ABSTRACT

This book considers the full sweep of Haitian community invention and recreation in a multitude of national territories, with an eye toward the "place" factors that shape the everyday lives of Haitian migrants. Regine O. Jackson brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars to explore how Haitian communities differ across time and place, as well as how migrants adjust to new economic, political and racial realities. The volume includes descriptive ethnographies of Haitians in 19th century Jamaica, eastern Cuba, Detroit, the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Paris, and Boston, and innovative scholarly work on non-geographic sites of Haitian community building. The most important question addressed here is not whether the places described represent typical or exceptional Haitian diasporic communities, but how, why and to what effect do Haitians in particular places use diaspora as a signifier. By examining the diversity (and sameness) of the Haitian experience in diaspora, Geographies of the Haitian Diaspora asks how we might situate community in view of increased scholarly attention to transnational processes.

chapter |13 pages

Introduction

Les espaces Haïtiens: Remapping the Geography of the Haitian Diaspora

part I|96 pages

Lateral Moves

chapter 1|17 pages

From the Port of Princes to the City of Kings

Jamaica and the Roots of the Haitian Diaspora

chapter 3|20 pages

The Onion of Oppression

Haitians in the Dominican Republic

chapter 4|20 pages

On the Margins

The Emergence of a Haitian Diasporic Enclave in Eastern Cuba

chapter 5|20 pages

Between Periphery and Center in the Haitian Diaspora

The Transnational Practices of Haitian Migrants in the Bahamas

part II|94 pages

Siting Diaspora

chapter 9|20 pages

Deporting Diaspora's Future?

Forced Return Migration as an Ethnographic Lens on Generational Differences among Haitian Migrants in Montréal

part III|76 pages

Diaspora as Metageography

chapter 10|22 pages

Listening for Geographies

Music as Sonic Compass Pointing Towards African and Christian Diasporic Horizons in the Caribbean

chapter 12|18 pages

Language, Identity and Public Sphere in Haiti's Diaspora

The Evolution of the Haitian Creolists' Internet Network

chapter 13|16 pages

Going Home Again and Again and Again

Coffee Memories, Peasant Food and the Vodou Some of Us Do