Le nègre masqué : roman : tranche de vie haïtienne

Le nègre masqué : roman : tranche de vie haïtienne

Fiction
Haiti
Haiti Fiction
Haitian fiction Black authors
West Indian fiction (French) Black author

Stéphen Alexis was a Haitian writer, activist, diplomat, and the father of Jacques Stéphen Alexis. His letter, to his friend Antoine Rigal, is referring to their respective imprisonments during the American occupation. Alexis dedicated the book to the Haitian revolt led by Charlemagne Péralte, and his followers called the “Cacos” against the American occupation of Haiti (1915–1934).
My dear Antoine Rigal,
Do you remember that accursed afternoon, when in the hell of the Rue du Centre—you too, prisoner of the American occupation—dropped, while passing by the fence of the dungeon where I was almost dying of hunger, a piece of bread? It was in June 1918. I had been, at the beginning of the month, arrested at Ennery and brought to Port-au-Prince, by a transport of the American navy, the “Potomac”, under the pretext that I was going to echo the heroic revolt of Charlemagne Péralte against the oppressor. You have certainly not forgotten this painful period of our life.
As gratitude for that piece of bread, I would have dedicated this work to you that contains a few scenes, torn from a terrible reality, if the memory of the legendary hero, so dear to both of us, did not prohibit your name at the frontispiece of this book that is less a novel than a succession of little human documents.
Cordially,
Stéphen Alexis
Port-au-Prince, December 10th, 1933.

Alexis, Stéphen, author.

English translation of excerpt by Béatrice Colastin Skokan, Libraries, University of Miami.

Miami, Florida : Butterfly Publications. First edition published: Port-au-Price, Haïti : Imprimerie de l'État, 1933.

2013

236 pages ; 23 cm.

French

First edition published: Port-au-Price, Haïti : Imprimerie de l'État, 1933.

Alexis, S. (2013). Le nègre masqué : roman : tranche de vie haïtienne. Butterfly Publications.