I just read the call for solidarity with Haiti on February 7, and I felt good that our brothers and sisters in Haiti are being heard. 2007 is the 50th anniversary of Ghana’s Independence. Between now and 2011 there will be a number of 50th anniversaries in Africa including the assassination of Patrice Lumumba.

One of the things which seem to be coming to me all the time, while visiting here in Maputo, is the kind of house arrest that Aristide has been submitted to in South Africa. Shouldn't South Africans, Africans from all walks of life come out and call for Aristide's freedom to travel anywhere, including going back as a free citizen to Haiti? Is he kept under house arrest for his own good/safety, or is he being kept away from the public eye so that we all forget about him, in the same manner Toussaint L'Ouverture was taken to France and let to die?

If we are true to our conscience, if we claim we are proud of what was done when Mandela was finally freed, then, is it not logical that we ask, as loudly as one can, the kind of questions which are not being asked with regard to Aristide and his quasi solitary confinement? Is it not the case that by keeping him under house arrest or something equivalent, and not allowing him to speak up, one is in fact colluding with those voices which went out of their way to accuse Aristide of all kinds of crimes. Why is it that so many people on the left would not rather talk about Aristide's situation?

What does it mean, today, to think emancipatory thoughts? If fidelity to the Subject who emerged out of Haiti in 1804 means keeping alive emancipatory politics, why do we keep quiet when innocent children, women, human beings are being killed in Cité Soleil, simply because in that place there are people who keep calling, among other things, for the return of President Aristide? For 200 years, and counting, Haiti continues to stand out both as a place in history to be proud of, but it continues to be treated as if what happened there should never have happened. Given this history, one has to ask oneself, is that why the powers that be, looked to South Africa as the best place to keep him under House Arrest?

I really did mean to write a thank you note, but I suppose I slipped into one of my favourite exercises: could I make you (Pambazuka), you who are already doing a fine job, to reach higher and outperform yourselves? If you can look at the above as a jumbled, rumbling, rambling poor attempt, I offer my apologies, but, at the same time, ask for your understanding, and think of this way: Can we promise ourselves that, as of today, 2007 till 2020 (the same 13 years it took the slaves --1791-1804), to bring Haiti back to where it was supposed to be. If we can do it before 2020, better still, but I am sure that, along the way, we shall find ways of pushing ourselves further beyond the current emancipated oases.

* Jacques Depelchin is author of “Silences in African History: Between the Syndrome of Discovery and Abolition,” and Executive Director of the ‘Ota Benga Alliance for Peace, Healing and Dignity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’.