The Haitian American Experience

My name is Ouigi Theodore, born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and migrated to the U.S at a very early age.

I consider myself as American as I am Haitian.

It wasn’t just one moment that kicked off my decolonization journey-

I was always very conscious. I went to a Bilingual school (P.S. 189 The Bilingual Center) from grades 3-8th, and the majority of my teachers were Black and Hispanic. Lucky for me my mother was clear about our Haitian heritage and had a vision for us. So in high school I understood who I needed to hang out with to comfortably explore who I would ultimately be. Didn’t hurt that my H.S. (Brooklyn Tech) was across the street from Spike Lee’s (Spike’s Joint) during a 90’s Black cultural boom. We grew up listening to KRS 1, X-Clan, Digable Planet, A Tribe Called Quest, and lots of conscious Reggae music. So we were being groomed to represent the movement then and forever.

If I could reiterate one truth to my younger self it would be-

Focus on your culture more, value it and learn how to protect it and license it to outsiders. DO NOT GIVE IT AWAY FOR FREE. PROTECT IT AT ALL COST.

 I grew up in Brooklyn and it was about Brooklyn culture, which is a melting pot of African American and Caribbean culture so the disconnect between Haitian and African American culture wasn’t as clear. Yes we spoke Kreyole at home, but we also listened to Hip Hop and Reggae music which ultimately connected us all. So we lived a special mix of Black American and Caribbean lifestyle.

To understand the disconnect between the Haitian diaspora community and the Haitian community within Haiti, you really have to spend time in Haiti, and I have. Let’s start with Haiti is driven more by class than race. In America we are Black, in Haiti we are diaspora, blanc, American. And it also depends on if you are a diaspora who grew up in the states versus one that spent enough time in Haiti to still be truly considered Haitian. It’s a very interesting dynamic and quite a balance.

One of the biggest lies that needs to be decolonized within the Haitian American community is this idea that Haiti is really unsafe and you should not visit. Haiti is like the rest of the world, it has safe places and unsafe places. If you can live in NYC or any big city in America you can visit Port-au-Prince. If you are a countryside kind of person, then visit the provinces (Jacmel, Les Cayes, Petit-Goâve, Grand Goâve, Artibonite, Hinche, Miragoane). Be alert, don’t act like you are above anyone, be curious and as genuine as possible.  

For the future of self love in Haiti and Haitian culture, I think we have to get the population of college educated Haitians back to Haiti as often as possible.

I own The Brooklyn Circus and we produce the best varsity jackets on the planet, hands down. We started the business in 2006 because I felt that a genuine version of what we represented was missing in the market. Our language of choice was always style and character growing up in Crown Heights Brooklyn. And so opening up a men’s clothing store was the next best thing for me to do after a run in the nightlife after college. 

DC Series Quick Dive

• What does “decolonization” mean to you personally?

  I do actively think of all of the things I need to unlearn and how they will affect my comfort or life to be brutally honest. Sometimes I am willing to lose it all and there are times where I question if it’s worth losing it all if I am one of the very few willing to lose it all. So I stay quiet or try to figure out the language to express my disapproval of something or how wrong it was to see my grandmother pray to a Jesus that looked nothing like us. 

• What are you most proud of when thinking about being Haitian and Haitian culture?

  I am proud of the discipline and the historical depth of Haitian culture. 

• If you could share a message with Haitian American elementary students, what is the most important thing you would want them to know?

  Learn to speak Kreyole, keep in touch with the culture as much as possible. They have and I had the opportunity to be a part of both cultures, but if you are not careful you will get a version of Haitian culture that is very altered. Be curious about your roots, about daily life in Haiti and visit as often as possible. Also invite as many people to visit with you-share your culture.  

• We may have someone reading this who has suffered much pain from the lies they’ve been told and are just kicking off their personal decolonization journey. What encouragement can you give them? Where should they seek sources of truth and inspiration?

  You will suffer greatly if you believe everything and the same applies if you don’t believe anything. So I say research as much as possible to shape your own views on things. If you are reading this you are online, so as it was 100yrs ago and will always be, start exactly where you are right now. Get to it!

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About Ouigi-

Ouigi Theodore, Creative Director, cultural connector & lead curator, has cultivated a unique style that has garnered recognition not only among the fashion pundits of New York, but also from streetwise fans as far away as Europe, South Africa, Japan, Korea and the UK. He has become a recognizable figure and has established himself as a trend forecaster for advertising and marketing agencies looking to get an edge in the market. He has consulted on campaigns for the likes of Hennessy/LVMH, Toyota, Casio G-Shock, American Express, PF Flyers, Liberty Fairs, ENVSN FEST, New Balance, Reebok, Deutsch Advertising, Sennheiser Audio. He's been a featured speaker at the PSFK Conference, a trend-forecasting summit in New York, AIGA, The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Public Library and Dumbo House.

