11-14-08, 9:19 am

Toussaint L'Ouverture: The Haitian Revolution Introduction by Dr. Jean-Bertrand Aristide New York, Verso, 2008.

Original source: Morning Star (UK)

Published as part of a series of books celebrating great revolutionaries, Toussaint L'Ouverture is a selection of notes, letters and memoirs written during the Haitian struggle against slavery and colonialism.

It's a remarkable and awe-inspiring story and one which, largely through CLR James's classic The Black Jacobins, continues to inspire all those fighting for a better world.

What gives this volume an added relevance, though, is the introduction penned by Aristide, the popular and forcibly deposed president of Haiti.

After highlighting this fiery rebel's humble background and some of the broader historical context to the revolution, Aristide moves on to discuss the psychological effects that racism and slavery can have on the oppressed in a way that is reminiscent of Franz Fanon.

Final notes on the ideological legacy of L'Ouverture drawn in part from his commitment to a socially just Christianity are equally well written

The texts themselves aren't always an easy or interesting read. Many are written in a style which, although typical of the time, can be a little off-putting.

You also have to read between the lines with some passages. The brief autobiography was, for example, written in prison prior to a trial and so shouldn't be seen as a true reflection of what the captured revolutionary was thinking.

Other passages, however, really do bring to life the sheer intensity of a revolutionary war with all of its attendant dangers and excitement.

L'Ouverture was an astute and masterful tactician who waged a long and protracted struggle that exploited tensions between the competing French and Spanish armies to the full.

Aware of the immense divisions within his own camp, he pressed upon his followers the need to appeal to all Haitians of whatever background. Sometimes his critics saw this as going too far, particularly when he refused to confiscate the land of plantation owners who had come out against slavery.

The sad thing is that, although L'Ouverture remained true to republican ideals, his death in a French prison just months before Haitian independence meant that he never even saw the result of all that he had ever worked for.