Félix Morisseau-Leroy
Encyclopedia
Félix Morisseau-Leroy was a Haiti
an writer who wrote in Haitian Créole
for poetry and plays, the first significant writer to do so. By 1961 he succeeded in having Créole recognized as an official language of Haiti, after expanding its teaching in schools and use in creative literature. Morisseau also published works on French
, Haitian Créole and Haitian French literature. He worked internationally, encouraging the development of national literature in post-colonial Ghana
and Senegal
. In 1981 he settled in Miami, Florida
, where he was influential in uniting the Haitian community around Créole and encouraged its study in academia.
family, Morisseau studied in nearby Jacmel
, where he was educated in French
and English
. There he met his future wife Renée, who admired his skills as a horseman.
Morisseau-Leroy taught literature and theater, and also worked as a writer and journalist. He was appointed to political offices in government, including director in the Haitian Ministry of Public Instruction and General Director of National Education.
Known informally as "Moriso", he was a father of the Créole Renaissance
. He promoted the movement to stimulate use of Haitian Créole (or Kreyol) language and establish its legitimacy for creative use in literature and culture. As this was the only language of the majority of the people, who were mostly rural, Morisseau believed strongly in using Créole as a means of uniting the country. Morisseau translated the classical Greek tragedy Antigone
into Kreyol as Wa Kreyon, at the same time adapting the characters and context for Haitian culture, for instance, featuring a Vodoun priest.
The rise of Papa Doc Duvalier's autocratic regime shut down many of the most promising writers, as he was threatened by free expression. According to one story, Duvalier sent armed forces to escort Morisseau to the airport and force him into exile because he was offended by his work. Only the fact that they were former classmates and friends probably saved Morisseau's life.
Morisseau-Leroy was invited to France to produce Wa Kreyon in Paris. While there he met major figures in the Négritude
movement, such as Aimé Césaire
and Leopold Senghor. They encouraged his work and also influenced his future teaching in nations of Africa
and in the United States.
He next moved to Ghana
, where he taught and headed the national theatre as colonialism was ending. He taught in Ghana for seven years, then moved to Senegal
, where he taught until 1979. Other Haitian writers exiled by Duvalier to Senegal included Jean Brierre, Gérard Chenet and Roger Dorsinville
.
Morisseau-Leroy last moved to Miami, Florida
, in 1981, where there was a large Haitian community. He settled with his family there for the rest of his life. In teaching Haitian Créole and literature, he helped unite immigrants and their descendants around their heritage. He wrote a weekly column carried in the periodical Haiti en-Marche. In later years, his mop of a white-haired Afro
became a trademark, as was his sense of humor.
In 1991, his work was included in a collection of English translations (by Jeffrey Knapp, Marie Marcelle Buteau Racine, Marie Helene Laraque, and Suze Baron), Haitiad and Oddities, was published in Miami. It contains "Natif Natal," originally written in French, and 12 poems, including "Boat People," "Thank You Dessalines," and "Water," originally written in Haitian Kreyol. In 1995 he published his last work, an epic novel of Haiti of which he was proud, entitled Les Djons d'Haiti Tom (People of Haiti with Courage).
He died in Miami in 1998.
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
an writer who wrote in Haitian Créole
Haitian Creole language
Haitian Creole language , often called simply Creole or Kreyòl, is a language spoken in Haiti by about twelve million people, which includes all Haitians in Haiti and via emigration, by about two to three million speakers residing in the Bahamas, Cuba, Canada, France, Cayman Islands, French...
for poetry and plays, the first significant writer to do so. By 1961 he succeeded in having Créole recognized as an official language of Haiti, after expanding its teaching in schools and use in creative literature. Morisseau also published works on French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Haitian Créole and Haitian French literature. He worked internationally, encouraging the development of national literature in post-colonial Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
and Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
. In 1981 he settled in Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
, where he was influential in uniting the Haitian community around Créole and encouraged its study in academia.
Early life and education
Born in Grand Gosier in 1912 to an educated, well-to-do mulattoMulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
family, Morisseau studied in nearby Jacmel
Jacmel
Jacmel, also known by its indigenous Taíno name of Yaquimel, is a town in southern Haiti founded in 1698. It is the capital of the department of Sud-Est and has an estimated population of 40,000, while the municipality of Jacmel had a population of 137,966 at the 2003 Census.The buildings are...
, where he was educated in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. There he met his future wife Renée, who admired his skills as a horseman.
Marriage and family
Morisseau-Leroy married Renée in Jacmel, and always said she inspired his poetry. They had two sons and a daughter.Career
After returning from the US to Haiti, he taught in the capital Port-au-Prince. He began to pay more attention to the Créole of the streets and to think of its power as a written language to unite the country. At that time, French was used by the educated classes, and Créole was the language of the common people.Morisseau-Leroy taught literature and theater, and also worked as a writer and journalist. He was appointed to political offices in government, including director in the Haitian Ministry of Public Instruction and General Director of National Education.
Known informally as "Moriso", he was a father of the Créole Renaissance
Creole Renaissance
The Creole Renaissance is a movement which established Creole as legitimate literary language, started in large part by authors like Felix Morisseau-Leroy, who struggled successfully to make Haitian Kreyol the literary, educational, and official language of Haiti. This grew, in part, out of the...
