The Seeds of Fiction

by Bernard Diederich

  ‘He wrote a book about Haiti,’ I said, ‘called The Comedians.’ I went on to explain what Graham meant by comedians.

  Mambo Lolotte understood. She exhibited surprising sophistication. As she left to prepare her yams for market she stood for a moment in the doorway of the little hut and looked at me. ‘We are les Komedyens, she said, using the Creole word. ‘We Haitians are all actors. We must be to survive.’

  Unlike Catholicism, Voodoo has no heaven or hell. Graham’s soul would be free to wander. Perhaps he would even return to Haiti.

  After Lolotte left I remained for a long time reflecting inside the cool Voodoo sanctuary. Just as had happened at Graham’s memorial Mass in Westminster Cathedral, memories of the man flooded back to me. Paradoxical as he often was, I believed Graham would have been more at home with this simple Voodoo tribute in Lolotte’s hounfor than at high Mass at Westminster. The Voodoo priestess’s prayer would have been less embarrassing for him. He was easily embarrassed.

  I left the offering of Stolichnaya to repose in Lolotte’s bagui and then wondered if I should have bought a larger bottle. The Voodoo gods liked to be abundantly pleased. When I walked out the light was fading. I said goodbye to Mambo Lolotte and noticed the irony that her peristyle was a neighbour to Pont Beudet, Haiti’s ancient but still functioning insane asylum.

  Not far down the road was what remained of Jean-Claude Duvalier’s ranch. As I passed it on my return to Port-au-Prince I noticed the entrance gate to the property was broken and hanging on its hinges. The unmanned rusty guard turrets and high concrete wall were all that was left standing of the once-elaborate country retreat. Vegetation rotted in the swimming pool and cows and goats grazed in the garden. Peasants in the area said that the army had looted the ranch and then set it alight, blaming the local people. Even the mounds of lead from spent bullets on Jean-Claude’s private shooting range had been collected for scrap.

  Four years later, on Friday 26 May 1995, there was a rare official homage to Graham Greene in Port-au-Prince. The tribute was being offered by grateful Haitians who believed that with The Comedians Graham had managed to lift the shroud and expose Duvalier’s tyranny to the world. The white walls of the newly established non-governmental Info-Service lecture hall, located in an old, renovated Port-au-Prince gingerbread mansion, were covered with posters (provided by the British Council) illustrating Graham’s long and productive life. While carrying out his book research at the height of Papa Doc’s terror in August 1963, Graham, travelling by taxi, often passed this house on Avenue Charles Sumner in Turgeau, a residential section of the capital, as he returned from the Hotel Sans Souci to the venerable Grand Hotel Oloffson. Now, thirty-two years later, Graham’s niece Louise Dennys was present as a guest to represent the Greene family.

  The republic’s new Minister of Culture, Jean-Claude Bajeux — the former exiled priest who had accompanied Graham and me on our 1965 border trip — lectured on ‘La Metaphysique du Mal Chez Graham Greene’ (‘The Metaphysics of Evil as Seen by Graham Greene’). The young university students in the audience craned forward in their seats. They shared an eagerness for knowledge of the lost decades in which the dictatorship had turned their country into an intellectual wasteland. They were all too familiar with the metaphysics of evil, their country having only just emerged from three bloody years of post-Duvalierist military repression during which many of these same students were forced to flee for their lives in boats or seek refuge in rural Haiti, becoming exiles in their own country. Many of their fellow students had been killed.

  In his ninety-minute lecture Bajeux outlined Graham’s literary form, emphasizing the author’s belief in human value and purpose. He defined at length Graham’s treatment of good and evil and stressed that through his anti-heroes such as the whisky priest in The Power and the Glory and Pinkie the murderer in Brighton Rock he showed that good and evil coexist within all of us. ‘It is a lesson to all of us,’ Bajeux said, ‘to be reminded that good and evil coexist in our own souls, and that is where we have to look, not outside ourselves.’

  Bajeux explained that when Graham stated that he had found evil (hell) in Duvalier’s Haiti, what the author meant was that he had found some evil characters in Haiti — whom he later portrayed in The Comedians. The lecture ended with a discussion among professors attending the hommage on the origins of violence in Haiti, without reaching any conclusion. Nevertheless Bajeux made reference to the suggestion that a Macoute lies in all of us.

  Haiti was no longer Graham’s nightmare republic. Haitians were enjoying — at least for the moment — hope of a better future. A force of twenty-two thousand American troops had made a soft landing in Haiti in September 1994 and restored democratically elected President Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power after he had spent three years in exile. On 31 March 1995 President Bill Clinton, from a reviewing stand in front of the National Palace, watched the change of command from US to UN peacekeepers. It was a historic sight: an American President seated on a reviewing stand on the steps of what was once a palace of terror. As the bagpipes of a battalion of peacekeepers from Bangladesh wailed, the regimental colours and country flags of the various foreign troops and nations involved in the peacekeeping mission fluttered like colourful Voodoo flags (beaded Voodoo flags carry images of their gods in many colours) on the palace lawn.

