“τετέλεσται (tetelestai): It is finished”

I’m pleased to announce that I have completed the manuscript which I tentatively title “Theological Education and Christian Scholarship for Human Flourishing: Hermeneutics, Knowledge, and Multiculturalism.” pp. 355

I’ve been working on this book since 2013 (7 years). Technically, I began thinking about writing a book on the subjects of theological education and Christian scholarship in my second semester in seminary (Spring semester, 2003) (17 years ago) when I found myself in despair and was thirsty to read works in Biblical and Theological studies by non-European White writers and thinkers.

In 2003, I became more disappointed when I discovered that all the textbooks assigned in my seminary classes were written by White Christian thinkers and theologians. I was also frustrated to discover that the theological education and the theological curriculum were tools that were designed to promote the “Western Canon” and the “Eurocentric-epistemological paradigm. “
In 2003, I have asked where the non-white voices in the theological education and Christian scholarship? (They were there and in fact, christian thinkers, writers, and theologians from the darker/brown/yellow nations of the world have been there for years. My seminary education and professors just didn’t validate them and acknowledge their merits and contributions to theological education and christian academic scholarship). Consequently, I had determined to do more research on the subject matter of my current book and to write a book about it.

I wrote the entire manuscript without bothering to send a book proposal to potential publishers. I have intended it to be so because I wanted to complete the book before consulting an academic press. Now, it is done. It needs a home. It needs to be out!

***Check out the table of contents below and let me know what you think about it. If you’re interested in reading it and offer some constructive feedback, I will be honored and will be glad to email the manuscript to you. 🙂

Haitian Intellectual History: Top 20 Books in Past 30 Years!

Below, I recommend what I believe to be the Top 20 Books that have been written in the English language, in the past thirty years, on Haitian Intellectual History. I list these texts by their year of publication and not necessarily by their impact on the field of Haitian Studies.

1. In the Shadow of Powers: Dantes Bellegarde in Haitian Social Thought (1985) by Patrick Bellegarde-Smith
2. Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995) by Michel-Rolph Trouillot
3. From Dessalines to Duvalier: Race, Colour and National Independence in Haiti (1996) by David Nicholls
4. Haiti and the United States: National Stereotypes and the Literary Imagination (1996) by J. Michael Dash
5. Framing Silence: Revolutionary Novels by Haitian Women (1997) by Myriam J. A. Chancy
6. Haiti, History, and the Gods (1998) by Joan Dayan
7. Haiti’s Predatory Republic: The Unending Transition to Democracy (2002) by Robert Fatton
8. Modernity Disavowed: Haiti and the Cultures of Slavery in the Age of Revolution (2004) by Sibylle Fischer
9. The Prophet and Power: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the International Community, and Haiti (2006) by Alex Dupuy
10. Universal Emancipation: The Haitian Revolution and the Radical Enlightenment (2008) by Nick Nesbitt
11. Red and Black in Haiti: Radicalism, Conflict, and Political Change, 1934-1957 (2009)
    by Matthew J. Smith
12. Hegel, Haiti, and Universal History (2009) by Susan Buck-Morss
13. Haiti Unbound: A Spiralist Challenge to the Postcolonial Canon (2011) by Kaiama L. Glover
14. The Spirits and the Law: Vodou and Power in Haiti (2014) by Kate Ramsey
15. Spirit Possession in French, Haitian, and Vodou Thought: An Intellectual History (2014)
    by Alessandra Benedicty-Kokken
16. Tropics of Haiti: Race and the Literary History of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World, 1789-1865 (2015) by Marlene L. Daut
17. Vodou in Haitian Memory: The Idea and Representation of Vodou in Haitian Imagination (2016) edited by Celucien L. Joseph and Nixon S. Cleophat
18. The Vodou Ethic and the Spirit of Communism: The Practical Consciousness of the African People of Haiti (2016) by Paul Mocombe
19. Thinking in Public: Faith, Secular Humanism, and Development in Jacques Roumain (2017) by Celucien L. Joseph
20. Baron de Vastey and the Origins of Black Atlantic Humanism (2017) by Marlene L. Daut
21. Between Two Worlds: Jean Price-Mars, Haiti, and Africa (2018) edited by Celucien L. Joseph, Jean Eddy Saint Paul, and Glodel Mezilas

“545: Just Imagine the Separation and the Absence “

Can you imagine 545 “white children” captured by a government of one of the “shithole” countries and the shithole government can’t locate their “white parents”?

