Throughout its history, Haiti has had the unusual distinction of combining a sophisticated and sustained literary culture with staggeringly low literacy rates. Haitian elites, nourished on the language and literature of their former metropole, have produced an impressive corpus of poetry and prose. In 1956 Edmund Wilson wrote that Haiti had “produced a greater number of books in proportion to the population than any other American country, with the exception of the United States.” 1 Yet the literacy rate in the 1950s was no higher than 10 percent, and it has since only risen to about 60 percent—still much lower than any other nation in the Americas. 2 The disconnect has to do with the structure of Haitian society. Economic and political power have long been concentrated in the hands of a tiny minority. 3 The linguistic dichotomy has served to reinforce this exclusivity. Every Haitian speaks Creole as his or her mother tongue; those with an education also speak French. The prestig
Notes: 1 Edmund Wilson, Red, Black, Blond and Olive: Studies in Four Civilizations: Zuni, Haiti, Soviet Russia, Israel (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956), 110. 2 Paul Berry, “Literacy and the Question of Creole,” in The Haitian Potential: Research and Resources of Haiti , Vera Rubin and Richard P. Schaedel, eds. (New York: Teachers College Press, 1975), 85; Central Intelligence Agency, “Haiti,” The World Factbook. Accessed 30 November 2017. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ha.html. 3 For a thorough analysis of the divided structure of Haitian society, see Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Haiti, State Against Nation: Origins and Legacy of Duvalierism , (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1990). 4 Matthew Robertshaw, “Pawòl Gen Zèl: Language Legitimation in Haiti’s Second Century,” (master’s thesis, University of Guelph, 2016). 5 George Lang, “Translating from, to and within the Atlantic Creoles,” TTR 13 no. 2 (January 2000): 11. 6 Itamar Even-Zoha