Konbit:

Finding Haitian Solidarity in Modern Times

Robillard Louino
Final Practicum
for Master's Degree in
Applied Community
Change and Peacebuilding
Future Generations
Graduate School
Class of 2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
I: BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH

III DATA ANALYSIS

Introduction

Page 3

Elements of konbit

Page 51

Methodology

Page 4

Perspectives/Challenges

Page 54

Literature Review

Page 9

II CASE STUDIES ON KONBIT

Agricultural Konbit

Page 13

St Raphael

Page 14

Artibonite Valley

Page 16

Gwayavye

Page 19

Financial Konbit

Page 23

Sol in Cite Soleil

Page 24

Mutuelles in Vodrey

Page 25

Cooperative Business, Limbe Page 29

Community Konbit

page 32

Road building in Gan Bad

Page 32

Fort restoration in Fo Oge

Page 35

Canal cleaning in Cite Soleil

Page 38

Symbolic Konbit

Page 42

Kita Nago

Page 42

Earthquake remembrance

Page 47

Other perspectives on konbit

2|Page

Page 49

IV: RECOMENDATIONS &

CONCLUSIONS
Recommendations

Page 59

About the author

Page 63

V: ANNEXES
Interview transcriptions Page 64

I: BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH

INTRODUCTION:
A people that have forgotten their history
and abandoned their culture is a people without a
direction. Haiti is a country that was created by
freed slaves that came from Africa, who founded the

Background Information:
Haiti is a small country in the Caribbean that
shares an island with the Dominican Republic. It
covers

27,750

square

kilometers

and

is

first independent black Republic in the New World.

administrated through departments, communes,

What launched the Haitian Revolution was a voudou

communal sections, and localities.

ceremony, drawing on the culture and spirituality of

9,719,932 inhabitants according to 2011 estimates.

this African Diaspora to carry out the first successful

slave revolt in history. If it was this shared culture,

There are

It was originally a French colony used mostly for

cultivating sugarcane until a slave revolt led by
Toussaint Louverture and Jean Jacques Dessalines

spirituality, and solidarity that broke the chains of

succeeded in creating the independent republic of

slavery, how can these same things be used to break

Haiti in 1804. Haiti is currently known as the

the modern day chains of poverty?

poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with

a GDP per capita of just over $1,242 USD.

But from the founding year of Haiti's independence, 1804, Haiti has been struggling
to hold onto its culture because of waves of international marginalization, occupation,
evangelization, globalization, acculturation, structural readjustment, coup d'etats, and so
on. In light of all of this, Haiti is presented to the world as a backwards and poor country,
practically calling out for charity. This has caused Haiti to become known as "the Republic
of NGOs", and this has further eroded our sense of national pride and self-reliance.
Despite all of this, many places in the country that are holding onto their traditions,
that are building interdependence instead of dependence, and that are in many ways going
against the trend of dependency in Haiti. And while this may not be a solution to all of
Haiti's problems, it is providing a way for communities to sustain themselves in spite of
great difficulties. As the creole proverb goes: tout tan tet la pa koupe, gen espwa met chapo
or "as long as the head is not cut off, there is hope for wearing a hat." Many communities
are sustaining themselves through a traditional system called konbit.

3|Page

Konbit is a system that came from rural Haiti where peasants help each other in
cultivating the earth. Konbit has many different forms and uses, and although konbit is
beginning to disappear in the country, it is still a practical system for countless Haitians
today. The question is: how has konbit changed over the 2 centuries Haitians have been
using it, what role does it play in the modern lives of Haitians (and not just rural ones), and
how could it be used in the future? This paper is looking to study these questions.
METHODOLOGY
This paper is being written for a Master's Degree in Applied Community Change and
Peacebuilding. Because it is an applied degree, the purpose of this thesis is that it contributes to
social change in Haiti. That means the foundation of this research is something called an Underlying
Theory of Change - this is the author's assumption about what can cause social change in Haiti and
guided the planning and research of this paper.
Underlying Theory of Change:
Haitian people have mostly undervalued the potential of konbit and have
come to see the potential for change in money and foreign solutions; this is one
of the things that makes Haitian dependent on money and forget their roots and
their culture.
As a consequence, the task is to make a research that looks for the communities
they are still using konbit and make these examples visible so the whole of Haiti
can learn from them what really is the konbit and how it can be applied to
broader Haitian problems today.
The medium impact will be that more Haitian communities will be inspired to readopt the konbit and its principles of self-reliance and mutual cooperation back
into the community way of life.
The long-term impact is that this will make the Haitians less depend on the
foreign money and more depend on the community strength and existing local
resources.
Based on this Theory of Change, the research question was formed to investigate how
Haitians see konbit and how it can be used in modern times:
Research Question
Where are Haitian communities using the konbit system and how is this system still
practical in the modern life in Haiti?

4|Page

To answer this question, I decided to do a qualitative research because I was not interested
in how many people are doing konbit, but how people are doing konbit, and how they understand
what they are doing. I wanted more depth than breadth, to understand certain examples of konbit
very well instead of many statistics about konbit very superficially. And because konbit is
something that has been documented (as will be seen in the literature review on konbit)to be
practiced all across Haiti and with many many variations, it would be almost impossible to make a
quantitative study that really represents the reality for all Haitians using konbit. Therefore, this is
paper is not supposed to give a detailed and universal description of konbit all over Haiti, but to
open a window into the current practice of konbit, how it is changing, and how Haitians could use it
for modern problems.
I also used a deductive approach instead of an inductive approach. As we can see in the
literature review, there is some research that touches on konbit but not a lot, so many of the
questions about konbit are very open. Before a valid hypothesis can be framed for inductive testing,
it is necessary to frame the issues most broadly to understand what dynamics might be relevant for
testing.
I started with informal consultations with people in many different domains and areas
across Haiti to get a general idea about konbit so I can write my questions and make sure I am
responding to my Underlying Theory of Change. I asked them if they saw konbit in their domain
and how they saw konbit, and this is what showed me that konbit has many different forms and
that each form needed specific questions if I was going to understand it. The 4 domains of konbit
that I develop were konbit in the agricultural domain, the economic (business) domain, the
community domain, and the symbolic/cultural domain. Then I drafted my questionnaire based on
the information I got from these first consultations and the data I needed:

5|Page

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS/ KESYON POU

ENTVYOU
GENERAL KONBIT QUESTIONS/KESYON KONBIT JENERAL
1. Ki definisyon konbit? (what is the definition of konbit?)
2. Koman moun yo itilize konbit jounen jodi a? (how do people use konbit today?)
3. Eske gen chanjman ki fet nan konbit depi lontan? Si wi, koman? (Has the use of konbit changed
since the past? If so, how?)
4. Ki enpotans/val moun nan kominote w bay konbit nan jounen jodi a? (what importance/value
do people in your community give to konbit today/.)
5. koman konbit ka itil ayiti? (how can konbit be useful for Haiti?)

KESYON SPESIFIK SOU KONBIT AGRIKILTIREL/ SPECIFIC QUESTIONS F OR

AGRICULTURAL KONBIT
1. Dekrive jan konbit fonksyone (describe how the konbits function)
2. Ki es ka patisipe nan konbit la? (who can participate in the konbit?)
3. Ki diferans genyen ant konbit jodi a e lontan? (What differences, if any, are there between the
konbits of today and of a long time ago?)

