A Haitian-born, Boston-based poet explores the personal and political stories of the Haitians who were part of Congo’s 1960s decolonization movement
Between 1960 and 1975, thousands of Haitian professionals emigrated to Congo, a fellow Black francophone nation that emerged under the revolutionary new leadership of Patrice Lumumba. As Danielle Legros Georges writes in the introduction to this collection, these émigrés sought to “escape repression in Haiti, start new lives in Africa, and participate in a decolonizing Congo.” Among them were her parents.
Grounded in these personal and social histories, Three Leaves, Three Roots is a collection of Legros Georges’s creative reconstructions of the Haiti-Congo experience. She interweaves her verses with excerpts from primary sources such as the interviews she conducted with the Congo émigrés and letters written by people both famous and obscure, including Lumumba, Fidel Castro, and members of Legros Georges’s family.
The result is a richly layered portrayal of an era of decolonization and rebuilding, a time that sparked with both promise and vulnerability for the Pan-Africanist and Black Power movements. This collection is an important work of Haitian American poetry and of Black history: it reminds us, artfully, that movements of solidarity among people of color have always existed and always will exist.
About the Series
Raised Voices is a poetry series established in 2021 to raise marginalized voices and perspectives, to publish poems that affirm progressive values and are accessible to a wide readership, and to celebrate poetry’s ability to access truth in a way that no other form can
“A brilliant achievement. Danielle Legros Georges’s Three Leaves, Three Roots makes a compelling case for the role of poet as custodian of what once was lost and now is found. In these times of voluntary and forced migrations, these poems are shining testaments and urgent exposés of historical injustice and tender lyrics. This collection places this poet where she belongs, in the front ranks of poets writing today.”
—Lorna Goodison, author of Mother Muse
“As the poet moves us through landscapes lost, discovered, and found again, from Port-au-Prince, Kinshasa, to the banks of the Rio Grande, we discover voices displaced, exiled, and scorned, with love for their shared African roots even as these move from one geography to another. Sweeping in its breadth and historical coverage, Three Leaves, Three Roots is a triumph of poetic quietude in the midst of the chaos that surrounds depictions of Haiti today.”
—Myriam J. A. Chancy, author of What Storm, What Thunder
“Three Leaves, Three Roots is a captivating collection of poems that vividly portrays the journeys of Haitian professionals, including Danielle Legros Georges’s parents, who traveled to the Congo in the 1960s to support the decolonization movement. Through beautiful and captivating language, Georges intertwines personal narratives and letters, crafting a compelling testimony to a pivotal yet often overlooked moment in history. This profound exploration of migration and solidarity pays tribute to the lives of those we encounter within its pages while illuminating Haiti’s potential as a symbol of global liberty.”
—Edwidge Danticat, author of Brother, I’m Dying
“Crafted in a poetic gift full of compassion, Three Leaves, Three Roots should be seen as a welcome addition to the axis being formed in this, our time of resurrection and change like none other. Georges’s work is an elegant brilliance, nurtured in silent meditations on courage in a life lived deep inside the heart of Blackness.”
—Afaa M. Weaver, author of A Fire in the Hills
“As the poet tells us in her introduction, Three Leaves, Three Roots is an act of reclaiming the ‘little known’ story of Haitians, including her parents, who traveled to the Congo in the 1960s to work and live. Legros Georges’s opus is impressive in its scope, and one can sense the research undergirding every word. But make no mistake: this is a poet’s reckoning with history. Legros Georges’s language is chiseled and sonically rich, her poetics potent and dazzling. In epistolary poems and dramatic monologues drawn from interviews and other source materials, she delivers a powerful melding of personal and public testimony. Three Leaves, Three Roots is a searing work of documentary and lyric poetry.”
—Shara McCallum, author of No Ruined Stone
Introduction
CONGO–1960s
Because
Whites in Congo Flee by Ferry
in this poem, do not use the word revolution
Hands are a matter,
Cobalt
My beloved companion,
A Reply of Pauline Opango Lumumba
Le Congo, c’est moi
CUBA–1950s
Because
Fidel Wears No Hat
Estimada amiga,
HAITI–1960s
Because
Because
Instructions in Times of Emergency
When a book is a sentence
François Duvalier, Country Doctor
François Duvalier, Living God
Simone Duvalier
CROSSINGS–1960s
Because
Diaspora
Diaspora
What Is Water?
Because
I Pray the United Nations Bureau Will Forward This Card to My Brother Rodney Georges Who Is Currently in the Congo, Whose Address I Don’t Know
Letter from Léo
The Reasons of Jacqueline Romain
The Reasons of Rigobert Carty
The Lake Behind You
Thysville, 1966
Headwaters
The Reasons of Ertha Élysée Auguste
Notes on the School in Kinshasa
Max Manigat in Kenge
The Work
Unannounced Evaluation
Critique de Leçons
The Contract of GEORGES, Rodney
an accolade and ache
CONGO–1965–1975
Because
The environment was different from what I had known all my life
what we missed and attempted to replicate
what we found new and glorious
Avenue des Flamboyants
Beer and Babies
In Kinshasa
Because
Trouble in Your Country
Makak
Mobutu Sese Seko, Messiah
The Record of An Attempt to Purge the Country of Colonial Influence by Mobutu (and Unrelatedly a List of Cities in Which Haitians Lived, with Underscores Signaling Antecedents Unknown to Me)
I could have
Postcard | Front and Back
Your Footprints
CROSSINGS–1970s
The Tintin Books
Sunday
Unwritten Letters to Their Parents by Children Boarding with Relatives in Port-au-Prince
CROSSINGS–1986
Power
CROSSINGS–ARTIFACTS
Carved Ivory Head of a Woman
A Congolese Cotton Shirt Embellished with a Portrait of Mobutu from the Collection of the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam
A Closing
CODA: CROSSINGS–2000s
Because
Crossings
Notes
Acknowledgments
Bibliography