout épis ladann!

Gin youn pakèt atik nan Kòd Noua-a ki té la pou konsèvé fòs ponyèt ésklav yo, pou sosiété-a té ka kontinié minmman parèyman. Loui 14 mandé pou yo pa koupé manb ésklav yo san rézon, pou yo pa krazé ponyèt yo, pou mèt yo ba yo manjé, bouè, dòmi (atik 22 rivé atik 27). Li mandé pou ésklav yo souflé lédimanch, pou mèt-ésklav yo pa séparé ti bébé ak manman (atik 6–7–12).

An vérité, Kòd Noua-a té mandé pou bay ésklav yo manjé, min an minm tan li té séré boulon yo. Youn ésklav pat gin piès doua. Yo té konsidéré-l tankou ninpòt ki byin mèt la, tankou youn choual, youn chyin, osnon youn chèz, youn tab. Kòd Noua-a té di konsa: youn ésklav sé youn mèb! Esklav yo pat gin doua ni achté ni vann (atik 18). Yo pat gin doua al nan Léta pou pèsonn minm si zòt té fè yo abi (atik 31). Yo pat gin doua poté ni zam ni « gro baton » (atik 15). Si yo té lévé min sou mèt-kay la, sou fanmkay la, osnon sou pitit mèt-kay la, mèt-kay la t...

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