This article explores the extent to which the 1980 marriage of Haitian president Jean-Claude Duvalier contributed to his political demise in February 1986. The author argues that the marriage was a strategic mistake by the Haitian president, because it formalized an alliance between himself and a political kinship group (the Bennetts) that alienated his most important base of support, the black middling classes. This article also suggests that a similar mistake was committed in 1996 by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide when he married his U.S. legal advisor, Mildred Trouillot. These marriage strategies, however, can only be understood in the context of the historical class and color divisions that have remained an integral part of the Haitian sociopolitical sphere of the urban elite.
