Jean Price-Mars (15 October 1876 – 1 March 1969) was a Haitian

medical doctor A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, prognosis ...

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, and

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.Île-en-île
Jean Price-Mars Price-Mars served as secretary of the Haitian legation in

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(1909) and as

chargé d'affaires A (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador. The term is Frenc ...

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(1915–1917), during the initial years of the

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occupation of Haiti. In 1922, Price-Mars completed medical studies which he had given up for lack of a scholarship. After withdrawing as a candidate for the presidency of Haiti in favor of Stenio Vincent in 1930, Price-Mars led Senate opposition to the new president; he was forced out of politics. In 1941, Price-Mars was again elected to the Senate. He was secretary of state for external relations in 1946 and, later,

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

to the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

. In his eighties, he continued service as Haitian ambassador at the United Nations and ambassador to France.

''Négritude'' movement

Price-Mars championed ''

Négritude ''Négritude'' (from French "nègre" and "-itude" to denote a condition that can be translated as "Blackness") is a framework of critique and literary theory, mainly developed by francophone intellectuals, writers, and politicians in the Africa ...

'' in Haiti through his writing, which "discovered" and embraced the

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n roots of Haitian society. Price-Mars was the first prominent defender of vodou as a full religion complete with "deities, a priesthood, a theology, and morality."Alan McPherson (editor)
''Encyclopedia of U.S. Military Interventions in Latin America''
(Volume I). Santa Barbara, California (2013). He argued against the prevailing prejudice and ideology which favored European cultures from the colonial period and rejected non-

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, non-

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, elements of the cultures of the

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. His nationalism embraced a Haitian cultural identity as African through

slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

. Price-Mars' attitude was inspired by the active resistance by Haitian peasants to the 1915 through 1934 United States occupation. He deplored the elite's abandonment of the tradition that had emphasized the nation's achieving independence from French

colonialism Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism c ...

, but he took pride in the conduct of the poor. He attacked the elite for their "inability to promote the welfare of the Haitian masses."Pedro L. San Miguel (2005)
''The Imagined Island: History, Identity, and Utopia in Hispaniola''
University of North Carolina Press.

Collective ''Bovarysme''

He coined the term ''collective bovarysme'' to describe the elite as identifying with their partial

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an ancestry while denouncing ties to their African legacy (in

Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...

's 1857 novel ''

Madame Bovary ''Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners'' (; ), commonly known as simply ''Madame Bovary'', is the début novel by France, French writer Gustave Flaubert, originally published in 1856 and 1857. The eponymous character, Emma Bovary, lives beyond he ...

,'' Emma Bovary is anxious to escape from social conditions which define her, but which she deprecates). He noticed that the elite were composed almost exclusively of people of mixed ancestry, descended from former free persons of color, who embraced their "whiteness". Most Haitians were more exclusively African in descent. His disdain for the elites spread beyond their racial purity of ''"bovarysme"''. He believed they had unfair economic and political influence. He understood that their power base in the state system relied heavily on the taxation of crops, especially of

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, the chief export, grown by the peasants who had come to the country's defense when the elites had abandoned it to protect their own interests. He also attacked the elites' role in Haitian

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

. The elite believed they needed to civilize the masses. Price-Mars wrote frequently about educational programs. He examined the "intellectual tools" available in Haiti and challenged the elite to promote progress among the masses because of their advantage of position. He ultimately came to embrace Haiti's slavery history as the true source of the Haitian identity and culture. He admired the culture and religion developed among the slaves as their base for rebelling against the Europeans and building a Haitian nation.
''Enciclopedia de Puerto Rico''. Un proyecto de la Fundación Puertorriqueña de las Humanidades y el National Endowment for the Humanities.

Notable works

*''La Vocation de l'elite'' (1919) *''Ainsi parla l'oncle'' (1928) Translated: ''So Spoke the Uncle'' (1983) *''La République d'Haïti et la République Dominicaine'' (1953) *''De Saint-Domingue à Haïti'' (1957)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Price-Mars, Jean 1876 births 1969 deaths Ambassadors of Haiti to France Ambassadors of Haiti to the Dominican Republic Foreign ministers of Haiti Haitian anthropologists Haitian diplomats Haitian nationalists Haitian non-fiction writers Haitian male non-fiction writers Permanent representatives of Haiti to the United Nations

''Négritude'' movement

Collective ''Bovarysme''

Notable works

Further reading

References