Caribbean Review: Cazale: Haiti’s Haven of Polish Ancestry
Amongst the unique and encapsulating history associated with the Caribbean nation of Haiti, there exists a resilient sociocultural bond between a people and their ancestry. The people of Cazale, a Haitian town situated 45 miles north of the capital Port-Au-Prince, draw their lineages to their proud Polish culture, making for an unlikely intersection of stories.
The story of the Polonais, as they are known in Haiti, traces back to 1802, when French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte sent a detachment of Polish volunteer soldiers to quell the growing momentum of a slave uprising in present-day Haiti. The Polish soldiers were eager to join the French military in hopes of one day being able to return to Poland to liberate their nation from the occupation of Russian, Prussian and Austrian Empire forces which divided up the spoils of the Central European country.
It was this shared desire for liberation that allowed many Polish soldiers to understand the cause and struggle of the Haitian slaves to rise against their French masters. Not to mention the abhorrent living conditions, humiliation from French counterparts and the rapid spread of yellow fever throughout soldier camps. Polish soldiers became sympathetic to the cause of the slave rebellion, even being persuaded to switch sides and join the slaves in their fight.
As the remaining Polish soldiers became overwhelmed by the rebels of the Haitian Revolution led by General Toussaint L’Overture, they were spared from the uncertain fate that the French were subjected to largely in part because of their humane treatment of slaves who were captured as prisoners of war. After the successful revolution in 1804, Haiti’s first ruler, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, issued naturalization papers to the Polish and German diaspora in the country. He explicitly included them in the makeup of the “Black nation,” as all Haitians were formally referred to as “Black” in the country’s initial Constitution. As stated in Article 13, “The provisions of this article also include those of Polish and German birth whom the government has naturalized.” As such, the Polish diaspora settled in Cazale and two centuries of descendants have preserved their traditions creating a distinct identity amidst the larger uniformity of Haiti’s demographics.
Although fierce protectors of this identity, the Polonais are distinct in their appearance as much as they are in their history to other Haitians. While Haiti is a majority black nation, the Polonais people possess lighter skin as well as optical and facial features consistent with their Central European heritage. As much as the Polonais’ physical features are singular to their diaspora, the mixing of various religious beliefs with the local customs of vodou has produced another unexpected and interesting bond connecting the Polonais to Haiti.
To connect and preserve their culture, subsiding the innate geographic isolation of their village in Cazale, the Polonais people have integrated their Christian traditions along with the local vodou spirits and deities. For example, local vodou tradition has been heavily influenced to the point that vodou spirits such as Ezili Dantò and Ezili Zye-Wouj have a corresponding Catholic saint that represents them forming a symbiosis in the merged theology. As a religious image, one of the strongest bonds created between Catholicism and Vodou as brought on by the Polonais remains to be The Black Madonna of Czestochowa.
As a form of resistance, unity and solidarity, the Haitian slaves in the period of 1802-1804 would use the image of The Black Madonna, which depicts Our Lady of Czestochowa and a dark-skinned infant Jesus, to conceal their vodou worship in the midst of their French masters and still represent the spirit of Erzulie Dantor. Considering the religious significance that The Black Madonna represented to vodou-worshipping Haitians, the Polonais’ relationship with the locals was concurrently cemented, establishing positive relations. Above all, the Polonais enabled vodou, an outlawed faith by the French, to continue to be practiced under the guise of Catholicism.
Although a solid foundation between the Polonais and African Haitians still endures due to religious integration and other social trends, the unique community was not always welcomed by each new ruler of Haiti. On 5 April 1969, under the direction of President François Duvalier, militia forces known as Tonton Macoute brutally attacked and destroyed the village of Cazale under the auspices that Haitian communists had been hiding amongst their citizens. After a total erasure of much of the village, including 25 dead and many more missing, the massacre is remembered as the deadliest attack against the Polonais and Cazale in its over two centuries old history, rattling the stability of the community as part of the social fabric of Haiti.
Nonetheless, the Polonais community are fierce proponents of their Polish roots in and amongst the villages and cities of Haiti. Although severe political instability and a stagnant economy have hindered the village’s growth as a means of preserving their heritage, the Polonais’ cultural pride is unwavering. Efforts for the redevelopment of Cazale that includes the installation of a museum to harness the history of the Polonais soldiers remains to be a thought bubble. Despite efforts from proponents like Former Senator Steven Benoit to establish a “Polish cultural center in Cazale”, a stifling effect has occurred due to societal strains and pressures.
In the recent context of a presidential assassination, weak government institutions, the takeover of malicious non-state actors, and a limping economy, Cazale’s history stands both as a symbol of Haitian perseverance and resilience.
