Also known as: indigénisme, Haitian indigenism
Last updated: April 23, 2026
Indigénisme was an intellectual and cultural movement in Haiti, led most prominently by Jean Price-Mars, that argued Haiti's national identity must be grounded in its African and peasant heritage rather than in mimicry of French culture. Price-Mars's Ainsi Parla l'Oncle (1928) diagnosed Haitian elites with bovarysme collectif — a collective self-delusion that they were essentially French. The movement reshaped literature, ethnography, and public debate and laid groundwork for the revaluation of Vodou as a legitimate religious tradition.
Emerged from the indigenisme and ethnological nationalism of the post-occupation period, then appropriated it into a harder, exclusionary state ideology.
Institutionalized indigénisme through the Bureau d'Ethnologie and incorporated peasant culture, Vodou, and Kreyòl oral tradition into his literary and political work.
Extended and critiqued the indigénisme movement, arguing for a creolized rather than racially essentialist account of Haitian culture.
Jean Price Mars
The Griots movement grew out of the indigenisme turn, moving from cultural affirmation of African and Haitian popular culture toward explicit racial politics.
Engaged and pushed beyond the indigénisme movement, which had shaped Haitian literary nationalism since the occupation era; his generation radicalized indigénisme's cultural recovery into explicit Marxist and surrealist experimentation.
Bovarysme Collectif
Folklore Movement
Haitian Folklore
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"Indigenisme." Rasin.ai, 2026. https://rasin.ai/connections/concepts/indigenisme. Accessed 2026-05-05.