At a time of crisis for Haiti, a filmmaker reflects on past US intervention
At the start of the 20th century, Haiti was in upheaval. A bit like today. There was a string of coups, and the one in 1915 was particularly bloody, ending with a murdered president being dragged through the streets.
That’s when the United States went in and took over for 19 years.
Alain Martin’s grandfather was born and raised during that occupation, but never spoke about it with his grandson.
Martin came to the US as an adolescent, and after learning about the US occupation of Haiti in college, he decided to make a documentary about it.
“The Forgotten Occupation” was screened at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum at an event hosted by Haiti Cultural Exchange.Amy Bracken/The World
Martin called it “The Forgotten Occupation: Jim Crow goes to Haiti,” and framed it as a letter to his grandfather, Brunel.
“Dear Papi,” the narration began, “I’m writing to let you know that I spent the last 10 years of my life making a movie about the US occupation of Haiti.”
Martin describes his “Papi” as being part of a better-off class in Haiti, who had a certain disdain for the poorer majority.
As an adult, Brunel wasn’t alone in thinking Haiti would be better off if it came under US control again.
Martin said he feels a little guilty about making the film.
“This is a movie that’s going to be critical of the ideas you had about Haiti, about Haitians, about race, about class,” he said. “It’s going to be critical of the love affair that you had with the United States.”
Reporter Amy Bracken interviews Alain Martin, director of “The Forgotten Occupation.”Courtesy of Alex Bershaw/@alexbershaw
The film actually took more than a decade to make. Martin spent much of it interviewing historians, writers and activists, reading their books and poring over papers and film in archives.
He learned about how, after the 1915 coup, the US moved into Haiti and stayed until 1934.
The ostensible reason was stabilization, but the film shows there was much more to it.
“The Monroe Doctrine claimed that the United States can intervene anywhere to maintain its own interests,” Simmons University’s Patrick Sylvain said.
That was President Theodore Roosevelt’s aggressive interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine. It was adopted by his successors and used to justify military intervention in Haiti and other neighboring countries in the early 1900s.
Some Haitians — especially those who were better-off — welcomed the Americans at first, thinking they would bring stability and protect Haitian business interests. But Martin said there was a history behind the unrest that the Americans couldn’t solve. Instead, they took advantage of it.
“After slaves defeated Napoleon’s army in 1804, for France to acknowledge Haiti as a nation, it demanded that Haitians pay the slave masters they had defeated reparations,” he said. In short: “We fight; I kick your a–. I’ve got to give you money for losing.”
To pay France, Haiti had to take out loans. By 1915, some 80% of the Haitian government’s budget was still going to foreign banks.
As a result, Martin said, “there was very little money to develop the country, uplift the country, to invest in social programs, to invest in infrastructure. So, people were always upset, always rising up against the government.”
Audience members watch the film, “The Forgotten Occupation,” which was screened at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum at an event hosted by Haiti Cultural Exchange.Amy Bracken/The World
The US brought a form of stability, but in some ways, it also picked up where the French had left off. It took over Haiti’s finances, and National City Bank of New York — Citigroup’s predecessor — profited from its debt.
In the film, Hans Schmidt, a historian who wrote a book on the US occupation of Haiti, described how the US controlled and depleted Haiti’s finances.
“The US took over the customs receivership,” he explained. “They would collect all the revenues, and then hand them over, not to the government, but to pay off the debts first of the foreign investors, and if there was anything left over, then the government could have that.”
The Marines even restored a form of slavery, in which poor Haitians were forced to work for free on infrastructure projects.
Opportunities for exploitation kept growing.
“[You] have more and more American companies who are interested in Haiti to invest in, especially in agriculture,” said University of Virginia Professor Laurent Dubois. “From these guys’ perspective, Haiti was essentially a place that was just waiting to be kind of taken over and turned to profit.”
And that’s what happened when obstacles were removed.
“What is inherently radical about the Haitian Constitution, about a Constitution made by formerly enslaved people?” Haitian journalist Nathalie Cerin asked in an interview with Martin. “Of course there will be things in there that go against imperialist interests.”
Oberlin College Professor Yveline Alexis speaks in the film about the Cacos resistance fighters during the US occupation of Haiti.Courtesy of Alain Martin/The Forgotten Occupation
The US forced changes to the Constitution, including its ban on foreign ownership of land.
Americans were now able to take over large swaths of the country, setting up plantations served by cheap local labor, and displacing thousands.
Martin wanted to know — given the US’ history in Haiti — whether Haitians today would welcome the American military’s return, to stop the gangs.
He called his friends and asked, with the violence gripping the country today, if the US should occupy Haiti again.
He posed the question in various ways, pointing out to one friend that he wasn’t even able to attend his grandfather’s funeral.
A couple of them said no to a US invasion or occupation. Then one after another said yes, some emphatically.
Professor Sylvain explained that desperation erases memories of past wrongs. He used a Haitian expression, “Yo pran ou nan vant (They’ve got you by the belly)” to express how the one in power isn’t held accountable. “That’s what poverty does,” he said. “It erases dignity. You can’t stand up and say, ‘No.’”
That is why, he said, the past US occupation of Haiti is now largely “forgotten.”
Roxane Gay, a best-selling author, is the documentary’s executive producer. She said she knew nothing about this occupation before seeing a rough cut of the film — despite having Haitian parents and having written books about Haiti. Now, she thinks it’s out at the right time.
“It feels prescient, and it feels in many ways like history could and might repeat itself,” she said. “And that’s always unfortunate when we recognize that not much has been learned.”
The question of whether or not the US should invade Haiti again is abstract, given that the Trump administration has announced no such plans.
The US presence is felt, however, in the deployment of gunboats to the bay of Port-au-Prince, as part of Operation Southern Spear, the US military buildup in the Caribbean.
When asked if he has any ideas of how the current crisis in Haiti could be resolved, Martin said he doesn’t, but there’s one thing he’s sure of: The United States will have to be involved in some way.
The recent New York screening of his documentary was hosted by the nonprofit group Haiti Cultural Exchange at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum.
The film will continue to be screened in the US, Canada and Haiti, and it’s now also available on streaming.
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