Haiti Dechoukaj collection

1976-1987

The collection consists of two groups of documents: political cartoons, interviews, election material and printed matter collected by freelance journalist Nadine Andre in Haiti in 1986 and at the time of the failed elections of November 1987; and background material, mostly political leaflets and newspaper clippings, collected by Ms. Andre in the ten year period preceding the demise of the Duvalier regime in February 1986. Documents collected by Schomburg Center staff or donated by contributors for an exhibition on Dechoukaj in 1989 have been added to the collection. The Haitian Creole word Dechoukaj, from the verb dechouke (to uproot), was a popular battle cry among oppressed Haitians seeking to remove from office and punish the most hated collaborators of the Duvalier dictatorship. The Dechoukaj years, 1986-1990, were a period of social conflict, intense grassroots organizing and tremendous hope for a radical transformation of Haitian society.