Libète

"This book is a deeper introduction to Haiti. It really gives you an entry into any number of facets of Haitian life because it is really a compilation of around 180 extracts on Haiti, many written by Haitians. So you get a real sense of Haiti’s history, politics, religion, social life and culture. Charles Arthur and Michael Dash are two experts on Haiti who wrote a very good introduction to each chapter, which taken together would make a worthy book in its own right. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter It has also got excellent bibliographical information for people who want to find out more on matters such as voodoo or the true reasons for Haiti’s poverty. Little-known historical facts are illuminated – for example the efforts by the British to snatch the French colony during the revolution. A lot of people in the UK have absolutely no idea that most of 20,000 British soldiers died in one of the most disastrous military expeditions in Britain’s colonial history. Most of them were killed by yellow fever, admittedly – but the whole story of the Haitian slave army is a remarkable bit of history. So, this really is an excellent introduction to the many different sides of Haiti. For example, the decline of the peasant economy and the environmental degradation are very clearly explained in chapter three. This is followed logically in the next chapter which sets out the problems of life in the slums and the underpaid assembly sector, all of which gives a very good analysis of why Haiti is economically as poor as it is. Yet the book also describes the richness of its culture which is quite distinct from other Caribbean islands."