Historical Context of Krik Krak

Edwidge Danticat: 

• an award-winning writer of Haitian descent 

• born on January 19, 1969, in Port-au-Prince Haiti

• her parents fled the oppressive regimes but she and her younger brother remained behind; they reunited with their parents and new siblings after years of correspondence

Haiti's History Timeline: 

• Dutty Boukman

                unkown ~ 1791 - Jamaican-born Haitian slave, leading figure in the Haitian Revolution

• Toussaint L'Ouverture

                1743 - born as a slave

                1776 - freed from being a slave

                1791 - participates in the French Revolution as a Royalist military leader 

                1798 - manages to unify and maintain his army by taking control 

                1800 - has control over Saint Domingue 

                1802 - tricked by Napoleon into attending a meeting in France and is captured

                1803 - dies in the bottom of the cargo ship Napoleon trapped him in

• Independence  
      

                1804 - Haiti becomes independent; emperor: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

                1806 - Dessalines assassinated; Haiti divided into a black-controlled north and a mulatto-ruled south

                1818-43 - Pierre Boyer unifies Haiti, but excludes blacks from power 

                1915 - US invades Haiti following blakc-mulatto friction 

                1934 - US withdraws troops from Haiti, but maintains fiscal control until 1947

• Rafael Trujillo

                1927 - elevated to commander in chief of the National Army

                1930 - assumed control of the Dominical Republic 

                1961 - killed by a group of rebels determined to topple his heinous human rights abuses

• Parsley Massacre

                1937 - 20,000 people were murdered in the Dominican Republic by Rafael Trujillo

• Tonton Macoute

                1958 - MVSN, or the National Security Volunteers, a Hiatian paramilitary force, notorious for corruption and brutality

• Duvalier dictatorships

                1956 - Voodoo physician Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier seizes power in military coup and is elected president a year later

                1964 - Duvalier declares himself president-for-life and establishes a dictatorship with the help of Tontons Machetes militia 

                1971 - Duvalier dies and is succeeded by his 19-year-old son, Jean-Claude, "Baby Doc", who also declares himself president-for-life

                1986 - Baby Doc flees Haiti due to the increasing popular discontent; replaced by Lieutenant-General Henri Namphy 

                1988 - Leslie Manigat becomes president, but is outed in a coup

• Democracy, coup and intervention 

                1990 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide elected president in Hait's first free and peaceful polls

                1994 - US forces oversee a transition to a civilian government; Aristide returns

                1997-1999 - Serious political deadlock; new government named 

• Aristide's second term

               2000 - Aristide elected president for a second non-consecutive term

               2003 - Voodoo recognized as a religion, on a par with other faiths

               2004 - rising levels of deadly political and gang violent in the capital; armed gangs loyal to former President Aristide are said to be responsible for many killings

•  Preval wins elections 

               2006 - General elections, the first since former President Aristide was overthrown in 2004

                2007 -  UN troops launch tough new offensive against armed gangs in Cite Soleil

               2008 -  Food riots.

Tropical Storms