Beyond the Mountain: Joining Hands with the People of Haiti Workshop 2: Haitian History Total time: two hours Theme: self-determination Objectives • Review highlights from Haitian history. • Start to discover connections between U.S. and Haitian histories, including U.S. involvement in Haiti. • Identify Haitian resiliency as a force that runs throughout history. • Recognize that history does not occur as isolated events but rather is interconnected with what takes place throughout the rest of the world. • Witness the work of an eye-to-eye partnership that focuses on the needs of rural communities. • Discuss food-sovereignty issues in their community and complete an activity to encourage homegrown food. Opening (5 minutes) every two inches. You should have six hash marks. Label the far left of the line “Before 1492.” Label the hash marks, from left to right, “1500,” “1600,” “1700,” “1800,” “1900,” and “2000.” Label the far Materials needed right “after 2000.” • Optional: chalice, candle, and lighter Below the timeline, on the far left, leaving room underneath for Description another row, write “Personal History.” Invite participants to write, If you choose, light a chalice. Share this opening reading by Suze in pencil, a few milestones in their personal or family history Baron: along this row. For example, if their family came to this country YO DI as immigrants or slaves and they know or can estimate the date, Yo di they may note it. If they had a relative who fought in the Civil War, san kretyen note it. They should mark when they were born and perhaps birth enrichi dates of ancestors and offspring. late Si sete vre Below “Personal History,” write “U.S. History.” Stop here. Ask the Si sete vret group to brainstorm important dates in U.S. history. The events mezanmi individuals find important will vary. Participants should feel free ala diri to add the dates and events they find important to the timeline. pitmi To keep it legible, suggest they limit entries to 10–15 dates and ak mayi events. Ask everyone to include the following: “Before 1492” as a ki ta genyen date when Native Americans held the dominant culture; “1492” la peyi as Columbus’s trip to the Americas; and “1776” as the founding of D’Ayiti the United States. Remind the group to use pencils, in case they want to change dates or events later. They say human blood Above the timeline, to the far left, write “Haitian history.” Ask enriches the group what significant events in Haitian history they know. soil Estimating dates is fine. Remind the group that you will talk about If that were true Haitian history today, so if their Haitian timeline is empty or slight, If that were true this will be remedied during the next activity. If participants know my friends Haitian historical events but not dates, they may guess dates and how rice write the events in pencil. Some dates will become clear during millet the workshops. If time permits and you have computer access, and corn other events may be dated through an Internet search at the end would thrive of the workshop. in Haiti Activity 1: Timeline (15 minutes) Objective • Recognize that history does not happen in isolated events but rather is interconnected with what takes place throughout the rest of the world. Materials needed • Legal paper • Markers • Pencils • Optional: computer with Internet access Preparation Prepare a sample timeline, using the instructions below. Description Give each participant a sheet of legal-size paper. Ask everyone to create a timeline, following these instructions: Across the center of the long side of the paper, use a dark marker to draw a line. Starting at the left side of the line, make a mark approximately 1 Activity 2: Postcards from Haiti Give warnings at five and two minutes before the end of the (45 minutes) activity. Ask everyone to come back to group. As each team presents its postcard, remind participants to add important dates to their Haitian timeline, requesting that teams repeat dates, if needed. After each presentation, ask if participants see anything in the his- tory just presented that might still affect modern-day Haiti. After all teams have presented, process the activity with these questions: • What made an impression upon you about this abbreviated history of Haiti? • Did anything surprise you? • Did any themes emerge? • How has self-determination been a theme in Haiti’s history? • How has race been a theme? • How has use of natural resources, especially the land, been a theme? Summary • Give examples of Haitian resiliency from the short history Review highlights from Haitian history and, in groups, create observed. postcards depicting the prominent themes and events from vari- ous time periods in Haiti’s history. Now look at the timeline and consider the following questions: • What, if anything, in Haitian history reminded you of your Objectives personal history? Of U.S. history? • Review highlights from Haitian history. • How well did our first Haitian timeline capture Haitian • Identify Haitian resiliency as a force that runs throughout history? If the answer is “not well,” why do you think this is so? history. • From where did you receive most of what you know about • Start to discover connections between U.S. and Haitian Haiti’s history? From where do you receive most of your histories, including U.S. involvement in Haiti. information about modern-day Haiti? Do you think any of these sources may be biased? Distribute the handout Materials needed entitled “Resources about Haiti.” Tell the group that this list of • Various art materials resources includes books, films, and websites about Haitian history and many other aspects of Haiti. It includes works of Preparation nonfiction and fiction, both for children and youth. Print out and cut apart the five histories. Break the group into • The United States and Haiti both have a history of slavery. teams of at least two members each, preferably with three to five How did slavery in Haiti and the United States differ? How members. If you have a large group and can make more than five was it similar? Both countries still struggle with issues teams, feel free to divide postcards into shorter time frames. around race. You will hear more about this in the fourth workshop. Description Break the group into five or more teams. In your own words, say Leave a few minutes to clean up. to participants: “In the earlier decades of this past century, Haiti had a strong tourism industry. The name Haiti means ‘mountain- ous country.’ It comes from the Taino, the Native Americans who Activity 3: Spotlight on Partners — populated the island before 1492. Like other countries in the Papaye Peasant Movement (50 minutes) Caribbean, it is a beautiful, tropical land, with consistently warm temperatures and golden shores banking a crystal blue sea. Summary We will study the Papaye Peasant Movement and its involvement “Imagine yourself vacationing in beautiful Haiti. Imagine sending with food sovereignty in rural communities. We will also decorate a postcard to your family and friends about your visit there. That pots and fill them with seeds or seedlings to plant in the commu- is what each team will do. However, each team will be visiting nities our congregation has adopted. Haiti during a different historical period. The postcard your team will create should inform the group about major events during Objectives your specific time period, the events of which will be detailed on • Witness the work of an eye-to-eye partnership that focuses cards given to each team. Your team should design an appropri- on the needs of rural communities. ate postcard and be prepared to present the postcard of events • Discuss food-sovereignty issues in their community and to the larger group. Please keep presentations to three minutes or complete an activity to encourage homegrown food. less but feel free to be as creative as you like in your presentation. Use any of the art supplies in the room. You have 15 minutes to plan and to create your postcard.” 2 Materials needed Ask the following questions one at a time, allowing several min- • A computer with Internet access, projector, and screen utes for each to be answered: • Vegetable seedlings or seeds, soil, pots, and water • What issues may have contributed to rural communities • Paint and paintbrushes receiving less access to aid and other relief resources after • Smocks or old T-shirts the earthquake? • Optional: gardening gloves and tools • Issues concerning sovereignty have been a part of Haitian history from the time its history started being documented Preparation The Taino originally lived on the land. The Spanish invaded • Prepare a place for pots to dry after being painted. in 1492, and France took possession of the island in 1697. • Be prepared to offer a few options for recipients of the Though Haiti was declared free after the slave revolution in seedlings and let participants decide. 1804, that freedom has always had qualifications. A huge • Decide if the youth and adults will do this activity alone or debt was inflicted by France. For decades, surrounding jointly with any children participating in the concurrent nations, including the United States, refused to workshop. This is a great opportunity for a truly acknowledge, trade, and build mutually benefiting multigenerational activity. relationships with the government on the island. The United • Test your equipment for accessing the Haiti map. States has occupied Haiti three times. Currently, Haiti is bound by more free-trade agreements and has more Description nongovernmental organizations on the ground than any Part 1 (30 minutes) other country in the hemisphere. In the fourth workshop, we Remind participants that UUSC works through eye-to-eye part- will focus more on how history has impacted Haiti’s nerships.