  Of Haiti and The Comedians Graham had written:

  I would have liked to return yet a fourth time before completing my novel, but I had written in the English press a description of Doctor Duvalier’s dictatorship, and the best I could do in January 1965 was to make a trip down the Dominican and Haitian border — the scene of my last chapter [of The Comedians] — in the company of two exiles from Haiti. At least, without Doctor Duvalier’s leave, we were able to pass along the edge of the country we loved and to exchange hopes of a happier future.

  On the Monday following the lecture, Louise Dennys, her husband Ric, our friend Father Alberto Huerta, a Jesuit professor of literature from the University of San Francisco who had corresponded with Graham over his religious beliefs, and I were escorted to the Palace by Bajeux. I couldn’t help thinking how pleased Graham would have been — a Greene in Papa Doc’s palace! Graham’s request for an interview with Dr Duvalier in 1963 had been refused. The closest he had come to the Palace was the Casernes Dr François Duvalier.

  There were no military sentries at the Palace gate that Monday. In fact, Haiti no longer had an army. President Aristide had dissolved the armed forces upon his return from exile. The Palace itself had undergone several transformations since the hurried departure of Jean-Claude Duvalier nearly a decade earlier. One short-lived military-backed president had even called in a Voodoo priest to exorcise the place of Duvalier evil.

  At our meeting with Aristide he talked amicably and enthusiastically to Ms Dennys about his hopes for a literacy campaign. A self-described voracious reader, Aristide said he had read The Comedians while studying at a seminary in La Vega, in the neighbouring Dominican Republic. (When I presented him with a first-edition copy of The Comedians while he was in exile in Washington, DC, he promised to read it.)

  When Aristide, himself an author, learned that Ms Dennys once had her own publishing business and currently represented a prominent American publishing firm in Canada, the president invited us into his adjoining workroom to show off his books and to present her with a beautiful painted box — a modest but simple tribute to Graham. ‘There is nothing inside the decorative box,’ Aristide said, ‘just the air of Haitian freedom.’

  Later, as we sat relaxing on the balcony of the Grand Hotel Oloffson, I mentioned how I had left Graham’s favourite midday aperitif, a bottle of Stolichnaya vodka, at Mambo Lolotte’s hounfor. Louise loved the idea and asked if I could take them to meet Lolotte, so the following day we drove out from Port-au-Prince to the Cul de Sac plain. When we arrived the priestess was officiating with a group of faithful at prayers. We were given chairs, and we waited until the prayers ended. Mambo Lolot
te greeted us and graciously agreed to open her bagui with its offerings. To my pleasant surprise, Graham’s bottle of Stolichnaya had been elevated to repose on a red cushion on a miniature rocking-chair. Father Huerta asked the priestess whether he could say a prayer, to which she readily acceded. The four of us stood before the small altar with the Mambo, and Father Huerta led us in a silent prayer. It was the ultimate ecumenical act.

  Graham would have understood.

  | AFTERWORD

  On 5 August 2011 Jean-Claude Bajeux’s infinite weariness from his fight for a better Haiti ended with his death. He fought and had never surrendered. His Calvary had ended. His soul was finally at peace, and his wishes for no religious service were respected. His body was cremated, and a small informal service was held at a funeral home in Port-au-Prince. He had helped many, having devoted his life to human rights in the human sense. His struggle for justice, transparency and an end to impunity never faulted — no one gave so much to fight for a new Haiti as he sought to extirpate the vile beast of despotism and its moral corruption from the country. All I could think of on the morning of his service was that he, for those who were privileged to know him, would live on for ever. I loved a dear friend.

  | INDEX

  Adams, David, 299

  Allen, Larry, 30

  Allende, Salvador, 160, 252

  Amador, Carlos Fonseca, 200–1

  Ambler, Eric, Epitaph for a Spy, 84

  Amis, Martin, 250

  Amory, Mark, The Letters of Evelyn Waugh, 218, 222

  Anaya Montes, Mélida, 268–9

  Andropov, Yuri, 263

  Argentina, 160, 163, 180, 210

  Arias, Arnulfo, 158, 177, 180, 191

  Arias, Harmodio, 228

  Arias, Roberto E., 228

  Aristide, Jean-Bertrand, 148, 298–9, 303

  Aspinwall, William Henry, 173

  Augustus, Emperor, 138

  Baboun, Rudy, 133

  Bahamas, 33

  Bailey, Pearl, 86

  Bajeux, Albert, 69

  Bajeux, Anne-Marie, 69

  Bajeux, Jean-Claude, 47, 58, 61, 62, 63, 65–70, 71, 73, 76, 77–81, 83, 96, 110, 112, 121, 139–40, 149, 292, 302–5

