Haiti's Brutal Former Dictator Jean-Claude-Duvalier Is Dead At 63

Business Insider ^ | 10/04/2014 | Evans Sanon

[ozzymandus]

The preferred phrase among blacks (privately) is “high yellow”.

[Prov1322]

The son was regarded as a lackluster student at a prestigious private Catholic school in the capital but his teachers gave him passing grades anyway to avoid fury from the National Palace

We knew some of his classmates who said that his nicknames in high school were tete-mato (hammer head) and tete-pannye (basket head).

@wardaddy...interesting that you knew Chantal!

We were there in the early 80's (including the time of his departure). Haitians would tell us that they genuinely loved Jean Claude as he was not "as brutal" as Francois, despite leaving the Tonton Macouttes in-place to terrorize and extort the people.

It wasn't until after he married Michelle and the overwhelming financial rape of the people as a whole that he lost the favor of all classes of Haitians...well, except those who had their hands in the till..

[exit82]

End of an error.

[Paine in the Neck]

I think I'll watch The Comedians, with Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, tonight. Great flic based on Graham Greene's story about Papa Doc's Haiti.

[elcid1970]

And where customs was run by the Tonton Macouts.

[Vermont Lt]

I thought he died 30 years ago.

[marron]

"Papa Doc" Duvalier, a medical doctor-turned-dictator who promoted "Noirisme," a movement that sought to highlight Haiti's African roots over its European ones while uniting the black majority against a mulatto elite in a country divided by class and color.

Except I would imagine that the difference between classes wasn't so much color as the extent to which western education and values had penetrated.

I do know that Papa Doc and the tonton macoute were famously involved in voodoo. And he rather famously was a mass murderer in his own right.

[Windflier]

Most of the “Black” leaders in America are actually mulatto.

Most blacks in America are actually mulatto. The gene mixing started even before the African slaves got off the ships, and continued for over a hundred years, afterwards.

[Windflier]

The preferred phrase among blacks (privately) is “high yellow”.

Maybe back in my grandparents' time. In my lifetime, the preferred phrase has always been, 'light skinned'.

[ClearCase_guy]

In 1971, Francois Duvalier suddenly died of an illness and named his son to succeed him.

Well, it is zombie country --

"Hey, Papa Doc, now that you've died, what are you going to do?"
"Hmmmmmm, I suppose I will name my son to succeed me."

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Quo abiit animae, an habeat ignotum est, nemo curat. (Lat.)

"Where his soul's gone, or how it fares, nobody knows, and nobody cares."

[fieldmarshaldj]

Unfortunately, they present the Communists/Castroites as the saviors of Haiti (as I recall, James Earl Jones plays a Communist doctor). That was always Graham Greene’s preeminent flaw.