Why is Haiti so poor?

UPDATE 1/14: This post was linked in a story by Discovery News’ James Williams.

Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola. Following the island’s discovery by Columbus in 1492, Spanish colonialists exterminated the island’s indigenous Arawak Indians. In 1697, the French took control of what is now Haiti and instituted an exceptionally cruel system of African plantation slavery. In the late 1700s, the half million slaves revolted. In what is the only successful slave revolution in history, they ousted the French and established the first Black republic in the Western Hemisphere.

Haiti’s population of over eight million people occupies a territory somewhat smaller than the state of Maryland in the United States. The land is rugged, hilly or mountainous. More than 90 percent of the forests have been cleared. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Extreme inequality exists between the urban elite, who live in the capital city of Port-au-Prince, and everyone else.

The people in the countryside are referred to as peyizan yo (the plural form of peyizan), a Creole term for small farmers who produce for their own use and for the market (Smith 2001). Many also participate in small-scale marketing. Most peyizan yo in Haiti own their land. They grow vegetables, fruits (especially mangoes), sugarcane, rice and corn.

Accurate health statistics are not available, but even rough estimates show that Haiti has the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS of any country in the region. Medical anthropologist Paul Farmer emphasizes the role of colonialism in the past and global structural inequalities now in causing these high rates (1992).

Colonial plantation owners grew fabulously rich from this island. It produced more wealth for France than all of France’s other colonies combined and more than the 13 colonies in North America produced for Britain. Why is Haiti so poor now?

Colonialism launched environmental degradation by clearing forests. After the revolution, the new citizens carried with them the traumatic history of slavery. Now, neocolonialism and globalization are leaving new scars. For decades, the United States has played, and still plays, a powerful role in supporting conservative political regimes.

In contrast to these structural explanations, some people point to problems with the Haitian people: They cannot work together, and they lack a vision of the future.

Opposed to these views are the findings of Jennie Smith’s ethnographic research in southwestern Haiti, which shed light on the life of peyizan yo and offer perspectives on their development (2001). She found many active social organizations with functions such as labor sharing, to help each member get his or her field planted on time, and cost sharing, to help pay for health care or funerals. Also, peyizan yo have clear opinions about their vision for the future, including hopes for relative economic equality, political leaders with a sense of social service, respe (respect), and access of citizens to basic social services.

The early colonizers did not decide to occupy Haiti because it was poor. It was colonialism and its extractive ways that have made Haiti poor today.

Sources:

“Culturama: The Peyizan Yo of Haiti,” in Barbara D Miller, Cultural Anthropology, 5th edition, Pearson. 2009, p. 404.

Smith, Jennie M. 2001. When the Hands Are Many: Community Organization and Change in Rural Haiti. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Farmer, Paul, 1992. AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame.

Image: “Haitian Girl” by Flickr user Billtacular, licensed by creative commons.

Thanks to Samuel Martínez of the University of Connecticut for pointing out that the Haitian Creole plural “yo” means that one should not include an article in front of the noun.

Anthropologyworks 10 best of 2009

The following list was determined by a panel of one, though, as you can see, many of the choices are externally validated. Congratulations to one and all!

Best Student Essays in Public Anthropology: The public anthropology award winners of 2009 are 19 students in Diana French’s Anthropology 100 class, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, at the University of British Columbia-Okanagan.
Best Anthropology Song … or was it the only one? Certainly the only one performed at the AAA meetings.
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=8035515&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
Best Long-term Field Research: Olga Linares, of the Smithsonian’s Tropical Research Institute in Panama, has been doing fieldwork in three regions of Senegal for 40 years. She has witnessed many changes including a doubling of the number of poor people, declining rainfall, abandonment of rice fields and effects of the drop in currency value. She describes how Senegalese women farmers creatively cope with these changes.
Best Contribution to Anthropological Ethics: the AAA-commissioned report (PDF) on the Human Terrain System was submitted in November; the product of many months of work by several contributors, it condemns the role of anthropologists in U.S. military operations.