  Bajeux, Maxim, 69

  Bajeux, Micheline, 69

  Balaguer, Joaquín, 44, 65, 98, 101, 120, 133, 193

  Bancroft, Anne, 21, 26

  Banville, John, 12

  Baptiste, Fred, 38, 42, 43–4, 45, 46, 69, 77, 80, 99, 100, 111, 120, 133, 140, 141–5, 147, 278

  Baptiste, Renel, 99, 120, 140, 141–5, 147

  Barbot, Clément, 25, 28, 52, 61

  Barbot, Harry, 25

  Barletta, Nicolás, 281

  Barral, Milton, 88–9

  Batista, Fulgencio, 46, 79, 87, 89, 94

  Baudelaire, Charles, 103

  Bazalais, Laurent, General, 53, 98

  Beauvoir, Daniel, Captain, 35

  Belize, 187, 207–8, 209, 227–8, 251, 297

  Bennett, Michèle, 147

  Bennett, Philip, 296

  Benoît, Clément, 33, 52

  Benoît, François, Lieutenant, 52, 159

  Benoît, Rigaud, 92

  Blackmun, Harry A., 148

  Blain, Pierre, 93

  Blanchet, Paul, 114, 143

  Blocker, Vince, 40

  Borge, Tomás, 16, 199, 233, 235, 237, 239–40, 241, 243, 263, 282–3, 285

  Borges, Jorge Luis, 160

  Bosch, Juan, 44, 49, 52, 60, 72, 98, 193, 297–8

  Boss Justin, 49

  Boss Paint, 49

  Boston Globe, 296–7

  Bourget, Caroline, 22, 175, 215, 300

  Boyer, Jean-Pierre, 56

  Bradbury, David, 268

  Bragg, Melvyn, Rich: The Life of Richard Burton, 120

  Brando, Marlon, 21

  Brazil, 165, 190

  Brezhnev, Leonid, 227

  Brook, Natasha, 84–5

  Brook, Peter, 84–5, 86

  Bunker, Ellsworth, 164, 165, 182

  Burt, Al, 98, 100–1

  Burton, Richard, 16, 119, 127, 129, 132

  Bush, George H.W., 169, 294–5

  Caamano Deno, Francisco, Colonel, 100

  Cambronne, Luckner, 141

  Cantave, Leon, General, 24, 31, 43, 57–8

  Capote, Truman, 21, 85, 87

  House of Flowers, 84, 86, 87

  Carazo, Rodrigo, 235

  Cardenal, Ernesto, 16, 198, 199, 242, 260, 268

  Carrasco, Jorge, 171

  Carter, Jimmy, 145–6, 166–7, 169, 172, 188–9, 192, 193, 212–13, 220, 238, 241, 250, 295

  Castillo Quant, José María, 200

  Castro, Fidel, 16, 31, 36, 39, 40, 46, 79, 89, 94, 108, 145, 156, 158, 184–5, 192, 209, 226, 228, 231, 237, 242, 253, 260, 264, 265–8, 273, 278, 283

  Castro, Raúl, 89

  Catalogne, Gérard de, 117, 138

  Catholic World, 128

  Cayetano Carpio, Salvador

  ‘Marcial’, 220–4, 244, 260, 267–9, 282, 299

  Kidnapping and Hoods, 223

  Cerna, Lenin, 263

  Césaire, Aimé, 292

  Chalmers, René, 24, 41, 117, 119, 121, 133

  Chamberlain, Greg, 142

  Chamorro, Pedro Joaquín, 239, 243, 299

  Chamorro, Sonia, 239

  Chamorro, Violeta de, 299

  Chamorro, Xavier, 237, 239–40

  Chile, 160, 165, 166, 180, 218

  Christophe, Henri, Emperor of Haiti, 29, 85

  Church, Frank, 193, 225

  Church on the March, 67

  Claude, Breton, General, 140, 141

  Clinton, Bill, 303

  Cloetta, Yvonne, 17, 92, 175, 178, 195, 211, 213, 228, 243, 257, 259, 274, 275, 276, 277, 279–81, 284, 287, 288, 289, 290, 292, 293, 294, 297, 299, 300

