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There is value in seeing our ancestors as what they were: flawed humans just like us who made some good decisions and some bad ones

The best stories are the ones that don’t make it to the history books. Now I’m not a historian so don’t quote me on this, but ask any historian and they’ll tell you that the most interesting stories seldom make print. They’re usually the ones that teeter the line between gossip and fabulation, the ones that get whispered in hushed tones, or hurriedly scribbled on pieces of parchments to be buried deep in the sands of time. What we learn from school books is the official version, the state-sanctioned, sanitised within an inch of its life. On one hand that makes for a neatly packaged and digestible little tale with a clear moral and a convenient narrative arc. I can only imagine how much easier that makes it for teachers who already have a tough enough time commanding the attention of kids who would rather be anywhere else. But with the digestibility comes a loss of the juiciness, a loss of the nuance and the details that makes the stories more human and less fable.

In his book, Silencing The Past (1995), Michel Rolph Trouillot  recounts the tale of Jean-Baptiste Sans Souci, an African born leader in the indigenous army during the early days of the revolution, whose name got written out of history by none other than our illustrious monarch Henri Christophe. The details are fuzzy, the sources are scarce, but the plot is worthy of an HBO production. The story goes that Sans Souci was one of the most skilled leaders in the indigenous army, him and his troops of African born soldiers (Bossales as they were called) made very effective use of guerilla tactics to wage war against the colonial powers alongside some of our better remembered forefathers like Toussaint, Dessalines, and Christophe.

Now while we are taught the history of our revolution as this linear sequence of events that culminated into the only logical outcome, our independence, the truth was a lot messier. Basically, during one of the periods of truce between the indigenous army and the colonial powers, our forefathers fell back in line with the French, while Sans Souci and his men continued to defy and resist the colonisers. His choices put him in direct conflict with the others, notably with Christophe. But when the board got reshuffled once again and our heroes came to their senses, the revolution was back like it never left.

Pay attention because this is where it gets good. Picture the scene with Sans Souci: African born, African raised, who has been unwaveringly sticking it to the colonisers and all their allies from the start. Suddenly, he’s being told that he now has to take orders from a now reformed defector, a coat turner, someone who tried to play both sides, and someone he actually faced on the field of battle as they fought FOR the colonisers. I don’t know very many people that would sit well with for obvious reasons, and it didn’t sit well with our man, Sans Souci. Now to this already potent brew of concerns let’s add a dose of pre-independence class conflict with Creoles (people born in the new world) like Christophe not wanting to take orders or share rank with Bossales, and a sprinkle of egos for good measure (because let’s be honest our people’s egos did not materialise out of thin air over the past century).

You see the conflict here? You see the plot twists? Do you see the vision? (HBO, call me). Eventually the conflict got untenable, and what happens in every good political intrigue happened, “Murder most foul, as in the best it is.” Christophe had our man Sans Souci assassinated, and made sure he would be written out of history by building himself a palace on Sans Souci’s burial place and naming it after him, hiding his crime in plain sight. No one would think of naming a monument after someone they had murdered, and no one would think someone would think of naming a monument after someone they had murdered.

So with this gambit Christophe either established himself as a master at this 5-Dimensional chess game that is Haitian politics, or as someone who did not fear karma. Of course the story got out, because… HAITI. But the fact that this remains one of the lesser known stories of our independence and Sans Souci has essentially been forgotten is a testament to how well Christophe’s machinations work (told you it was good).

It is understandable why a story like that wouldn’t make the history books. Firstly, as Michel Rolph Trouillot argues, and the illustrious French rapper Booba succinctly puts it “Les vainqueurs l’écrivent, les vaincus racontent l’histoire,” winners write history. Christophe came out as the big winner in that segment of history, and as king, it is ridiculous to expect that he would’ve allowed such a calumnious tale to be told for the sake of historical accuracy. You don’t have to hear both sides when you make the rules. The other reason why this story wouldn’t have caught on even after Christophe’s death is that it doesn’t fit well into the mythology. Everyone has a way they see themselves and want to be seen by the outside world, and stories they tell to reinforce that image. Our story involves having noble, courageous, magnanimous founding fathers who were above political squabbles and underhanded moves. A story like Sans Souci’s hurts the brand. Add to that the minor distractor of a huge palace with the same name, and you have the perfect recipe to have a man forgotten.

Unfortunately, in trying to maintain this idea of ourselves, we lose sight of the truth and the lessons it could teach us. No it’s not fun to have our heroes torn down (that’s why you don’t make people into heroes to begin with, but that’s another debate). But there is value in seeing them as what they were, flawed humans just like us who made some good decisions and some bad ones. For one, it allows us to learn from their bad decisions so we don’t repeat them (like say, maybe don’t murder someone you have a political disagreement with especially when they have some valid points). But it also makes their remarkable acts stand out even more. I find it immeasurably more inspiring to know that a group of people not that different from you or I were able to accomplish the impossible feat of overthrowing the foremost colonial empire of the time and create a black nation. What they did wasn’t supposed to happen, yet it did. If these flawed, broken men and women who had been cast the worst lot one could imagine were capable of rising above their station, it gives me hope that maybe just maybe we could do it again. But for that to happen, it starts with us really knowing our history, and like I said, the best stories don’t make it to the history books.

References:

Photo credit: Etant Dupain

Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History by Michel Rolph Trouillot