JACQUES ROUMAIN

In 1944, Jacques Roumain, one of Haiti's most respected and complex writers, died at a much too young age of thirty seven. However, his writings continue to influence and reshape the Haitian culture and the pan-African world of today. Although hardly known in the English-speaking world, Roumain is well known in Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. The great African-American poet, Langston Hughes, translated some of Roumain's greatest works, including Gouverneurs de la Rosee (Masters of the Dew).

Although his life was arguably short, Roumain managed to touch many aspects of Haitian life and culture. His life began on June 4, 1907. Born to wealthy parents, he was educated in Catholic schools in Port-au-Prince, and later, in Belgium, Switzerland, France, Germany, and Spain. At twenty years old, he returned to Haiti and formed La Revue Indigene: Les Arts et La Vie (The Indigenous Review: Arts and Life), along with Philippe Thoby-Marcelin, Carl Brouard, and Antonio Vieux. Because of some of his political activities, his participation in the resistance movement against the United States occupation of Haiti, and most notably, his creation of The Haitian Communist Party, he was often arrested and finally exiled by then President Stenio Vincent.

During his years in exile, Roumain worked with and befriended many prominent pan-African writers and poets of the time, including Langston Hughes. With a change in government in Haiti, Roumain was allowed to return to his native country. In 1943, President Elie Lescot appointed him charge daffaires in Mexico, where his newly found creative freedom permitted him to complete two of his most influential books, the poetry collection Bois Debene (Ebony Wood) and the novel Gouverneurs de la Rosee (Masters of the Dew). Although he lived only thirty-seven years, Roumain created some of the most colorful, dynamic, and moving poetry of his generation.

Much of Roumain's work expresses the frustration and rage of people who have been downtrodden for centuries. He included the mass of the people in his writing and called on the poor to unite against privation. By the time of his death on August 18, 1944, Jacques Roumain had become an acclaimed writer in the Caribbean, Latin America, and Europe. His great novel Gouverneurs de la Rosee has achieved a permanent place among great Caribbean and Latin American literature. A novel that is still studied at universities, read by new generations, and acted out by theatrical groups.