Poetry of Revolution: Romanticism and National Projects

undercurrent throughout his collection is the inseparable “Dieu, ma Patrie, et ma Race!”/Trois

cultes éternels que j’aime plus que moi” (“Devant une tombe,” 1-2). The long epic-like poem

“Vertières” about the decisive 1803 Haitian battle also posits the victory of this “armée indigène”

as one of epic proportions which inaugurated a new era for “la race noire.” In Coicou’s poetry,

defense of the black race is not a consequence of the Revolution but was the impetus, an

ingrained motivation on the part of military leaders which precipitated their actions. This

becomes the mission of military leaders like the Haitian general Capois: “Il veut, dans ces héros,

couronner des vainqueurs;/ Voir sur les noirs martyrs, la race noire libre!” (“Vertiéres,” 83-84).

The same is true even when leaders like Pétion have traditionally been considered mulatto

figures.

4.4 RACE, NATION, AND COICOU’S “GÉNIE AFRICAIN”

The elision of black/mulatto conflict is most apparent in a poem in which “black” is part

of the very title: “Le supplice du noir.” It begins as if the poet is standing near the very place

where two men, considered rebels in colonial Saint-Domingue, were executed under local

colonial rule prior to Haiti’s revolution:

Or, ce n’était pas loin de cette place d’armes

Ou, sur les nègres vils n’ayant plus sang ni larmes,

Le colon excellait à se montrer cruel :

Où l’on fit rompre vifs, la face vers le ciel,

Chavanne, Ogé, ces deux vaillants dont l’équipée [sic]

Sublime préluda la sublime épopée :

Ce n’en fut pas bien loin qu’un crime sombre eut lieu,

Consommé par des blancs, sur un nègre....sous Dieu! (1-8)