Trouillot and Vodou History

Although Introduction à une histoire du vaudou is very much an introduction and somewhat outdated, it's additional proof of the ongoing relevance of Hénock Trouillot to the study of Haitian history. Trouillot's historical approach cites some sources we are not personally familiar with on Vodou as well as offering some provocative analysis of the significance of the plantation economy, slavery, Catholicism, the Haitian Revolution, anti-Vodou laws, and the development of the lakou in shaping Vodou as we know it. Obviously, Vodou is not some fount of "pure" Africanity. Nor is it immune from transformations and new developments that require historically-grounded ethnographic research on the rise of it's particular rites, familial base, or Catholic-Vodou syncretism. 

Trouillot's study is an early exemplary model of what historians can contribute to Haitian ethnology by highlighting the likely impact of social, economic, political, and cultural changes over time that appear to have transformed Vodou from the colonial-era cult of the snake to the religion we know today with a pantheon of spirits and private, public, and secular dimensions. As an early sketch or introduction to the history of such a complex topic, Trouillot's book is worthwhile, though one cannot ignore its outdated projections and terminology (evolved versus archaic religions). Nor can one omit mention of the weak treatment of possible impact of Kongolese Catholics on Haitian Catholicism or the cursory allusion to Muslim West Africans possibly shaping the monotheistic aspects of Vodou. A further limitation is the omission of certain key texts which do shed light on Vodou in the 1800 and early 1900s, such as Mollien. Perhaps Trouillot simply lacked access to some of these sources so he heavily relies on L'Union, St. John, Mackenzie, Hill, Aubin, Price, Janvier, Firmin, Manigat, d'Alaux, Texier, and Church-affiliated figures. Nowadays, scholars have access to more robust sources that could eventually lead to a fuller history.

Perhaps more disturbing and placing himself in a long trajectory of Haitian ethnologists and even 19th century intellectuals, Trouillot also seems to equate Vodou with the forces that retard progress for the Haitian masses. He even goes so far to criticize the ethnological school for its apologetics on Haitian Vodou and rural customs which hold back the Haitian people and become a form of intellectual  masturbation. He wasn't entirely wrong, and his harsh criticism on the lack of scientific vigor or on the ground research from the ethnologists was fair. But one can see today's practitioners and scholars taking issue with the development-oriented framework of Trouillot's study. However, Trouillot saw the ineffectiveness of the UNESCO Marbial project and believed development had to come through applied anthropology that took into account local perspectives, beliefs, and conditions to support opportunities for development based on those factors. All things considered, this makes for a complex and nuanced attempt at a history of a misunderstood and often maligned religion.

Dimensions et limites de Jacques Roumain

Hénock Trouillot's critical study of Jacques Roumain is a fascinating analysis of the illustrious Haitian writer. Despite Trouillot's noirist sympathies, which can be detected through his persistent admiration and praise for the Griots (Duvalier, Denis, Jacob, etc.), Dimensions et limites de Jacques Roumain is a mostly fair overview of the various writings of Roumain from his youthful anti-Occupation journalism to the mature talent of his final novel. Undoubtedly, Trouillot recognized the talent and ability of Roumain and his universalist outlook. However, Roumain's abilities as a novelist, poet, and ethnologue developed over time, and remained, in some aspects, embryonic or detached from what was actually happening on the ground in Haiti during the 1930s and 1940s. With the exception of the influence of Fernand Hibbert and Frederic Marcelin on Roumain's nouvelles, and Price-Mars writing the preface to his first roman, he seems to owe far more to his European education than Haiti. 

Of course, some of Roumain's detachment was due to exile and perhaps his education in Europe, so one can see why Roumain was removed from the "Ethnological School" of Price-Mars, Denis, Duvalier, and others. Trouillot's sympathy for the Griots and explicitly indigenist Haitian authors makes him torn on the question of Roumain's adherence to indigenist and negritude literature. Roumain was too universal, and did not pursue with the requisite depth history, ethnology, and the specifically Haitian context of the racial question. And one can make the case Trouillot was correct in clearly delineating two distinct schools, one of Roumain and that of Price-Mars and the Griots in Haitian ethnology and indigénisme. 

In spite of Roumain's shortcomings, and his early death depriving us of his future endeavors in literature, ethnology or Marxism, his legacy seems the most commemorated or celebrated today. With the exception of Price-Mars, the Griots became associated with the Duvalier regime and have, at best, a checkered legacy. They have may laid the foundations for the Bureau d'Ethnologie with more careful studies and historically-grounded research than Roumain, but Roumain, the Marxist universalist who rejected Vodou, authored the timeless novel of Haiti that artfully combined his descriptive ethnographic work and "symbolic realism" with his political vision of sacrifice for the collective. Thus, even though we tend to agree with Trouillot on the weakness of Roumain as a poet, particularly in the early years, and the sometimes superficial nature of his political and ethnographic works, there is undeniably something timeless in his universalist outlook and gradual development as a novelist.