Restavek: Unraveling the Untold Stories of Haitian Child Slavery.
Transcript for Ep. #
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:00:00]:
- Hi. Patrick here. I haven’t done a series in ages, and I wanted to, you know, kinda take a pause on the, you know, academic stuff and focus on certain aspects of of Haitian culture from the viewpoint of the lived experiences of the people and the Haitian culture. So today’s episode is with, Guilen, who lives in London as part of a small community, very active community there, socially active community there. And what she’s going to talk with us today is, something of a taboo subject, in in Haitian culture, which is, Ristabek. And her mom lived through it. And she’s going to tell us, about, her mom’s experience and and how that’s, impacted her life and her siblings’ lives. Madam, we
- Guilaine Brutus [00:01:17]:
- just Latam.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:01:18]:
- Why are we here today?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:01:19]:
- Well, we wanted to talk about my mom and her experience, of being.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:01:27]:
- Where is your mom from originally, and what’s her name? Let’s start with her name first. What’s her name?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:01:34]:
- Her her name is well, she was born with Oxilia Agenor, but then she got adapted adopted into Cecilia Walken Pierre. She got married into a Pierre. Born with Oxilia, as you know, and she died with Cecilia Walking Pierre. She was born in, Soufouye, In Okap? Because I I realized, that there are several Sufiyas, but she was born in Sufiya, Okap, an area called, between and.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:02:04]:
- Tell the just for our audience and non Haitian audience what, Ristavik is in Haitian, culture.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:02:16]:
- Ristavik, from my understanding is, literally means to stay with. So is usually a child That is from the rural area that goes to live with a family member or friend in the city, with the prospect fact of getting a better life and education, and to help the family back in in, what we call on the yore, in the rural areas.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:02:44]:
- Did your mom benefit from those particular expectations that you just mentioned, such as a better education and a quote, unquote better
- Guilaine Brutus [00:02:56]:
- life. No. No. She did not have an education at all. And a better life is is, Well, I don’t think so because at the age of 11, she was put on the streets. So, no, it did not she did not benefit. Like many other children who have gone through this, Experience, especially one of the most famous books, Les Pavesque. You know, they they usually don’t go through a really good experience, And I think that’s that’s based on our our structures and our institutions.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:03:33]:
- There’s no supportive institutions for young people and young children, in
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:03:39]:
- Haiti. It’s it’s basically child slave
- Guilaine Brutus [00:03:42]:
- labor? Yes.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:03:44]:
- Yes. Okay. I get the sense that I’ve I’ve seen that in my family as well too. It’s a taboo subject. The the elders don’t want to talk about it. Mhmm. I was raised by at least I didn’t realize that until much later. That’s what that person was, you know.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:04:08]:
- Mhmm. But my family, my parents don’t like talking about that. Mhmm. So is your mom still alive?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:04:19]:
- No. She passed away. She passed away in 2017. I was at her bedside. She I I think the reason why, You know, people don’t talk about it, especially when it comes to people who have lived experience of using 1 is because it it plays on your morality, doesn’t it? Yes. And your values. So you you believe yourself to be this moral person and to have these values, but yet still you have this tarnished disdain Of having someone working for you for free.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:04:53]:
- Mhmm. So when did your mom and and did did she explain to you or to the family how she became the process of how she became a.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:05:07]:
- Yes. We you know, I I always love to hear a story. So her and I spoke a lot. And she told me that her family Had her parents had around 7 7 children, around that, if if I’m if I’m correct, and 2 passed away. But When she was young, around 5 years old, they had about 7, children. And they lived in Andeo, and there weren’t any schools around, and it was difficult for them to To survive. So she knew someone in the city, that had a son that was studying to be either a lawyer or to and then they needed help with just, the parents just needed help with cooking and cleaning for that for that son. So she was sent to Okap, which is the city of that area and and, to live with this family, to help this family out.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:06:02]:
- And I just wanna stress the point that she was
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:06:06]:
- So she was 5 years old Yes. When she became? Yes. Do you want to name the name of the families?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:06:14]:
- No. No. I don’t want to name the name of the family speak, one, because I don’t know it. I know a relative of the family, and I know him personally, and I and I told him that, you know, that my mom was a in one of his relatives home. But he’s now a millionaire. But he knew my mom very well. And, but, no, I I don’t think I hold anything against that family. But I I don’t know the name of the family.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:06:43]:
