discrepancy between rhetoric and reality, and the hypocrisy in proclaiming liberty while
displaying such hostility to its Caribbean neighbor. For the sake of Coicou’s message, it proves
to be a more powerful argument to state that Americans have forgotten aspects of their own
history, and that they have contradicted not Haitian values but their own:
Quand vous nous menacez, oubliant que nous sommes,
Nous aussi, fils de tels héros! [...][...] Vous vous montrez lâches et fous,
Nous en appelons moins à nos aïeux qu’aux vôtres
Des attentats commis par vous... (51-52, 62-64)Given the fact that these are French-language texts and that there was little reception ofCoicou’s poetry by American leaders, it is unlikely, of course, that Americans were really the
intended audience of this poem. Rather, Coicou employs the strategy of addressing Americans
to communicate a message to members of the Haitian elite, a reminder of sorts not to be lured by
American glamour, interests, and capital, and to be mindful of the impure motives which may
underlie American foreign policy, economic practices, and cultural values. The fact that he
addresses many of his poems to Haitian senators and other leaders indicates that Haitians needed
to be reminded that they too may befall the same fate as the Americans in departing from the
country’s original, founding ideals. Haiti is at risk for the same hypocrisy. As a fully modern
and typically postcolonial nation, Haiti is already replete not only with international interference
and economic dependence but also with class divisions, internal racism, and corruption in
leadership.
It is also important to keep in mind the debates that were occurring among Haitianintellectuals concerning the cultural war between Anglo-Saxon industrialism and materialism
and the artistic sensibilities of Latin refinement. Some Haitians, like political thinker Edmond
Paul, one of Coicou’s contemporaries, had argued that Haiti didn’t need more poets but more