Beckett — There Is No More Haiti — Chapter Notes Source file: beckett there is no more haiti

Beckett — There Is No More Haiti — Chapter Notes Source file: beckett there is no more haiti Introduction — The Forest and the City Pages 1–20 (read) Setting and Method The book opens at the Habitation Leclerc / Martissant neighborhood in port au prince: a historic colonial estate and botanic forest used by Katherine Dunham as an arts center and now managed by the SCPE (Société de Conservation et du Développement des Ressources Naturelles et Environnement) Beckett first arrives in 2001, introduced to the SCPE and its community of herbalists, Vodou practitioners, artists, and squatters through Maxo, the SCPE director The forest is a liminal space: it is at once a conservation project, a Vodou sacred site, a squatter settlement, and a source of medicinal plants — a pocket of the "natural" inside the dense urban slum of Martissant Katherine Dunham (1909–2006): African American choreographer and anthropologist; lived at Habitation Leclerc; considered the SCPE her life's work; informants call her the "godmother" of Martissant; her death in 2006 (Washington, D.C., funeral) is felt by Beckett's informants as a profound personal loss The Coup February 29, 2004: Aristide removed from power under disputed circumstances — the 2004 coup haiti; flown out on a U.S. military plane; the U.S. and France deny it was a coup; Aristide's supporters call it an abduction The coup instantly transforms life in Martissant: the provisional government targets lavalas supporters; gangs that had some political relationship to Aristide (the chimè) lose their patron The SCPE withdraws from Martissant under the wave of violence; Vincent and Laurent are displaced The Research Community Key informants introduced: Vincent: herbalist and aspiring fey dokté (leaf doctor); Dunham's godson; lived in Martissant his whole life; his small medicinal garden is a labor of love Maxo: SCPE director; the organizational hub; grows increasingly suspicious of Vincent after a cleansing rite in 2004 Laurent: Vincent's godson; grew up in Martissant; narrator's guide through the city Alexis, Wilfred, Jean, Toto: regulars at the Artist Gift Shop downtown; working-class men; longtime Aristide/Lavalas supporters Chapter 1 — The Forest and the City Pages 21–40 (read) Martissant and the Forest Martissant is one of port au prince's dense, impoverished southern neighborhoods; built on unstable hillside terrain subject to flooding and landslides The SCPE forest was once the grounds of Habitation Leclerc — the estate where Napoleon's brother-in-law General Leclerc died of yellow fever in 1802 during the Saint-Domingue campaign The forest contains rare plant species and is one of the last green spaces in the city; the squatter community that lives around it is in constant negotiation with the SCPE over land rights Beckett's approach: the forest is not just a conservation site but a cosmological site — a place where the urban poor maintain connections to the ancestors, to Vodou, to the countryside they left behind The botanic garden as a form of lakou (extended family courtyard space) reimagined in the urban context Vodou in the Forest Vincent's herbal practice is inseparable from vodou; he is trained as an herbalist but understands plant medicine through the framework of the lwa (spirits) The forest contains several Vodou sacred trees (poto mitan of the neighborhood in some sense) The cleansing rite (2004) that Maxo conducts in the forest — and which Vincent witnesses — is a ritual designed to protect the SCPE from violence; Vincent's role in this rite later becomes a source of conflict Chapter 2 — After the Coup Pages 107–126 (read) Immediate Post-Coup Violence The provisional government (2004–2006): backed by ex-military, the traditional elite, and international donors; explicitly anti-lavalas The campaign against "gangs" was largely a campaign against Aristide's armed supporters in the slums — an extension of state violence targeting the poor Most former military officers joined the newly reconstituted national police; change from green to blue uniforms did little to change the continuities of violence For Wilfred and Alexis: "There was little point in trying to make distinctions between the army, the police, and the gangs.