Best Special Issue of a Journal: Social Science and Medicine, Volume 70, issue 1 (requires login), edited by Catherine Panter-Brick of Durham University, contains 20 articles on conflict, violence and health. I will be assigning several of them in my spring medical anthropology seminar.
Best News About One of My GW Colleagues: Patty Kelly, research professor of anthropology, is co-winner of the Sharon Stephens Prize and runner-up for the Victor Turner Prize for her book, Lydia’s Open Door: Inside Mexico’s Most Modern Brothel.
Best New Journal: Collaborative Anthropologies, edited by Luke Eric Lassiter.
Best Anthropology Conference: The September meeting of the Society for Medical Anthropology at Yale University. Although I wasn’t able to attend, my colleagues who did have praised the plenary speakers, rich array of papers, impressive attendance and organization, including meals for the attendees.
Best Kinship Story: The President of the United States’ mother was a cultural anthropologist, and Duke University Press published a revised version of her dissertation, Surviving against Odds.
Best Public Impact: A shared shout-out to Antonio N. Zavaleta, professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, who received the Premio Otli Award from the Mexican government for his work improving the quality of life for Mexican citizens living abroad, and to Patricia Easteal, associate professor in the University of Canberra’s faculty of law, who won the Australian of the Year Award for her efforts in advancing human rights and justice in Australia. More info here.

Chagas disease on the move in Peru

Chagas disease affects 8 – 10 million people in the Americas. Previously limited to the rural poor, it is spreading to the poor of urban areas. A qualitative, interview-based study (PDF file) of five per-urban communities of Arequipa shows that men who have recently migrated to the city’s “new shantytowns” from the countryside are most at risk of contracting Chagas. But the migrants tend to come from Chagas-free areas and therefore do not bring the vector with them. Instead, it appears likely that they become infected through short-term migration to the Chagas-endemic valleys west of the city for seasonal agricultural labor.

Thus migration is involved in the spread of Chagas but the causal chain involves more than simply rural to urban migration. First, poverty in the rural areas prompts people, even young children on their own, to migrate to the city to seek work. Once there, limited employment options force many migrants to take on seasonal work in Chagas-endemic areas. They return to the shantytowns bringing the vectors with them. The disease then spreads rapidly in the new shantytowns, given their suboptimal housing, population crowding and high density of animals. Suggested methods for improving vector control include: focusing vector surveillance on mobile populations, motivating the Arequipa Ministry of Health and Ministry of Housing to work together to include new shantytowns in their vector surveillance and launching education campaigns for migrant workers who go to Chagas-endemic areas.

Improving vector control is certainly important, and I hope it proves successful in keep Chagas out of Peru’s cities. But what about programs in rural areas directed at protecting livelihoods and entitlements so that fewer people are compelled to migrate to cities in the first place? And how about focusing intense poverty alleviation efforts in Chagas-endemic areas? Such endeavors would help reduce the need for surveillance. If the conditions that foster Chagas were reduced and Chagas eventually eradicated, then education campaigns could focus on other, more productive kinds of learning.

Image: “Chagas” by Flickr user Clonny, licensed through Creative Commons.

To market, to market

Farming women hold up more than half the sky in rural Senegal. Olga Linares, a researcher with the Smithsonian’s Tropical Research Institute in Panama, has been doing fieldwork in three regions of Senegal for 40 years. She has witnessed many changes over this period including a doubling of the number of poor people, declining rainfall and abandonment of many of the rice fields, and the effects of the drop in the value of African currencies. During this period, the World Bank has admitted to neglecting agriculture.

Although variations exist across the three regions, Linares finds a general pattern of women developing gardens that they cultivate on their own or with groups of women to produce vegetables for sale in nearby markets. The installation of drip irrigation systems, with the assistance of NGOs, is the single-most important innovation in saving women countless hours carrying water over long distances to their gardens.

Linares points out that it is women’s traditional knowledge of farming that is critical in this new endeavor, along with help from NGOs and extension services. Their familiarity with what works and what doesn’t is “ultimately responsible” for the success of their gardens. With cash from sales, they support the household economy including clothing, rice for daily meals, and children’s schooling. Vegetables that are not sold are consumed by household members or fed to their domestic animals.

All in all, it’s a win-win situation that builds on women’s traditional knowledge, capabilities, and cooperation can lead to life-sustaining change.

Image: A farmer in Senegal by Flickr user vredeseilanden. Licensed by Creative Commons.