"It could have easily been called 'Afro-American Fight Song'. My solo in it is a deeply concentrated one. I can't play right unless I'm thinking about prejudice and hate and persecutions, and how unfair it is. There's a sadness and cries in it, but also determination." --Charles Mingus, Haitian Fight Song, The Clown, 1957; Maurice Jackson, Friends of the Negro! Fly with Me... The Haitian Revolution has often been described as the largest and most successful slave rebellion in the Western Hemisphere. However, this dominant narrative must be critiqued, specifically the notion of-slave rebellion. This frame of conceptualization masks the clear fact that to frame it as a slave rebellion, misses the deep and clear idea that it was a people who was thrust in a global system of various forms of enslavement which attempted to dehumanize whole communities of people, who freed themselves. The fact is, the reason the Haitian Revolution was successful is because of the African human agency of peoples who understood strategy, military and environmental, who possessed a clear cosmological and ontological understanding of human freedom... C. L. R. James argues that critically examining the Haitian Revolution as an exemplar of true revolution...The implications of the Haitian Revolution, specifically on the Africana world are further described by Kwame Ture when he argues that... In 1825, Haiti was forced to pay France $22 billion at literal gunpoint following France's establishment of a naval blockade of the newly freed island nation. Moreover, as Haiti struggled to get out from under this crippling debt, the United States was repeatedly involved in destabilizing the country, economically and politically. Haiti was still under a mountain of debt when hit by the devastating 2010 earthquake. Following the disaster, Haiti was primarily forgiven of its obligations but curiously had to borrow roughly $2.6 billion despite worldwide charity efforts to support rebuilding projects. Currently and over the course of months, particularly since April, Haitian citizens have taken to the streets, expressing their historically rooted, contemporarily manifested frustrations with elite and governmental mismanagement of funds and overt corruption. These include, a mass protest held on October 17. On November 18th, Haitians mobilized a nation-wide general strike and demonstrations—another important historical date, as it was on this day in 1803 when Haitians defeated France at the Battle of Vertieres which led to the country’s independence in January 1804. With the recent uprisings, which a number of people have been killed and wounded by the police, Haitians are demanding a complete transparent investigation of the PetroCaribe scandal and the resignation of President Moïse, a clear path to address the economic problems and an immediate roll back of austerity measures. PetroCaribe is the Venezuelan subsidized energy program provided to Haiti to assist in rebuilding efforts following the January 2010 earthquake that devastated the country. Today, we explore the historical circumstances and international context surrounding the recent uprisings with Ms. Nicole Phillips, Esq., who is currently a professor at the University of the Aristide Foundation law school in Port-au-Prince, as well as an adjunct professor at UC Hastings College of Law in San Francisco. Ms. Phillips was formerly Staff Attorney, at the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH). Our show was produced today in solidarity with the Native/Indigenous, African, and Afro Descendant communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; and Ghana and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all peoples! Enjoy the program! Picture Credit: https://www.antenna.works/ayiti-cherie/