KESYON SPESIFIK SOU KONBIT FINANSY/ SPECIFIC QUESTIONS FOR THE

FINANCIAL KONBIT
1. Koman aktivite sa a (sol/mitiyel/bisnis, elatriye) fonksyone? (how does this activity function?)
2. Ki enpakt aktivite sa a fe nan lavi psonel/familyel w? (what impact, if any, does this activity
have on your personal and family life?)
3. Dekrive eksperyans tet-ansanm nan (describe your experience with working cooperatively)

6|Page

KESYON SPESIFIK SOU KONBIT KOMINOT/ SPE CIFIC QUESTIONS FOR

COMMUNITY KONBIT

KESYON SPESIFIK SOU KONBIT KOMINOT/ SPE CIFIC QUESTIONS FOR

COMMUNITY KONBIT
1. Pouki sa a nou te mete tet nou ansanm pou nou reyalize aktivite sa a? (why did you decide to
work together to realize this activity?)
2. koman moun nan kominote a we sa a le nou mete tet nou ansanm? (how do other people in the
community see you when you work together like this?)
3. Eske genyen yon diferans ant le nou fe aktivite sa yo pou kont nou e le lot enstans vin fe pou
w? Si wi, koman? (is there a difference between when you do these activities by yourselves and
when others come and do things for you? if yes, how?)

KESYON SPESIFIK SOU KONBIT SENBOLIK/KILT IREL / SPECIFIC

QUESTIONS FOR SYMBOL IC/CULTURAL KONBIT
1. Ki sak pouse nou pou nou fe aktivite sa a ki pa gen okenn benefis direk nan lavi w? (what
motivated you to do this activity that has no direct benefit in your life?)
2. Koman lot moun yo te we le w te fe aktivite sa a? Ki sa yo te pense? (How did other people
perceive this effort? what did they think of it?)
3. eske w te we chanjman ke w tap tann? si wi, koman? (did you see the change you were working
towards? if so, how?)

To make sure that I got a good understanding of each of these kinds of konbit, from
the above surveyrather than presenting my data in a more customary sociological mode
of numbers and cultural statementsI decided to develop 3 case studies for each kind of
konbit, because case study lets me get into detail so I can understand each case well and
lets me compare the different case studies too. I decided to do key informants for each case
study instead of focus groups, because I wanted enough diversity from different
communities and opinions that it would have been impossible to organize 20 focus groups.
I also conducted many informal focus groups because as a Haitian it was simple for me to
talk to people in the public transport system (called taptaps) or in the street, but not simple
to record these things.
For the past year, I have been making a research called "Success Mapping" with an
organization called Future Generations Haiti, where we looking for the Haitian
7|Page

communities that are resilient and successful in making change. In this research, I found a
lot of them use many forms of konbit. I used this basic research to help me pick 3
communities for each type of konbit to develop as a case study. And in each community, I
had an idea of the people who can speak about the experience the konbit in this
community. In the same way, I chose several people who are not part of these 12
communities but who still have a lot to say about konbit in Haiti, like Madame Odette Roy
Fombrun (who is one of the most respected scholars in the country that has made a lot of
advocacy for konbit) and Dominique Romuald (leader of a strong peasants' movement
called OPADEL in La Montagne, Jacmel). I was looking for a lot of diversity in geography, in
age, in sex, in education level, in kind of organization, in domain of activity.
I made 20 interviews in total (not counting the informal focus groups), some of them
in person with a recorder, some of them over the phone with a software that lets me record
the voice over the phone. Interviews ranged in time from 1 1/2 hour to 5 minute - it
depends on how much the person interviewed wanted to talk. I was not very strict with the
questionnaire because I wanted to follow the conversation more naturally, so the questions
have a lot of variety. I asked everyone before I record if I can record, this is to respect their
privacy if they are not comfortable with me recording. If I did not ask for permission to
write their names in the paper, I do not use their names in the paper, and all of the
transcriptions they are using the initials of the names of the respondents, not the real
name, to respect the privacy.

8|Page

I: LITERATURE REVIEW : THE HISTORY OF KON BIT

Although this is a practicum and based largely on field work, it was important to
position my research on previous scholarship. Ideally I wanted to start with the research
fellow Haitians had done on the idea of konbit, but this was very challenging: the National
Library was destroyed in the earthquake of January 12, 2010, the State College of
Anthropology was also affected by the earthquake and I had difficulty getting access to
those records. I had to use published books that were available internationally, online
documents, and peer reviewed journals. However, when I researched the term "konbit" in a
lot of peer reviewed journals, nothing came up. And when one types the word "konbit" into
Google, the majority of results will be the names of NGOs or large aid projects that use the
word because of its meaning but do not necessarily because they practice its principles. I
will do my best to present the current literature on konbit, even though it is very limited.
My first great question was on the origins of
konbit and the word itself (sometimes spelled
"coumbite" or "koumbit"). There were several articles
written studying the origins of konbit in West Africa,
where most Haitians were originally from before
slavery brought them to the Caribbean. One of them, a
series of papers written for Teaching for Change,
describes how konbit comes from West African roots. In
a section based on Harold Courlander's 1960 book The
Drum and the Hoe: Life and Lore of the Haitian People
published by University of California Press, the paper
describes that "The rhymic, synchronized use of the
hoe, the singing leader and the musicians who stand to

Photo credit: Teaching for Change

one side to 'encourage' the workers, the calling of the workers by drum rappels, the special
consideration for the sick, and the concept of long-term community endeavor are all of
West African origin. The konbit is the legitimate descendent of the Dahomean dokpwe, the
kurum of the Mambila (Cameroons), the Ku of the Kpelle (Liberia), and other West African
9|Page

cooperative systems1." Other African Diaspora societies that came from West Africa have
similar systems that have different names: "day work", "work sport", or "digging match" in
Jamaica, , "lend-hand" in Tobago, "gayap" in Trinidad, and "maroon" in Grenada1.
Konbit has been studied mostly by anthropologists from both Haiti and the outside
world, and there are many characteristics and descriptions that they agree on. According to
an article written by Hudler Joseph for the Haitian newspaper "Le Matin", the konbit
"constitutes a form of social organization that allows peasants to exploit their farms more
cheaply. This traditional structure, based on the reciprocity of services, is woven into the
national fabric. It is about an exchange of consent about a non-lucrative activity"2. He also
describes the cultural elements of the konbit that are important, such as the conch shell
calling peope to work, the drum giving a rhythm, alcohol beverages to motivate people, and
sometimes would be associated with voudou ceremonies to honor Cousin Zaka, the lwa of
agriculture2.
Both Joseph and an African anthropologist
he draws from, Denetem Touam Bona, talk about
the very important role that music, dance, and
rhythm played in the konbits. They said that the
konbit revolved around a central rhythm3, and that
it was as much of a form of choreography as it was
a labor2. Bona saw the konbit itself as completely
opposed to the capitalist structure of the
plantations, because they were very horizontal and
based on shared goals3.
One of the most well-known anthropologic books that talks about the konbit is
Where the Hands are Many: Community Organization and Social Change in Rural Haiti by
Jennie M Smith. She also talks about the importance of songs, drums, and music in the
konbits, how this "lightened the load" for difficult agricultural activities, how that
represented a connection with Haitians' African roots4. Smith says that konbit and its

10 | P a g e

associated form of kve "have been foundational building blocks for much contemporary
community-based organization in rural Haiti4.
There is also a good amount of literature on konbit and its associated gwoupman,
which is a general term for a rural community group. Salena Tramel of Grassroots
International described how konbit and gwoupman are important in Haitian society: "
There are two words in the Haitian Creole language that act as the foundational building
blocks of the Haitian movement, gwoupman (local community group) and konbit
(cooperative communal labor). Operating in the spirit of both, movements on the local,
regional, and national levels see their shared vision for Haiti as self-determination through
healing a broken food system and unlocking the land's potential"5. One of the most
commonly-cited examples of this is Mouvman Peyizan Papay, Haiti's largest peasants'
movement5. Their movement defines itself on its website as "a peasant organization whose
goal is to unite all of the peasants in Haiti and assemble young rural workers to organize
into groups to promote their culture and economy"6. It was founded in 1973 and includes
more than 4,500 rural groups across Haiti7, and they are the most successful form of the
gwoupman concept that is tied very closely with konbit.
The scholar who has written about and advocated the
most for konbit is Madame Odette Roy Fombrun. Born in the
year 1917, Madame Fombrun spent many years in various
political exiles because of her and her husbands' progressive
views, including time in Africa8. When she came back from
exile in the late 1980s after the fall of the Duvalier regime, she
dedicated much of her time and scholarship to the ideas of
civic education, education reform, and konbit. She published
the book Konbit tt Ansanm pou Ayiti Kanpe in 19878, which
focused on the true meaning of konbit as a national form of
solidarity. She advocated for a social contract for Haiti and Inspired by the peasant custom of
the konbit, she proposes "Konbitism" as the base for a unifying social contract, which was
supposed to be Haiti's response to capitalism, socialism, and communism9.

