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United States - Forgetting Haiti: The rest is history
美國板塊--遺忘海地：眾所皆知
Americans have forgotten how their government shaped Haiti
美國人已經忘記了他們的政府是如何影響海地的
“I’M PISSED,” said Representative Maxine Waters outside the Capitol on September 22nd.
“我很生氣，”9月22日，眾議員瑪克辛·沃特斯在國會大廈外這樣說道。
“What we witnessed was worse than what we witnessed in slavery.”
“我們所目睹的現(xiàn)象比奴隸制還可怕?！?/p>
Ms Waters was referring to images of Haitian migrants stalked by border agents on horseback in Del Rio, Texas, on the border with Mexico.
沃特斯女士指的是在德克薩斯州與墨西哥邊境的德爾里奧，邊境人員騎著馬緊追海地移民的畫面。
The agents appeared to be whipping them.
那些邊境人員似乎在鞭打他們。
The NAACP, a civil-rights organisation, compared the photos to an overseer lashing his slave.
民權組織全國有色人種協(xié)進會(NAACP)將這些照片比作監(jiān)督員鞭打他的奴隸一樣。
Entertainment outlets invited historians—and the vice-president—to muse on the antebellum symbolism of the pictures.
娛樂性的媒體邀請歷史學家和副總統(tǒng)來思考這些照片在南北戰(zhàn)爭前的象征意義。
The border agents, it later transpired, had not whipped anyone.
后來發(fā)現(xiàn)，邊境人員并沒有鞭打任何人。
But Edwidge Danticat, a Haitian-American novelist, had seen another parallel.
但海地裔美國小說家Edwidge Danticat卻看到了另一個相似的例子。
The images, she told NPR, a public radio station, recalled scenes of forced labour during the American occupation of Haiti, when white marines, also on horseback, had towered over Haitians.
她告訴公共廣播電臺NPR，這些圖片讓人回想起美國占領海地期間強迫人民勞動的場景，當時同樣騎在馬背上的白人海軍陸戰(zhàn)隊員比海地人高得多。
Unlike the slavery comparisons, these echoes were of a history few Americans know anything about.
與跟奴隸制的對比不同，這些遐想反映的是一段幾乎沒有美國人了解的歷史。
Haiti once mattered to Americans. The revolution of 1791-1804 had seismic repercussions.
曾經海地對美國人很重要。1791-1804年的革命產生了翻天覆地的影響。
“All of the mightiest armies in the world were defeated by an army of enslaved people,” explains Michael Harriot of The Root, a magazine.
“世界上最強大的軍隊都被一群被奴役的人打敗了，”《The Root》雜志的邁克爾·哈里奧特解釋道。
The Haitians defeated the British, the Spanish and the French.
海地人打敗了英國人、西班牙人和法國人。
For black folk and white abolitionists, the first black republic heralded the promise of freedom; for American slaveholders it brought fear.
對于黑人和白人廢奴主義者來說，第一個黑人共和國代表的是自由的宣言；對美國奴隸主來說，它帶來的是恐懼。
When France moved to blockade the new republic, President Jefferson joined in.
當法國采取行動封鎖這個新共和國時，杰斐遜總統(tǒng)也加入了進來。
Duelling images of Haiti, both a beacon and a bother, competed in the public imagination for a century.
一個世紀以來，在公眾的想象中，海地既像燈塔，又像麻煩。
In the 20th century America expanded its sphere of influence, and took an increasing interest in Haitian affairs.
20世紀，美國擴大了自己的勢力范圍，對海地事務插手越來越多。
It took Haiti’s gold reserves away on gunboats, then intervened to guarantee American banking interests.
它用炮艇搶走了海地的黃金儲備，強行介入以確保美國銀行的利益。
After the country’s president was assassinated in 1915, marines occupied Haiti for 19 years.
1915年海地總統(tǒng)遇刺后，美國海軍陸戰(zhàn)隊占領該國長達19年之久。
The country was run much like the American South, with black people as second-class citizens.
他們對海地的治理方式很像美國南部，黑人是二等公民。
A photo of the resistance leader Charlemagne Péralte—Christ-like, spreadeagled on a cross—could have been snapped at a lynching back home.
一張像耶穌一樣掛在十字架上的抵抗運動領袖Charlemagne Péralte的照片，可能是在家里被私刑處死時被拍下的。
Ms Danticat’s uncle once watched marines kick around a cut-off Haitian head.
Danticat女士的叔叔曾經看到海軍陸戰(zhàn)隊員們把一顆砍下的海地人的頭顱踢來踢去。
Later interventions were more subtle.
