_{Joyfully, people surround Aristide’s car as he leaves the airport. They ran beside him all the way to his house. — Photo: Jean Ristil Jean Baptiste}

Ezili HLLN's on-the-ground report of Aristide's historic return to a celebrity welcome

At HLLN we are just beginning to get the stories of the return. It's such a miraculous Haiti achievement that not many of us, who have fought for this insult and injury to our African Ancestors, metered out in the year of our Bicentennial independence by the former slave-holding countries, have yet been able to properly process it.

The US and UN with a vested interests in portraying Haitians as violent, remain quiet now, with no violence to highlight to their readers. The media that has been telling readers that president Aristide had no popular backing, was corrupt and ousted in a "popular rebellion" have turned their heads the other way now, the shame of being exposed will soon turn to attack. Haiti's poor expect their unscrupulousness. Batay la fèk kòmanse - the battle has only just begun.

But for now, we share a few of the happy stories.

When Aristide's car got to his home, the dancing and singing crowd was so huge it took 45 minutes before he and his family - his lovely wife, Mildred Trouillot Aristide and two precious girls, 14 and 12 years old - were able to get out and into the house. People just wanted to touch him, to hug him, to cherish the moment when Haiti beat back the elite's rabid rage. (See the videos below).

An HLLN executive member, friend and my elder, who was inside the yard, explains that the return was supposed to happen on Wednesday. But because of the phone calls from France, from the UN and from Obama urging Zuma, South Africa's president not to allow Aristide to return, Aristide didn't arrive to Haiti until Friday.

"On Thursday," he reports for HLLN to share with the Ezili Network, "we were told the plane would land at noon. So Friday morning we got up and started for the airport at 8 o’clock thinking we'll beat the crowd. It seems the crowd had the same idea.

The roads to the airport were so back up, we couldn't travel but a few blocks. So after an hour of trying, our group turned around deciding it was best to go wait for president Aristide and his family at his residence in Tabarre. But the road in front of the house was blocked, traffic was being diverted, they told us we couldn't go that way. We turned around. Our driver knew another way to the residence and took us there.

When we got to the residence, we went through normal security, got patted down and allowed in by security. It was very professionally done. The house was newly painted, everything looked ready. The mango trees, the citrus trees, the pool, everything was ready for the president. I don't know how they did it so fast because on Thursday when I was there, there was still a lot to do.

Within an hour after we got to the house, we started hearing noises from the outer courtyard. The house has two yards, an inner and an outer courtyard. We were standing in the inner courtyard right in front of the house when we heard security say 'hey, you can't come in here. You have to go back. You have to go back.'

And I saw security holding this one young person who had jumped over the tall walls from the now thousands of folks who stood outside the house gates. The security that had barely in hour before patted us down so formally, ran over and began to send him back out. And I heard other similar commands from security regarding others who had gone over the walls. But as soon as that happen another had jumped over the walls, anotherhad scaled the mango trees to catch a glimpse. Within a minute a whole wave of human beings were climbing over walls and getting into the president's yard, shouting:

'Aristide's house is our house. He won't mind that we're here.'

'Bal kay li, se kay li. Li vin pran kay li. Viv Titid, bay Titid kay li. - Give him his house, that's his house. He's come back to claim his house. Long live Aristide, Give him his house.'

After the first three or four, it was people upon people coming over the walls, just a tsunami of people vaulting the walls, scaling the trees to catch a glimpse of Aristide and be with him at his house. They just wanted to be there, to touch him.

Soon everyone, right in front of the house broke into song, clapping and joyously singing: 'Se pou tout ansanm fè youn. Se sa Aristide mande. Nou pa ka trayi san nou. San nou, se san Aristide. Li menm ki rasanble nou tout. Fò nou tout ansanm fè youn.'

"I was told this is an old Christian song about the blood of Jesus making us one which the Haitian people flipped around and adopted for the Lavalas movement song about Aristide."

Ezili Dantò: ""But it's also from Vodun," I point out to our friend, that some biblical terms were "originally used and adopted from the world's original spirituality and Haiti's spiritual way of life - Vodun. In Vodun, you need Haitian flesh and blood for spirit to live, for the Ancestors to live. Nou se Ginen. Nou fè yon sèl kò - We're Africans, we're one body was the cry at Bwa Kayiman that began the Haiti revolution. He agrees that's true.

I then ask, "did you see any UN soldiers while waiting for Aristide to arrive from the airport?"

"There was only the Haitian police there. Remember the UN head, Ban Ki-Moon called Zuma, South African's president, to try and stop president Aristide from returning, so naturally they weren't around to give him security. Escort him from the airport as they did with the bloody dictator Jean Claude "baby Doc" Duvalier on January 16 when he suddenly returned to Haiti after 25-years of luxurious exile in France without any objections from the former slave-holding powers who objected to Aristide's return."

Ezili Dantò: The US, Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton, France and the United Nations' Ban Ki-Moon had warned that Aristide return would destabilize Haiti as if Haiti wasn't already destabilized by their Bush regime change and bicentennial coup d'etat, lack of reconstruction after the earthquake, UN-imported cholera, NGO feudal pillage and fleecing of earthquake donor funds and these forced US-supported sham and fraudulent elections that denied the largest political party in Haiti the right to participate. (See Haiti Elections and UN Cholera , Haiti's case against the UN for importing cholera epidemic , and Haiti message to US Embassy in Haiti: The Will of the People. Also, according to newly released U.S report 800,000 Haitians will be infected with the UN-imported cholera).