- I just know a relative of that family.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:06:45]:
- So that relative, when you said that to him, how what was his reaction?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:06:50]:
- He was just, wow. You know? He didn’t know because he would’ve he’s younger than my mom, So he would’ve he probably wasn’t born yet. Okay. Yeah. So he wouldn’t Okay. He wouldn’t have known.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:07:01]:
- So your mom’s 5 years old. So what does she tell you about going there as a 5 year? Does she remember any of that, or she remembers, you know, later experiences? Walk us through that that once she got there, did she discuss that with you, what that experience was like?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:07:18]:
- Yes.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:07:18]:
- What she remembers the most?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:07:20]:
- She she what she discussed with me was that she had to wash dishes, and she had to wake up early and wash dishes and clean. There was someone else there to cook, but once she got a little older, she learned how to cook. And I think, you know, when memories there are Patches of memories that stay with you. So the one thing that she really stressed on is that when she was, like, 10 years old, The son came home, and he loved, he loved the way, my mom cooked, and he really appreciated my mom. He was stressing that his mother Send my mom to school, and take care of my mom. And, and and by the time she was 11, the mother, She’s in her in her language, she’s saying the mother was, you know, that the son was paying attention to to her, And she was kicked out of the out of the home. And, she was on the streets in, selling things and washing and and doing things on the streets, during that time after that point.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:08:28]:
- Oh, so so so she was about 10 or 11 years old. So she was in the stomach for about 5 years? Yeah. Okay. What else does she remember about about that whole was it a positive experience for her, or how did she at that time, not later on as she looked back. But
- Guilaine Brutus [00:08:48]:
- no. She she never spoke of it as a positive experience, but my mom had this, personality where she didn’t, attach pain to, you know, to the experience. She just saw it as an experience. And, this is what I had to go through. This is why I’m here now. That’s the way she spoke. You know? Mhmm. This is what led me to To this point now.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:09:14]:
- So when she looks back at her life, she usually tells the story as as if this is what brought me to you here. So she never really, stuck on the painful aspect of her life. She just told it like someone just telling a story, of an experience. So it was difficult to see when something was hurting her and when something was painful to her because she never let it on. She just saw it as an experience.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:09:41]:
- Mhmm, but not one that’s necessarily she looks upon fondly? Yeah. Okay. So so they so the mother of that family kicked her out because she was too friendly with the son.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:09:58]:
- I think it’s because the son wanted her to invest in my mom. The son wanted her to send my mom to School. So since yeah. Since she moved in, she never had an education. She was never, allowed an education, and she never had Time to, you know, to to be a kid. So she was just working, and, and and the son came. He had an education, And he probably, you know, saw the need for her to have 1 as well Mhmm. For how young she was.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:10:30]:
- And and and he stressed it. And and mom
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:10:37]:
- mom Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:10:38]:
- Yeah. On IT. So she was a little brown skinned, so I guess that played on the fact that he, you know, he liked her, and he thought she deserves something good and kinda goes into our psyche With, who deserves and who doesn’t.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:10:51]:
- You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:10:54]:
- Totally a a total, different story to to kinda debate on When we look at the political structure and the social structure of Haiti and and who benefits and who doesn’t, so that’s a whole another story. But I think he just wanted her to benefit, from an education because he thought she deserved it.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:11:20]:
- Mhmm. So your mom gets kicked out. So now she becomes, basically, a,
- Guilaine Brutus [00:11:26]:
- right Yeah.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:11:27]:
- In in the market. So where where is this? Is this in?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:11:32]:
- Yeah. This is in. It’s it’s she she remembers it was near the. So. Mhmm. And back then, the boats used to come in. And, so the boats used to come in from the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos. Right? Mhmm.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:11:47]:
- So because the the proximity to the Turks and Caicos, is in in Olapapa is very close. It’s, like, 35 minutes by by plane. Mhmm. So the boats used to come in from the Turks and Caicos because back then, the Turks and Caicos really wasn’t any it it There’s no development. No phones, no routes?
