Tennis player - The son of a former diplomat at the United Nations and Minister of Agriculture of Haiti, Ronald Agénor has sustained one of the longest careers in the history of the game of tennis (19 years).Ronald Agénor was born in Rabat, Morocco in 1964. He is the youngest of six children and started to play tennis in Congo, Africa, and discovered competitive tennis in Bordeaux, France, at age 14. Under the wing of his brother Lionel, Ronald was able to combine intensive training and competition while attending high school. Ronald turned pro and earned his first ATP point in 1983 and was ranked #793 in the world. Since then, he has scored wins against world's greatest players such as, André Agassi, Jimmy Connors, Brad Gilbert, Mats Wilander, Yannick Noah, Thomas Muster, Peter Korda, Guillermo Vilas, and Michael Stich, to name a few.
Nicknamed " The Haitian Sensation " or "l'Haitien de Bordeaux", Ronald won 3 ATP tour tiltes, was a quarter finalist at the French Open, and reached the fourth round at both the US Open and the French Open in 1988.
In 1987, he made history by playing against Yannick Noah from France, in what would be the first all black male ATP Tour tennis final in men's professional tennis history. In 1999, at 35 years of age, he became the oldest player to reach the top 100 in the world since Jimmy Connors did it in 1991.
Ronald Agénor's web site
May 2008 interview
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Writer, poet, activist - A descendent of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Alexis was born on 22 April 1922, in Gonaïves. His father was a journalist, historian and diplomat, and Alexis grew up in a family in which literary and political discussions were the norm. At the age of 18, he made what was regarded as remakable literary debut with an essay about the Haitian poet, Hamilton Garoute. He collaborated on a number of literary reviews, before founding La Ruche, a group dedicated to creating a literary and social spring in Haiti in the early 1940s.
In 1955, his novel "Compere General Soleil," was published by Gallimard in Paris. This superb novel has recently been translated into English - General Sun, My Brother, and is a must-read for all those with an interest in understanding Haiti. He followed up with "Les Arbres Musiciens" (1957), "L'Espace d'un Cillement" (1959), and "Romanceros aux Etoiles" (1960).
More than just a brilliant intellectual, Jacques Stephen Alexis was also an active participant in the social and political debates of his time. In 1959, he formed the People's Consensus Party (Parti pour l'Entente Nationale-PEP), a left-oriented political party, but he was forced into exile by the Duvalier dictatorship. In August 1960, he attended a Moscow meeting of representatives of 81 communist parties from all over the world, and signed a common accord document called "The Declaration of the 81" in the name of Haitian communists.
In April 1961, he returned to Haiti but soon after landing at Mole St Nicholas he was captured by Tontons Macoutes. He was taken to the town's main square where he was tortured and then killed.
Further reading: Professor Carrol Coates and the English translation of General Sun, My Brother
See also: Jacques Stephen Alexis Remembered by Jean-Pierre Cloutier, The Haiti Times, May 1987.
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Anacaona by Marie-Denise Douyon, 1994, pastel and acrylic, 70cm x 60cm.Taino queen - Born in Yaguana (today the town of Léogâne), the flourishing capital of Xaragua, the most prosperous and heavily populated of the indigenous Taino kingdoms at the time of the European invasion. Anacaona - golden flower in the Taino language - was the younger sister of Béhéchio, king of Xaragua. She was married to the Taino chief, Caonabo, king of Maguana (the Cibao region), who, in 1494, was kidnapped by Christopher Columbus' troops and deported to Spain. (According to legend, Caonabo died en route to Spain when the Taino captives on board deliberately sank the ship in a last attempt to resist Spanish oppression.) To escape death, Anacaona left Maguana and returned to the western region of Xaragua.
In Xaragua, she soon asserted her authority over her brother and ruled as a queen famed for the ballads, ballets, poetry, plays and ornaments of her court. Xaragua was the only Taino kingdom on the island that had not succumbed to Spanish conquest when a new Spanish governor, Nicholas Ovando, arrived with some 2500 troops in 1502. He requested a meeting with Anacaona, and, in 1503, the Queen and chieftains of the province prepared a lavish reception for him and his men. In the middle of the entertainment, Ovando gave a signal, and the Spanish seized the Xaraguayans, tied them to poles and killed them. Eighty Taino leaders were slaughtered. Anacaona was saved but was captured, and in September 1503 she was taken to Santo Domingo where she was hung.
