Island Possessed: Presentation Paper
Island Possessed by Katherine Dunham is a beautiful introduction to Haiti. The book is comprised of stories, recollections and historical facts about the island that spare no details; good or bad. But the book causes the reader to reevaluate the definitions of good and bad while reading. Is good really good and is bad just different? Her articulation of emotions toward the historical Haitians, Haitian Vaudun culture and the people put into perspective how uniquely possessed this island really is.
Ms. Dunham traveled the world dancing and was also a scholar. She earned her bachelor, masters and doctoral degree from the University of Chicago and was “the first African American woman to attend this university” …show more content…
1969). Her stories take place in a plethora of settings between the years of 1936 and 1969. She arrived at a sensitive time in Haiti. As mentioned on page 219, during 1937, many Haitians were killed during the Parsley Massacre at the Dominican Republic boarder as ordered by the Dominican Dictator at the time Trujillo (p. 219, 1969). In an effort to remove all Haitians or dark skinned people from Dominican Republic, Trujillo used an unusual method in identifying non Dominicans. He had his soldiers hold up pieces of parsley and ask the person in question what it was called. If they failed to trill the “r” in “perejil,” which is Spanish for parsley, they were killed on sight . Some reports say as many as 20,000 Haitians were killed but some report much less. Some people in Haiti did not know of the genocide until many years after it happened (Parsley Massacre: The Genocide That Still Haunts Haiti-Dominican Relations, Ghosh, 2012). Additionally, the United States had just ended its Haitian occupation just two years earlier in 1934. Haitian unrest and the assassinations of seven leaders within a four year period was the cause of United States invasion. However, the threat of German
Island Possessed by Katherine Dunham is a beautiful introduction to Haiti. The book is comprised of stories, recollections and historical facts about the island that spare no details; good or bad. But the book causes the reader to reevaluate the definitions of good and bad while reading. Is good really good and is bad just different? Her articulation of emotions toward the historical Haitians, Haitian Vaudun culture and the people put into perspective how uniquely possessed this island really is.
Ms. Dunham traveled the world dancing and was also a scholar. She earned her bachelor, masters and doctoral degree from the University of Chicago and was “the first African American woman to attend this university” …show more content…
1969). Her stories take place in a plethora of settings between the years of 1936 and 1969. She arrived at a sensitive time in Haiti. As mentioned on page 219, during 1937, many Haitians were killed during the Parsley Massacre at the Dominican Republic boarder as ordered by the Dominican Dictator at the time Trujillo (p. 219, 1969). In an effort to remove all Haitians or dark skinned people from Dominican Republic, Trujillo used an unusual method in identifying non Dominicans. He had his soldiers hold up pieces of parsley and ask the person in question what it was called. If they failed to trill the “r” in “perejil,” which is Spanish for parsley, they were killed on sight . Some reports say as many as 20,000 Haitians were killed but some report much less. Some people in Haiti did not know of the genocide until many years after it happened (Parsley Massacre: The Genocide That Still Haunts Haiti-Dominican Relations, Ghosh, 2012). Additionally, the United States had just ended its Haitian occupation just two years earlier in 1934. Haitian unrest and the assassinations of seven leaders within a four year period was the cause of United States invasion. However, the threat of German