Aristide lectures on slavery

2005-01-28 15:09

Pretoria - Almost a year after fleeing his country, Jean Bertrand Aristide took up his post at a South African university, delivering a first lecture on African values and the trauma of slavery, "Africa's first tsumani".

The 51-year-old former president of Haiti was named three months ago as honorary research fellow at the University of South Africa in Pretoria, which has lauded his knowledge of several languages and his degrees in psychology, theology and philosophy.

Before a small group of students and academics, Aristide this week offered his insights on the "psychology of Ubuntu", a term used in many African languages to mean "humanity to others".

Aristide invited his audience to ponder the state of "Ubuntu" during what he termed "the first African tsunami": "From 1451 to 1870, hundreds of thousands of African bodies disappeared in the seas."

"Last month we witnessed the sea rushing towards the Asian people. But in 1471, it was the opposite: the Africans rushed towards the sea and jumped in, preferring death to slavery," he said.

"Despite the psychological consequences of the first African tsunami, despite the traumas suffered by victims of colonisation and the continuing suffering caused by neo-colonialism, the spirit of Ubundu is still alive," he declared.

"Ubuntu is at the root of African civilisation and offers a way towards a civilisation of peace," said Aristide, dressed in a dark suit with red tie.

Since his arrival in South Africa in May, Aristide has maintained a low profile, meeting once with Nelson Mandela and also winning support from President Thabo Mbeki for a new African Union initiative to try to restore stability to the Caribbean nation.

The former Roman Catholic priest fled Haiti on February 29 last year amid a rebellion and pressure from the United States and France.

Would like to help Haiti

After brief stays in Central African Republic and later Jamaica, Aristide finally settled in South Africa, which has called for an international probe into his claims that he was pushed out of office.

But opposition politicians in South Africa have called Aristide's democratic credentials into doubt and question whether the government should be treating him as a guest of the state.

As Aristide opened the floor to questions following his lecture, one member of the audience asked: "Some of your critics accuse you of failing the spirit of Ubuntu. Are there things that you would have done differently?"

The former president asserted that he was ready to do his part to help Haiti and that, "moved by the spirit of Ubuntu", he would engage in dialogue with his opponents.

Aristide swept to power in Haiti in 1990, only to be overthrown in a coup eight months later. With backing from the United States, he returned to power in 1994 but fell from grace amid claims of vote-rigging in the 2000 elections and political violence.

His flight on February 29 capped a weeks-long popular revolt over his increasingly totalitarian methods and failure to make a dent in the calamitous economic problems facing Haiti's eight million people.

- AFP