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But there are few intellectuals besides Madame Fombrun who write about konbit as
a philosophy; most scholarly work focuses on konbit as only an agricultural practice for
rural Haitian peasant groups. There is a gap in research about Haitians using the approach
of konbit for solving other problems besides agricultural problems, and also that analysis
how konbit is changing to keep up with modern times.
To summarize, based on the existing literature, konbit is understood as a traditional
form of agricultural cooperative in Haiti where peasants work together in the fields, using
traditional music, dance, and alcohol to animate the work. There are a few people, like
Madame Fombrun, that see konbit as the basis of a broader social contract.
REFERENCES:

1. "The Konbit: Working Together". Teaching for Change: Teaching about haiti.
http://www.teachingforchange.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Haiti_Literature.pdf
2. "Le rythme et la danse dans le "Coumbite". Hudler Joseph, Le Matin, 07/08/2011.
http://www.lematinhaiti.com/contenu.php?idtexte=24526
3. "Negros Cimarrones". Denetam Touam Bona. 07/21/2005.
http://destee.com/index.php?threads/negros-cimarrones.39134/
4. When the Hands Are Many: Community Organization and Social Change in Rural Haiti. Jennie M.
Smith. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001. ix + 229 pp
5. "Haitian movements Branch Out". Salena Tramel, Huffington Post. 10/13/2011.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/salena-tramel/haitian-movements-branch_b_1008807.html?page=NewsArticle&id=13695%20(-tramel/haitian-movements-branch_b_1008807.html
6. "Qui sommes-nous?" Mouvman Peyizan Papay website. Last accessed on 8/28/2013.
http://www.mpphaiti.org/-Historique-.html
7. "Mouvement Paysan de Papye - MPP (Haiti)". Alternatives. Last accessed 8/28/2013.
http://www.alternatives.ca/content/ally/mouvement-paysan-de-papaye-mpp-haiti

8." Odette Roy Fombrun, educator feminist and Historian" Kreyolicious. last acess 28/8/13
http://kreyolicious.com/odette-roy-fombrun-1917-educator-feminist-and-historian/6574/
9. "rename the island : Quisqueya, not Hispaniola " Odette Roy Fombrun. December 2000.
http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/ile.en.ile/paroles/fombrun_quisqueya-en.html

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II: STUDIES ON VARIOUS T YPES OF KONBIT

AGRICULTURAL KONBIT:
CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS KONBIT:
In general, agricultural konbit is what is closest to the traditional konbit that was described
in the last section. Because of this, when one says "konbit"( Koumbit, Coumbite , most
Haitians will think of the agricultural konbit and only the agricultural konbit.
There are many names for konbit: kolonn,
kve, eskwad, asosye, joune, and others.
Every region has their own words for
konbit, but they all function with the same
characteristics:
Konbit is a form of agricultural cooperative,
but they are different from many
agricultural cooperatives because there is
no shared land. Generally, people participating in a konbit have their own land (there are
some exceptions: see case study 3 in this chapter). The land is usually too large for a
farmer to farm by himself, and there is no access to machines like tractors. So the farmer
makes a team with other farmers that have the same problem as him (these groups can be
called kolon, eskwad, asosye, etc depending on the area). In the group, each farmer gets a
turn where all of the other farmers in his kolon will spend an entire day helping him on his
farm - he does not need to pay them money (there are some exceptions: see case study 3)
but is responsible for providing alcohol, music, and sometimes food. The group makes a
schedule and there is a rotation: every farmer in the kolon will get a turn with the group
helping him until everyone has had a turn, and then they will start again.
There are always variations in different communities, but the general principles of the
agricultural konbit are consistent across Haiti.

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THREE CASE STUDIES OF AGRICULTURAL KONBIT:

1. Family farms in Guacimal, St Raphael, North department:
i. Background on St Raphael:
St Raphael is a commune that is in the North Department, which is situated half-way
between Hinche (the capital of the Central Department) and Cap Haitian (the capital of the
North Department). Its GPS coordinates are 192621N 721159W. It also has roads that
lead to the Artibonite Department through the commune of St Michel de l'Atalaye. This
means it is a very important crossroads for commerce in the Greater North of Haiti. It is a
big area with 18,381 hectares, with 48,884 people living in it according to a 2009 statistic
[Wikipedia].
There are a few big rivers that come through St Raphael, the biggest is the River Bouyaha.
This means it is the place that produces the second-most amount of rice (after the
Artibonite) and a lot of vegetables like tomatoes, onions, carrots, peppers, etc. St Raphael,
because it makes a lot of food and is this big crossroads, has one of the biggest markets in
Northern Haiti where people come from all over to buy and sell things.
Normally, everybody has a
family land that their
grandparents left for them that
the people use to farm
vegetables, corn, sweet
potatoes, and millet. But there
is also a large land that
measures many acres that is
irrigated land called Nan Sipa
that is divided into many parcels. Many families own a parcel of irrigated land in Nan Sipa
to plant things like rice and carrots and tomatoes that like a lot of water; if someone does
not own the land in Nan Sipa he can have the chance to rent a parcel of land for a season. St

14 | P a g e

Raphael also has a large orange plantation that is owned a private businessman and are
sold to industries in Cap Haitian.
ii. Family farm konbits/kolons in St Raphael:
St Raphael is a place that uses a traditional form of konbit to work on their family gardens
and their land in Nan Sipa. This is the way that a local leader describes konbit in St Raphael:
" in the morning today, I work in your garden. After today I work with someone else, after
the other day I work with someone else. When I need help, now all the people I helped are
supposed to come and work with me" [1.1, 2:00]. In many other counties, when people talk
about agricultural cooperatives they mean people that share one piece of land; in Haitian
version of cooperative, everyone has their own land, but they each help each other in
farming until everyone benefits from the labor. The important idea is reciprocity: a local
farmer explained that, " when you help me I help you. If I help you and then ask you to help
me and for some reason you cant help me, maybe you can say, ah, I cant help you today,
but I can buy some liquor for you to give to the people" [1.2, 1:40]
There are many important elements in konbit in St Raphael: a farmer describes it like this, "
konbit is when people make a garden, and he does it with a lot of people. After that, today
you help the person, we make food, give people food, liquor, singing, and when the time
comes, we go at it [1.2, 0:29]. All of these things are called "stimulants" and help give
people energy and motivation to work all day, sometimes even with no food.
Konbit in St Raphael that is done this way has some advantages and some disadvantages
according to local leader: the advantage is that it can mobilize a lot of people to help you for
no money, but the disadvantage is that people sometimes do not show up so it is less
dependable [1.1, 3:15]. But once people show up, many konbits have a structure where
everyone does exactly an equal part, usually measured out by rope: "I show up and ask to be
given 4 lengths of rope [this is used to measure off a small parcel that he will work], and when I
finish my area, I go home, and that person knows that he owes me 4 lengths of rope" [1.2, 2:08].

