To me, blacks across the world who were displaced by the African Slave Trade, along with Africans of West African descent, have a responsibility to our Haitian brethren. We have a duty to not only care, but also to be directly involved in helping the Haitian people to repair what was broken by the magnitude 7 earthquake that left Haiti in ruins on Jan. 12. Black Americans must unite under a common cause during Haiti’s time of desperate need.
As a black person who is a descendant of the West African slave trade, I feel that there is a common black cultural experience of enslavement among those displaced by the slave trade. This has resulted in the random separation of our ancestral families across all seven continents and various islands in the Caribbean, where more slaves were recorded to have been sent than to the American South. Therefore, many black Americans and Africans who descend from western Africa may have familial ties in the Haitian region but are left unaware.
As was true with Hurricane Katrina, the destruction Haiti experienced resonated with me in a particular way. The connection I feel for the Caribbean is driven by a shared experience of enslavement, colonization and forced separation from a past of our own that was brought about by the slave trade that removed our ancestors from western Africa. Consequently, blacks who have been displaced from Africa are connected by a spirit so strong that it would be a disgrace to Haitians if ignored.
“The only thing that is killing me right now is that under the rubble…you can still hear voices of people like… ‘Save me, save me, save me.’” When I heard Wyclef Jean, a hip hop record producer and artist with Haitian roots, make this remark on a recent YouTube video, I instantly felt a pull on my heartstrings and a sudden yearning to have a greater investment in the rehabilitation of Haiti. I experienced a human connection to the devastation of Haiti.
As I close my eyes and envision this image of Haitian people stuck under concrete buildings, I am reminded of how African slaves were packed under grated hatchways en route to an unknown fate. As I listen to Jean tell of how Port-au-Prince “is starting to smell like death,” I recall slaves’ accounts of the smell during the ships on the journey to the New World that was unbearable because of bodies left to expire on the ship — if they weren’t tossed into the ocean by the ship’s crew first.
Though I acknowledge that there is a distinct difference between the human cruelty of the slave trade and a natural disaster, I feel a common cultural thread between them. When I hear that cries for help heard under the Haitian rubble often go unaddressed because of the lack of necessary rescue equipment, I have mixed emotions of despair, sorrow and fury. As opposed to the colonial era, where my position to potentially help my fellow African brethren would have been limited, I am now in a position to help to resolve the Haitian crisis. But because the devastation to Haiti is so expansive, I hardly know where to begin.
The number of relief programs that offer aid to Haiti can be a bit overwhelming. Because of the concern displayed by students, faculty, staff and various departments within the Division of Student Affairs, the Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs introduced a groundbreaking initiative. MESA created an all-inclusive organization comprised of various initiatives, student groups and University officials and affiliates working together to formulate efficient aid solutions to the Haitian crisis. It has been appropriately named the Michigan Haiti Earthquake Action Relief Team, or M-HEART.
I joined M-HEART because of my previous affiliation with MESA, and am pleased by MESA’s investment to make community building fundamental in the Haitian relief effort. MESA’s interest in repairing communities in Haiti directly involves African American, black Caribbean and African students to bridge the cultural gap between blacks who have been separated by a past that has stripped African Americans and Caribbean people of their African roots. This lost African heritage that connects members of the Black race can only be understood when acknowledging that families were separated across the American South, the Caribbean and Africa. When I see the pictures of Haitians striving to survive, I think of how there is a strong possibility that I may be ancestrally related to them. Years from now when I look back on this crisis, I wouldn’t feel right with knowing that the potential for kindred existed and I acted selfishly and was silent when the Haitian cry for help was so resoundingly clear.
M-HEART offered me a chance to connect with the Haitians I feel for. And other blacks should find similar ways to reach out to the Haitians that share our cultural heritage.
Brittany Smith can be reached at smitbrit@umich.edu.