The Western Perspective of Haitians Vs. Laferriere’s

Dany Laferriere’s memoir, The World is Moving Around Me discusses the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti. Laferriere makes a point in his memoir to counter the western stereotype of the Haitian people. This stereotype being, poor, violent “wild men” who believe in voodoo (Laferriere 75-76). In contrast, Laferriere believes them undeserving of this “curse” (76) and describes their “energy and dignity”(76), perseverance, and hope (32), after the earthquake, as well as in their everyday lives. I researched two news articles, published right after the earthquake happened, from popular western sources to see how the Haitian people were being portrayed in relation to the western stereotype and to Laferriere’s description of them. Both sources held similarities that backed up the stereotype.

The two articles I found – one from BBC News, and the other from the New York Times written by Simon Romero and Marc Lacy – mostly reported quotes, perspectives, and statistics (such as the death toll of UN personnel) related to western culture instead of Haitian. In fact, besides mentioning Haiti’s tendency for natural disasters, and the devastation this catastrophe was for it (primarily because of Haiti’s extreme poverty, bad construction, and political state; or as Romero and Lacy put it, “Haiti’s many man-made woes”), they barely mentioned Haitian people at all. When they did, it was from a western perspective, describing the chaos and panic happening around them, not the resilience and spirit of the Haitian people like Laferriere describes.

For example, both the New York Times and BBC News quote Henry Bahn, an official of the United States Department of Agriculture, saying “Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken”; and another quote by Rachmani Domersant, an operations manager with the Food for the Poor charity, said “You have thousands of people sitting in the streets with nowhere to go. There are people running, crying, screaming” (BBC News). Contrary to these reports, Laferriere wrote, “I expected to hear screams and cries, there was none of that” (15). Both sides, Laffaire’s and the western perspectives, gives two different ideas of Haiti. So, to what extent does each account accurately portray the people of Haiti? And, does the western stereotype effect the way Bahn and Domersant saw Haiti?

BBC News also briefly mentions that “there have also been some reports of looting overnight”, further supporting the crime and violence stereotype of Haiti.

I also feel it worth noting that both sources paint western countries in a virtuous light as they send aid to Haiti.

Both BBC News and The New York Times report information that paints Haitian people in a contradictory way to Laferriere description. This could suggest that Laferrier’s memoir, in addition to it being a trauma narrative of the earthquake, it is meant to bring to light the virtues of a group of marginalized people (Schaffer and Smith); Haitians who are negatively stereotyped in western eyes.

Sources:

“Haiti Devastated by Massive Earthquake.” BBC News. BBC, 13 Jan. 2010. Web. 05 Nov. 2016.

Laferriere, Dany, and David Homel. The World Is Moving Around Me: A Memoir of the Haiti

Earthquake. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp, 2013. Print.

Schaffer, Kay, and Sidonie Smith. “Conjunctions: Life Narratives in the Field of Human Rights.” 27.1 (2004): 1-24. University of Hawaii Press. Web.

Romero, Simon, and Marc Lacy. “Fierce Quake Devastates Haitian Capital.” The New York

Times. The New York Times Company, 12 Jan. 2010. Web. 5 Nov. 2016.