Black Sovereignty and Self-Determination in Haiti

Professor Pierre treated the use of Black sovereignty and self-determination as analytical categories to explain political development in Haiti. She said the ideology of race and the practices of white supremacy are at the centre of the European “so-called” international order, where Haitian sovereignty was made to be not so different from the African trusteeship set up by the mandate system. However, she argues that at the beginning of the establishment of the current European International World Order, Haitian sovereignty was made distinct to coexist with Western economic and political control.

She noted that Haiti's contradictory position as a quasi-sovereign state at the beginning of the 20th century prefigures the inevitable position of post-colonial African states, whereby, the transfer of political power did not mean self-determination. Professor Pierre holds that the institutional and cultural context of Western hegemony in the global order and African marginalization within it remains largely intact to this day.

To the presenter, the most crucial thing was the palpable parallels between the way that foreign occupation function and Haiti's nominal sovereignty were minimized in 1915 and 2004. In 2023, the UN Security Council approved a policing mission to Haiti that purported to address rampant violence and insecurity in Haiti. According to Professor Pierre,  this “occupation under the United Nations mandate that is both denied as occupation and the occupation of Haiti under UN and Western tutelage, is believed to be compatible with a type of sovereignty”. To her, the most radical paradox of the “occupation”, precipitated by a coup and legitimized through the UN Security Council, supposedly representing the international community, is that the coup, its preparations, and the occupation have been a successful exercise.

The Scramble for African Resources

Professor Pierre also discussed the European scramble for African resources, driven by Leopold II of Belgium and Germany's Second Reich, which resulted in the first genocide of the 20th century. This scramble intensified in the mid-1800s when Leopold seized vast territories in central Africa, ironically named the Congo Free State. The exploitation of human life and resources there significantly increased Belgium's wealth, prompting further European competition for African territories.

During World War I, European nations took over German colonies—Britain seized Tanganyika and northern Cameroon, while France took the rest of Cameroon, and South Africa claimed Southwest Africa. This solidified European control over Africa, culminating in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, where the fate of colonies was central to discussions among victorious nations like Britain, France, the United States, and Italy.

According to Professor Pierre, this was detrimental to Germany, as it lost its African colonies to other European powers under the new mandate system, which aimed to maintain imperial control while disguising it as international governance. This system, established by the 1885 Berlin Act and later conferences, primarily affected non-European territories, solidifying their position at the bottom of a colonial hierarchy.

The Mandate System and Racial Hierarchy

Professor Pierre highlighted a three-tiered set of mandates aligned with European beliefs about racial civilizational aptitude and the classification of humankind. Mandate A referred to territories deemed closest to civilization, which would require only a short time to stand independently. Mandate B encompassed territories that needed indefinite economic and political advancement under European guidance. Mandate C designated the most backward territories that required prolonged European control. This mandate system reflected deeply entrenched racialist views about the affected populations and the differing political realities in the colonies.

Haiti, along with Ethiopia and to a lesser extent Liberia, was regarded by the leaders of the Black diaspora as miraculous; these were seen as the only independent states governed by people of African descent, existing at the margins of the European-dominated international order. Among them, Haiti attracted the most fascination due to the boldness of its representatives and its unique position within European imagination and politics. Most notably, Haiti joined the League of Nations as a founding member in 1919. This membership, according to the principles of the League, signified the country's public recognition as a fully sovereign nation—a recognition that its leaders had tirelessly sought since 1804 when they won independence from Napoleon Bonaparte.

In this sense, the League of Nations and its mandate system met the renewed consolidation and assertion of white supremacy, and specifically what Jan Smuts, a South African statesman calls white racial unity, the institutionalization of a racial double standard through a global framework that reflected differential treatment of races, also meant a form of inter European solidarity in a world that it could not fully eliminate inter Western, inter European conflict. This world helped foster a climate in which unity for Europeans could be forged about matters that affected people deemed racially distinct and inferior to themselves. Nevertheless, the mandate system shaped a New World Order, which “shaped future global politics, including the founding of the United Nations through the same terms of the league and the consequent global order of the white West and the rest of us”, noted Professor Pierre.

Bell Guard: International Spokesman for Black folk

At the second assembly of the League of Nations plenary session on September 23, 1921, Bell Guard, the delegate for Haiti critiqued the League's mandate system, which transformed colonized territories into what it termed mandates to be administered by “so-called sovereign states”. He pointed to the inherently racist nature of the League. Many, particularly other Black diaspora intellectuals and participants in the Pan-African conferences occurring simultaneously with the Paris Peace Conference viewed Bell Guard’s advocacy for Africa as heroic. He was referred to as the “international spokesman for Black folk”.

Further Challenges Faced by the Haitian State

While its sovereign independence was being recognized internationally, the country was arguably less independent than it had been in 200 years. Haiti was under a brutal U.S. military occupation that began with the invasion of U.S. Marines in July 1915. According to Professor Pierre, violence was inflicted upon the Haitian people throughout the 19-year occupation. The U.S. forced the dissolution of the Haitian National Assembly, rewrote Haiti’s constitution to permit foreign land ownership, and established puppet governments to sign treaties, including the Treaty of Occupation. During this time, the U.S. also confiscated and transferred $50 million of Haiti's gold to the City Bank of New York and took control of all customs revenue, most of the country's finances, and its security, leading Professor Pierre to ask “If Haiti was sovereign and a full member of the League of Nations, under what pretext was the US able to justify this occupation?

Professor Pierre maintains that Haiti’s experiences in the context of a hegemonic Western system of global governance serve as an ideal example for other nations to understand the workings of Neo-colonialism and the challenges to black emancipation and sovereignty. She encourages decolonizing the mind and realizing the importance of academia in partnering with the public to influence policy and the public good.