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Haiti is a Catholic country. But daily life still moves to the rhythms of spirit religion.

Say 'buenos dias' to colonial Cuba, carnival pleasures in the Dominican Republic and two of the strangest island escapes on the planet. Simon Calder and Gail Simmonds report

In 1492, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue, he claimed all the land he found in the name of the Spanish crown. On his second voyage he was accompanied by Diego Velazquez de Cuellar, who later (in 1514) conquered Cuba and founded seven settlements. The first was the port of Baracoa - a candidate for "The Town that Time Forgot", with a strong concentration of the alluring decay that characterises the island. Stay at the Hotel El Castillo (00 53 214 2125), overlooking the town.

Over the following centuries, England, France and even Denmark took a share of the Caribbean, leaving Spain with a minority of islands but a majority of the territory: Cuba has the same area as the rest of the Caribbean put together, while Hispaniola (of which the Spanish part is the Dominican Republic) and Puerto Rico are also among the region's largest islands. In addition, the islands of San Andres and Providencia, off the coast of Nicaragua, are Colombian possessions and are regarded as part of the Spanish Caribbean.

Spain lost the last of its Caribbean colonies more than a century ago, but the influence of the "mother country" is still pervasive in everything from language to architecture.

The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution is a 1938 book by Trinidadian historian C. L. R. James, a history of the Haitian Revolution of 1791–1804. He went to Paris to research this work, where he met Haitian military historian Alfred Auguste Nemours. James's text places the revolution in the context of the French Revolution, and focuses on the leadership of Toussaint L'Ouverture, who was born a slave but rose to prominence espousing the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty and equality. These ideals, which many French revolutionaries did not maintain consistently with regard to the black humanity of their colonial possessions, were embraced, according to James, with a greater purity by the persecuted blacks of Haiti; such ideals "meant far more to them than to any Frenchman."

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Egalite for All: Toussaint Louverture & The Haitian Revolution

The Haitian Revolution (French: Révolution haïtienne [ʁevɔlysjɔ̃ ajisjɛ̃n]), was a successful anti-slavery and anti-colonial insurrection that took place in the former French colony of Saint-Domingue that lasted from 1791 until 1804. It affected the institution of slavery throughout the Americas. Self-liberated slaves destroyed slavery at home, fought to preserve their freedom, and with the collaboration of mulattoes, founded the sovereign state of Haiti. It led to the greatest slave uprising since Spartacus's unsuccessful revolt against the Roman Republic nearly 1,900 years prior.

The Haitian Revolution was the only slave uprising that led to the founding of a state free from slavery and ruled by non-whites and former captives. With the increasing number of Haitian Revolutionary Studies in the last few decades, it has become clear that the event was a defining moment in the racial histories of the Atlantic World. The legacy of the Revolution was that it challenged long-held beliefs about black inferiority and of the enslaved person's capacity to achieve and maintain freedom. The rebels' organizational capacity and tenacity under pressure became the source of stories that shocked and frightened slave owners.

François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (French: [fʁɑ̃swa dɔminik tusɛ̃ luvɛʁtyʁ] 20 May 1743 – 7 April 1803), also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda, was the best-known leader of the Haitian Revolution. His military and political acumen saved the gains of the first Black insurrection in November 1791. He first fought for the Spanish against the French; then for France against Spain and Britain; and finally, for Saint-Domingue (modern Haiti)'s colonial sovereignty against Napoleonic France. He then helped transform the insurgency into a revolutionary movement, which by 1800 had turned Saint-Domingue, the most prosperous slave colony of the time, into the first free colonial society to have explicitly rejected race as the basis of social ranking.

Though Toussaint did not sever ties with France, his actions in 1800 constituted a de facto autonomous colony. The colony's constitution proclaimed him governor for life even against Napoleon Bonaparte's wishes. He died betrayed before the final and most violent stage of the armed conflict. However, his achievements set the grounds for the Black army's absolute victory and for Jean-Jacques Dessalines to declare the sovereign state of Haiti in January 1804. Toussaint's prominent role in the Haitian success over colonialism and slavery had earned him the admiration of friends and detractors alike.

Toussaint Louverture began his military career as a leader of the 1791 slave rebellion in the French colony of Saint-Domingue; he was by then a free black man and a Jacobin. Initially allied with the Spaniards of neighboring Santo Domingo (modern Dominican Republic), Toussaint switched allegiance to the French when they abolished slavery. He gradually established control over the whole island and used political and military tactics to gain dominance over his rivals. Throughout his years in power, he worked to improve the economy and security of Saint-Domingue. He restored the plantation system using paid labour, negotiated trade treaties with Britain and the United States, and maintained a large and well-disciplined army.

In 1801, he promulgated an autonomist constitution for the colony, with himself as Governor-General for Life. In 1802 he was forced to resign by forces sent by Napoleon Bonaparte to restore French authority in the former colony. He was deported to France, where he died in 1803. The Haitian Revolution continued under his lieutenant, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who declared independence on January 1, 1804. The French had lost two-thirds of forces sent to the island in an attempt to suppress the revolution; most died of yellow fever.

#AV Club

“We do not need the empire to give us anything,” the former president of Cuba wrote in Granma, the official Communist Party newspaper.

Mr. Castro’s admonition comes across as something of a reminder to the Cuban people that shedding the government’s long-running enmity with the United States and reforming its economic system should not undermine what he and other Cubans view as the ideals and achievements of the revolution.

“Nobody should be under the illusion that the people of this dignified and selfless country will renounce the glory, the rights or the spiritual wealth they have gained with the development of education, science and culture,” Mr. Castro wrote.