Also, for many reasons, konbit is starting to disappear in St Raphael. One reason is that
Haitians are becoming more interested in money and are not thinking they will work for
15 | P a g e

the promise of someone else's labor. One local farmer in Bouyara, a rural section of St
Raphael, talked about the peasants, saying: "But now, they almost dont want [the konbit]
anymore, and they more want to work for money these days" [1.2, 1:18]. Some people
make a reference to the kve of the past (that was talked about in the literature review) and
think it is like giving their labor for free [1.2, 1:10]. Many peasants they have sold their land
and so they cannot participate in the reciprocal system of this kind of konbit and they
prefer to sell their labor to someone for money. And konbit is something that is based on
trust, so when there is less trust in a community, the konbit cannot survive.
But it still is being done in St Raphael, even if it is less, and people still think that konbit can
be useful in the community, especially for the poorest of the peasants. A local pastor
explained this:
"they need to continue with the konbit, because the konbit is
not to the advantage of the chiefs... and thats why since a long time
ago, the state doesnt like konbit because it makes us unite ourselves.
And when we unite ourselves, we can accomplish great things. With
union we can accomplish great, great, great things. So the state tried to
break it with this system of [cant hear well]. [7:26] In the past it was
like that, well it really was the best system. You helped me in any way
you could, if it was food you could bring, bringing water, bring a goat, if
its corn I can give you, if its beans I will bring them. Well now theyve
put in a system of money to divide us" [1.1, 7:56].

2. Rice farmers and cooperatives in the Valley of the Artibonite:

i. Background on the Valley of the Artibonite:
The Valley of the Artibonite is the "rice-basket" of Haiti, the place that is producing the
most rice in the country. It is a fertile valley that is 30 minutes north of the city of St Marc.
The communes that are in the valley are Petit Riviere, Verette, Grande Saline, Dessalines,
Estere, La Chapelle.
In the past, Haiti was self-sufficient in rice, that means that it produced enough rice to feed
the whole country. It was like this until 1980s, when rice production began to decline and
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was further accelerated during the

Photo credit: Felipe Jacome

1990s because of trade liberalization

policies Haiti has become dependent
on imported rice (called "Miami rice")
and has the lowest tariff on rice in the
region at 3%. Local Haitian rice is
often more expensive than imported
rice, and many Haitians think
imported rice is higher quality.
Despite this, rice production is still
thriving in 3 areas of the country: Les Cayes, St Raphael, and the Artibonite Valley. A
federation of 7 rice cooperatives in the Artibonite Valley (covering the 6 communes of the
Valley) called RACPABA is very active in the area and helping to transform the way local
rice is produced and sold. Even though the cooperatives do not share land, they share
inputs, technical expertise, and pool their sales. Through special cultivation methods, they
have succeeded to increase the yield per acre more than 4 times over. And even though the
cooperative has access to some equipment like tractors, it is not enough to help all the
farmers and many still rely on the konbit.
ii. Cooperatives and konbits in Valley of the Artibonite: (relationship between konbits and
formal cooperatives)
According to Agronomist Jesnel Louis-jeune, who is responsible for the production sector
of RACPABA, konbit is not something that is new: " RACPABA, as the intermediary of these 7
cooperatives that are engaged in rice cultivation in the Artibonite Valley, konbit is not a word that is
foreign to us. Any child today can tell you what konbit is" [Interview 1.3, 1:36].
The agronomist defines konbit as the following:
"Konbit is a means that all planters use to arrive at carrying out a
quantity of work because when it is only himself working on a
parcel of land and his interventions are not enough to finish the
work on time, and what he was hoping to achieve he cannot achieve
it is an initiative that has been around a long time, that when I was
brought up everyone was using it, that allows for people to work
17 | P a g etogether to form a sort of association." [Interview 1.1, 2:14]

When the agronomist described how the konbit works in the Artibonite, he mentioned the
following elements that all konbits have:

Group of farmers spend a day at one farmer's garden, then they rotate

It is done for free, no money is involved

Food and "stimulants" are given (stimulants are alcohol)

Songs are sung, and this is an important motivation to work harder

People work like it is their own garden, and even if the owner of the garden cannot
be there, when his day arrives, the work will get done. [Interview 1.3, 2:22-3:22]

The Agronomist Jesnel Louis-Jeune is a young man, he is about 35 years old. He studied
agronomy at one of the biggest private universities in Haiti, the Episcopal University of
Haiti. He studied modern agriculture with machinery and science, so how does he see the
importance of an old tradition like konbit?"Konbit is extremely important, and it is extremely
important for the advancement of agriculture across the country, and not only in the Artibonite
Valley , because konbit gives results" [1.3, 5:40]. He also says that the cooperatives that RACPABA
works with are like konbits themselves, so that makes RACPABA a big konbit.
But the agronomist is worried about konbit being under a threat because people they are more
interested in money today than cooperation [1.3, 3:40]. Another threat, according to the
agronomist, that the konbit finds is mechanized agriculture. Many people think that mechanized
agriculture is the absence of konbit, is the absence of manual work, and they don't know how to
adapt konbit to the mechanized agriculture. But the agronomist has a different idea:
"The mechanized system doesnt exclude konbit too. Mechanized
agriculture came to help us evolve the agricultural sector, to grow
the agricultural sector in the country, but it doesnt exclude konbit.
Why? Because there are a series of activities that are still carried out
manually that konbit can still do. There are some times you can give
[mechanized] tilling service but someone doesnt have enough
people to help out and cant pay anyone for their services, and there
are a number of other more minute tasks that need to be carried out
in the soil and because those cant get done, the whole thing fails, and
this could be avoided with the use of konbit." [1.1, 6:15]

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The Agronomist shows the importance of the konbit, even sees ways that it can evolve, but
during the whole interview, we can see that everything is at the level of agriculture. This is
easy to understand because this young man is an agronomist and RACPABA is an
agricultural cooperative, and so he is speaking in his area of expertise, so he sees konbit
associated with manual labor in the gardens. This is a clear example of the agricultural
konbit.

3. Sell-your-day konbits in Gwayavye, Artibonite:

i. Background on Gwayavye:
Gwayavye (Goyavier in French) is the 3rd
communal section of St Marc in the
Artibonite Department. It is 46.63 kilometers
squared and is in the mountains on above the
city of St Marc, the big problem of the
community is lack of road. There is a some
kind of road going up to the community but it
is in bad condition and dangerous if one car
is coming up the mountain then there cannot
be a car coming down the mountain because they will get stuck. This makes life very
difficult for the population of Gwayavye because all of the agriculture produce they have it
is hard to get to market even while the big city of St Marc is on the bottom of the mountain.
It is also a big problem because the young people when they want to keep going with the
school they have to go down the mountain and many times they live down the mountain
and never come back and like this Gwayayve loses the young people.
Another big problem of the community is the water: Gwayavye is at a very high elevation
above and it does not have any water bodies (stream, spring, pond, etc). They only depend
on the rain for the water, for the plants and the animals and the drinking. The children
must miss a day of school to walk long distance in the mountains to carry water to the
19 | P a g e

home. This problem start to see a solution because the people learn to capture the
rainwater that fall on the house roofs and keep it in a cistern to use more.
ii. Sell-your-day konbits:
With the traditional konbit, there is usually not money there but sometime they see a
variation of the traditional konbit where the people who do not have the land they can sell
their day. Normally the people have inherited land from the family called abitasyon it can
be understood like homestead but sometimes the people do not have they own land and
this means that the konbit can be no good for them, so this type of konbit is present in some
communities today. A good example of this konbit type is in Gwayavye, Artibonite:
Life is very hard in Gwayavye as one can see the
road and the water problem make normal things
very difficult. But even with this problem Gwayavye
is a very rich community because it produce almost
everything: beans, cabbage, breadfruit, corn,
spinach, millet, etc. The only thing it do not produce
is rice because rice cannot grow on the mountain.
But Gwayavye is difficult and there are no
agriculture machines (like tractors) and it is
impossible to farm the mountain by your own self. Even if you had all the money to rent a
tractor the tractor cannot climb the mountain so the only thing left to help you with the
land is the people. So the system of konbit is the biggest tool the population of Gwayavye
have even a bigger tool than the pickaxe and the machete.
Every area has a way to do the konbit. In Gwayavye they use the kolonn system, and in this
system there are the groups (called kolonn) that the farmer joins and it is organized so you
have to be a member of a kolonn you cannot just change from this to that like that. Every
person in the kolonn has a right to call a konbit and this is a day that the other member of
the kolonn come to work in his garden for free that day and then the next time a konbit is

