Littérature : Duvalier et L'histoire sombre de la coupe du monde de foot

C'est fou, comment on peut retrouver un peu de l'histoire d'Haïti dans une quantité de livres qui au premier abord semblent très loin du sujet. Je vous avais parlé du livre d'Ellroy : Underworld America dans lequel on retouve Haïti et la RD dans les années 60 au moment où la chasse aux gens de gauche bat son plein sous l'initiative de Hoover patron du FBI de l'époque.

Ici, il s'agit de  :Death or Glory: The Dark History of the World Cup. Un livre comme son titre l'indique sur les aspects sombres de la coupe du monde. Et dès qu'on parle de dessous et d'histoires obscures, Duvalier et sa clique ne sont jamais loin. Ici est décrit le rôle que le dictateur fera jouer au football:

"A passionate follower of Italian and South American football, he fully understood that when it came to getting the populace on your side, football was arguably the most powerful mechanism of all..." With Haiti’s notoriously primitive medical facilities, low literacy rate and high instances of rural famine, Papa Doc knew that a strong national football team could benefit him hugely in the long term and provide a ray of hope for the country’s beleaguered populace."

Je vous traduis:

"Un fan passionné des équipes italiennes et d'Amérique du Sud, il a pleinement compris que pour avoir la populace de son côté, le fooftball pouvait être le meilleur des moyens.." Avec une Haïti connue pour   un pays où les soins de santé  sont primaires, le taux d'alphabétisation très bas et des périodes  de famine dans la paysannerie, Papa Doc savait qu'une équipe nationale forte pouvait lui être largement favorable à long terme et fournir de l'espoir à la populace assiégée"

Vous remarquerez que l'homme de "la pâte est mauvaise" , Duvalier François,

celui que les zentellectuels Gnbistes

(un groupe  particulièrement étrange d'intellectuels haïtiens et "d 'amis d'Haïti"  regroupés sous le nom de Collectif NON, qui ont  boycotté la commémoration du bicentenaire de l'indépendance d'Haïti en 2004) 

celui donc que ce groupe de gens " surprimés" veulent nous vendre pour un " bon docteur",

était fanatique des mêmes équipes que l'est la "populace " haïtienne aujourd'hui.

"La pâte est mauvaise " est donc arrivée à imposer ses goûts

à la "populace" dans le football, comme ailleurs

aux zentellectuels.

Vous remarquerez que la formule
panem et circenses (pain et jeux du cirque )

a été utilisée récemment par le  gouvernement de M. Préval

un gouvernement qui s'inscrit  économiquement, politiquement

et culturellement (là c'est un Vrai désastre comme sous la dictature : le désert)

dans la continuité de ceux de Mrs Duvalier François

et Duvalier Jean-Claude.

The best book about the World Cup you will read this summer.

By Stuart Messham

May 2010

Jon Spurling writes across various football and men’s magazines that I enjoy. When I worked in print journalism for a variety of titles, he used to batter my inbox with good ideas. He consistently unearths and spotlights the kind of footballing stories you just can’t help but be interested in. His brilliantly insightful first book, Death or Glory: The Dark History of the World Cup, is out now and is a must for anyone who likes to get under the skin of sport. Check out the below extract to get a taste for it.
And for goodness sake, after you’ve finished BUY IT HERE. It’ll be the best tenner you spend this summer.

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Although football had been played in Haiti for years, it was François ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier’s rise to power which raised the game’s profile, mainly due to the fact that he quickly began to pour money into it in the mid-1960s. A passionate follower of Italian and South American football, he fully understood that when it came to getting the populace on your side, football was arguably the most powerful mechanism of all, and when it came to the World Cup, the team and the nation – if conditions were favourable – could become one. With Haiti’s notoriously primitive medical facilities, low literacy rate and high instances of rural famine, Papa Doc knew that a strong national football team could benefit him hugely in the long term and provide a ray of hope for the country’s beleaguered populace. He was lucky; after the team performed well at the 1965 Caribbean Youth tournament, the emerging attacker Roger Saint-Vil, goalkeeper Henri Françillon and future skipper Philippe Vorbe began to rise to prominence, attracting the interest of European club scouts. Papa Doc, determined to keep his emerging diamonds together and fearing that they might vanish into the mushrooming Haitian diaspora, banned all foreign transfers.



Saint-Vil, now a New York resident, recalls, “Our training facilities improved and whenever we played a rival Caribbean country we stayed in good hotels and were fed well. You have to remember our background. Many of us came from impoverished families and already François Duvalier had brought light into our lives. For us, he was a giver of life, a ray of hope and we’d do anything for him.