After graduating from the State University at Stony Brook with a degree in history, he went on to study Advertising Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. As founder of The Brooklyn Circus, one of the most influential retail concepts in the USA, he travels extensively sharing The Brooklyn Circus/BKc perspective as well as the 100 Year plan of Style + Character.

The Brooklyn Circus/BKc is located at-

150 Nevins St Brooklyn, NY 11217

https://thebkcircus.com/ 

IG: @thebkcircus

Decolonizing: Aid

My name is Regine Theodat, I’m 100% Haitian and 100% American. I grew up in the Cambridge/Everett/Boston MA area. I’m a lawyer by trade and I think like one, but I practiced as a traditional corporate lawyer for less than one year. I’m the oldest of 4 and I’ve been living back in Haiti for 10 years now. I’m obsessed with finding the most creative ways to harness our vast riches.

I didn’t have an educated opinion about aid before entering the sector, so I do think I soaked it all in with an open mind. When I first moved to Haiti, I’d say my general idea of aid was that it was typically done with the intent for good and that unless done with malicious intent, it couldn't truly be *that* harmful. Of course, being a black, woman, lawyer, I did have reservations about public-interest and white saviorism, dead aid, but I don’t think I truly did my research before coming to Haiti. It also didn’t help that I moved to Haiti on a whim, and only intended to spend 3 months here. 

 I moved to Haiti in 2010 to work in Human Rights work in Cite Soleil. I didn’t come to save Haiti, I didn’t come to witness, or create jobs, or do anything special. I came just to do a short term project and go back to working as a corporate lawyer in Boston. 

What I witnessed really rocked my world and started to shift my perspective. I’ve seen a lot of fraud, I’ve seen a lot of waste, and I’ve seen some good.  The aid sector suffers from chronic disorganization and lack of oversight. It seems unimaginable that totally unqualified persons can open up schools and raise money with the mission of educating children without the appropriate pedigree for such, that child predators can own an orphanage without even so much as a background check, or that  true expertise is slighted so that waste can continue. What's even more disturbing is that this waste is so normal. The average Haitian will decry how much NGOs + Aid Organizations steal. That people are constantly “fe kob sou tet yo”

I’ve worked largely in economic development, job creation and now am moving more into tech and general project management. I think my career path thus far, has taken me as far away from toxic aid as possible, because it was such a recoil to me after my first non-profit experience. But I think over the years between my business, my work, consulting, I’ve had experiences in just about every facet of aid in Haiti.

My first “Aha moment” came when I was doing a presentation on human rights and the right to water or vote in Cite Soleil and people at the end asked me for jobs. I made the first error which was telling people what they needed rather than understanding what was needed. I also made the mistake of thinking I could just “fix” away the economic problems by focusing on the justice ones. I laugh now, but I was so ignorant coming into this unexpected Haiti experience. 

One of the biggest misconceptions the international community has about Haiti’s need for aid is that the problems in Haiti can be addressed by sending large quantities of “stuff” here, shoes, medicine,  clothes. That poverty and lack of formal education means that someone is incompetent and unintelligent, thus should be willing to accept anything, especially if its “free.”

One of the biggest disconnects between the goals of NGO’s and the execution of the projects in Haiti is that Haiti is very hard to execute projects in, the learning curve is a solid 5 years for someone who can speak the language and has some level of cultural fluidity. Outside entities have very rigid ways  of grant making + project design. It simply doesn’t work when executed on the ground.

Programming that is holistic in its approach rather than and/or is more successful and beneficial to Haiti. Ones that are job creations + skill developments + justice oriented + social justice leaning NOT job creations without skills training, without sustainability. 

The most toxic types of programming are the ones that don’t answer “ why is this problem here?” and “How can we fix the root?”. I also think cultural competency is major, and that only comes with time. Someone of Haitian descent, may have a leg up, but they aren’t going to “get it’ until they experience it.

The biggest issues that need to be decolonized within the Aid sector are how aid is distributed, who makes the decision, and how programs are developed without the input of the “poor” or the “Service population.”

Far too often in NGO’s and mission organizations, there is a harmful way of thinking that Haitians needs to be saved from themselves, that they need to be evangelized away from their own religion, that a Westernized life style is “best”. This way of thinking if harmful within Haitian communities as well. Largely, the same, we internalize racism right? So we usually just do exactly what a “colonizer” would do, but in addition to doing to others, we are also doing it to ourselves. This is why I say a decolonization is an act of self love and also an act of rebellion.

