Chapman gets a taste of Haiti at cultural club event
Graphic by Easton Clark, Photo Editor
Performing on the Argyros Forum Student Union Stage, first-year psychology major Imani Nesbeth takes to the mic to sing “Olé” by Haitian American artist Sarina.
“I’ve been singing ever since I was a little girl,” Nesbeth said. “My mom always told me I was talented and should use my voice, so I did.”
Nesbeth is a member of Chapman’s Black Global Diaspora Alliance (BGD), a club dedicated to uplifting, celebrating and educating about diverse Black cultures from around the globe.
On Oct. 17, BGD highlighted Haiti, a Latin American country located on the island of Hispaniola, through its “Taste of Haiti” event. The event featured Haitian food, performances and guest speakers who educated attendees about the country’s history, culture and global impact. Attendance included a mix of Chapman students, staff and faculty.
Toks Opeifa is a senior writing for film and television major, and the club’s president and founder. With BGD, she aims to foster connection among different cultures within the Black Global Diaspora.
“It extends from Africa to the Americas to the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America. We’re everywhere, we're Black and we're proud, that's what the Black diaspora is,” said Opeifa, who is Nigerian American. “It is all our cultures connecting and intertwining, ‘cause we're all connected, we all come from Africa, but we're separated due to colonization.”
“Taste of Haiti” attendees had the chance to try three dishes, which were served in courses.
First: Haitian patties, a flaky pastry filled with either seasoned ground beef or spinach and cheese for a vegetarian option.
Next up: diri djon djon (black mushroom rice) and poul (chicken in a flavorful sauce) served with pikliz (a spicy relish made with carrots, peppers, pickled cabbage and vinegar).
Lastly: Haitian macaroni au gratin, a version of mac and cheese imbued with Haitian flavor.
Nesbeth enjoyed trying Haitian food for the first time.
“All of my family is from Jamaica, so it felt like I was getting a small taste of back home,” Nesbeth said.
The food was catered by Li Bon Cuisine, a business based in Tustin that specializes in homemade Haitian food. Served by married couple Rose Guerrier and David Hudson, the dishes reflect Haiti’s mixed cultural heritage.
“Each dish blends Haiti’s African, French and Caribbean influences — like our mac and cheese, inspired by French béchamel but seasoned with Haitian epis for that bold island flavor,” said Guerrier, whose family moved to the U.S. from Haiti in 1994.
During the event, Chapman professor Charissa Threat spoke about the history of Haiti and provided context for the various influences on Haitian culture.
According to Threat, Haiti was inhabited first by the indigenous Taíno peoples until the late 1400s, when it was colonized by Spain, who named the island Hispaniola. In the late 1600s, the Western third of the island came under French control, who called their colony Saint-Domingue.
The French imported enslaved Africans to produce raw goods, mainly sugar and coffee, which made Saint-Domingue France’s richest colony in the 1700s.
“This reminds us that Haiti today is a nation whose roots and culture are a blend of indigenous, Spanish, French and African,” said Threat, who is an associate professor of history.
Aside from Nesbeth’s singing, the event featured other performances and speakers, such as a reading by second-year law student Alannah Lockitt of an original piece called “SANKOFA, my love,” and various talks discussing both personal and historical insights on Haiti.
According to Opeifa, the event was meant to honor Haiti as the first free Black republic and the first independent nation in Latin America.
Threat offers a brief overview of the history of Haiti’s independence: in the wake of the French Revolution, Haiti’s inhabitants wanted those in the colony to have the same rights as people in France. In 1791, the colony’s enslaved population launched a resistance led by Toussaint Louverture and other key revolutionaries.
After Louverture’s arrest in 1802, the revolution persisted, led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines. In 1803, Dessalines issued a proclamation that declared Saint-Domingue free from colonial rule; and in 1804, Dessalines unveiled “The Act of Independence” publicly and pronounced Haiti a free and sovereign nation, replacing its colonial name “Saint-Domingue” with the reclaimed Taíno name “Haiti.”
According to Threat, Haiti also became the first country in the Americas to abolish slavery.
“Its independence forever altered the meaning and conception of liberty in the Atlantic World,” Threat said. “After all, here was a nation whose enslaved Africans successfully threw off their shackles, defeated a European power, established their own nation and swore to fight to defend their freedom and liberty to their last breath.”
Sandra Alvarez, an assistant professor of political science and director of the Latinx and Latin American Studies minor program at Chapman, noted that in the U.S., only property-owning white men were considered citizens, while in Haiti, all formerly enslaved men could be citizens, including those who had been enslaved in other countries.
“In other words, Haiti was the only state offering automatic freedom and citizenship to any Black or enslaved person who arrived on its shores,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez views Haiti’s declaration of independence as a “symbol of anti-imperialism and self-determination” that resonated with other colonies under European control, demonstrating that it was possible for colonized and enslaved peoples to overthrow European empires.
Haiti inspired and supported other revolutions in the Americas.
For example, Haiti supported Venezuelan revolutionary Simón Bolívar, offering him refuge when he was exiled in 1815 and providing him with aid such as weapons, soldiers and financial support.
But the tone of the event was not exclusively celebratory. Naomi McLeod, a sophomore theater performance major and the alliance’s service and social action chair, said that it was also important to shed light on the humanitarian crisis currently unfolding in Haiti — a talk McLeod gave right before the event’s closing.
McLeod noted that since the 2021 assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moïse, there has been an escalation in gang violence and political and economic instability, worsening an already precarious situation.
“It's all sort of been leading up to there, and this political instability is due to the fact that there have been so, so much theft and so many things taken from the Haitian community,” McLeod said.
McLeod explained that the French came to Haitian shores in 1825 with warships demanding that Haiti make a payment of a certain amount, called an “indemnity,” to France.
“So obviously, the leaders of Haiti were like, ‘We have no choice but to agree to this colonial power,’” McLeod said. “And it was a young nation. They were still getting their footing.”
This “indemnity” was ostensibly meant to make up for the property losses of French plantation owners from the Haitian Revolution.
Unable to pay the debt on its own, Haiti was also pushed to take out loans from France.
“And over the years, because of those loans, (to say) Haiti struggled economically is an understatement,” McLeod said. “And even though in 1947 Haiti paid off their debts to France, there was no recovering from the over a century of debt that France had put them in.”
McLeod also noted that there has been an influx of Haitian immigrants to the United States due to the conflicts occurring in their homeland.
“We're in an environment right now where there is such an attack on immigrants and people that come from foreign countries, and specifically Haitians have experienced a lot of racism and xenophobia that is honestly not talked about as much,” McLeod said.
According to McLeod, the current presidential administration terminated the temporary protected status of Haitian immigrants in the U.S., putting them at higher risk of deportation. This status protected Haitians from deportation on the grounds that it was unsafe for them to return to their home countries.
More recently, Haiti has also been affected by Hurricane Melissa, which has brought death and destruction to the island nation.
The event highlighted two organizations helping Haitians both in Haiti and in the United States, the Haitian Bridge Alliance and Faith in Action.
“Taste of Haiti” blended a celebration of culture and history with an increased awareness of social issues — a community gathering together over food paired with music and education.
“The event had such great energy,” Guerrier said. “And seeing everyone enjoy the food and connect with Haitian culture made us incredibly proud.”