Abstract
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western world. The average yearly wage is 300 US dollars. Its resources, human and material, have been squandered by the brutal Duvalier dynasty that has ruled since 1957. Francois ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier ignored the rule of law and set up his own security forces (among them the infamous Ton-Ton Macoutes) to silence all opposition. Torture, arbitrary arrests and expulsions, and long periods of detention without charge became commonplace. Vicious abuse of human rights continued when his son, ‘Baby Doc’, took over in 1971 and proclaimed himself president-for-life. Since then there have been successive waves of attacks not only on political opponents, but also lawyers, intellectuals, and journalists. In addition, writers in Haiti have to contend with 85–90% illiteracy, a complete lack of publishing possibilities, and virtually no public libraries. The majority of them have joined the exodus of Haitians seeking a living abroad, which has taken 300,000 to New York (and made it the second largest ‘Haitian’ city) and some 30,000 to Montreal, where Liliane Dévieux, the author of this short story, has lived since the mid-1970s.