My first baby, before my human baby was my business.  I poured everything into it. Like so many things in my life, I waited for it to come along. I was moving through the motions of feeling stuck doing things in Haiti that didn’t feel useful. Then I had the aha moment of, if everyone else can have a business, I certainly could. Since then, I’ve been obsessed with job creation. I had two friends starting a restaurant. I came in with way too many opinions and that's how MyaBel was founded. We are a food & beverage company transforming local ingredients into delectable bottled goods, hot sauces, cooking sauces, bottled craft cocktails, and iced teas. With a soon to be launching Kombucha + syrup line. When I resigned we had 18 employees, and 65 farmers in our network. I left MyaBel in December 2019, to pursue other Haitian passions.

If I were speaking to a white man or woman visiting Haiti about the aid industry and what they can do to not perpetuate the colonizing mindset and systems within this industry- I’d probably turn the question back on them, why are they visiting Haiti? What's the purpose, how did they come to this decision, are they aware of the work they need to do? I think we should start putting the onus back on people. 

When I dream about the future of development within Haiti, I see-

1. Enough economic Means for people to make decisions that is best for them 

2. Robust agricultural economy 

3. Massive Export Market 

4. 85% employment

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D.S. Series Quick Dive:

• What does “decolonization” mean to you personally?

Unlearning, deprogramming, reprogramming. An action of self-love and accountability. 

• What are you most proud of when thinking about being Haitian and Haitian culture?

How colorfully magical we are. 

• If you were speaking to a group of elementary school students in Haiti about the best ways to support development in their country- what would you most want to share with them?

Their true and complete history, and the value of the resources we have here. 

• We may have someone reading this who has suffered much pain from the lies they’ve been told and are just kicking off their personal decolonization journey. What encouragement can you give them? Where should they seek sources of truth and inspiration? 

It gets better, to take it one day at a time and make small incremental steps. Lean into your discomfort and work through any culpability you have in the system that exists. Sources of truth and inspiration are abundant in the age of the internet, I’d say look for written materials and read with an open mind. Try and put the burden on yourself rather than others to help explain things to you.

On instagram make sure to check out:

@Rachel.cargle

@TheConsciousKid 

@AmandaSeales

Decolonizing: Beauty

My name is Christelle Dossous. I am 30 years old and grew up in Port au Prince, Haiti. I left Haiti after  graduating from high school  to study in the United States. I moved back to Haiti in 2013 and still live here today. I am the youngest of four children in my family, 3 boys and 1 girl.

Growing up I though I needed to look a certain way in order to be accepted in the society. I thought my hair was too kinky so I had a perm at the age of 11. It wasn’t until I went to University in the US that  I began my decolonization journey. I went to a French school in Haiti where Haitian history was not taught. All I knew was European & US history. I took an anthropology class in college and that’s when I began to see things differently. I realized how much I was blinded and how much work I needed to do to value my own culture, but also myself. 

If I could speak to my younger self, I would want to tell her-

“You are enough just the way you are. Don’t try to meet anybody’s standards but your own.  Your history is rich and you have every reason to be proud of it.”

I launched my company, Onaturall in 2013. Onaturell is an all natural hair and skin care company. Last year we launched Onaturell Hairspa to offer a spa experience to our clients when it comes to taking care of their hair. Onaturell first started as a blog where I wanted to share my experience with natural hair with my followers. It quickly turned into a business when I realized that there was a great opportunity in Haiti because most of the ingredients I was using were not available to my audience.  So that’s pretty much how Onaturell started.

The beauty industry has a lot of work to do as far as decolonization. The beauty industry needs more diversity because those who are in charge of pushing what is fashion or beautiful are not people that look like us. I think a major part of the Haitian population still has the western beauty as their standard of beauty. This explains why you have so many bleaching of their skin, still perming their hair or using extensions . The idea that you can be  “Tet grenn “ and still be beautiful is something that is new to us . The closer you are to being light or having wavy hair, the more beautiful Haitian society thinks you are.

For the future of beauty and self love in Haitian culture- I dream of a Haiti where every color shade is celebrated, from the darkest to the lightest tone. A place where we learn to embrace the traditional styling that our ancestors passed down to us .

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D.S. Series Quick Dive:

• What does “decolonization” mean to you personally?

  No longer using western ideologies to define who we are, or should I say to validate our existence.

• What are you most proud of when thinking about being Haitian and Haitian culture?

Our history and our resilience. 

• If you were speaking to a group of elementary students about beauty, what is the message you would most want to share?

  Beauty starts from within and it is unique. Learn to love yourself first and do not compare it to anybody.

• We may have someone reading this who has suffered much pain from the lies they’ve been told and are just kicking off their personal decolonization journey. What encouragement can you give them? Where should they seek sources of truth and inspiration? 

