In the 18th century, Haiti was known as the “Jewel of the Antilles.” It was the most lucrative colony on the planet, providing 50% of France’s gross national product, and everyone wanted a piece. But the people brought to Haiti against their will, to labor without recompense, eventually fought back in the only successful rebellion of enslaved peoples in Western history. They have been paying the price for this liberty ever since (sometimes literally, as France made them pay “reparations” at actual gunpoint to the tune of over $20 billion of today’s dollars), relegated to the global sidelines, barely able to protect themselves from the ravages of natural disasters, their momentous history suppressed by gatekeepers afraid of giving oppressed people “ideas” long ago. These days, the whole world tells itself a story about Haiti that unfortunately has little to do with the truth of history.
What an intriguing setting for an interpretation of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid,” via our source material, the novel My Love, My Love by Rosa Guy. As a Caribbean immigrant to New York in the 1930s, Ms. Guy knew something about isolation, assimilation aspirations, and sacrifice. Her story of a young girl on an epic quest for a love that unites her people, all while being toyed with by capricious gods, rivals any Greek tragedy. It was truly a joy to be given the resources here at OSF to approach this story with as much care as the Greek epics or Shakespeare, delving into the history and culture of Haiti as not simply “flavor” but for the richness and revelation that it offers.
—Lili-Anne Brown