Today in Haitian History - September 22, 1957 – François Duvalier elected president of Haiti after general election
Sixty years ago, François Duvalier was elected president of Haiti. The country doctor and former Minister of Health and Labor under Dumarsais Estimé (1946-1950) ascended to the precedency following a year of political instability triggered by the fall Paul Eugène Magloire in 1956. Between Magloire’s precipitated departure from office in December of that year and the general election of 1957, six governments, including that of charismatic labour organiser Daniel Fignolé in late May 1957, closely followed each other.
The 1957 election was characterised by a climate of uncertainty. The colour question, which had long overshadowed Haitian politics, was at its the forefront. Duvalier distinguished himself from other candidates, notably the “mulatto” industrialist Louis Déjoie, by presenting himself as a black “authentique” (autenthic) best suited to represent the country’s black majority and legitimate heir of Dumarsais Estimé’s idealism. Whether Duvalier was truly convinced by the Noirist ideology that swept Haitian intellectual circles in the 1930s and 1940s or whether he was an opportunist politician is difficult to establish. Whatever the case may be, once in power Duvalier made clear that political dissidence was not only a crime to his person, but one against the entire Haitian nation.
Closely following the ruling style of other Latin American strong men during the Cold War, real and suspected political opponents of the Duvalier regime were either exiled and, in many cases, forcefully disappeared and presumably killed. Duvaliersit violence spared few victims as women and children became some of its numerous casualties. Entire families accused of conspiring against the Duvalier government were massacred. Elementary freedoms were suppressed in the name of fighting enemies of the Duvaliersit revolution. Duvalier’s death in 1971 did not signify a democratic opening and rather signalled the transfer of power from François Duvalier to his son Jean-Claude Duvalier. The latter would rule, in many respects, in the same fashion as his father until a popular uprising in 1985-6.
Today, Haitians in and out of Haiti remain divided on Duvalierism and especially on the presidency of François Duvalier (1957-1971). While many see it as a time of extreme violence and despair, others suggest that Duvalier helped the rise of the black-middle class which had been thrust away from power by the “mulatto” elite.
In any event, in a country which counted less than 8 million inhabitants in the 1980s, some 30 000 to 500 000 Haitians died or were forcefully disappeared by the father and son regimes. Sixty years after one of Haiti’s most important elections, the Haitian government has yet to reconcile the Duvalier period in a comprehensive manner into its national history.
Image: François and Simone Duvalier on September 22, 1957 leaving the polling station. Courtesy of: Haïti-Référence.
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