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:12:05]:
- Yes. Yes.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:12:05]:
- Mhmm. So they came in with the boats. They came in with fish, lobster, conch, And then they traded for clothes items and other items. And and one of the stories she remembers is that, the mayor of Volcap, Used to arrest some of the persons from the boats and turks because they didn’t have shirts on their backs or shoes on their feet. Mhmm. You know? And so What her story is that she’s sitting on the on the boulevard, and this gentleman from the boat comes and and Says, where are your parents? You look like you could have been my daughter. You
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:12:41]:
- know? Mhmm.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:12:42]:
- And and, and he Said, where are your parents? She didn’t have any. So he took her. You know, she was about, 13, around that age, 13, 14, And he took her on the boat to the Turks and Caicos.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:12:57]:
- Oh, permanently or just Permanently.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:13:00]:
- Yeah.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:13:00]:
- Oh, so what year are we talking here when she’s 10? What what
- Guilaine Brutus [00:13:05]:
- year? Well, she was born probably in the in the 19 Fifties. Right? Mhmm. So we would say late fifties, early
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:13:14]:
- sixties. Yeah. Around So during Duvalier?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:13:17]:
- Yeah. It it’s it’s Papa Dock. Yeah.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:13:19]:
- Okay. Papa Doc.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:13:20]:
- Okay. During Papa Doc.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:13:22]:
- Okay. So she goes to, Turks and Caicos. What happened to her life there?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:13:28]:
- Well, it it it’s it the strange thing is it just becomes the same story. So she works for this family that that took her in. They gave her a new name, Cecilia. You know?
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:13:41]:
- Haitian family? Or
- Guilaine Brutus [00:13:42]:
- No. It it was a Turks Island family. So
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:13:45]:
- Okay.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:13:45]:
- Okay. Yeah. So a Turks Island family. And they gave her a new name, which is Cecilia. And she she worked for them the same way. So she weeds Weed the yard, plant potatoes, wash, cook, take when the boats came in. She said it was her and a son That they had a grandson that they had used to carry the boats, the lift the rice the bags of rice and flour off the boats and bring them in because the lady had a shop, and, the only shop in the area, so she had to do all of that. So she was back into the same, You know, the same kind of routine that she was in Haiti.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:14:26]:
- So she never they never sent her to school. They never gave her an education, and she just lived there and, and, took care of the house and and, yeah. She she didn’t she wasn’t earning any money either. So she just lived there and did the same things that she used to do, up until she was around 18, I think, that she used to do in in in Haiti.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:14:54]:
- Mhmm, and then what happened? How did she end up leaving Turks and Caicos?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:14:59]:
- Well, the strange thing is, This is something that she told me only, like, months before she passed away. You know? Not even months before she passed away. The same month that before she got really sick. So I went to the Turks and Caicos on vacation, and, I stayed with her and started talking. And I think she kind of felt it was close, so she kinda revealed a lot of things that she’s never told me before. So she said that she has an older I have an older sister, and she said there was, like, a hurricane In the Turks and Caicos Islands. And, and the family had left. They had traveled by boat.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:15:43]:
- I can’t remember where. It might have been the Bahamas. So they’ve traveled, and they left her and another adopted son from Haiti, from in the house, and he was a little older. She was about, 18, and he kept Pastoring her. You know? He wanted to sleep with her, so he kept pastoring her. And, she had to hide in the chicken coop, You know, pool outside, in the hurricane, and and, you know, and he caught her, and and he raped her. You know? And and they grew up like sisters and brothers, so they had the same surname of the same adoptive family. And that was the the father of my sister.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:16:29]:
- And she she said that when the family came back And they found out. They deported her. They sent her back to Haiti. And they kicked the the sun out. So, they kicked the son out, the the other adopted, boy from Haiti. They kicked him out, And they deported her back to Haiti. So she spent the next 5 years in Haiti. That’s how she had my my my elder sister And my my brother that came after her and then myself.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:17:03]:
- So, you know, all 3 of us were were in Haiti. And then, when I was around 2 years old, she was called back. So someone that knew her in the Turks came, And that’s when the flights were coming in, like, the 5 5 seater planes Mhmm. Flying in. And, she she just, invited my mom back. And my mom came back, and she came back with me and left, And the other 2, and then my sister came. So, yeah, that’s the story how she she ended up leaving. So she only She only devolved this information to me, like, the same month before she died, because she I think there are things that she just hid, you know, and and it was very painful because, for most of, my sister’s adult life, she she really She hated my mom.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:17:56]:
- She disliked my mom because she thought my mom gave her away. Because when she when she came to the church, she was about 5, And she went to live with, her father. So her father had remarried with the Turks and. She lived with him. So she was mistreated in that household, and went through the same, cleaning, and she used So sickly, while her sisters and brothers were going off to primary school, she had to clean the yard before she finished, and she always walked late. And I
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:18:30]:
- think So so let me get this here. Sorry. So the the rapist father took her? Yes. And then turn her into Auguste Dravet?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:18:41]:
- Well, semi because
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:18:42]:
- she Oh, semi.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:18:43]:
- Yeah. She wasn’t she wasn’t really, she was just a kid in the house, but I think because he was married to another woman, the woman mistreated her and made her do everything. Mhmm. Yeah. So she blamed it on my mom for for, for giving her up. So that that relationship has always been, unstable until the day my mom died. But yeah. So so that’s how she came back.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:19:09]:
- So she went you know, she came back. She went to the same family. I was there. I was growing up in the same household. Although my mom worked then, she started washing clothes for people. So she would come home with her fingers all swollen. You know when you leave your hand in water so long?
