Coicou’s time, it is a warning to the elites who exploit the general population and who will stay
in power given any means as well as to any well-meaning Haitian politicians: seeking protection
or ‘gifts’ from foreign sources ultimately results in unending involvement and aggression from
foreign powers. In this blunt and exclamatory style, the real intentions of the aggressors become
apparent. The poem begins with these three stanzas:
Les voilà, tenaillés par leurs désirs tenaces!
Ils parlent de venir nous outrager encore,
De nous faire céder quand même à leurs menaces
Et de nous dépouiller, bientôt, de tout notre or!Ils rêvent, ces puissants, de faire table rase
De nos droits, d’imposer, - à l’aide du canon, -
Leur seule volonté de garder la Navase,
Et de tenter bien pis si nous leur disons : Non!Ils s’avisent, enfin, d’avoir : les uns, Le Môle ;
Les autres, la Tortue ; et les autres enfin...
Que sais-je ?...oubliant, tous, que la haine s’immole,
Que l’union renaît quand le danger survient! (1-12)Coicou’s poetry reveals that for nineteenth-century Haiti, the sources of these threatsoften seemed relentlessly unending as Haiti moved into the twentieth century. The geographical
references mentioned here are important ones during this time, as their small but strategically
locales were symbolic of wide and diverse imperialist ambitions. Navasa Island in the Caribbean
Sea had originally been claimed by Haiti, but the United States claimed it in 1857 for its guano
deposits used to make an agricultural fertilizer. Coicou’s frequent use of the word “or” likely
stands for the mineral depletion from Haitian territories. Until 1898, active mining of guano and
other minerals took place despite Haitian protests. To this day, Navasa Island is still claimed by
Haiti and represents one of about a dozen international territorial disputes involving the United
States. Largely uninhabited now as then and visited by transient Haitian fishermen, the island is