后來，美國的干預更加含蓄了。
America brought business opportunities to Haiti, but also backing for despotic dictators—namely the Duvaliers, from whom many Haitians fled between the 1950s and the 1980s.
美國給海地帶來了商機，但同時也支持專制獨裁者——也就是杜瓦利埃家族，許多海地人在20世紀50年代到80年代逃離了杜瓦利埃家族。
Subsequent American interference was viewed with suspicion.
美國隨后的干預遭到了質疑。
In 2019 protesters sacrificed a pig outside the American embassy to show their contempt for the Trump administration’s support for the unpopular Jovenel Moise (the president backed by America until his assassination in July).
2019年，抗議者在美國大使館外祭祀了一頭豬，以表示他們對特朗普政府支持不受歡迎的若弗內爾·莫伊茲(7月被暗殺前，他一直受到美國政府的支持)的蔑視。
Legend has it that a pig was sacrificed by Haitian revolutionaries the week before the uprising.
據傳說，海地革命者在起義前一周祭祀了一頭豬。
But the Haitian equivalent of a re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party was lost on most Americans.
但大多數美國人對海地重演的波士頓傾茶事件并不感興趣。
Some frame the current migrant crisis within the scope of American meddling.
一些人將當前的移民危機歸咎于美國的干預。
Daniel Foote, the US special envoy to Haiti, resigned on September 22nd citing the “hubris” of constant interventions.
美國駐海地特使丹尼爾·富特于9月22日辭職，理由是不斷干預海地是“傲慢”的。
Others consider it unhelpful or misguided to rake through centuries of historical wrongs.
另一些人則認為，回顧幾個世紀以來的歷史錯誤毫無益處，或者會引人誤解。
America cannot be blamed for the devastating earthquake of 2010, for example, which drove many Haitians to South America (from where many of the most recent migrants arrived at the Texas border).
例如，不能因為2010年毀滅性的地震去指責美國，那次地震迫使許多海地人前往南美(近來許多移民從那里抵達德克薩斯州邊境)。
But a country first has to know what it has done to understand whether it is responsible for the consequences.
但一個國家首先必須知道自己做了什么，才能明白自己是否要為后果負責。
Black Americans too have become too inward-looking, argues Ajamu Baraka of the Black Alliance for Peace.
黑人和平聯(lián)盟的Ajamu Baraka認為，美國黑人也變得過于內向了。
Too often, expressions of solidarity are empty theatre, such as Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee’s visit to the Del Rio camp after it had been cleared.
多數情況下，象征團結的劇院都空空如也，比如國會女議員希拉·杰克遜·李(Sheila Jackson Lee)在德爾里奧難民營被清理后訪問了那里。
In reality, the relationship between Haitian and black Americans at home is characterised by competition for jobs and livelihoods, not a shared admiration for Toussaint Louverture or Jean-Jacques Dessalines, explains George Wilson of the University of Miami.
邁阿密大學的喬治·威爾遜(George Wilson)解釋說，事實上，海地人和美國黑人在國內的關系以競爭工作和生計為特征，而不是共同敬佩圖森·盧維杜爾(Toussaint Louverture)或讓-雅克·德薩林(Jean-Jacques Dessalines)。
In 1994, shortly before another American intervention, Joe Biden said that America would not notice if Haiti sank into the sea.
1994年，就在美國再次干涉海地之前不久，喬·拜登說，即便海地沉入海中，美國連看都不會看一眼。
When his comments resurfaced in response to the images of migrants deported to Haiti, hundreds voiced their disgust on social media.
當網絡上出現(xiàn)移民被驅逐到海地的照片時，拜登的言論再次浮現(xiàn)，數百人在社交媒體上表達了他們的反感。
Meanwhile, a rally held on September 26th in downtown Chicago by a coalition of Haitian-American leaders attracted only a hundred people.
與此同時，9月26日在芝加哥市中心由海地裔美國領導人聯(lián)盟舉行的集會只吸引了100人。
Chicago’s founder, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, was a Haitian immigrant, whose name adorns schools, parks and, officially, the famous Lake Shore Drive expressway.
芝加哥的創(chuàng)始人讓·巴蒂斯特·塞布爾角(Jean Baptiste Point du Sable)是一位海地移民，他的名字出現(xiàn)在學校、公園和著名的湖濱大道(Lake Shore Drive)高速公路上。
But not much has changed. Americans still don’t know about Haiti.
但這并沒有帶來多少改變。美國人仍然不了解海地。
譯文由可可原創(chuàng)，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
