Dominique Morisseau

Surviving Dictators

My daddy is a Haitian. Was. Is always, even in his death. Broken tongue was never really broken. Genius so defiant they made him take the SATs twice, cuz that perfect score had to be a fluke. But it wasn't. He is twice the Haitian genius they never wanted to acknowledge. And if my Daddy was alive right now, despite his citizenship. Despite his children. Despite his wife and his service to the country and his contributions to the economy....he would be on their lists. A part of their hunt. A target for disappearing.

But we know about disappearing. We survived dictators. My people, they are not new to compromised democracy. They are not new to violent regime and the harsh treatment of the poor and disenfranchised. We come from the fall of Lescot. The fall of Papa and Baby Doc. We know the makings of monsters. We know the ground swell. We know how the henchmen and gestapo work. The blood they spill will run rivers through new worlds. The lives they haunt will turn into their own ghosts. The fear they try to impose will choke them in their sleep. They will only have so far to go before they unleash an energy so mighty it creates a countercurrent. The tide will turn. The people will rise. The reign will come to an end and the regime will fall. This is not mythology. This is not wishful. This is historical and lived. This is the way of inevitability.

So when the people feel most in despair. When we feel it has reached its height of being unbearable. Remember what ones you descend from. What horrors they transcended. What resistance they left in your bones. What connection you have in your global humanity. 

And listen for the conch shell. When it calls you, you'll already know how to answer. All you have to do is remember who your ancestors are. All you have to do is know that they are always with you. All you have to do....is stay ready....