A Workshop with Dr Jemima Pierre

Hosted by RGC, in collaboration with the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JIAS)

“The uses and abuses of the first Black republic as a testing ground of imperialism
offer stark warnings. Haiti still struggles to be free.”

JIAS Seminar Room
1 Tolip St, Westdene
RSVP here to join

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Join us for a workshop on ‘Haiti as Empire’s Laboratory’ with Professor Jemima Pierre. In this small group session, we trace the coordinates of the current and ongoing crisis in Haiti, as ‘a crisis of imperialism’ and explore what we mean when we say ‘Free Haiti’.

Beyond the singular study of the Haitian Revolution in isolation, Professor Pierre will draw on her work, ‘An Archive of Occupation’, to draw a timeline of key moments from 2004 to the present, that ask not to be understood as singular happenings, but as a historically rooted series of connected events that has led to ‘the complete destruction of the Haitian state’. This includes 2004’s coup d’etat, backed by the involvement of the United States, Canada and France – and life under occupation since then.

 Framing the present crisis, against decontextualised ideas of violence and sudden happenings, we contextualise it within Haitian’s fight for sovereignty and the restoration of their democracy, while considering the links between South Africa, Haiti, Kenya and Palestine, and the need for transnational solidarity and our interconnected liberation.

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NOTE: please engage with the suggested readings in advance. Click here to download the reading list.