Intimacy, hostility, and state politics: François Duvalier and his Inner-circle, 1931–1971

Abstract

ABSTRACT The historiography on the François Duvalier regime in Haiti (1957–1971) tends to focus on Duvalier's wanton use of violence and generally overlooks questions of governance, stressing or inferring that Duvalier was a solitary despot. This article is resolutely revisionist and argues that Duvalier (1) did not govern alone; (2) relied primarily on an inner-circle for governance; (3) and that personal identity and intimacy, not ideology, determined the composition of this inner-circle. Paradoxically, membership in the inner-circle offered no guarantee for safety, as relations to Duvalier could shift from intimacy to hostility with staggering speed. This article's scope and methods are historiographic while using several anthropological notions on interpersonal relationships. It thus examined the bonds that shaped the composition of Duvalier's inner-circle in the course of four decades, from 1931 to 1971.