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:19:27]:
- Yeah. Yeah.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:19:29]:
- So she came back with hands all shriveled up and bleeding because she would wash clothes for, like, 5 different families in one day. Well and she would have, you know, saved her money, but she would come home and show me her hands, and it would be bleeding. And I kind of, As a kid growing up in that same household that my mom grew up in, I kind of experienced some of the things that she, you know, she experienced personally Because but I was more rebellious because I grew up with kids that are my age, and and I I didn’t want To do anything that they wouldn’t do. Mhmm. So I was more rebellious. So when the the the older lady would say, Oh, go in the yard and and weed weed the the weeds, from the potatoes. Or and if it’s raining, she would say things like, Haitians aren’t Afraid of the rain. They walk in the rain.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:20:20]:
- And and, you know, Haitians don’t bleed red. They bleed blue. You know? So all these things that that you you kind of, Strips away from your humanity, strips away your identity. I actually experienced it, for the better part of my early life In the same household that my mom lived in, when she was growing up. So but I was more rebellious. So I would say if so and so is not gonna go and do it, I’m not gonna You know? Mhmm. Mhmm. So I was more rebellious on on that, on that front.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:20:59]:
- So, is your sister aware of how she the act that caused her to be in this world. Is she aware of it now?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:21:11]:
- I’ve I’ve I’ve told her, but, but I don’t know if she’s actually internalized it. And and my sister has the same characteristic as my mom. So they keep they keep their pain all bottled up. Mhmm. You know? And, and she doesn’t really speak to people confide in people. Oh, so she’s just she has the same characteristic as her mom, so they leave their penal bottle up. But I did mention it to her in in in an effort to explain why, you know, why things happen the way they did. But I don’t I’m not sure if she she kind of, accepted Because the relationship you know, the the the kind of family ties are always strained in that area, where, You know, I think she felt that I got the better end of the stick.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:22:00]:
- You know?
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:22:02]:
- Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Are you are you gonna send this episode to her?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:22:12]:
- Yeah. I I I guess I can. I can. And, Yeah. I can. And because these are some of the things that I’ve been trying to see if I could put down in a book. And and sometimes it’s really good to get it off your chest anyway. But
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:22:27]:
- there’s What would you like to say to her?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:22:30]:
- Well, I would like to say that what I learned myself from from trying to get over my pain and my trauma, I would say that Your parents only give you what they are equipped to give you, what they’re capable to give you. So because sometimes we get upset with our parents and say that, you should have done that. You didn’t love me. You didn’t do this. You know? I mean, I remember kids we’re Haitian. You say that, oh, well, my parents never hugged me or kissed me. And then it’s it’s culturally. You know? But they do it in other they show you they care in other ways.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:23:08]:
- Mhmm. And and it’s a matter of understanding where that individual is coming from And the trauma that they’re bringing on and trying to understand that to see what is it that they’re capable of giving you and what they gave you, you know, What that means to them, and that’s all they had to give. That’s all they were able to give because what they did, they thought was the best to do. Yeah, so understanding that, I think, is important. People can only give you what they think, you know, from their education, their lived experience, what they think is best. Mhmm. And it might not be what you feel, is best.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:23:48]:
- Mhmm, you, you know, the the term stiff upper lip is always associated with the British. I think Haitian mothers especially. Yeah. You know, they they corner that market on that, don’t they? They
- Guilaine Brutus [00:24:01]:
- Yeah. Yeah. No. Nonapologetic. Yep. No matter what,
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:24:08]:
- they they they they move they carry on. You know? Yeah, that that’s in some instances, it’s it’s it’s, it’s commendable, but in other instances, it’s not, is it?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:24:20]:
- No. It isn’t. Because my mom actually apologized to me, for a lot of you know, that’s that’s a totally different story, but a lot of things that happened to me in my Talented. But she apologized to me when I moved to the UK before she died, and she she missed me. You know? And this is the first time in my life because I had a lot of negative push, Throughout my life from my mom. So negative pushes. For my mine was I my my mom you know? Mhmm. So that became my negative of my life to You know? Mhmm.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:25:04]:
- So and when she called me as an adult in my forties, and She said, I miss you, and I love you. I’m sorry for the things that happened. It kind of I felt lost. Mhmm. So what am I gonna do now? The person that I was trying to prove myself to is now saying they’re sorry.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:25:25]:
- Mhmm.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:25:26]:
- So I lost all you know, I was finishing my master’s degree. I I literally had to, Try my best to finish my degree because I didn’t know what I was doing the degree for
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:25:38]:
- anymore. Because because that apology deflated the anger Well, it took away the
- Guilaine Brutus [00:25:43]:
- anger? No. Because the apology kind of, released me from that negative push.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:25:49]:
- But it was that negative push that was pushing you to succeed?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:25:53]:
- Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. So you gotta look at what’s What pushes you. So either if if it’s negative or is it if it’s something that you own that is positively yours or if it’s something external that Something negative someone said that you’re trying to prove something to someone else instead of trying to live your life. Mhmm.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:26:13]:
- So when she said that, I I realized that I wasn’t doing anything for
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:26:18]:
- me. Mhmm.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:26:19]:
- Yeah. So it kind of I was lost that whole year trying to, You know, trying to rebuild myself. So trying to, I’m trying to understand, you know, that part of Haitian The citation mothers.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:26:33]:
- Mhmm.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:26:34]:
- I I think we’re better equipped, these these last, several generations To be able to decipher these cultural, you know, these cultural things, that are typically, you know, Haitian, and and try to reduce the the trauma and the and the hurt that it causes. Mhmm. You know?
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:26:54]:
- The does the term problematic for you when it’s applied to to to to women like your mom who was who were sort of the backbone, right, the central figure in the family. Do you do you find that term problematic?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:27:15]:
- I I find it problematic. I find it problematic because it’s a lie. It’s a lie in the fact that, yes, they do everything, but there’s no support for them in doing everything. They are not everything. Right? So in a sense that my mom was the photo meter of her family. So she was uneducated. She came to the new world, you know, to to the crew to the Turks and Caicos. She build, the houses she have rent.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:27:39]:
- She’s the reason why every single individual from our family who lives outside of Haiti is outside of Haiti. Right? She would sacrifice if she had $100, she would send 80 to to her family. She sacrificed everything to build you know, to help them. And at the end, she died alone around selfish people that were trying to get what she she built. Mhmm. Right? So if you’re the but you don’t have a support structure, so the the society itself does not respect women, in in in the sense of women’s contribution? Even if you you’re a reader of history, how many books Are there that specifically praise some of the women that has done the amazing things in nation history. Yeah. You look at the lady that that pushed For for women’s rights and women’s rights to vote, how do value her? Her name isn’t even spoken as much As, you know, as as estimate other people.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:28:37]:
- So the society itself doesn’t praise the people that they say is the. It kinda like it’s just something You tell somebody so they can feel good and continue to do what they’re doing.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:28:48]:
- Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah. Wow. What what what were the role of other men in your mom’s life, and how did that impact you?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:29:01]:
- Oh, that’s a whole new story. That’s another story, and that’s, well, she was married when I was really young. And, that marriage and, traumatic impact it had on me and my family in general and my brother, who is now an alcoholic because of because of that, that situation. I think that’s so that’s so sensitive at the moment. Yes. And and it’s part and parcel of what caused her death that I am emotionally not ready to dabble into it.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:29:34]:
- Okay. I understand. I understand. Yeah. I’ll leave that out. Anything else you wanna tell me that, takeaway about your mom that, we all should know?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:29:44]:
- I I want people to to to, to know that she was, you know, she was a strong person. And this this, although One of the most brilliant things about Haitian culture and Haitian people is the need for, their kids to be educated. So it’s it you they just they don’t care what it is. You see people manifesting on the street Just so their kid can catch the bus and go to school. It’s not a matter of what school what the school has, what the school is teaching. It’s the idea that You are giving your child something that you didn’t have, and I think that’s the most brilliant thing that I can take from From my mom is giving something to someone that she didn’t have and and and valuing that thing. And that’s the the the entire Haitian society and the whole, or women in Haitian society. It’s it the the most important thing to a Haitian family is education.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:30:44]:
- Regardless of where they are, that’s the most important thing, to to a Haitian parent is educating their their child. And We need to recognize that even if someone is was a, there are so many levels, a multilayer of education that we need to look at is education is not just academic. There’s, you know, there’s some education is multilayered, and we need to all those layers. Mhmm. And, although my mom wasn’t academically educated, she was educated. Mhmm. She was moral. She was you know, She had values.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:31:20]:
- She, you know, she she spoke. She learned and spoke French. You know? So so I think we need to Back, people as individuals and as individual journeys.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:31:33]:
- Mhmm. Their lived experiences. Right? This is valid as yes. Okay. Well, what are you doing in the community? Free plug for you, Gillette. What do you what what do you what do you do? What’s coming up for you, and, what kind of organization are you a part of you want the world to know?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:31:54]:
- Well, we’ve just, started the Haitian heritage group, which we will you know, we’ll soon rebrand. But the Haitian heritage group, was created so that we in the diaspora in the UK can have a a more prominent, position in everything that is Haitian and and better able to clarify the misconceptions around our culture, our religion, And everything else. And and somehow come together collectively the way we help to to change the way others help, Haiti, To find better ways, moving forward. We have a few events. Yearly this year, we’re gonna have the first ever, that we’re inviting Riva, Nira to Neri to, and Ted Boboye, who is the son of, bookman experience. So this this event is is about spirituality, and we’re trying to show how, Vodou, it the spiritual, religion of Haiti is so connected with with and with everyone. It is it is something that is rooted in in nature. It’s rooted in energy.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:33:10]:
- It’s rooted in respect for, for everything around you in respect for those who came before you and seeking guidance from those. So I am not a practitioner, But I love the idea that, that it it believes in something real. So when you sit down, Japanese, Korean, they all have these altars that they create for the grandparents and the you know? And they go back every anniversary, and they speak to them, and they talk to them. And this is the same thing that’s in the voodoo religion. So the misconception that we need to clarify is that it is just a connection with those who came before, And I love the fact that it’s real. It’s not in an imaginary something. You’re speaking to your grandmother, your sister, your auntie That has passed away, and you’re keeping that line of communication there. Because in Vodou, they believe that those spirits are always around us, always protecting us, always guiding us.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:34:06]:
- It’s just a matter of us tapping in and listening to it. So
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:34:10]:
- yes. Is there a website that people can go to?
- Guilaine Brutus [00:34:13]:
- Yes. There is a website, and it’s, It’s, Eritaj, Aitaytai, .com.ayiti, sorry, .com. So Elitaj in Creole, Elitaj I e t dot com. You can go to that website and see, and we’re also on Instagram, FedgeDay UK on Instagram. If you wanna follow us, we kinda keep up with a lot of the information on that. If you go to the website, there’s a this, a blog about the events. There’s a lot of of events we’ve had in the past. The community in the UK is small, but we work closely with French Caribbean community, here as well because we have shared heritage, and a lot of the African communities as well because We have shared heritage and respect that shared
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:35:08]:
- heritage. Alright. Thank you for being on the show, Yolanda.
- Guilaine Brutus [00:35:11]:
- Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me.
- Patrick Jean-Baptiste [00:35:47]:
- Oh, yeah.
Key Topics & Bullet Points
- Haitian culture, lived experiences, Guilen, taboo subject, Ristabek, mother’s experience, siblings’ lives, family, Andeo, survival, schools, city, cooking, cleaning, Turks and Caicos, older sister, evacuation, hurricane, boat, Turks, resentment, sacrifices, respect for women, history, suffrage, altars, Japanese religion, Korean religion, Voodoo religion, spirits, pain, trauma.
Clip Finder, Quotes, Hooks, Timestamps from the Episode
10 Questions to Consider from the Restavek Episode
- How does the experience of being a restavek shape a person’s life and their relationship with their family?
- What are some possible reasons why the speaker’s mother chose to leave two of her children behind when she returned to the Turks and Caicos Islands?
- How does the theme of sacrifice play a role in the speaker’s mother’s life and the choices she made for her family?
- In what ways do cultural differences impact the expression of love and affection within families?
- How does the speaker challenge societal norms and expectations surrounding women’s contributions and recognition in society?
- What role do ancestral traditions and practices, such as creating altars, play in Haitian culture and the speaker’s personal experiences?
- How does trauma, pain, and unspoken experiences impact the speaker’s relationship with the person they are communicating with?
- How do cultural traumas, like the restavek system, continue to affect Haitian communities and individuals today?
- How does education play a role in Haitian society, particularly in the context of the speaker’s mother’s determination to provide opportunities for her children?
- In what ways do personal experiences of pain and trauma shape an individual’s perspective on life and their ability to overcome adversity?