20 | P a g e

called then everyone works in the garden of the other person (just like the traditional
konbit I describe in the chapter before).
A young man from Gwayavye, Jonel, described how the konbit system works in Gwayavye: "
Sometimes the first way they do it, they start with about 4-5 people. When they start with 4-5
people, today, I am the head, and I am hosting the konbit in my garden. Then tomorrow, we will do
the same in the garden of someone else who is a part of this same konbit. That means we will
continue to advance and do it on another [garden]" [1.4, 1:06]. This is a very similar description to
how it was described in St Raphael.

But there is a variation in the way konbit is done in Gwayayve: what if there is a person
who has not the land? Does he have a right to join kolonn? Yes, and the people are very
much interested for everyone to have a land. So normally if there is a member of a kolonn
he can call a konbit and everyone work for him for free on his land, but if he has not land,
he can sell the day of work to someone else who is not in the kolonn who has the land and
needs the people to work for him. Then, all of that money for everybodys work for the day
goes to the person who does not have the land so he can start saving money to buy the
land. Then when he finally can buy the land, this time when he needs the konbit he can use
it on his land and does not have to sell the day anymore. Jonel describes how the konbit's
day is "bought" by someone outside the konbit: "there might be someone who is not in this
konbit who has the means to work. How does he do it? He has the means to work but isnt in the
konbit, and he doesnt want to work in the garden. So what he does is he makes a deal that the
konbit will work in his garden, and he will give the money to the head of the konbit, and the head of
the konbit will separate the money with every member of the konbit" [1.4,1:37].

Everyone in Gwayavye belongs to a kolonn because almost all of the community make their
livelihood on farming. And even there is many difficulty, the konbit lets the people make a
life on the mountain: there is a farmer in Gwayavye who has 10 children and with konbit
made enough money to send all of the 10 children to school in St Marc.
Jonel is one of the 10 children of this farmer and really sees the importance of konbit:

21 | P a g e

"Normally, [konbit] is the best way for peasants to organize themselves to work. If you
are working the land, you understand? Because in the day, the land used to yield
more, and at the same time, it wasnt possible to find the means to work the land.
Today, if everyone could do konbit to work, the conditions of life for people in the
countryside would be improved. Because the amount of money that would be spent
for people to work for you, if you made konbit, put your heads together, you work in
someone elses garden today and tomorrow they work in your garden, you would see
that you would economize better and find a better yield from the garden" [1.4, 3:36].

22 | P a g e

FINANCIAL KONBIT:
CHARACTERISTICS OF FINANCIAL KONBIT:
A long time ago, the economy of Haiti was
based on the agriculture. That made the
peasants more valued and work hard to give
the results. But in the last 50 years, the
country day to day is coming more to depend
on the international and on money. Because
of the lower of the value in the countryside,
there becomes a rural exodus to the city. When people go to the city, there is no work that
can respond to the peoples lives. Many Haitians they live on less than 1 US dollar a day,
but for these people to respond to the needs of paying for the house and the school and the
food, they all are obligated to live with a Haitian ideology of one for all, all for one. And
because of the social condition of these people, the bank or the micro-finance that is should
be there to lend people the money to start business, they do not trust the people to lend
them the money legally.
Because of the economic barriers the people have, they use the same ideology of konbit
they use in the countryside in working the ground to assemble the resources to help a
person in need and then that continues to help all the people in a kolonn and they use it
for the money problems too in modern Haiti. Financial konbits often share the same
characteristic of rotation with the agricultural konbits: everyone takes a turn financially
helping someone, knowing that eventually it will be their turn to be helped. It is a pooling
of resources to give people a boost when there is no access to other financial services.

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THREE CASE STUDIES OF FINANCIAL KONBITS:

1. The use of sol in urban Cite Soleil:
i. Background of sol
Sol is a type of cooperative that a group of people does to put what they have together to
give to one person an amount of money that they could not have for a long time. The way it
works is that a sol can be let us say 10 people they accept to give a certain amount of
money every week no one gives more than the other gives - and they decide together
which one of those people gets all of the money for that week. The money is distributed
through a mama sol, or a sol "mother" [2.1, 2:15]. This amount of money is good cash grant
and is more than they could have gotten all at once ever, so it helps them make a big
purchase or do invest in their business. After that, every week or month, a different
member of the sol gets the money until everyone has got a turn. There is a version of sol
where the turn-around is much quicker and the payments come through every day; this is
called sabotay [2.1, 2:00].
This is done with no official papers but it is with the confidence and trust of the people in
the group. It is the very same idea of the konbit in the gardens, because in the gardens
everyone puts together to give one person a big push and then everyone else gets their
push too in the sol, everyone gets a push from the group eventually. And the sols are done
not only for money but for things like meat and goods and services. The sol sits on the trust
and conscience, because the last person to get money from the sol has to have the trust that
everyone else will continue the sol and not drop out.
ii. Description of a sol in Cite Soleil:
For example, there is a baker a man who owns a bakery in Cite Soleil called Pierre Rolin he
belongs to a sol for people who are in businesses. He was working at a bakery and saving
his money, and put it in a sol, and with the pay-out was able to build his own bakery [2.1
2:50].

24 | P a g e

Sols depend a lot on the trust between the

members. Pierre Rolin is currently in 2 sols, one
of which is working very well and one of which
is not: " And the sol has its advantages and its
disadvantages. For instance, I was in a sol that
finished 2 years ago, and I still haven't gotten
paid. I was supposed to be paid 30,000 gourdes.
But I'm in another sol in Soley 20, and this is a
good sol. I've benefited several times already"
[2.1, 0:30]. In the well-working sol, he has to
contribute 500 gourdes a day, and the sol has 30
people in it. Every week somebody gets 105,000 gourdes to invest in their business. When
he got his turn in the sol, he bought all of the flour he needed for a year and this is
something he cannot get a loan for from the bank, so he gets a solidarity loan from his other
businessmen and women.
He says the sol is the place he turns to when he has business troubles: " When the business is
going through hard times, I invested it in the business. I might have a problem and I might ask the
sol mother to let me have the next turn, and the money helps me resolve the problem" [2.1, 1:27].
He considers it the "bank of the poor" and a way for poor people to pool their money together to
accomplish greater things.

