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According to a press release #RichAxxHaitian will be the final part of a “tetrology” beginning in 2016 with HBO (Haitian Body Odor), followed up by 2021’s brilliant Pray For Haiti and the immersive Balens Cho (Hot Candles). In a press statement about the project Mach-Hommy said “I’ve always wanted to rep for Haiti and the cultural and intellectual richness we’ve provided the world.” adding “From our musical styles like kontradans that have influenced world music, our natural resources which provide so much raw material for so many important advancements in technology, our thinkers that pioneered philosophical movements and Black pride, and our spiritual leaders who kept the religious traditions of Guinea alive and intact, the religious traditions of Ayiti….”. 

Haiti’s contribution to mainstream music is somewhat known with artists of Haitian descent like Wyclef Jean and Kodak Black achieving commercial success. The nation’s leading role in ending chattel slavery is less documented. In Britain we are often taught that philanthropist and politician William Wilberforce was the driving force behind the end of the British Empire’s participation in slavery. His influence and contributions should not be overlooked, as he and other abolitionists who acted as class traitors to the aristocracy, were certainly important actors. At the same time, centring sons of empire in its dissolution removes the agency of the enslaved people who ultimately freed themselves. In what is modern day Haiti, lesser known historical figures Dutty Boukman and Cécile Fatiman were far bigger catalysts for the Haitian slave revolution, which would eventually bring about the end of chattel slavery. 

When Mach-Hommy talks about “the spiritual leaders who kept the religious traditions of Guinea alive” it offers an insight into the importance of tribal religion. On one of Balen Cho’s skit LA QUATRIÉME we hear two American businessmen ponder attending a voodoo ceremony. The touristy tone of their conversation is a nod to the contempt with which outsiders view something very foundational to the nation’s culture. It was a voodoo ceremony between Boukman and Fatima that spurred enslaved Africans to begin the slave revolts which birthed the military uprising led by Toussaint Louverture. The revolutionary general who led his troops to freedom from slave rule in Saint-Domingue (modern day Haiti). There are many reasons this is not at the centre of how we are taught about slavery in the West.

Eric Williams, the historian and first prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago is famous for the quote “British historians write almost as if Britain had introduced negro slavery solely for the satisfaction of abolishing it.” The reality that enslaved people freed themselves using violent resistance, is an uncomfortable truth for modern day imperialists. Britain prides itself on being a global moral arbiter. Being the nation that abolished slavery is central to that story. The reality is that it only ended because of organised violent resistance. This reframes modern anti-colonial struggles like Palestine in a way that is inconvenient for the political class. The idea that freedom is not given, but taken re-contextualises acts of violence that are often framed as senseless terrorism, disallowing any scope for wider context. Without even knowing the history of Haiti, any sensible person would note that British taxpayers (including the literal descendants of slaves) were paying off slave owners for “loss of property” until 2015. Rather than the monarchy or Church of England who directly invested. This decimates the proposed egalitarian motivations of Britain’s role in abolition. The history of Haiti is also inconvenient because it is one of the most effective examples of international class solidarity imaginable. The ruling class hate this. The French Revolution coincided with slave revolts in Saint-Domingue and the solidarity between the two movements was crucial in military victories achieved by Toussaint. During the French National Assembly of 1794 the term “aristocracy of the skin” was used to identify Euro-American racism. French revolutionaries understood that the peasantry of Europe, colonised people in the global south and enslaved Africans had the same enemy: the ruling class.

Haitians have consistently paid an even heavier price than British taxpayers for the liberation they gifted the world. Haiti’s independence from France in 1804 was met with hostility from the existing world order, who knew that if an independent Black led nation of people who freed themselves from slavery was prosperous, it would give hopes to American slaves and colonised people globally. The assassinations of 20th century Black revolutionary leaders like Thomas Sankara, Patrice Lumumba and Maurice Bishop orchestrated (by Euro-American conspirators) have followed the same logic. In 1825 then king of France Charles X sent fleets to Haiti demanding the nation pay reparations of 150 million francs. That's right, former slaves were made to pay reparations to their enslavers. Lest they enter a new war they could not conceivably manage after so many years of bloodshed during the revolution. In the 122 years it took Haiti to pay off the debt it is estimated they have paid French slaveholders around $30bn.

The inevitable poverty caused by an economy that cannot function as it haemorrhages money paying off debts to slave owners, ostracised by wealthier nations who historically side with oppressors, creates the kind of environment that Mach-Hommy so elegantly illustrates for us in his raps. If nothing else we should be grateful to Haitian revolutionaries who provided the framework for anti-colonial struggle and ask ourselves honestly if our individual politics and actions today, would have liberated Saint-Domingue. 

Article by Martyn Ewoma