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Priest, politician - Born in 1953 in Port Salut in the south west, but spent much of his childhood in the poor quarters of Port-au-Prince. Aristide was educated by the Salesian Catholic order, graduated from the State University in 1979, ordained a priest in 1982, and continued his academic studies in Canada. He returned to Haiti in 1985, and was appointed priest of the St John Bosco parish in the downtown slum area of La Saline.
He founded a centre for homeless 'street-children', and preached "liberation theology" - a movement within the Catholic church that preaches spiritual fulfillment through social and political freedom. Became immensely popular among the Haitian poor when his sermons and speeches, urging the people to liberate themselves from poverty, apathy and squalor, were broadcast on radio. Escaped numerous assassination attempts, and emerged as charismatic leader of the grassroots movement to end with Duvalierism and create a new society in Haiti. As the standard bearer of the Lavalas movement for justice, transparency, and popular participation, he won a landslide victory in the 1990 presidential election.
After only eight months he was overthrown by a violent military coup d'état, and spent three years in exile before a United Nations military intervention restored him to office. International aid made available to Haiti was contingent on Aristide implementing a structural adjustment programme of privatisation, elimination of import tariffs, and downsizing the state administration. In his remaining 16 months in office he remained lukewarm about these reforms, but dismayed radical supporters by stressing the need for reconciliation with the Macoutes and the minority economic elite. Perhaps his greatest legacy was the abolition of the Haitian army in 1995.
Constitutionally barred from seeking a second consecutive term, he was succeeded as president by his former Prime Minister, René Préval, in February 1996. In March 1996, he started the Aristide Foundation for Democracy, an organisation that has impressed friend and foe by making interest free loans to thousands of small-businesses, and by distributing health care and educational materials.
During 1996, Aristide split with some former associates in the Lavalas movement, and formed a new political party, Fanmi Lavalas (Lavalas Family). This party won nearly all the Parliamentary and local government seats in the May and July 2000 general elections. Aristide himself ran again for President in elections held at the end of November 2000. No serious opponents stood against him and he was elected with over 90% of votes cast. On 7 February 2001, he was inaugurated President of Haiti for the second time.
On 29 February 2004, Aristide and his family left Haiti in hotly disputed circumstances. Aristide claims he was taken out of the country against his will by representatives of the U.S. government, and that he was in fact the victim of another coup d'état. The US denies the charge and says Aristide resigned to save Port-au-Prince from the violent confrontation expected as armed opponents advanced from the north. Aristide spent some time in the Central African Republic, then Jamaica, and finally settled in South Africa. He has repeated his claims that he remains the legitimate president, and periodically congratulates his supporters for their continued resistance to the interim government.
Aristide's November 2000 press conference
Recommended reading - The Rainy Season: Haiti since the Duvaliers - Amy Wilentz
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Nurse, social worker, and human rights activist - Born on November 29, 1963, in Jérémie, During the 1970s, she attended the Pressoir Jerome School in Jérémie, and later studied at Port-au-Prince’s Lucien Hibert College, where she received her baccalaureate in 1984. She went on to study at the national School of Nursing, getting her diploma in 1988, and while there she set up a nurses' student union.Auguste then worked for a variety of non-governmental organisations in central Haiti, but was in Port-au-Prince at the time of the 1991 military coup. She risked her personal safety to rescue patients at the general hospital when soldiers came to finish off those wounded while resisting the coup. In 1992, she founded the Women’s Health Clinic (Klinik Sante Fanm in creole) in Carrefour Feuilles, Port-au-Prince, in association with the Partners in Health organisation. The clinic, located in a heavily-populated hillside shantytown to the south of the capital, and originally only meant for women, treats over 200 women, men, and children each day. Auguste has also provided counselling for female victims of gang beatings and rape. In 1994, she received the Reebok Human Rights Award, which she later donated to Partners in Health in support of destitute women in Haiti.
Auguste remains outspoken about Haiti’s legacy of poverty and violence, reporting human rights abuses to international organisations and working to make the local healthcare system more responsive to victims of repression.
Interview with Rose Anne Auguste - 1999More on Rose Anne
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Artist - Born in New York in 1960, the son of a Haitian father and a Puerto Rican mother, Basquiat dropped out of high school and left home at the age of seventeen. Having gained some notoriety as a graffiti artist using the tag SAMO, in 1981 Basquiat's paintings were exhibited at a show alongside artists such as Keith Haring and Andy Warhol. Overnight he became one of the most successful, controversial and glamorous artists in the world. His paintings, city dream-scapes and primal sketches, were bought by the most powerful museums and celebrity collectors including Madonna.