You are on the right track , just be patient with yourself and take it one day at a time.  Inspiration should start from within. Practice self love first .

About Onaturell:

Onaturell is an all natural hair and skin care brand. All of our products are formulated in-house and we source ingredients from all over the world. Onaturell was founded by Christelle Dossous, a Cosmetic Formulator with a speciality in natural skin & hair products.

We are located at #56 Rue Chavannes in Petionville, Haiti.

You can call us to book an appointment at- +509  4216 2345

Introducing Fabiola Coupet

We are so excited to introduce you to Fabiola Coupet, the moderator of the conversations we will be having throughout this series.

Fabiola Coupet is a Haitian Radio talk show host in Port au Prince. A fresh female voice, she’s taken over Haitian radio airwaves with her afternoon traffic jam show and highly contagious laugh. She is also a communications professional, a seasoned content & copy writer and editor. On the air and in her practice, she is passionate about giving Haitian stories a voice.

Fabiola shared her thoughts on being a part of the series-

“Although Haiti broke free from it’s status as a colony to become the first free black republic in the world, as a people, we’ve got a lot of work to do to untangle the knots of colonization so deeply engrained in our minds. Colonization and slavery may have ended in 1804, but Napoleon sure left some us some heavy baggage to lug around these past 200 years. It’s time to put these old bags down, to peer into them and start peeling away at the complex layers. I’m excited to be a part of these chats with Haiti Design Co community, I hope they will help our friends around the world better understand our story and struggles as a people as much as they will serve our community. It’s time to talk decolonization and we all need to hear it.”

We are honored to have Fabiola with us for these important conversations and can’t wait to dive in.

The Decolonization Series will be kicking off this Thursday, July 16th at 4 pm EST on IG Live in an interview with Christelle Dossous over the Decolonization of Beauty. See you then!

Introducing the Decolonization Series

Dear HDC Fam-

I am probably most proud and excited about this project than anything we’ve done in a long time.

After the tragic murder of George Floyd, the world erupted with a long overdue racial awakening that has set the stage for honest & hard conversations around race and racial justice. Some of our network may think that the Black Lives Matter movement is one of controversy and limited to the United States. They may miss how the movement happening right now affects many countries and cultures across the world. The truth of our history is that white supremacy and colonization have formed the world as we know it.  This conversation will inevitably look different for every country and culture. 

In 1804 Haiti became the first Black Republic, as it was home to the first successful slave revolt in the world when she defeated the French. This revolt had a ripple effect as it pushed other nations to fight to end slavery as well. Haiti’s history is a worldwide symbol of Black liberation. 

However, today much of Haiti’s societal norms are entrenched in a mindset enforced by colonization, one of white aspiring, euro-centric ideals. This is not representative of every Haitian experience- because the Haitian experience is one that varies greatly. With that being said, a common experience for many of Haitian descent IS the journey of decolonization, one of unlearning the lies handed down by each generation that were enforced by the oppressor. 

While I am not Haitian, these conversations are ones that are near and dear to my heart. Since making Haiti my home in 2012, I’ve wrestled with the topic of decolonization so much within my personal life. I am thankful for the way that living in Haiti and many amazing friends have pushed me along the way to challenge what I knew to be true and ask the hard questions. On my journey, the work of decolonization, and unlearning a white centered foundation are hand in hand. Unlearning the false narratives and rebuilding with authenticity stronger than before. 

If you are white and follow along through this series, I ask you to engage with an open mind and intent to learn and understand from someone else’s perspective.

If you are Haitian or BIPOC, I hope that you at some point during this series feel seen, heard, and encouraged that you are not alone in your experience, while also knowing that your experience is going to vary from the person sharing. 

During this series you will be hearing from individuals with varying life experiences. Everyone involved is going to have different truths and perspectives. What you will hear is not the experience of myself, of Haiti Design Co, or of anyone else. It is the experience of the person sharing. So if at any time you feel uncomfortable, I ask you to sit in that discomfort before being quick to defend or debunk. This space is a space for unfiltered, honest conversations with Haitians and Haitian Americans. 

Lately we have received some pushback on vocally supporting the movement of Black Lives Matter. We’ve heard things like “You’re a fair trade accessories company, why do you need to talk about this?”. But the thing is, we exist FOR the PEOPLE behind the products. If we are not actively engaging in shifting the moral compass of our society, of breaking the colonial chains of white supremacy, or creating a world where our community can be fully SEEN, HEARD, and FREE, then we are not being true to why we exist at all. 

Thank you for being here! 

N’ap dekole! 

-Chandler Hamilton Busby

Founder, Haiti Design Collective