One is likely when recalling the countless obstacles overcome by the pioneers of Haitian Methodism to think of Toussaint L’Ouverture’s iconic proverb, “To make an omelet one must first break the eggs.” Shells of tradition are as impervious as the twenty feet thick walls of Christophe’s “nest egg of liberty,” his citadel. One can appreciate what Evariste and Charles Pressoir, two youthful Wesleyan converts, must have encountered in efforts to shatter what to their minds was all-encompassing bigotry. They had volunteered in 1818 to succeed two retiring Wesleyan missionaries, John Brown and James Catts, whom President Boyer had advised to abandon their Haitian labors. The English church men had been invited to Port-au-Prince by Boyer’s predecessor, Petion, courageous in his design for religious tolerance and expansion. The Wesleyan missionaries had first preached in Port-au-Prince in Before departing for London two years later they were administering sacrament to a society of forty, had built a small school and were planning the erection of a church. But the passing that year of the President, Petion closed the immediate prospect of advancement. It has been believed by some that Petion’s liberal regard for Protestant and Catholic alike had bred in the older church the creedal animosity soon to break forth.
Open Source Archives
We strive to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration and the implementation of progressive and participatory research methods, with the goal of generating tangible, durable changes in the way research about Haiti is conceptualized, implemented and applied.
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Research Hub & Open Source Archives
EKO HAITI Research Hub is a research and knowledge mobilization platform focused on creative, collaborative and interdisciplinary research and associated research-based learning. We aim to become the intellectual “home” for research about Haiti by creating and providing open access to the largest crowdsourced research archive dedicated to Haiti, by fostering cross-disciplinary research and innovation, and by providing support for progressive research in the form of contextual expertise and training.
“The trees fall from time to time, but the voice of the forest never loses its power. Life begins.”
Jacques Alexis, Les Arbres Musiciens (Paris, 1957)
ORAL HISTORIES
Oral histories are a powerful tool in developing historical understanding
Oral history offers an alternative to conventional history, filling gaps in traditional research with personal accounts of historically significant events or simply life in a specific place and time. Oral histories do more than provide charming details to dry historical accounts. In fact, oral histories help others recapture lived experiences that are not written down in traditional sources.
> Transcripts archive
" Bwa pi wo di li wè lwen, men grenn pwomennen di li wè pi lwen pase l "
The tallest tree says that it sees far, but the seed that travels says that it sees even further.
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