  Clos, Max, 24, 30

  Colliers Magazine, 59

  Colombia, 211

  Columbus, Christopher, 56, 61, 87

  The Comedians (film), 118–37, 144, 278

  Conrad, Joseph, 84, 174–5

  Heart of Darkness, 15

  Contreras, Ramiro, Dr, 199–200, 201

  Corley-Smith, G.T., 124

  Costa Rica, 159, 208, 235, 238, 243, 251

  Coster, Laura, 25, 92

  Coster, Roger, 25, 92

  Couto, Maria, 300

  Coward, Noël, 95, 103

  Cuba, 11, 16, 108, 142, 158, 231, 236, 238, 264–9, 273, 283, 287, 297

  Daily Express, 298

  Daily Telegraph, 23, 90, 145, 166, 236

  Damas, 37

  Daniel, Guy, 257

  Daumec, Gérard, 114, 116, 118, 130, 131

  Dayan, Moshe, 184

  Dean, John, III, 193

  Decae, Henri, 127

  Déjoie, Louis, 23, 27, 29, 38, 39, 48

  Delva, Zacharie, 62

  Dennys, Elisabeth, 184, 216, 234, 276, 281–2, 287

  Dennys, Louise, 12, 234, 302, 304

  Dennys, Ric, 304

  D’Escoto, Miguel, 243

  Dessalines, Jean-Jacques, 53, 56

  DeYoung, Karen, 263, 271–3, 290

  Díaz Herrera, Roberto, Colonel, 248, 261, 270, 281–4

  Diederich, Bernard, 11–13, 15–17,

  Passim

  Somoza and the Legacy of US

  Involvement in Central America, 17

  Diederich, Ginette, 21, 31, 98, 140, 160, 247, 297

  Diederich, Jean-Bernard, 286, 288, 293, 297–8

  Diederich, Phillippe, 96

  Dinges, John, The Underside of the Torrijos Legacy, 252–3

  Dole, Robert, 192

  Dominican Republic, 23, 28, 39, 193, 232–3, 297–8

  Dominique, Max, 136, 138

  Dominique, Philippe, 32–4, 35

  Donovan, Hedley, 164–5

  Dorcely, Gérard, 93

  Dostoevsky, Fydor, The Brothers Karamazov, 215

  Drake, Francis, Sir, 15, 202–3, 204–5, 208

  Drummond, William, 169, 178

  Duarte, Juan Pablo
, 56

  Duarte, Napoleón, 283

  Duarte, Rosa, 24

  Duncan, Dick, 99, 263

  Dunn, Archibald Gardner, 216, 217, 218, 221, 222–4, 243–4

  Dunne, J.W., 294

  Dutton, E.P., 239, 246

  Duvalier, François ‘Papa Doc’, 11, 15–16, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 38, 39, 41, 43, 46, 47–51, 52–3, 55, 58, 61, 63, 64, 66, 67, 68, 76, 79, 84, 92, 96, 98, 100, 102, 104–6, 109, 110, 113, 116–17, 119, 120, 123, 124–5, 130, 132, 134, 137, 138, 139, 143, 159, 189, 210, 282, 290–2, 303, 304

  Duvalier, Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’, 51, 114, 134, 138, 139, 140, 141, 146, 147, 252, 260, 268, 282, 288, 292, 302

  Duvalier, Marie-Denise, 130, 138

  Duvalier, Simone, 51

  Eder, Richard, 30, 258–9

  Edward VII, 208

  L’Effort Camerounais, 67

  Egypt, 213

  Eisenhower, Dwight D. ‘Ike’, 86

  Eisenhower, Mamie, 86

  El Salvador, 11, 180, 212, 216–17, 218, 220–3, 224, 238, 244, 259, 271, 281, 299

  Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain 133

  Emerson, Gloria, 12

  Escobar, Eduardo Contreras, 199

  de la Espriella, Ricardo, 261–2, 270

  Estimé, Dumarsais, 93

  Evening Post, 229

  FARH (Haitian Revolutionary Armed Forces), 38–9

  Faulkner, William, 215

  Le Figaro, 24

  Fignolé, Daniel, 48

  Firebird, 256

  Fleming, Ian, 82, 123

  Florez, Florencio, Colonel, 261

  Fonteyn, Margot, Dame, 228, 262

  Ford, Gerald, 166–7, 178

  Franco, Francisco, Generalísimo, 133

  Frere, A.S., 102

  Freud, Sigmund, 83

  Friedman, Manny, 41

  Fuad II, King of Egypt, 280

  Fuentes, Carlos, 262

  Galindo, Gabriel Lewis, 171, 213

  de Gaulle, Charles, 135

  Georges, Jean-Baptiste, 39, 40, 96

  Gielgud, John, 26, 118

  Glenville, Peter, 26, 116, 117, 118, 127, 144

  Gonzalez, Rory, 157, 162, 170, 178, 219, 251

  Gorbachev, Mikhail, 287

  Granma, 221, 244, 265, 297

  Greece, 165

  Greene, Charles, 94