2023-09-17 07:59:00
The Haitian writer, originally from Carrefour-Feuilles, plagued by gangs, talks about the situation in Port-au-Prince and his latest novel, “Adrien’s Violin”.
Haitian novelist, Gary Victor grew up in Carrefour-Feuilles, a peaceful town in Port-au-Prince, among students and artists. But that was before the advance of armed gangs. 5,000 residents fled, 2,400 were murdered and those remaining formed self-defense groups. Gary Victor preferred to go to a relative’s house. Adrien, protagonist of Violon d’Adrien – his latest novel which has just been published by Mémoire d’Encrier – is stuck in this neighborhood, already corrupted in 1970 by the violence of the Macoute uncles and damaged by the dictatorship. “Because we always want to hear what we want to hear. To see what we want to see. You only want one thing. Violin money. Are you ready to do anything for this money? Yes, little by little, and despite himself, he will betray his family and those close to him to become this virtuoso violinist. Gary Victor, too, is now trying to survive. Interview by email.
What is happening at Carrefour-Feuilles at the moment?
Right now, it’s the spectacle of a country at war. Houses looted, devastated, homes burned. Some residents try to return to collect some belongings. It’s very dangerous. Bandits still roam the mountain. The natives of the area do not want to give up. They are trying to see what we could do to bring life back to this neighborhood. It will be difficult to counter the gangs, not because of a lack of police finances, but because of a question of political will. It is a town almost emptied of its inhabitants. And gangs, too. We don’t know how or why. They can come back at any time.
Who are these gangs?
These gangs were often small political organizations created from scratch in the 1990s and armed by politicians. To maintain power and intimidate the population. Basically, it was a major criminal enterprise linked to all kinds of trafficking and illegal activities such as kidnapping, drugs, etc. The violence gradually took hold, increasing with the political drift and the economic crisis. The pivotal moment was the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021.
Where do they find the money and the weapons?
The weapons come from the United States – despite a supposed embargo.
You had to leave your house. Where are you ?
With my mother, my brother Rudolf, his wife and their two children, we are staying with a relative in a neighboring district. The risk is also present because he is in the crosshairs of the gangs. Everyone is targeted. The violence is indiscriminate and strikes randomly like an eruption of uncontrollable hatred. We try to continue living in the hope of seeing an improvement. But the feeling of being constantly in danger, abandoned to our fate, is terrifying. The thousands of displaced people naturally expect to one day return to their homes. No one yet believes in the Haitian National Police. It does not have the necessary margin of maneuver to regain control of the area. The State certainly does not and will not do much. It will be up to citizens to take charge of their security.
What actions should be taken?
In the immediate future, we must find an organization capable of ensuring a minimum of security to return to the simplest of ourselves: living, breathing, sleeping, eating, going to school for the children, and also dreaming. Necessary actions to avoid collective suicide.
When writing Adrien’s Violin, the violence was already present. How was writing possible?
I finished it in November 2022. Carrefour-Feuilles, like other neighborhoods, was already in the sights of gangs. Much more than influencing me, this climate of permanent tension makes serene creation difficult. So I had to go far from my personal base, to the south-east of the country, towards Jacmel, to find conditions conducive to work. But the writing never remains suspended. It is a failed country. Reality overflows into fiction. And in a failed country, we fight to survive. Because there is no longer one or the other, we are in the same stinking collapse. This entire nightmare is embodied in Adrien’s Violin which mixes tenderness and suffering. I had to run away, abandon everything and retreat into myself to write. This is what remains.
Gary Victor, Adrien’s Violin, Inkwell’s Memory, 192 pp., €19 (ebook: €9.99).
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