”

The team underwent serious training for the 1970 World Cup qualifiers and it’s still a matter of bitterness that they failed to reach Mexico. The berth instead went to El Salvador (who’d earlier knocked out Honduras – thus sparking the ‘Soccer War’) who beat Haiti 1–0 in a play-off on neutral ground in Jamaica. The countries had played two games before that – Haiti losing 2–1 at home, before defeating El Salvador 3–0 away – but that was in the days before aggregate scores counted. “That was heartbreaking,” recalls Joe Namphy, former Secretary General of the Haitian Football Federation, “because that vintage was easily as good as the one four years later. We really should have been in two consecutive Finals.

”

Under wily coach Antoine Tassy, Haiti’s bold attacking play attracted the attention of English football journalist Brian Glanville, who remarked upon “the sheer tenacity and fluid movement of the gallant Haitians” in a Times article. The Duvalier government issued a statement which read, “We pledge to our people that the football team will reach the 1974 World Cup Finals and that President Duvalier will continue to monitor his team’s progress and to back the team, its players and manager to ensure that this dream becomes a reality.”



Papa Doc had already interfered in the life of one-high profile Haitian football star, with devastating consequences. Before the golden generation emerged during the late ’60s and early ’70s, the nation’s most famous player was Joe Gaetjens who opted to play for the USA rather than his homeland. The lanky striker’s claim to fame came in the 1950 World Cup when his diving header squirmed under England goalkeeper Bert Williams to give the USA a highly improbable 1–0 win. Gaetjens’s moment of glory made him a national hero back in Haiti and, after his football career ended, he returned to Port-au-Prince where his family still lived, and opened a dry-cleaning business. “Everyone loved Joe,” explains local resident Roger Saint-Vierre, wearing the loudest of Hawaiian shirts and swigging beer with both fists. “And he loved both his family and his football. His life was rich and full. Little else mattered to him. He was really what you might call a salt-of-the-earth character.” Gaetjens later organised a youth soccer league and, for a while, coached the national team where he was universally known as ‘Gentleman Joe.’ At no time, according to anyone who knew him, did he show so much as a passing interest in politics. But unfortunately for him, his brothers did. When Papa Doc won the Presidency in 1957, and again in a sham 1961 election backed by money and guns, Gaetjens’s brothers openly supported his opponent, an industrialist and close family friend named Louis Dejoie. Gérard Gaetjens was one of Dejoie’s closest advisers. On the morning of 8th July 1963, two member of Papa Doc’s secret police – the dreaded ‘Tonton Macoutes’ (taken from the Creole term for ‘bogeymen’) – showed up at the family’s dry-cleaning business, got into Joe Gaetjens’s car and, at gunpoint, ordered him to drive away. Three days later his blue station wagon was found parked in front of the police headquarters in Port-au-Prince. He was never seen again. The rumours continue to rage about exactly what happened to him. Twenty years after Joe’s disappearance, a former Haitian senator claimed that he’d shared a cell with him, in Fort Dimanche military prison, and that Gaetjens was shot dead by prison guards.



As well as following Italian football closely, Duvalier was also a fervent admirer of Mussolini’s black shirts, and modelled his bodyguards, the Tonton Macoutes, on Il Duce’s private army. Papa Doc’s bogey men weren’t directly paid for terrorising would-be opponents, but they were able to make their money from extortion and intercepting funds supposedly bound for social aid in Haiti’s poorest areas. A former player Manno Sanon recalled, “It was the side of the regime that the players weren’t aware of, although there were always guys hanging around the team, particularly when we travelled abroad. They smiled at us though, like friendly big brothers. We didn’t see their ugly side, not until the 1974 World Cup, anyway.”



Several Haitian stars decline to comment on their relationship with Papa Doc, which seems to confirm the fact that he ruled by fear and even now, as Sanon admitted, “The mention of his name still makes many Haitians shudder.” Yet when asked to recount a Duvalier story, three members of the side trot out the tale of former Tonton Macoutes leader Clement Barbot. Sanon explained, “Papa Doc became convinced that Barbot was plotting against him and after he had him executed, he was told by a witch doctor that Barbot had been transformed into a black dog. Duvalier ordered that all black dogs on the island be shot on sight. Then he ordered that Barbot’s head be packed in ice and sent to him. He spent several hours staring at the head, trying to connect with Barbot’s spirit.” Sanon laughed. “So many people know the story that it must be true, but he was still our benefactor nonetheless. I’m not always comfortable with that,” he added. Many of Haiti’s 1974 team, directly or indirectly, for better or for worse, were affected by the Duvaliers’ frequently uneasy mix of voodoo, oppression and negritude.

 SOURCES :link

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Taken from Death or Glory – The Dark Secrets of the World Cup by Jon Spurling, published by Vision Sports Publishing and available at your local Waterstones or from Amazon.co.uk