Jhon Picard Byron, "Jean Price-Mars: the colonial/slave legacy, the Haitian nation rebuilding and the education of ‘the elite’"

Jhon Picard Byron analyzed an important aspect of the work of Jean Price-Mars, which is often misappreciated, even though its relevance even today is obvious: those texts where he tries to rethink (rebuild) the Haitian nation.

Indeed, Price-Mars’ approach to national reconstruction is based on the legitimacy of popular culture, especially on his argument for the recognition of voodoo as a religion. The ethnological approach, whose aims are highly political, is preceded in his work by a critique of the Haitian state and its elites.

Price-Mars establishes a close connection between the national State and the colonial/slave State. He assigns an important role to education, particularly that of the elite, in the recasting (reconstruction) of the Haitian State. Thus, the thought of Price-Mars can be a source of inspiration for analyzing the current challenges in Haiti.