In 1988, at the age of 27, he died of a drugs overdose. The New York Times described him as "the art world's closest equivalent to James Dean". BBC culture critic, Tony Parsons, called him "perhaps the greatest black artist of the twentieth century". A biopic, Basquiat, was released in 1996.
New York Times review of Basquiat biographyBack to list
Social worker, community activist - Bastien grew up in Pont Benoit, a village in central Haiti. Her father, Philippe, built the area's first school, and his oldest children, Marleine among them, worked as teachers during their three-month summer vacations. Because he was known as a servant of the people, Philippe Bastien, was considered by the government to be a communist, and he was regularly arrested and jailed. In 1974 the family moved to Port-au-Prince, where Marleine attended the prestigious Swiss school, College Bird. In 1980, Marleine's father went into exile in the US, and in 1981, at the age of 22, she joined him and he rest of her family in Florida.In 1982, she started a full-time job as a paralegal and interpreter at the Haitian Refugee Centre. Almost every day for five years she accompanied the centre's lawyers to the Krome detention center, where thousands of Haitians languished in compounds or trailers surrounded by barbed wire fences. At the same time, she then took degrees in social work at Florida International University and, on completing her post-graduate work, she joined the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami as a clinical social worker at the Sickle Cell Centre, counselling families dealing with the disease.
Driven by the notion that "social workers must be agents of change" Bastien says she focuses on helping people help themselves. In 1991, she founded Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miyami (Haitian Women of Miami), which she still leads. FANM advocates for women's rights and works for the social, political, and economic empowerment of all women and girls, especially Haitian. The 30-member organisation operates counselling and economic-assistance programs, and conducts educational workshops and presentations on subjects rarely mentioned in traditional, patriarchal Haitian society, such as breast cancer prevention, domestic violence and child abuse.
Bastien has also been instrumental in the formation of the Haitian Grassroots Coalition, an umbrella grouping of 23 Haitian community development organisations in South Florida. This Miami-based coalition has been at the forefront of the national effort to push for progressive Haitian immigration legislation, and it brought together many Haitian activists and business people with deeply opposing views.
In December 2001, she was selected as one of the "Women of the Year" by Ms magazineMarleine Bastien is helping to lead the resurgence of South Florida's Haitian political agenda - Miami New Times, May 1998
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Model, actress - Born November 26, 1966, in St. Marc, the youngest of seven children, Beauvais moved with her mother and siblings to Massachusetts at the age of seven, after her parents got divorced. With French and Creole as her native languages, she learnt English by watching Sesame Street on television. She also endured the culture shock that came with being the only black student in her new elementary school.At the age of 16, she and her family moved to Miami, Florida, where she began modelling. She signed with Ford Models in New York and appeared in magazine layouts for Avon, Clairol and Mary Kay Cosmetics. She has also graced the pages of Ebony and Essence magazines and the runways for designers Calvin Klein and Isaac Mizrahi.
In the 1990s she began acting, and has starred in the Fox TV drama "Models Inc.",and "The Jamie Foxx Show". In 1999, she appeared with Will Smith in the feature film, "Wild, Wild West". Since 2001, as Assistant District Attorney Valerie Heywood, she has starred in the long-running ABC TV cop drama, "NYPD Blue".
2007 interview with Garcelle BeauvaisBack to list
HIV/AIDS activist - Born in Saint-Marc in 1960, Boucicault was diagnosed as HIV positive in 1995. Following the death of her husband and her son who was born HIV positive, she decided to dedicate herself to saving others from the same fate. In December 1998 she was interviewed on a private TV station about her illness. This was the first time in Haiti that a person with HIV/AIDS had gone public in such a way. Her testimony provoked a scandal in Saint-Marc, and she endured the hostility of the families of both her first and second husband. Undeterred by the scorn, Boucicault has established a foundation to work to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and provide medical and psychological aid to those carrying the virus.
Accompanied by health professionals, she tours Haitian towns giving information and advice to young people. She encourages the use of condoms, believing that even though this is contrary to Catholic religious morals it is more important to speak frankly to adolescents about the dangers they face in a country where more than 5% of adults are HIV positive.
Following Boucicault's example, others with HIV/AIDS have come into the open, and in 1999 a number of them got together to form the National Solidarity Association. Today, no anti-AIDS campaign takes place without them. Young and old come to hear them speak, and there is no longer the outrage that such public discussion once provoked.
