Kant and Trouillot on the Unthinkability of the Haitian Revolution

Abstract

The article begins with an analysis of Kant's essay “What is Enlightenment?” as a paradigm of the European Enlightenment to argue that such paradigm was European male-centered and presupposed freedom from forced labor. It then shows that such paradigm asserted European humanity in contradistinction to slaves as non-humans. Also, using Michel Rolph-Trouillot's critique of the European Enlightenment's paradigm, it shows that Michel Rolph-Trouillot's account of the unthinkability of the Haitian revolution is the logical implication of the European-male-centered paradigm of the Enlightenment. It then contends with Michel Rolph-Trouillot's view of the unthinkability of the Haitian revolution among the slaves and its leaders. The last section argues that instead of Michel Rolph-Trouillot's account of the unthinkability of the Haitian revolution, Voodoo Cosmology provided the religious unity, language, achievement of common destiny as an axiom of state formation and the conviction of universal humanity that made the Haitian revolution a successful critique and expansion of the European Enlightenment's ideals. Furthermore, the rise of Voodoo Cosmology is consistent with Buck-Morss's observation that reconciling tribal differences and the intersection of Voodoo practices and marronage were important accomplishments of the slaves of St-Domingue. The article concludes that these achievements made the Haitian revolution a coherent and systematic event from the perspective of the revolutionaries and its leaders.