On Joe Bryak's piece

Dear Joe,

The beginning of your piece was right on the mark (see Thank you so much, but I felt that, somehow, one needs to do better than fighting on all fronts. As you so eloquently put it, it boils down to how and who writes the equation. One needs to re-write the equation. The beginning of your piece actually does that. I do not know how to re-write it, except when I hear and read about reparation. The injustices committed in the process of building this triumphant capitalo-parliamentarist system are so huge that it defies our imagination. Be on all fronts is your response. It covers all bases, but in the process it gives up on redrawing the fronts as we should have learned from our collective histories.

Please do not misunderstand this comment. The discourse of authenticity re Mobutu is easy to dismiss and denounce, but what do we do when it is encouraged by the ones who trampled on our ancestors who, I can imagine, upon hearing of reparations might mutter under their eternal breath: "Really, now that the price is right and they have the heavy duty lawyers, are they trying to sell us a second time?"

I try to always remember what the slaves did in Haiti/St Domingue back between 1791 and 1804, without the help of human rights organizations or NGOs. There is still a possibility, as shown by the people of Haiti, of fidelity to that event. Fidelity to emancipatory politics. All fronts (read all armies of the day) were brought to the slaves and were defeated, but the same nations made sure that the emancipation did not bloom. Now we do have the proof that the system which has been built is relentlessly genocidal.

My concrete suggestion is to rally around the event of 1804 and make sure that Haiti becomes what the slaves really want it to be. Such fidelity goes beyond personalities, ideologies, left, right and center. Just one front. It is right there, begging us to join. Thank you for your piece and do take care. Thank you to the editors and workers of Pambazuka News.