Further reading: Haiti: After Esther Boucicault by Fritznel Octave - January 2000Back to list
Singer, songwriter - Born in 1948, Charlemagne grew up in the sprawling new suburb of Carrefour, to the south of the capital, where he was influenced as much by the songs of the peasants who moved into the area in search of a livelihood, as by his Catholic school choir. In the 1970s, he was part of the kilti libete or freedom culture movement that promoted popular culture, including acoustic, folk music. Charlemagne's writing drew on the twoubadou tradition, a guitar-based music that can trace its roots back both to the rural songs of the Haitian peasantry and to the Cuban influences brought back to Haiti by returning migrant sugar cane cutters in the early decades of the twentieth century.The Jean-Claude Duvalier regime renewed the repression of political and cultural dissent in 1980, and Charlemagne was forced into exile. With the fall of the Duvaliers in 1986, he returned home, and was active in both political organising and the burgeoning roots or racines music scene. He formed a live group, Koral Konbit Kafou, which included drummers from a Vodou temple, and played concerts that provided a soundtrack for the popular mobilisation for political change in the late 1980s. Some of these songs can be heard on "Nou Nan Male ak Oganizasyon Mondyal", Kako Productions, 1988.
His support for the grassroots, popular movement frequently landed him in trouble with the Haitian military, and, after receiving death threats, he spent several years in semi-clandestinity. Charlemagne was a supporter of the Lavalas political movement of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide against who the military launched a brutal coup d'etat in September 1991. Charlemagne took refuge in the Argentine embassy from where he went into exile once again. During 1991-94, he played concerts in Miami, New York, and Montreal, where he rallied the expatriate Haitian communities in support of Haitian democracy. He released a recording, "La Fimen", Kako Productions, in 1994.
Following the United Nations intervention to restore the constitutional government in September 1994, Charlemagne returned to Haiti. In June 1995 he was elected mayor of the capital city, Port-au-Prince, defeating the incumbent, Evans Paul, but his term of office, which expired in early 1999, was beset with difficulties and controversy, and is not regarded as a success. His administrative responsibilities overshadowed his musical career, and one of his few public performances in recent years was with the Haitian-American rap group, The Fugees, in Port-au-Prince in April 1997.
Recommended reading: A Day for the Hunter, A Day for the Prey: Popular Music and Power in Haiti by Gage Averill, University of Chicago Press, 1997.
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Novelist - The best known and most prolific of Haiti's female novelists, Marie Chauvet was born in
Port-au-Prince in 1917. Her first novel, Fille D'Haiti (1953), about the mulatto daughter of a prostitute who tries to escape her origins in the hypocritical world of the Haitian elite, was awarded the Prix de l'Alliance francaise. La Danse sur le Volcan (1957), depicting the events leading up to the Haitian Revolution, was translated into English and Dutch.Chauvet's most famous work, the trilogy of novellas, Amour, colere et folie, was published in Paris in 1968. The author was unable to return to Haiti from France because the novel dealt with the behaviour of corrupt Duvalierist officials and the sadistic Tontons Macoutes. Her husband begged her not to publish it, and when she did, he not only left her, but also bought and destroyed all the copies of the book sent to Haiti. She died in exile in New York in 1975, and was only awarded national honours after the end of the Duvalier dictatorship.
Further reading: Haitian Women Underground: Revising Literary Traditions and Societies - Regine Latorture - Journal of Haitian Studies Vol. 5-6.Back to list
Guitarist, singer and band leader - Coupé Cloué was the alias of Jean Gesner Henry who was born in Léogâne in 1925. At the age of 26 he started playing guitar, adopting the twoubadou style based on the sound brought back to Haiti by cane cutters who had worked in Cuba. Coupé's first band, Trio Select, championed a synthesis of jazz, Haitian méringue and folk rhythms, and helped to popularise the use of the guitar in Haiti in the 1950s and 60s.
Coupé's trio released their first records in the late 1960s, and evolved a rhythmic formula related to Haitian compas (commercial dance music) but retaining a Cuban flavour. A major part of Coupé's appeal with the Haitian masses was his use Creole lyrics and raps, full of current slang, double entendres and jokes. On his first tour of central Africa in 1975, fans gave Coupé the nickname, Le Roi (The King), testimony to the international appeal of his brand of dance music. A giant of the Haitian music scene with over 40 years as a performer, and producer of more than 24 records, Coupé Cloué died in early 1998.
Recommended listening - Coupé Cloué: Maximum Compas From Haiti (Virgin Records 1992)
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