1928-00-00: (Jean Price-Mars Publishes Ainsi Parla l’Oncle, the Foundational Text of the Noirisme Movement, Which Argued That Haitians Should Embrace Their A…

1928-00-00: (Jean Price-Mars Publishes Ainsi Parla l’Oncle, the Foundational Text of the Noirisme Movement, Which Argued That Haitians Should Embrace Their African Roots Rather Than Aspire to European Respectability): In 1928, Jean Price-Mars published Ainsi Parla l’Oncle, the book that is universally credited as the foundational text of the Noirisme movement in Haiti. Price-Mars, born on October 15, 1876, in Grand-Rivière du Nord, was a Black intellectual trained as a medical doctor who was troubled by the racial divisions that had fractured Haitian society since independence. His book argued that the dominant characteristics of Haitian culture, Vodou and Kreyòl, had their roots in colonial slavery and represented a legitimate African heritage that Haitians should embrace rather than suppress. Written during the American occupation, when the overt racism of the Marines reinforced the mulatto elite’s contempt for Black culture, the book was a declaration of cultural independence more radical than any political manifesto. Price-Mars contended that Haitians should be proud of the only successful slave revolt in the history of the Americas. The book inspired an entire generation of Black intellectuals, including François Duvalier, who would twist Noirisme into a doctrine of authoritarian Black nationalism that Price-Mars himself would live long enough to witness and deplore.