Jump to content

Talk:Edmond Laforest

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Problem with this sentence:

[edit]

"He killed himself by tying a Larousse dictionary around his neck and jumping off a bridge, to expose how the French language, imposed upon him by colonists, had killed him artistically.[1]"

The French version of this article essentially states the opposite and suggests that he killed himself as a sign of protest the the Americans and not the French. French culture (according to some scholars like Léon-François Hoffmann (1980)) had become a way to resist American imperialism. (We can debate this as much as we like, but I strongly doubt that most Haitian elites, before the 1920s, actually rejected French values and language.) Dr. Gates has never been a very reliable source on Haiti, therefore I strongly suggest someone adjusts this article with a closer look on pre-Occupation Haitian society. As much as i understand the language barrier most Americans face, this is actually a very grave error if (as many suspect) Laforest's suicide was against occupation forces. *Perhaps the article should refrain from giving an explanation to his suicide and simply state that it happen.