From Kongo to Kanntè: The Other’s Changing Relation to the Other Side

• In Event: Imagining the Spaces and Faces of the Nation: History, Migration, and Diaspora in/beyond Hispaniola

Abstract

Léogane, in Western Haiti, has a long familiarity with the idea of Panyòl, the Dominican Republic. This paper draws on oral histories and longitudinal ethnographic research to trace historical memories and meanings of migration from Léogâne to and through Dominican Republic over the last century. When the United States extended its military and economic conquest of the island, Léogane’s small farmers faced wage labor on new, American-owned sugar plantations in their midst or far away, in Panyòl, on the other side of the island. Under Duvalier, Léogane played unwilling host to the annual nightmare of Kongo, the violent roundup by Haitian soldiers, a preamble to the abuse that awaited them workers on the other side. Today, Léogane residents may reject the prospect of migration to the peripheral economy in Panyòl, but they embrace the neighboring state’s access to new destinations of opportunity in South America. The passages are orchestrated by extended, transnationally dispersed Léogane families pursuing multilateral strategies to transform their collective class positions.

Author

• Karen E Richman, University of Notre Dame