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‘The people’ exposed: spatio-racial-affective alterity in Haitian popular protest

2020; Routledge; Volume: 15; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/17442222.2020.1770977

1744-2230

Chelsey L. Kivland,

Cuban History and Society

Beginning in 2013, urban Haitians staged several antigovernment protests that eventually led, in 2016, to the removal of President Michel Martelly without an elected successor. This protest movement used racial, spatial, and affective markers to expose an image of pèp la (the people) and to rework old and new race-class divisions in the Haitian population. Conducting ceremonial bonfires, donning black and red masks, and chanting Vodou songs to summon cho (hot) spirits, the protesters sought to embody revolutionary soldiers who defeated colonial troops in 1804. They framed the conflict as one between black militants of the downtown geto (ghettos) and the lighter-skinned, uptown, ruling elites. This article traces how a culturalization of 'the people' as black, 'hot,' and of the geto emerged through the rituals of protest, and how this movement ultimately identified a new, militant persona – the nèg geto (ghetto black) – as the popular subject of Haiti. This article goes on to elaborate the potential consequences of this configuration of the people: on one hand, it can be viewed as an effective tool of empowerment; on the other hand, it may propagate racist tropes that have long been used to marginalize poorer and darker people in Haiti.