By: Wadner Pierre - HaitiAnalysis.com

New York,NY- Marie-Celie Agnant was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1953 and has been living in Quebec since 1970. Author of poems, romance novels, and short stories, many of her books have been published - "Le Silence comme le sang", 1997, "La dot de Sara", 1995, and "Le Livre d'Emma", 2001, which has been translated into many languages. "Un Alligator nommé Rosa" is her lastest book.

On Sunday, June 8th, 2008 she presented "Un Alligator nommé Rosa" at the office of HaitiLiberte - a Brooklyn based journal of Haitian politics. Many Haitians came from different parts of New York state to attend the reading. After speaking she autographed copies of her book. The novel is a retrospective look at the dictatorship of Jean Claude Duvalier ("Baby Doc") and certain infamous women who worked for the dictator.

Jean Claude Duvalier's father, Fracois Duvalier, took power in 1957 in rigged elections. Thanks to US backing the fraud he perpetrated succeeded and he was able to consolidate power during the next several years at a massive cost in blood.. Shortly before Francois Duvalier's death in 1971, he arranged for power to be handed over to his nineteen year old son, Jean Claude. It was Francois ("Papa Doc") who, in a twisted form of affirmative action, created opportunities for some of the poor and for women in his regime.

To balance the power of the army, which "Papa Doc" feared, he created a special militia, the VSN, better known as the Tonton Macouts. He exploited class and racial divisions to ensure that the Macouts - recruited from among the poorest blacks who resented mulattoes among the elite - were an effective buffer between he and the armed forces. The military had frequently ousted Haitian presidents. Duvalier himself did not let racial prejudice or sexism interfere with his ability to wield power. He married a mulatto woman, Simone, and made another woman, Rosalie Bosquet (aka Madame Mas Adolphe) an officer within the Macouts and later the warden of Fort Dimanche - a prison where she personally supervised the torture of countless political prisoners. Francois Duvalier eventually rewarded her work at Fort Dimanche by naming her Supreme Head of the Tonton Macouts. "Papa Doc" even created a female counterpart to the Macouts - the Fillettes Laleau, who were at least as brutal as the Macouts.

Marie-Celie Agnant observed that just as the positive contribution of women to Haiti's great slave revolution is often overlooked, so too is the role of women in the oppression of the Duvalier dictatorships.

People who found themselves on the wrong side of the Duvaliers often had their homes burnt to the ground. Marie-Celie Agnant told HaitiAnalysis that she personally observed one family's house burn to the ground as Macouts stood by to make sure it was completely destroyed. She also said that she fears young Haitians don't know enough about the terror of the Duvalier years. She feels knowledge of those years is crucial if Haiti is to eventually climb out of poverty.

Many in attendance asked her to publish her latest novel in English so that it would be accessible to young Haitians living in the US.

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Purchase the first English translation of her work The Book of Emma.