1935–1950s: (Political Wayfaring — Sanders Johnson’s Concept of Political Wayfaring as the Act of Going from One Place to Another or Traveling, Privileging a…

1935–1950s: (Political Wayfaring — Sanders Johnson’s Concept of Political Wayfaring as the Act of Going from One Place to Another or Traveling, Privileging and Historically Locating These Women’s Political Process Rather Than Fixing Them to a Site-Specific Location or Destination, the Women Picking Up Pebbles of Marxism Slowly Brushing by Branches of Black Nationalism Stopping to Rest Under the Trees of Christian Conservatism but Deciding the Shade Was Not Expansive Enough, Using Feminism as Road Maps but Routinely Walking Just Off the Road to Account for Their Shifting Modalities, the Movement Sustained Over Seven Haitian Presidents Representing the Spectrum from Foreign-Supported Conservative Elites to Black Nationalists — Political Survival in an Era When Intellectuals Were Jailed Exiled and Killed Suggesting an Agility That Merits Historical Attention): Sanders Johnson introduces the concept of political wayfaring to describe these women’s orientation — the act of going from one place to another, privileging and historically locating their political process rather than fixing them to a site-specific location (radical, feminist, communist, Pan-Africanist) or destination (full suffrage, women’s rights). As political wayfarers, the women hurried to pick up pebbles of Marxism and slowly brushed by branches of Black nationalism. They stopped to rest under the trees of Christian conservatism, but they decided that the shade was not expansive enough for their vision. They used international concepts like feminism as road maps to orient themselves, but routinely walked just off the road to account for their shifting modalities of movement. Madeleine Sylvain-Bouchereau had nodded toward this practice one year into the movement, writing in La Voix des Femmes that while recognizing the principle of equality of the sexes, “we are not currently demanding its immediate application in Haiti.” The women’s slowed public-facing political performance was not an indication of passivity but a deliberate strategy — speeding up in some moments, slowing down in others, on occasion going backward and retracing their movements. The early women’s movement was sustained over the political landscape of seven Haitian presidents representing the spectrum of political leadership — foreign-supported conservative elites, Black middle-class pragmatists, military juntas, and Black nationalists. In a dynamic context where intellectuals, activists, and politicians across the political spectrum were jailed, exiled, and killed for their beliefs, political survival suggests an agility that merits historical attention. Sanders Johnson thinks with Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s assertion that Haitian and foreign observers alike have tended to overemphasize state actors, and Caribbean feminist critic Lizabeth Paravisini-Gerbert’s argument that Caribbean women’s movements hold space for multiple feminisms that often clash with each other as women of different classes and races strive to achieve sometimes contradictory goals.