2. Mutuelle de Solidarite in Vodrey, rural Cite Soleil

i. Background on Mutuelle de Solidarite:
Mutuelle is like a sol but has more principles than a sol. It is still a group of people who
decide to put their heads together to help their economic situation. It is a system that
functions like a sol where people can put their money together to help each others
businesses but it is also an emergency system so that if someone is in need they can find
money and it is a type of bank too. The Finance Secretary of REMUSOV, who I will introduce
next, describes the mutuelle like this: " its a group of people who have the same objective, for
25 | P a g e

instance working in a garden, or working in animal husbandry, or working in another domain, who
decide to work together to resolve some problems they are known to find, to reinforce their activity
and to carry out both economic and social activities" [2.2, 1:05]
There are 3 boxes: a red box, a blue box, and a green box.
Again, the financial secretary of REMUSOV describes the
system: "there are 3 chests: a green chest, which is for
when people need credit for commerce or to maintain
their gardens or raising animals, this is where they come
to borrow. There is the red chest, which is a chest for
assistance, in the case of an emergency like a natural
disaster, a serious illness, its this case that people use to
help one another. and there is the blue chest, which is the
re-financing chest, if there is an organization that is
interested in giving a gift to the mutuelle or if there is a financing problem that is so large they cant
address it they can go to another financial institution to go after this money to address the financial
need that they couldnt respond to. [2.2, 2:17]"

There are many principles that make the mutuelle work: mutuelle sits on 3 rocks: the first
rock is solidarity, the second rock is equality, the third rock is the principles and rules that
govern the mutuelle. A mutuelle has no chief. Each box has its own lock and each box is
with a different member and the key to that box is with a different member, and these
people cannot be family. And there is a separate person who has the record books. This is a
way they have control of the mutuelle.
ii. Description of mutuelle de solidarite in Vodery:
For example, there is a community that is called Vodrey that is in the north of Cite Soleil, it
is a community that is very advanced in agriculture . But like in many parts of Haiti, there
was almost no possibility for agricultural credit. Banks in Haiti do not trust the poor people,
and ask them to leave a lot of property as a deposit or ask for a big interest, and this is so
common that Haiti has a proverb that says "money goes to the house with money". So
people are obliged to go to informal money lenders who are called ponya, which means a
"big knife", because they ask for such high interest rates that it is like getting cut by a knife.
26 | P a g e

In English these people are known as "loan sharks". Gardy Guerrier, the president of an
organization called REMUSOV, describes the situation the way it was in Vodrey: "many
people that were in the agricultural or economic sector, whenever they had a money problem, they
were forced to find someone that would give them a loan or let them pawn something. These things
they were good, they were bad, because the people who were worst, they would have to go to a loan
shark, where the interest rate on the loan would get to just 25%, 30%, even 35%, and you had to
pay every month [2.3, 1:41]"

In 2008, the people got training from a national organization on mutuelle de solidarite.
Hudson Rene describes how they got the idea: "we have to say that the activity of mutuelle de
solidarite, the way it came, it was in sitting in reflecting on the different problems in the sectors
here in particular its the domain of agriculture that we are in. We reflected about the different
problems we encountered, like when there were problems of drought, the gardens died and there
was no water, or maybe there were gardens that we couldnt find money to maintain. And when
they presented the model of mutuelle de solidarite we saw it was a good model, and we worked
together to enter in the activity of konbit mutuelle, which allowed us to put our money together and
find solutions to the problems of water that there were in the past, the problem of maintenance of
gardens, in commerce too there were people who couldnt do anything, it allowed us to do this as
well" [2.2,4:35].

They started with one mutuelle and this mutuelle advanced so much that so many people
who are interested that now there are 14 mutuelles in Vodrey, each with its own name,
history, and membership.. Almost every family in Vodrey has at least one person in a
mutuelle and it succeeded to change the entire economy of the community. These
mutuelles they now are a coalition called REMUSOV and they combined they can do great
things for the community. And they give a lot of
trainings on mutuelles to other communities
because the mutuelles were so important to them.
Here is an example of how one mutuelle, Miso-Viv,
got started, according to Prevoir, its president: "So
it is people who were trained about the mutuelle who
become part of the mutuelle. From that point, we start,

27 | P a g e

we signed people up, and they themselves they contribute, its like a family, they say how much they
themselves can give in the mutuelle. In my mutuelle, it is 100 gourdes. In a little bit, around 3:00,
my mutuelle will start to work because its at 3:00 we meet. At this point people started to meet,
and 3 months afterwards we were able to start with a small bit of credit with the members, so with
the amount of money we have in the chests, we can say we can start the credit. And according to the
amount of money we have, we start with a bit of credit, with a very low [interest] rate. [2.4, 2:34]
I want to make a distinction here between a mutuelle and a mutuelle de solidarite. There are many
communities that use this system of credit where they put money together to lend to other people,
but they do not have a sense of putting their heads together, of solidarity. They do not have a red
case for when the members have an emergency. And in the mutuelle de solidarite, it is not just about
finances. There are songs, there are stories shared about the community, there are times for you to
share about what happened in your life. Gardy, the president of REMUSOV, talks about the sense of
solidarity:
" This kind of solidarity is in many domains. People work together to put their small amount of
money together every week, when the money accumulates to a certain level, they lend each other
money. And its not just an economic konbit where people come to discuss about money only, there
are other things that are discussed in the mutuelle. If someone in the mutuelle happens to have a
problem, she knows shes not alone, that she has other people that are in the mutuelle de solidarite
that are aware of her problem... that means, for me, once a group of people have started a mutuelle
de solidarite together, they are welded together, theyve formed a family. Because the problem of
one is the problem of the other. [2.3, 3:46]".
Hudson also talks about how, unlike the sol mentioned above, mutuelles are forever: "its with the
idea of sol that the mutuelle was born because the sol is something that doesnt last, because when
you finish the sol, after everyone gets their turn, the sol falls apart and is not continued. The
mutuelle is something that is more direct, it is more formal, and it is sustainable. It is there for all of
time, as long as its membership exists" [2.2, 5:09].
In this sense, mutuelle is definitely a form of konbit. According to Gardy Guerrier, "konbit, what is
it? It is a problem that exists in the area, a canal to dig, but if I was going to do it, it would take me 2
weeks. But with konbit, it will take 1 day, 2 days. Its the same thing with the mutuelle de solidarite:
an amount of money that it would take me a long time to amass, with the mutuelle de solidarite I
can get access to it in a small amount of time" [2.3, 4:39]. And also we can see that the cultural part
28 | P a g e

that is so important in the agricultural konbit, like we learned from the last chapter, we can also see
it here in the songs in the mutuelles. The red case is also another form of solidarity that you can see
in the konbit: maybe today your neighbor has trouble so the red case helps him, and you trust that
tomorrow if you have the problems, the red case will help you. This is the same way that in an
agricultural konbit, it is 'come to help me today, because I will help you tomorrow'.

3. Cooperative businesses in Ravine des Roches, Limbe

i. Cooperative businesses
Many groups, especially women's groups, do a kind of cooperative business where their
members put their money together to buy something that will be useful for all of them, like
a sewing machine or a goat that will have kids that can be shared. These are almost always
informal businesses and depend a lot on trust, but some can be more structured and
formal. Some are for profit and in some the profit is invested back in the community. They
can take many forms and have different rules of operations, and the most unique approach
to the cooperative business can be found in Ravine des Roches.
ii. Description of financial konbit in Ravine des Roches
Ravine des Roches is communal section in the commune of Limbe with a great history:
according to Haitian legend, the rebel slave Makandal came from this area. The name
Ravine dse Roches means "Rocky Ravine" and it is an accurate description: it is a very
rocky but green ravine, with poor infrastructure even though it is no more than 10
kilometers from the town of Limbe.
In Ravine des Roches, there is a women's organization called OFARR (Organization of
Active Women of Ravine des Roches) who have a unique approach to the collective
business. The women in the community they identified that they had many problems, one
of them is that there was no school in the community. So the women mobilized themselves
to make a cooperative business where they pooled their money to buy goods like rice, oil,
and ice, and women took turns selling the merchandise every day. Wilna Telusma, the
president of OFARR, describes the activity:

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" The organization has more than

90 women, and we work together
and pool our money of 10 [Haitian]
dollars [which is 50 gourdes] so we
can buy sacks of rice, when we first
started, and then a gallon oil, and
then maggi [bouillon cubes], and we
have one person be responsible for
the business to sell. And then we
were able to get to two sacks of rice, and after we sell those, and when we finish selling those, this
gives us the money to buy even more and so we can augment the economic means of the women.
Now we have arrived at a moment where the organization is engaged in commerce, and the
commerce is raising money for the women and the organization. If they make 100 gourdes profit,
this 100 gourdes is divided up between the organization and the person that is selling. Just so we
can facilitate the economy of the women in the organization. [2.5, 2:14]"
The way this is similar with konbit is that the same way that a farmer cannot really make his farm
work without the konbit, these women really couldn't make a business work without this activity.
Wilna described that "there are many among them that never had the chance to engage in
commerce, they were always dependent on someone else, and now they see that they are making
progress, and with the profit they get they collect it to buy other products to sell alongside what
theyre selling for the organization" [2.5, 2:57]. So instead of helping each other with working on
the land, the women are helping each other by working in the commerce, and everyone gets a turn
to benefit.

