Syrians, The

Bibliography

  • Trouillot, M.-R. (1990). Haiti, state against nation: the origins and legacy of Duvalierism. Monthly Review Press.
  • Plummer, B. G. (1981). Race, Nationality, and Trade in the Caribbean: The Syrians in Haiti, 1903-1934. The International History Review, 3(4), 517–539. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40105175
  • Turnier, A. (1955). Les États-Unis et le Marché Haïtien.
  • Manigat, L. (1957). La substitution de la prépondérance américaine à la prépondérance française en Haïti au début du XXe siècle : la conjoncture de 1910-1911. In Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine.
  • Kayal, P. (1975). The Syrian-Lebanese in America;: A study in religion and assimilation.

Funny not funny

  • One point of fact I wanted to share–more like a corrective.  It annoys me to hear Haitians talk about “The Syrians” in Haiti, even lumping all people of Middle Eastern origin under the Syrian rubric.  A lot of you do that. Please stop.
  • Most of the first “Syrians” who landed in Haiti around the early 1900s were not true Syrians but Lebanese Christians from the Ottoman Empire, refugees really escaping religious persecution and poverty. 
  • On a personal note: My late uncle Tonton Popo married a “Syrian” lady.  She was nuts.  Really nice lady. But she talked nonstop, even after you walked away.  I suspect she drove Tonton Toma to the bottle, so alcohol became a way to numb his senses, an escape from her non-stop rambling  He might’ve preferred death over waking up every freaking day to hear her prattle on incessantly.

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