On Monday, before the return, Obama's people told the media his return would put their farcical elections in jeopardy. Was it just an overblown ruse as usual to promote their interests in Haiti and keep the narrative going that Haiti's people are innately violent, corrupt and without discipline or did you, with all that massive crowd of people milling around, see a need for the U.N. to be there in Haiti to keep order?

"I'll tell you a few things I saw that belied this narrative of 'violent Haiti,'" our HLLN collaborator who was on the ground, at the house waiting for Aristide's to arrive from the airport, says.

"The crowd at the residence was amazing and peaceful. Some things were just simply hilarious. I saw someone had dropped a bottle of juice and one of the young women who had come over the wall, picked it up. So they were conscious about leaving the courtyard clean. There were lots of lighthearted moments.

Thousands upon thousands of people were in the yard, moving up to the house, pressing their faces on the glass, staring into the windows. Many climbed the trees and after a while some managed to get to the top of the roof.

At one point when president Aristide's car finally got pass the crowd and into his own yard, someone yelled to a guy on the roof who sat with danglying his foot over the top of the roof. 'Get your foot out of the president face. How would it look when he comes out of the car to see the bottom of your foot, that's not right. Show some respect.' Something like that."

"It was surreal. Imagine thousand of people chanting, saying the slogan and singing and a little thing like that was noticed and folks were complying. A few others started saying the same thing and the perpetrator quickly tucked in his foot. It was hilarious. Then someone said, you people are damaging the trees, get out of those trees. Misye nap kase pye bwa yo, desan. But the response was, n a plante li ankò - we'll just come back and plant some more.

It was a celebration. It was a thousand Christmases. A million presents for a poor people bullied and terrorized by Bush regime change shock and awe in Haiti. People were happy, smiling, smiling. Hugging each other. Slapping each other on the back. Just elated. Some, for the first time in seven years. A leader who speaks for them was back in Haiti. When they finally left as Tidid didn't come out to speak to the crowd, some took the unripe, the green mangoes from the trees.

I heard one guy saying "that is Titid's mango, so it's my mango!" But then one of the people in our group commented later on that some of them were taking the mangoes to show their families they were at Titid's house on this historic and miraculous return." [End of HLLN on-the-ground-report, on Aristide's historic return to a celebrity welcome, March 18, 2011.]

You won't see this sort of Haiti media coverage anywhere except at a few outlets but especially on Aljazeera, Democracy Now, or posts by Jean Saint-Vil (Jafrikayiti), Ansel Herz, Kevin Pina, Denis Bernstein, Georgianne Nienaber, Znet, the Dominion, Haiti radio and newspapers and with our own Ezili HLLN coverage that is always graciously picked up or quoted by Chris Cook at Pacific Free Press, Mary and Willie Ratcliff at SF BayView, Rob Kall at Op Ed news, Matt Rothschild at The Progressive, Said Shabazz at Final Call and Dick and Sharon at LA Progressive.

As I wrote in Beating back the elite’s rabid rage: Against all odds Aristide returns to Haiti :

This historic moment belongs to all of you who stood with the indigenous Haitians at HLLN who work to make a space for Haiti’s authentic voices without officialdom’s approval. It’s a harsh journey.

The return could have been a six-hour trip to Brazil and then just a few hours to Haiti. But it took 18 hours because the “benevolent internationals” interested in our “democracy and stability” wouldn’t allow former President Aristide, the symbol of the poor’s empowerment in Black Haiti, to travel through their territories.

It took 18 hours for Aristide to reach Haiti. Going from South Africa to Northern Africa in Senegal took 10 hours, while from Senegal to Haiti took another eight hours. I hear England wouldn’t allow a landing either. That long, long road is symbolic of the Haitian struggle. That long road Ezili’s HLLN has shared with you and with your support and forbearance. Unlike colonial celebritism with Sean Penn, no one will give us accolades for a mere six months journey in Haiti. Ours is a centuries-long journey. We overstand. The struggle continues... (Beating back the elite’s rabid rage: Against all odds Aristide returns to Haiti.)

Lack of media coverage of Aristide's return as opposed to dictator Duvaliers return is highlighted by Democracy Now! special video coverage, part 1 and part 2 of huge celebrity welcome for Aristide

It’s very telling how little mainstream media coverage and attention there is to Aristide’s return and the huge celebrity welcome he received from the people of Haiti. In contrast to the almost complete news blackout about Aristide’s force and power in Haiti, the bloody dictator, Baby Doc Duvalier, got much coverage and massive print and spin, misleading readers to think Haiti’s poor majority want bygones to be bygones because they’re “too young and don’t remember Duvalier’s atrocities”!

It’s also telling to know that the presidents of the U.S. and France and the secretary general of the U.N. made phone calls to South Africa in an attempt to block Aristide’s return to Haiti, despite the welcome you see and that they knew he would receive. In contrast, France allowed bloody dictator, Baby Doc Duvalier, to return to Haiti without any problems. Obama and Ban Ki-moon made no phone calls to stop it. In fact, the U.N. provided security for the brutal Duvalier from the airport to his luxurious Haiti hotel.

You will see in the video, the U.N. soldiers are nowhere visible on the trip home from the airport with Haiti’s first democratically elected president! These powerful but brutally warmongering forces are only exposing their own indefensibility as representatives of civilized peoples of the world. The world’s eyes are wide open. (See, Don't be distracted by Aristide in Haiti by Ezili Dantò and Avatar Haiti.)