Some of the profits went to helping to build a school. Finally, in 2012 they saved enough
funds to build the school with the help of volunteer community labor (here there is an
example of a community konbit that will be described in the next chapter) and members
contributing the materials they had as well. Women cut bamboo, looked for rocks,
partnered with a location organization that looked after children, and built a simple
structure for the school. "Its how we put our heads together to advance, but there wasnt a
difference where people were getting jealous, it was our efforts put together that allowed us to
construct the school "[2.5, 6:00].

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And this is what Wilna thinks of konbit in general:

"Because konbit is good because it is a gathering of people
who put their heads together to succeed in a kind of work,
and it is konbit, whenever it is konbit, we know we give food,
if everyone works together, sings, and then we can succeed in
a beautiful initiative for our country, for development of Haiti
too!" [2.5, 7:35]

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COMMUNITY KONBITS:
CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMUNITY KONBITS:
Community Konbit is when there is a problem in a community that the people in this
community decide to put hands together to fix. This problem is not a direct problem for
anyone in the community, it is something that all the community is touched by it. This
sometimes the people call it kve that means the community work, but this word has the
bad meaning now because during the American occupation they use it to force the people
to work on the roads for no money and the Duvaliers they do the same thing. So some
communities they call it the kve but others they do not like this word and have other ways
of calling it, so for this article it will be called community konbit.
THREE CASE STUDIES OF COMMUNITY KONBITS:
1. Community konbit for local infrastructure: Gan Bad
i. Background on Gan Bad:
Gan Bad, the French name is Gambade, is one of the six sections communal in a commune
that is named Grande Riviere du Nord. This commune was very important in our past,
where the founding father of Haiti, Jean Jacques Dessalines, was born on September 20th,
1758. Gan Bad is a mountainous place where people have a lot of problems to work
because even if you work in the mountains it is very difficult to find a road to pass with
your donkey to take the harvest to go to the market. Gan Bad produces a lot coffee, cocoa,
pineapples and oranges. When you talk to the people of this area, they say that they used to
produce more in the past. But as for the oranges, they are still the biggest orange producer
in Haiti. There are some schools but not enough for the population with is estimated at
more than 7000 people. There is no hospital in Gan Bad. Gan Bad has the big river of
Grande Riviere du Nord pass by their door. Even though gives a lot of problems in Haiti,
Gan Bad still has its natural cover. The people of Gan Bad regrouped themselves into small
community organizations. They use these organizations to make garden, roads etc.

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Gan Bad is suffering a lot because of the roads access. During the cholera epidemic, the
suffering did not only come directly from the cholera and not only because of the hospital
problem of Gan Bad, it came from the problem of accessibility of the roads. The people who
had cholera in the mountains, the pregnant women who should needed service at the
hospital, sometimes people had to take them on a door to get down the mountain,
sometimes the patients fall down and died on the roads to the hospital. So the whole
community identify the road problem as a priority.
ii. Community konbit to fix local road:
Community Konbit is when there is a problem in a community that the people in this
community decide to put hands together to fix. This problem is not a direct problem for
anyone in the community, it is something that all the community is touched by it. In Gan
bad, the people are touched the most by the road problems which continue to block the
communitys progress. One day the people sat together and thought about some strategies
how to respond of all these difficulties with the road that was causing deaths and problems.
The answer they found was that all the groups in the Gan Bad should work together to
build a road by hand where the road didnt exist before. They wanted to build the road
from Gan Bad over the mountains to connect with St Raphael because St Raphael has a very
big market, but it is 18 kilometers over the mountain to St Raphael. They chose Saturday as
a a community day when everyone in the community needs to contribute: people can give
their labor as a volunteer, but for the people who cannot work hard they can sing songs and
play music to inspire the people that are working, they can give beans and oranges and
breadfruit and whatever they grow so that the volunteers can eat, they can volunteer to
cook the food for the people working,
and any other way that they can help.
This konbit it started not formally
because there is many community
groups in the past they each have their
own name and their own members
and their own activity and many of
33 | P a g e

them on their own ideas decided to work on the road. By example Frere Cadet is like a
pastor in the community and is one of the powerful leaders. He makes lots of advocacy for
the road, he said Even its only me I will be working on the road every Saturday myself.
But then there was the advice from someone the community trusted to take these groups
working by theyselves and make them into a federation and that is what the groups did
they founded the Federasyon Tet Kole pou Devlopman Gan Bad (FTDGB) and then they
started working together in a organized way about the roads, and still with the konbit.
One day in June 2012, with Future Generations Haitis project of mapping success, one of
our colleagues discover that initiative and invited us. It was a Friday and the people in the
community asked us to participate on the Saturday road Konbit. Friday afternoon the
community collected food together to feed themselves during the Konbit. They collected
breadfruit, avocado, orange, sweet potatoes, and other thing. On Saturday very early about
7h30 am, the community started to regroup themselves, a man with a conch shell made a
loud sound that called the people to the konbit . Some of the they women led by a woman
named Elvie met and started to think about the food, and the rest of the women and the
men led by Frere Cadet took their tools, what they had go to the road. They started to sing
the traditional music, played the
conch shell, played the drums, and
worked until the sun was very hot at
noon and then everyone ate food
together and go home. For this day
they made almost 50 meter of road.

34 | P a g e

The music that was sung by an older man went like this:

Haitian creole:

English:

"An'n nou leve pye nou pi wo,

"Lift your feet higher,

an'n nou leve pye nou pi wo, travay

Let us lift up our feet higher, workers

Pinga nou dekouraje

We shouldn't get discouraged

Pinga nou dekouraje

We shouldn't get discouraged

Kembe moun yo fm, kembe moun yo fm

Hang in there, stay strong

Nou pap dekouraje ak travay la

We won't get discouraged with the work

Nou pap dekouraje ak pep la

We won't get discouraged with the people

Nou pap dekouraje nap kembe fm"

We won't get discouraged, we'll stay strong"

[see link in references]

[see link in references]

While the people were singing traditional songs, someone was playing the lambi, and the
workers also made the rhythm of their tools go along with the music. There were also lots
of jokes and stories being told, all of this is to keep up the motivation of the workers.
Gan Bad doesn't just use the konbit for the road, they also use the same energy, the same
people to make the agricultural konbits also during the planting season. When the rains
come, the same group stops working on the road and works in each others' gardens, and
when the rains stop, they go back to the road.
2. Konbit for historical preservation in Fort Oge, Jacmel
i. Background on Fort Oge:
Fort Oge is a historical fort on the mountains of Cap Rouge, above the city of Jacmel. The
fort was constructed in the early 1800s after the Haitian Revolution under the orders of
Jean Jacques Dessalines (Haiti's founding father) to protect the young country against the
French. But like many forts and other historic sites in Haiti, the Haitian state has not done
anything to protect or preserve it.
35 | P a g e

