me that his affiliations were more circumstantial than intentional, and that he was not directly
involved in political change. We do know, according to Pompilus, that the first time Durand was
imprisoned was briefly in 1883 for apparent opposition to the noiriste President Salomon.^232
From simple geographic position, this fact is not difficult to accept. Durand was from Cap
Haitian, a city in which Salomon had very weak support. According to historian David Nicholls,
violent opposition to Salomon’s regime was suppressed by his government in several large
Haitian cities in 1883, and eventually, Salomon was overthrown by a northern alliance of several
key politicians. Durand refers to one of these cities in his poem “Adieu à la ville de Jérémie,” a
poem in which lament over Jérémie’s civil strife could be seen as sympathetic to Salomon’s
opposition. Durand’s imprisonment was short-lived and followed by a dramatic turn-around in
events when politician Louis-Joseph Janvier intervened on Durand’s behalf to secure Durand a
post in Salomon’s government. Janvier was an important leader of the National Party and
supporter of noirisme in addition to being a prolific essay writer whose texts defend Haiti to the
outside world. In an article published in Haiti littéraire et sociale just after Durand’s death,
Janvier suggests that this perceived opposition to Salomon was indeed false. Durand went on to
serve as deputy of Cap Haitian and then presided over the Chambre des représantants in 1888,
both during Salomon’s regime. Salomon is the only president to whom Durand addresses a
poem, the “Sonnet au Président Salomon,” an elegy that appears to have been written at the time
of Salomon’s death.
Durand’s second stint in prison occurred on his return from France in 1888, whenPresident Légitime came to power after Salomon’s demise. It was likely Durand’s service in
Salomon’s government that triggered suspicion. Pompilus dates Durand’s poem “Chantez
(^232) Durand and Pompilus, Poésies choisies 15.