. He promoted the movement to stimulate use of Haitian Créole (or Kreyol) language and establish its legitimacy for creative use in literature and culture. As this was the only language of the majority of the people, who were mostly rural, Morisseau believed strongly in using Créole as a means of uniting the country. Morisseau translated the classical Greek tragedy Antigone
Antigone (Sophocles)
Antigone is a tragedy by Sophocles written in or before 442 BC. Chronologically, it is the third of the three Theban plays but was written first...
into Kreyol as Wa Kreyon, at the same time adapting the characters and context for Haitian culture, for instance, featuring a Vodoun priest.
The rise of Papa Doc Duvalier's autocratic regime shut down many of the most promising writers, as he was threatened by free expression. According to one story, Duvalier sent armed forces to escort Morisseau to the airport and force him into exile because he was offended by his work. Only the fact that they were former classmates and friends probably saved Morisseau's life.
Morisseau-Leroy was invited to France to produce Wa Kreyon in Paris. While there he met major figures in the Négritude
Négritude
Négritude is a literary and ideological movement, developed by francophone black intellectuals, writers, and politiciansin France in the 1930s by a group that included the future Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor, Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, and the Guianan Léon Damas.The Négritude...
movement, such as Aimé Césaire
Aimé Césaire
Aimé Fernand David Césaire was a French poet, author and politician from Martinique. He was "one of the founders of the négritude movement in Francophone literature".-Student, educator, and poet:...
and Leopold Senghor. They encouraged his work and also influenced his future teaching in nations of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and in the United States.
He next moved to Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, where he taught and headed the national theatre as colonialism was ending. He taught in Ghana for seven years, then moved to Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
, where he taught until 1979. Other Haitian writers exiled by Duvalier to Senegal included Jean Brierre, Gérard Chenet and Roger Dorsinville
Roger Dorsinville
Roger Dorsinville was a Haitian poet, journalist, novelist, politician, and diplomat. Born in Port-au-Prince, Dorsinville attended military school before serving as the Minister of Public Health and ambassador to Venezuela...
.
Morisseau-Leroy last moved to Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
, in 1981, where there was a large Haitian community. He settled with his family there for the rest of his life. In teaching Haitian Créole and literature, he helped unite immigrants and their descendants around their heritage. He wrote a weekly column carried in the periodical Haiti en-Marche. In later years, his mop of a white-haired Afro
Afro
Afro, sometimes shortened to fro and also known as a "natural", is a hairstyle worn naturally by people with lengthy kinky hair texture or specifically styled in such a fashion by individuals with naturally curly or straight hair...
became a trademark, as was his sense of humor.
In 1991, his work was included in a collection of English translations (by Jeffrey Knapp, Marie Marcelle Buteau Racine, Marie Helene Laraque, and Suze Baron), Haitiad and Oddities, was published in Miami. It contains "Natif Natal," originally written in French, and 12 poems, including "Boat People," "Thank You Dessalines," and "Water," originally written in Haitian Kreyol. In 1995 he published his last work, an epic novel of Haiti of which he was proud, entitled Les Djons d'Haiti Tom (People of Haiti with Courage).
He died in Miami in 1998.
Influence
- Dyakout I (Diacoute) (1953) collection of poetry, and other works in Créole have been published in translation in six languages.
- In addition, Morisseau published critical work on CréoleCreole languageA creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...
, HaitiHaitiHaiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
an French, and FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
national literature. - Through his teaching and leadership, Morisseau helped create national literature and theater of Ghana and Senegal.
- His teaching in Miami, Florida encouraged immigrants, descendants and others to study and write in Haitian Creole, as well as leading to the academic study of Creole in the US.
Honors and legacy
- Authors have dedicated plays and volumes of poetry to Morisseau-Leroy.
- A street in Miami, Florida's Little HaitiLittle HaitiLittle Haiti or La Petite Haïti, and traditionally known as Lemon City, is a neighborhood in Miami, Florida, United States known as a traditional center for Haitian immigrants, and Francophone culture in the city.-Lemon City, early farming days:...
neighborhood was named after him.
- In 1991 Morisseau-Leroy was invited by Jean-Bertrand AristideJean-Bertrand AristideJean-Bertrand Aristide is a Haitian former Catholic priest and politician who served as Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in 1982 after completing his studies...
to Haiti to be a guest speaker at his inauguration. There Aristide affirmed Créole as an official language.
- The Canadian journal Étincelles named Morisseau as Writer of the Year.
- The March 13, 1992 issue of Finesse magazine (published in New York) was a collective tribute to Morisseau's 80th birthday.
- In 1994 the French journal Sapriphage devoted a special edition to his work called Haiti's Presence.
Selected works
- Plénitudes (1940), poetry
- Natif-natal, conte en vers (1948), short story in verse
- Dyakout (Diacoute) (1951), poetry
- Wa Kreyon (Antigone) in Kreyol (1953), play adapted for Haiti
- Haitiad and Oddities (1991), poetry
- Les Djons d'Haiti Tom (People of Haiti with Courage) (1995)
External links
- "Portrait of the Poet", Audio Documentary including readings by the poet
- "Félix Morisseau-Leroy", Famous Haitians
- "Two for Two: Theatre Mapou and Antigone", Echo d'Haiti
- Program 5 contains five video links of Morisseau speaking, his bio, his poetry, Library, University of Miami
- "Mèsi Papa Desalin", honoring Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Louverture Project
- "Eminans: a story for singing" English translation, Green Integer, Online review