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Edwidge Danticat (Photo: David Shankbone)

Haiti-born author Edwidge Danticat tells anchor Marco Werman about the role of art and culture in building a new Haiti. Download MP3

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Marco Werman: Author Edwidge Danticat grew up down the road from Saint Martin. She lived in Haiti until she was 12 years old. Now, she lives in Miami where she writes, and she’s just edited an anthology called “Haiti Noir”. Edwidge Danticat, we just heard about class divisions and fear in Haiti. I’m wondering how you experienced that divide as a child. What can you recall about how rich and poor related in Haiti?

Edwidge Danticat: Well, it’s interesting hearing about Saint Martin, because it was really down the block from where I grew up in Bel-Air, which is another often [cited as iconic???] iconically poor neighborhood in Haiti. And, my recollection is that, you know, there were really very little class interactions. I mean, I saw people with more means than we did, you know, when we went to the bank, when we went to the shop, and they seem to almost inhabit a different world. So, it’s so important that this, you know, as the country has a new President, and is turning another page, to examine very closely these issues; because, even rural-urban divides have always been so entrenched as part of our culture, and we have often neglected them. But, all of that needs to be part of this ongoing conversation.

Werman: And now, you’re one of your country’s best known authors, and also, we should say, one of the more than one million Haitians who live in the Diaspora. Describe the divide between the Diaspora and those who live in Haiti? Is it an even deeper gulf than the one that divides the classes in Haiti?

Danticat: Well, I think of it as a kind of family separations, because often, families are separated on these lines. And the Diaspora, in a way, is sort of a buffer between the classes, because a lot of people had to leave in order to come back and contribute a certain way. So, the Diaspora itself, I think, has become a kind of middle-class, if you will, outside of the country, which contributes a great deal financially to the country. And is always, as it is now at this moment, demanding further involvement, economic involvement, further political involvement. So, there’s always a back and forth. I mean, there are differences like in any other communities where this sort of feuds, or who stayed, who left, and who benefits. But, I think ultimately, we’ve realized that we can’t…one cannot survive without the other.

Werman: Given, as we’ve just heard, how entrenched the divisions in Haiti historically are, I mean, going back to the early 1800′s, won’t that spell a really tough challenge if dialogue is indeed the way ahead?

Danticat: Well, dialogue is important, and I think it has always been part of this missing…this gap between, not just people in and outside of the country, but people of different economic status, or people rural versus urban people within the country. And, dialogue, for dialogue to happen, there has be to certain assumption that the person that you’re talking to is at least worth talking to. And, I think that’s essentially been a very important issue for us, in terms of who is around the table, who is allowed to speak, what language they’re allowed to speak; even in schools where, for example, children have, in the rural areas, are made to speak French where obviously it’s not their daily language. So, I think, all of these issues, if we bring them to the table and try to come up with some commonalities, I mean, heaven knows.  If in these neighborhoods, you have the business people talking to these young men in these neighborhoods, it sends a powerful message that those of us who for centuries since Independence have been trying to talk to one another, that we can, and that we should, for our country to have a future.

Werman: Haitian-born author Edwidge Danticat has a new anthology out, it’s called “Haiti Noir”. Thank you very much indeed.

Danticat: Thank you for having me.

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