A majority of this poem is devoted to claiming historical difference of various degrees.This eventually culminates with the speaker’s exasperation at Haiti’s current plight. What he
sees as foreign hypocrisy prompts him to state with sarcasm “Oubliez l’histoire.” The long list
of details in the poems creates a binary opposition in which Haiti represents justice and foreign
powers represent greed. Coicou concludes this part of the poem with the retort “Voilà notre
bilan. Faites-nous voir le vôtre.” The poem’s final verses are marked by a moralizing tone which
again asserts not only Haitian difference but superiority, warning the foreigner that History does
not forget, and that History will rightly judge the legacies of all nations. The tone is often
provocative and hyperbolic, swinging the pendulum from collective shame to collective pride
and touting patriotism over pessimism. In the final diatribe, it is again apparent that the larger
view of History will ultimately set right many wrongs and that a divine retribution will
eventually come to pass:
Oui, tonnez; oubliez que l’Histoire n’a pas
A redouter sans cesse –ainsi qu’un jeune peuple –
La démence des Batchs, la rage qui dépeuple
Les cités, la terreur dédaignant la raison
Du droit en se faisant cracher quelque rançon ; [...] (81-85)
Jusqu’au jour ou, vengeant les faibles de vos coups,
La colère du ciel aura passé sur vous. (88-89)Batch was the name of a German naval officer who, in 1872 demanded Haitian paymentof 3000 sterling under threat of gun-boat violence. The incident ended not only with Haiti
making this payment but also with the outrageous insult of the Haitian flag being soiled in
excrement. The German threat is not mentioned until the end of this poem. It is not clear,
therefore, if the German threat was the inspiration for much of the poem, or if it is mentioned
here as a mere example of the multiple forces at work against Haiti at this time. As explained
earlier, the German and American presences in the Caribbean were directly related to the