Love, Anger, Madness

when Haitian currency was pegged to the U.S. dollar (1913-89) (trans.).

[31] Armand Duval: In La Dame aux camelias, the 1848 novel (later adapted into a play) by Alexandre Dumas fils, Duval is the penniless lover of the dying heroine (trans).

[32] merengue: Haitian national dance.

[33] clairin: See note 5 on p. 375.

[34] tafia: cheap rum distilled from molasses and refuse sugar (trans.).

[35] Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani: according to Mark 15:34, Jesus Christ’s words on the cross, meaning “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (trans.).

[36] Simple Simon: “Gros-Jean comme devan”: an old expression referring to Gros Jean, a dumb sucker forever tricked and abused, featured in La Fontaine’s fables and in Rabelais.

[37] Diderot: from Diderot’s satirical philosophical dialogue Rameau’s Nephew, written in 1762, in which the title character argues that there is no such thing as virtue (trans.).

[38] Dessalines! Petion! Toussaint! Christophe!: heroes of Haiti independence. Jean-Jacques Dessalines (c. 1758-1806) was one of the leaders of the 1791 slave revolt; he became emperor of Haiti in 1804, but was assassinated in a coup by Petion and Christophe. Alexandre Sabes Petion (1770-1818) was the mulatto son of a wealthy French colonist, who served as president of an independent republic in southern Haiti from 1807 to 1818. Toussaint Louverture (c. 1743-1803) was a former slave who led the 1791 rebellion and became the effective ruler of Haiti by 1797; when Napoleon Bonaparte sent an expedition to reconquer Haiti, Toussaint was arrested, and he died in a French prison. Henri Christophe (1767-1820) was a former slave and one of Toussaint’s lieutenants; after the assassination of Dessalines he became president of northern Haiti in 1807 and king in 1811 (trans.).

[39] Legba: the preeminent god in voodoo practice; the father of all the gods.

[40] marassas dishes: double clay vessels used during voodoo ceremonies or in household shrines. Marassas is the Creole word for twins, who are believed to have special powers in voodoo practice (trans.).

[41] piastre: one gourde (see note 3 on p. 377) (trans.) .

[42] studded whips: Both lanieres ferrees (studded whips) and rigoises (stiff cowhide whips) were used on slaves in Haiti; the latter are also still used on restaveks or unpaid child servants (trans.).

[43] coco-macaques: peasant clubs or bludgeons (trans.).

[44] Iambi: conch shell used as a horn.

[45] coumbite: collective farm work.

[46] hounsis: voodoo dancers.

[47] “restez-avec-monsieur”: Here Chauvet gives the etymology of the Haitian Creole word for an unpaid and illiterate child servant, the reste- avec or restavek. As Chauvet points out, reste-avec is short for “restez- avec-monsieur”-“Stay with the gentleman” (trans.).

[48] tafia: See note 7 on p. 377.

[49] Cocobes: Creole word for cripples (trans.).

[50] houngans: male voodoo high priests (trans.).

[51] simples: A simple is a plant or other substance having one “simple” remedial virtue (trans.).

[52] Massillon Coicou’s “L’Alerme” in unison: Haitian poet (1867-1908) executed by President Pierre Nord Alexis. The poem refers to the siege of the fort of Crete-a-Pierrot (1802), a major battle of the Haitian Revolution in which Dessalines’ 1,300 men were surrounded by Leclerc’s 18,000 French colonial troops; the rebels ultimately broke through enemy lines and escaped the fortress largely intact