In Memoriam
Felix Morisseau-Leroy (1912-1998)
Jean F. Brierre remembered the courageous women of Stalingrad for his Nicole at the tomb of Jacques Roumain. At Morisseau's tomb the poor, who had learned to read and write in Creole, came from all-over Haiti to say to their poet: "Thank you, papa, thank you for the native-land poems, for the straw-sack poems, for Antigone, thank you for your little trip to the moon, for Jacques Alexis, thanks for the people , for Africa, thanks so much, papa."
Time and again Morisseau-Leroy was celebrated throughout the Haitian diaspora, The Canadian journal Etincelles had some years back chosen him Writer of the Year. The March 13, 1992 issue of Finesse magazine published in New York was a collective tribute to his 80th birthday. The French journal Sapriphage critiqued his work in 1994 in a special edition called "Haiti's Presence," prepared under the direction of Jean Métellus, Max Manigat dedicated a poem to him that's become the preface to one of the re-issues of Morisseau's Dyakout (Big Straw Sack) collection. Papadós in Boston and Gary S. Daniel in Tampa dedicated a play to him in 1994 and a poem in a 1998 collection, respectively. The "Sosyete Koukouy" recently performed his Antigone in Creole in Miami with a success that went beyond all expectations. Personally, I wrote "Dyakout Morisseau," which appeared in my collection of poems, Fistibal/Slingshot, as well as several articles of which linguistically the most important one is "Morisseau Living Inside His Legend," which appeared in Haiti en-Marche. So the diaspora hasn't missed out in celebrating "Moriso," and now this is going on allover Haiti.
The first year of constitutional and popular government under President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the bearer of so much hope, I suggested to mutual friends that parliament bestow on Morisseau the title of "national poet," with a special pension, as the legislative chambers had done for Oswald Durand. But "the wind carries friends away," as the poet Ruteboeuf wrote, who preceded Francois Villon. Meanwhile the path of popular culture has continued without respite in order that the "twin voices" that Franketienne carries to "the extreme point of a cry" be heard.
For whether it's in Creole or in French, Morisseau-Leroy has achieved a place in literary history that assures his immortality.
- Paul Laraque (translated from French by Rosemary Manno)
Creole Renaissance
High Praise for Morisseau-Leroy
The pyramids of Africa and the Americas stand as witnesses to the birthplace of civilization: before Greece and Rome there was Egypt, another continent also existed that had not yet been colonized by Anglo-Saxons; there they re-established slavery to promote the development of Europe.
During the Renaissance period in France, the Pleiade undertook "the defense and illustration" of the French language. In mid-20th Century Haiti, Morisseau-Leroy, Emile Roumiere, Franck Fouché, Claude Innocent and I undertook "the defense and illustration" of the Creole language, the language of the Haitian people. Certain cultural events had taken place before then: the Harlem Renaissance in the U.S., Surrealism in France, Indigenism in Haiti, and Negritude in Africa and the French-speaking Caribbean islands. Jacques Roumain connected Negritude and the socialism spreading from the then Soviet Union and its Bolshevik Revolution.
The Creole Renaissance is your legacy, Morisseau. You were its pioneer, you are its center-pole. It started with Dyakout and "the Creole Antigone," which was performed in Port-au-Prince in 1953 and at the Theater of Nations in Paris in 1959. You went all the way back to antiquity to transform King Creon into a community leader who gets mixed-up with the young woman named Antigone, who was afraid of nothing when the spirit of rebellion rose in her head.
Franck Fouché dealt with modern times like Lorca, who was killed by the fascists in Spain as Jacques Alexis would be killed by the Macoutes in Haiti. Emile Roumiere echoes Francois Villon in his Hail Mary prayer, but that didn't stop him from struggling against the star-spangled crocodile representing U.S. imperialism. Hats off to these writers, who have gone as far as Claude Innocent, continuing the oral tradition of the African griots and the Haitian bards for as long as "the beat goes on." As for myself, the "Creole movement" structured itself in 1945 and developed into the "Koukouy (Firefly) Society" abroad. The Cuban revolution and Casas de las Americas recognized the contributions of Creole language literature to the international scene.
The Creole Renaissance is your legacy, Morisseau, (Christian Beaulieu on one side, Hector Hyppolite on the other, you married the Revolution with popular culture.) When you were done saying Thank you, father Dessalines, you called on his son, Jean-Jacques Deasaline Ambroise, to organize the workers' party with Jacques Alexis. Your ashes, Morisseau, will be mixed with the sea at Jacmel, but your spirit remains with us. It remains with the Koukouy Society in Miami, New York, Canada and Port-au-Prince, where it was born and where it has returned to spread all over Haiti. It remains with all writers, in Haiti as well as abroad, who are using the Creole language in poetry, the theater, films, novels, histories, newspapers and all other domains serving the education of the people.
Ready or not, like it or not, the Creole Renaissance is moving forward, the masses are gaining consciousness in their own language, Haiti will be free!
- Pól Larak (Paul Laraque) - translated from Haitan Creole by Boadiba
PAUL LARAQUE is a Haitian poet and writer living in New York City.