Academia
The Congress of Arcahaie 1803
- Wednesday, May 18, 2011 7:24 AM
The first big highlight of 1803 was the death of Toussaint L'Ouverture on April 7.
The first big highlight of 1803 was the death of Toussaint L'Ouverture on April 7.
It was the end of the "era of Toussaint L'Ouverture: his physical death that followed his political death of the deportation order of France's First Consul Bonaparte [Napolean].
The disappearance of the "First Black" expressed the failure of the amazing adventure of a former slave promoted to the supreme government of the finest colony in the world, when during an ascent, that still fascinates historians, who romanticize it with details: a "black power" anti-slavery, in the midst of the Americas at the beginning of the transition, passage of the preponderance of commercial capitalism of the old regime to modern capitalism, the beginnings of the nascent industrial revolution in England.
Combination, alternating and combing, and making "the twelve facets" of his genius in a multidimensional personality, Toussaint, in the words of Lamartine, was "a nation."
However, the work left by his legacy included the freedom of the blacks he called "human right", the creation of the native army, a weapon of victory that made possible the phenomenon of the nation's army, and finally the inauguration of the first phase of the war of independence through armed resistance against the forces he opposed, the French expeditionary forces.
But Toussaint became the past at the time of the peak of his power, and Dessalines [Jean Jacques], during the truce of 1802, was aware, although he differed from Toussaint but would say later they were "somewhat similar" to his former leader.
Undoubtedly, the substitute was accommodating and timing was permissive of it, his own brilliance "primarily" intractable.
Toussaint sacrificed, the "Dessalines era" arrived at the same time, the time of generational succession.
The second major highlight of 1803 was the Congress at Arcahaie May 14 to May 18.
Two groups of men, (by class or by claste?), living embodiments of the two social groups that constituted the new company. A revolutionary change realized at this point in history that the imperative of economic unity was their to lead a nation to independence.
This union of former freedmen and former slaves, was laborious difficult and long awaited against the tide, but objectively became necessary. It was "miraculously" served by a timely insight if not "opportunistic" on both sides: it was an is remained the basic premise in the founding of the emerging nation and its historical continuity.
"Keep this valuable concord among you. It is the pledge of your success, your happiness and the secret of being invincible," in the words of the famous apostle of this unit Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who spoke straight into the unitary spirit of Arcahaie. It is under the unified command of Dessalines, recognized as Commander-in-Chief, that sealed the pact at Arcahaie.
Three years after the first bloody revolution in our history weakened the national unity, but fortunately did not succeed in breaking it, The Congress of Arcahaie lived in the creation of the colors of the national flag, a symbol of collective political will to build together a nation-state.
The Haitian nation was symbolically embodied in a symbol, an identifier. Certainly, the true colors of the flag of Arcahaie were misty in controversy after political factions; and there is a dispute, complicated to Haiti, the national colors, including esoteric mystical interpretations.
But the national flag, occasionally a contentious issue, especially during the famous debate in the Constituent Assembly of the Revolution of 1843 after the fall of Boyer [Jean Pierre], remained unchanged in the last two centuries of the Haitian people, in blue and red. It is has been upheld even with the judicial exception to the relatively short period of eclipse by the Duvalierist Constitution of 1964-1986.
Whatever the controversy over its authentic initial colors, our two-tone has always had the same symbolic and unifying political solidarity of the two colors of social reality, the basic premise of the nation, solidarity of the same inspiration immortalization that painting, recently restored in the workshops of The Louvre, "The Oath of the Ancestors" painted by Guillaume Lanthier and symbolizing the union of black and mulatto, Petion [Alexandre] and Dessalines.
The policy was decided and the story has finally settled, the question of national unity, are the colors adopted for the standard of liberty and independence.
Related 05.06.2011: The First Battle of Gonaives
Related 05.01.2011: The History of Haitian Heritage Month
Source: Oganizasyon Pèp Kap Lité
translated by S.Maxime