What would 545 “white (Christian) parents” do?

What would the government of the “First World” do to bring those children back to their parents?

Just imagine the white rage…
Just imagine the white pain…
Just imagine the lament…
Just imagine the mourning…
Just imagine the separation…
Just imagine the long wait…
Just imagine the absence!

I’m speaking as a father of two little girls.
I’m speaking as a human being, a member of the global family.
I’m speaking as a parent who was born in one of those shithole countries.
I’m speaking as an American citizen who believes in the moral integrity, ethical values, and democratic ideals of the United States government.
I’m speaking as an American citizen who believes that the spirit of justice and empathy, and the spirit of kindness and compassion towards the weak and the marginalized should influence public policies and immigration laws of this land.

Hey, Friends: To commemorate the death of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the founder of the nation of Haiti, on October 17 (Saturday) I will be moderating an important conference on “Haitian Exceptionalism ” with the Haitian economist and public intellectual Dr. “Boaz” Bo Anglade. Please follow the instructions below for free online registration and more information:

“Pa rate konferans sa sou zoom nan okazyon anivèsè lanmò J. J. Dessalines: Samedi 17 Octobre 7h30pm – 8h30pm. Pour plus d’infos et pour vous inscrire: http://exceptionnalismehaitien.eventbrite.com
Haiti, pays exceptionnel? Dans ce webinar, Boaz Anglade revisite les travaux de plusieurs imminents penseurs (Michel R. Trouillot, Nadège Clitandre etc.) sur le sujet d’ «exceptionnalisme haïtien». Il nous invite à réinventer à se réapproprier le terme «exceptionnalisme haïtien» comme moyen d’affirmer la juste place du pays dans l’histoire du monde.”

“In Praise of Haitian and Haitianist Scholars: Finding the Source and The Problem of the Haitian Archive”

Scholars and historians who labor in the field of Haitian Studies are my heroes and my heroines. You are some of the most hard working, talented, courageous, and patient individuals I know on the face of this planet. Kudos to you!

It is very difficult to locate books and documents written by Haitian writers in the country of Haiti, especially historical writings from the colonial times of Saint-Domingue to the second half of the twentieth-century postcolonial Haiti. Yet you Haitianists continue to research without being pessimistic, losing your cool, or thinking about quitting or changing your areas of focus for something more accessible to you and to the public. You keep investigating because you believe that Haiti has an important message and relevant history for the world. You keep digging and going forward because you know that studying Haitian history provides an important window into European history, especially on the vital subjects of African retentions and survivals in the Diaspora, slavery, colonialism, political freedom, sovereignty, human emancipation, human rights, imperialism, etc. You keep hoping that you will find that one particular and single source that will contribute to a better understanding of haitian history, human history, and Western history. You should be praised!

The literary production in Haiti is voluminous and substantial. Yet Haiti does not keep a good historical record or archive of the country’s literary heritage and its own written history. This unfortunate situation must change. The country of Haiti as well as Haitianists have a moral and intellectual responsibility to do a better job in safeguarding and securing the contemporary written records and future literary productions in the twentieth-first century.

“Why I Write What I Write”

I write for Black people and for the Haitian people.
I write to instruct people about Haiti and the African Diaspora.
I write to educate all people.
I write to foster peace and human solidarity, and to strengthen human relationships and bring hope to diverse community.
I write for this present world, a new and transformed global community, and for a new generation yet to be born.
I write to make God smile and for Jesus to delight in my prose.

I thank #PoliticoTech for this Book Award for my new book, “Revolutionary Change and Democratic Religion: Christianity, Vodou, and Secularism,” which came out in April this year. I appreciate the credible work Mr. Roudy Stanley Penn and his team are doing in Haiti to improve Haitian democracy and the political and civil societies in the country.

In this book (published in April 2020), I employed what I call a “black encounter metholodogical hermeneutics” (I used a different theoretical concept in the book) to bring in dialogue various intellectual fields of study: Black/African American Studies, Haitian Studies, Caribbean Studies (both Francophone and Anglophone worlds), and African studies (both Francophone and Anglophone worlds) under the big umbrella of Africana Studies.

This is a work on critical cultural and religious discourse and political and theological reflection concerning two broad subjects: anthropology and ethics. This is the first volume of an anticipated three volume work. The second one will be on the doctrine of God, and the final book will be on Christology. I will take a similar approach: the black encounter metholodogical hermeneutics within the grand Africana Critical Theory and Criticism.