#Politics

That April day outside the Hall of Justice was momentous. Trinidad and Tobago’s High Court ruled that the country's antiquated and explicitly anti-homosexual laws should be struck off the books once and for all, a historic win. Across the Caribbean two realities exist in conflict: the diversity and fluidity of beliefs and lifestyles having to do with sex and marriage within actual communities, and the staid and forbidding values touted by church leaders and politicians.

#Yasss!

Learn how to do basic dance steps in cumbia dancing with expert Columbian cumbia dancing instruction from a professional dancer in this free online advanced ...

How to do Cumbia Dancing : How to Do Basic Cumbia Dance Steps

#Let's Move!

Discover strength,power and beauty in music with these world class female reggae artists.

#Muzak

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#Nice Threadz

RUDE BWAI VERSHAN A BOOK REVIEW OF THE HARDER THEY COME by Michael Thelwell By Yulande Lindsay ([email protected]) Michael Thelwell’s classic novel The Harder They Come, chronicles the journey o…

Michael Thelwell’s classic novel The Harder They Come, chronicles the journey of one man’s evolution from ‘country bwai’ to urban legend. On the surface, the book details Ivanhoe “Rhygin” Martin’s journey from his rural beginnings through his quest for musical stardom and riches to his emergence as a gunman, a folk hero, an anti-establishment symbol. However, a closer examination of this richly evocative work reveals a deeply rooted love for and an in-depth analysis ofJamaica and its society.

The novel is as its protagonist. It is “rhygin” – “spirited, vigorous, lively, passionate with great vitality and force…” (Thelwell, p. 398). It does what the movie could not; it presents an audience with a kaleidoscopic tapestry, colourful and vibrant, rich in historical, political and cultural details, which fully illustrate the Jamaica of the time. The characters are finely drawn, each one playing its own pivotal role in the development of the main character, Ivanhoe-turned-Rhygin. Miss Mando, his grandmother, represents his foundation, his grounding personality. From her, he learns the importance and values of his ancestors, the usefulness and essential nature of the land on which they work and dwell, it is from her teachings that he develops a strong work ethic which prevents him from descending into petty crime when he first arrives in the city. Their relationship is close although it becomes severely strained when Ivan expresses the desire to go to Kingston to become a famous singer. He unintentionally brings to the fore Miss Mando’s greatest fear, that he will leave the land, abandon her as her children have done, never to return. The rift remains unhealed when she dies.

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#Erna Brodber #Must Reads

I saw it clearly. The tragedy of our time is to have lost the ability to feel loss, the inability of power to rise to its responsibility for human decency.

Earl Lovelace

#Earl Lovelace #Quotables

The plot twist of the year.

A new song and visual dedicated to the empowering of skin-tone acceptance among Black women and the depowering of colorism in all of its vicious forms. Spice opens the video with a sovereign speech to a room full of gorgeous Black women, all glowing in their natural, melanin goddess glory. She slams down acts of envy and debasement among Black women and turns their attention to a poster displaying her acronym for the word “Black”: beautiful, lovely, attractive, courageous and kind. The women cheer her on before the “Black Hypocrisy” record ensues where Spice flips back and forth to the bleach-toned, artificial light-skinned woman to her natural deep brown complexion, calling out the hypocrisy women of her skin tone are forced to fight through every day. “Bun racism, demolish colourism,” she lyricizes. “But the things weh mi a go seh/ Yuh might not even have mi back/ I get hate from my own race/ Yes, that's a fact/ 'Cause the same black people dem seh I'm too black/ And if yuh bleach out yuh skin dem same one come a chat.”

#Spice #Colorism

The internet went into a speculation frenzy on Monday, Oct. 22 when screenshots of dancehall artist Spice went viral, showing the musician with significantly lighter skin. In the clips, Spice was seen being interviewed by Billboard’s contributing…

#Spice #Colorism

Women of all climes and races have as great a part to play in the development of their particular group as the men. Some readers may not agree with us on this issue, but do they not mould the minds of their children the future men and women? Even before birth a mother can so direct her thoughts and conduct as to bring into the world either a genius or an idiot. Imagine the early years of contact between mother and child, when she directs his form of speech, and is responsible for his conduct and deportment. Many a man has risen from the depths of poverty and obscurity and made his mark in life because of the advices and councils of a good mother whose influence guided his footsteps throughout his life.

#Chicks #Politics

February 6, 2015 marks what would been the 70th birthday of Bob Marley. And nearly 34 years after his cancer-related death in 1981, the reggae pioneer's songs of love, dissatisfaction, peace, and protest are still as powerful and timely as they were when they originally moved the people of Jamaica and beyond in his heyday.

#Bob Marley #Politics #Let's Move!#Muzak

“When you say ‘black music,’ understand that you are talking about rock, jazz, R&B, reggae, funk, doo-wop, hip-hop, and Motown. Black people created it all. Being Puerto Rican, even salsa music stems back to the Motherland [Africa]. So, in my world, black music means everything. It’s what gives America its swag. I’m a child raised in the ‘90s. Pop music was heavily rooted in R&B from Whitney, Diddy, Dr. Dre, Boyz II Men, Aaliyah, TLC, Babyface, New Edition, Michael, and so much more. As kids this is what was playing on MTV and the radio. This is what we were dancing to at school functions and BBQs. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for these artists who inspired me. They have brought me so much joy and created the soundtrack to my life filled with memories that I'll never forget. Most importantly, they were the superstars that set the bar for me and showed me what it takes to sing a song that can get the whole world dancing, or give a performance that people will talk about forever. Watching them made me feel like I had to be as great as they were in order to even stand a chance in this music business. You gotta sing as if Jodeci is performing after you and dance as if Bobby Brown is coming up next.”

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