Restavec

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A restavec (or restavek; from the French reste avec, "one who stays with") is a child in Haiti sold into indentured servitude or slavery by their parents because the parents lack the resources required to support the child. As part of the arrangement, the child is expected to work for the host family. In some cases, the child is treated well. However, in other cases, the child is abused. The term restavek is sometimes used to refer to any child staying with a host family, but ususally refers specifically to those who are abused.

In Haiti, parents unable to care for their children often send them to live with relatively more affluent families. This is perceived as an acceptable practice because in Haitian culture, it is ubiquitous for housing to be shared among members of an extended family, including distant relatives. (In contrast, the concept of a single nuclear family occupying each household is seen as desirable in other cultures.) Therefore, in Haiti it is perceived as acceptable for parents to send children to the homes of distant relatives to live. Often these relatives are living in more urban areas. The children receive food and housing (and sometimes an education) in exchange for housework. However, many restavecs live in grinding poverty, enslaved to their "hosts," not receiving an education.[citation needed] Sometimes, the child is even raped.[citation needed] A restavec may be considered a type of slave.[citation needed][who?]

Jean-Robert Cadet vividly recounted his life as a Restavec in a book of the same name, published in 1998. According to him, a term for children staying with host families who are not abused by them is timoun ki rete kay moun (Kreyol for "child who stays in a person's house.")

Contents

[edit] History

Poverty, oppression and slavery have been connected with Haitian culture since Spain and France divided Hispaniola in 1697.[citation needed] In 1804, Haiti proclaimed itself the world’s first black republic.[citation needed] However, this did not eliminate the systems of oppression [1].[original research?] After they became free, they created a class system. There was the upper and lower class, the rich and the poor, and the light skinned and the dark skinned. The upper, rich, light-skinned Haitians controlled the government and the way life was to unfold [1]. The elite class made the poor families believe[dubious – discuss] that if they did not have enough money to meet their financial needs, then they should send their children off.[citation needed][original research?] This system soon became well known in Haiti and a lot of poor families resorted to this way of life.[original research?] These children that were being sent off were later called "Restavecs".

[edit] Characteristics of Restavecs

These child slaves always seem to have the same kind of characteristics.[original research?] They are all usually young black girls that are around the age of 9 and younger.[original research?] However, there are still young males that are involved in this system as well. These young girls are born into poverty and they have suffered some type of mental, physical, and sexual abuse.[original research?] They have no social or political voice, so they can not determine their futures.[original research?] A lot of parents send their children to be restavecs thinking that they are going to live a better life, but a lot of times this is not the case.[original research?][citation needed] Children who are raised in a poor family or lose their parents become domestic workers in Haiti[1].

[edit] Conditions

Restavecs work many hours and receive no funding in return.[original research?][citation needed] These children do not enjoy the luxuries of playing outside and acting as a child their age would.[citation needed] They work in horrible conditions that are not good for their health.[2] Along with these working conditions, they have to work excessive hours, from sun up to sun down.[citation needed] While at work some of the girls suffer sexual harassment from their owners.[citation needed]

Restavecs are slave children who "belong" to well-to-do families. They receive no pay and are kept out of school. Since the emancipation and independence of 1804, affluent blacks and mulattoes have reintroduced slavery by using children of the very poor as house servants. They promise poor families in faraway villages who have too many mouths to feed a better life for their children. Once acquired, these children lose all contact with their families and, like slaves of the past, are sometimes given new names for the sake of convenience.[2]

[edit] Current condition

The adult class of this community cannot provide for their children so they still continue to send them to be restavecs.[original research?] Haiti is a nation of eight million people and 300,000 of the children are restavecs [3] There is still a "hidden nature" about this domestic service that these children have to deal with.[citation needed] Employers and other elite people want these restavecs because they know that they can pay them little or no wages and children have more energy so they can work longer hours [4].

As poverty and political turmoil continue to increase, human rights observers[who?] report that the number of restavecs continues to rise dramatically [3] Most people will get rid of their restavecs by the time they turn fifteen, because a law was passed stating that at age fifteen all people must be paid.[citation needed] Therefore, these children are then thrown out into the streets to provide for themselves.[original research?] Right now there are efforts being made to help these children in Haiti. There has been international exposure about the issue and this could strengthen the struggle to end this silent form of child labor.[original research?] Restavecs were the subject of a 2009 episode of the television drama Law & Order.

In May 2009, over 500 Haitian leaders gathered in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti to discuss the restavec system and how to make positive changes to this complex problem.[citation needed] Leaders from all facets of society attended the full day session and conference organizers from The Jean Cadet Restavek Foundation and Fondation Maurice Sixto hope that this dialog is the start of a large grass-roots movement to, at a minimum, stop the abuse of restavec children. [5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Janak, Timothy C., (1998) Haiti's "Restavec" slave children:Difficult choices, difficult lives, yet...Lespwa fe Viv University of Texas Press
  2. ^ a b Cadet, Jean-Robert, (1998) Restavec:From Haitian Slave Child to Middle-Class American University of Texas Press
  3. ^ a b Cohen, Gigi (2004-03-24). "Haiti's Dark secret:The Restavecs". National Public Radio. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1779562. 
  4. ^ Chung, D, (1997) The Development Challenge in Haiti World Bank
  5. ^ http://restavek.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=cms.page&id=1037

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restavec"