1922–1926: (Quite Unqualified to Colonize: Borno’s Enemies, Makandalism Rumors, Mme Lespasse’s Prophecy, and the 19-to-0 Reelection): No sooner had Borno occ…

1922–1926: (Quite Unqualified to Colonize: Borno’s Enemies, Makandalism Rumors, Mme Lespasse’s Prophecy, and the 19-to-0 Reelection): No sooner had Borno occupied the National Palace than his enemies — mostly those affected by his election, Russell commented — began plotting against the regime. Like many another president, Borno periodically rearranged cabinet and Conseil, inevitably enlarging the ranks of outs and thus of opponents. Throughout 1924, rumors of Makandalism — meaning mass poisoning of mulâtres by noirs and ominous whispers of Dessalinian atrocities — troubled the elite, coinciding with teledjòl prompted by news that the Marines were to leave Santo Domingo and might leave Haiti too, a prospect that simultaneously elated yet unnerved those who could remember earlier times. When Borno made his first official progress through the South in 1925, Antoine Pierre-Paul and fellow noir irreconcilables of Les Cayes tried to drape the city in black, sent messengers to tell peasants the visit was canceled, and stove in the drums of countrymen planning bamboches for the presidential visit. With the 1926 election approaching, candidates jockeyed — Archer Wainwright, just out of jail for having killed his brother-in-law; Emmanuel Thézan, whom Russell called one of the most dangerous characters; and Gaston Dalencourt led the pack. To spice the preliminaries, a leading manbo, Mme Lespasse, revealed that should the Conseil re-elect Borno, one member would drop unconscious and die in the Palais and Borno would be killed soon after — pressed for her authority, she quoted a sister manbo, Mme Savain, who had learned it from the spirits. Russell drily commented that Madam Savain was the mistress of Dr. Gaston Dalencourt and unquestionably the spirit in this case was Dr. Dalencourt, and he would take means to have the doctor placed under observation in the event of Borno’s reelection. Spirits or no, Borno dropped easily into the pattern first set by Dartiguenave in 1916 — no dates for legislative elections were proclaimed in 1924 or 1926, continuing rule by Conseil. Borno then sacked eighteen of twenty-one incumbents, and with one member absent and another casting a blank, the new team re-elected the president by a vote of 19 to 0.