Fort Oge has a small community around it, and there is a lot of
agricultural in the community because of the cool climate. But
the infrastructure is very bad: the road to get to Fort Oge is in
terrible state and very dangerous. Dieudonne Cyprien, not a
resident of Fo Oge but someone who visits often and helps with
local organizations, described the state of the fort: " Its not just
Fo Oge, there are many forts, but in Fo Oge we dont have the sea, we
dont have other things to attract tourists to come in the community,
its the Fort that we have. The tourists always come to see the Fort and
we remarked that it was always dirty, there was no preparation being
done in the fort" [3.2, 2:00] Because of how isolated life is up on the mountain, most of Fort

Oge's young people leave to live in the cities or the Dominican Republic.
ii. Description of community konbit in Fo Oge
There is a group of young people from Fort Oge that studied in the cities and in the
Dominican Republic that decided to come back to their community and make a change.
They grouped themselves together to make an organization called OSODEFO. Their
objective is to transform Fort Oge into a zone for tourism and to attract the local Diaspora
to come back home.
OSODEFO saw the Fort as a resource that had great potential, and they decided to work to
transform it. They organized their community into big konbits, collective work parties,
where everyone worked together to restore the fort. But in the beginning, it was very hard
to get people to participate [3.1, 2:43] Jean-Pierre, the president of OSODEFO, described the
situation in an interview: "I need to tell you, this kind of technique is something that the
community is very used to, but as time has gone by and with the new emphasis on money, it was
something that was starting to disappear. But with the presence of OSODEFO, we have been able to
re-introduce the idea of community konbit. And now they appreciate it, and they consider us like
heroes" [3.1, 1:35]

What was interesting here is how many people think of konbit as something that the older
generation did. But in OSODEFO, konbit was saved by the younger generation: " Its a source
36 | P a g e

of pride for people in the area, especially for older members of the community, because in the past,
they had lost this system, and everything that got done was because of money, and now they see
that in the 21st century, they see a group of young people with the sensibility of much older people,
working together to realize this kind of work" [3.1, 6:46].

Like Agronomist Jesnel talked about konbit being threatened by the modern agriculture
system, for Jean-Pierre, the system of konbit lost a lot of strength because of the way the
system of the NGOs came with big money to resolve the community problems. "The first
thing when it is an NGO is there, you feel as if that when the NGO is there, its that theyre bringing
something and imposing it, because the community didnt need it or maybe it wasnt their priority
or how they wanted it done. People are more concerned about quickly taking what little money the
NGO is bringing for them to work, and they dont participate with all their hearts in whats going
on" [3.1 2:49].

Now when Jean-Pierre talks about the power of konbit, this is what he says:
" but when its work lets say community konbit we sit down
about what we need and we put our heads together and say how are we
going to get this done, you see that people feel more devoted. for example
in the construction of the public park, there is a little kiosk, there is a shade
structure, automatically when we finished, its a pleasure for each
individual person who has one piece of wood to bring it, those that have
water bring it, those that have beans bring it, those that have a can of food
bring it, every gives what they can, and you see that people have more
dedication, they feel good about themselves to collect whatever they can to
make this happen. You feel people have this deep motivation, to participate
like this, many hands make the load light and when it is an NGO that
comes and imposes something you dont see that [3.1, 3:51]

Because konbit is something that is not being forced, people can volunteer to help in any
way they can. If you cannot work, you can bring alcohol, you can bring beans for food, you
can cook the food, you can bring wood, you can sing and encourage the people, and if you
are not there you can leave your drum for someone else to play. This way of holistic
participation means that this kind of konbit is very open, more open than the agricultural
or financial konbits, because everyone can participate. There is a Haitian proverb that says
"no one invites someone else to a funeral", which means there are certain things that
37 | P a g e

people don't invite you to, but if your conscience moves you to go, you go. Community
konbits are viewed in this way: no one will force you to participate or pressure you to
participate, but if you see that this is something for your conscience, you participate.
But there were people that OSODEFO invited: they used social media to broaden the call
for konbit to people who lived outside of the community. They used Facebook and SMS to
contact people from Fort Oge living outside of the community to come and help, and
founded a group called OSO-Volont (Volunteers). Every Saturday, members of this new
group come up to the community and volunteer to help restore the fort [3.2, 0:44]. This is
an important example of touris lakay ("home tourism") that Madame Odette Roy Fombrun
advocates strongly for.
This spirit of community konbit went so far that members of OSODEFO and OSO-Volont
spent one weekend in the nearby city of Jacmel, cleaning the streets.
3. Konbit to clean streets/canals in urban neighborhoods, Cite Soleil, Port au
Prince
i. Sanitation situation of Cite Soleil
Cite Soleil is the most densely
populated commune in the country,
and is often called a "slum" or
"ghetto". Hundreds of thousands of
people live on less than 9 square
miles. The sanitation system is very
poor: there are a series of badly
managed latrines, an open canal
system, and almost no trash
collection. Also, large secondary
canals carry trash from all over the
city of Port au Prince to Cite Soleil,
clogging the canal system and
38 | P a g e

causing floods. This is often the worst in the rainy season.

ii. Description of community konbit:
There is a small neighborhood in Cite
Soleil called La Difference. La
Difference was very different because
since 2004, the neighborhood
organized itself into cleanup crews to
keep the streets clean and organized
a kind of "neighborhood watch" to
supervise the children in the
community. But La Difference had a
problem: they were next to Canal St George, a big secondary canal that carried lots of trash
from the other neighborhoods in the capital and was always causing flooding problems.
Every time the canal overflowed, the neighborhood would take a day or two to clean up the
mess, and it encouraged the young people to organize themselves into volunteer clean-up
crews that worked in a participative way [3.3, 0:30].
The founder of La Difference, Stephen Italien, described how they saw the way they were
doing like the urban version of the peasants' konbit: "Konbit means putting your heads
together. Because the way that people in the countryside do this to grow food, we do it for cleaning
our neighborhoods. Everyone is working: those that can work, work; those that can contribute a
television box, an old fan, do so. All of this deals with the trash until we arrived at this level. The
ones that could contribute wheelbarrows contribute wheelbarrows. Even the way people in the
countryside make food to encourage the people who are working, we tried to do that as well" [3.3,
2:05]

Then the konbit got larger. In 2011, La Difference was a founding member of a young social
movement in Cite Soleil called Konbit Soley Leve. Konbit Soley Leve united neighborhoods
who wanted to work for positive change in the structure of a traditional konbit: every
neighborhood helps every other neighborhood when they have a problem or a project.

39 | P a g e

In May, 2011 Canal St. George overflowed and

covered La Difference in sludge, mud, and
garbage. Early in the morning, a mass text
message was sent out to all of the members of
Soley Leve, and every neighborhood sent people
to help La Difference within less than an hour,
while the mayor and the NGOs hadn't yet even
begun organizing an assessment of the damage.
Within 3 hours, La Difference was clean, and in
the keeping with the spirit of konbit, residents of
La Difference provided the volunteers with hot
coffee, water, and jokes.
Leader Stephen Italien described the event:

" I didnt think we could have a success like this. I didnt think that the
people of Cite Soleil could have that kind of appreciation for their
neighbors. It helped us to see the movement in another light. Its true, we
used to see young people cleaning their own neighborhoods, but after we
saw that Canal St. George overflowed and covered La Difference, we sent
out the call for other people, and it was very, very good. Because that
showed us really that Cite Soleil can change. I dont know if the world
understands this, but with this konbit that we did across all of Cite Soleil,
especially inside La Difference, I saw the way the young people saw their
environment in a new way... That would have taken a day to do the work
that in a little bit of time, we realized with konbit" [3.3, 6:58]

This example of community solidarity was very powerful, and the principle of reciprocation
and rotation carried on because when other neighborhoods needed help cleaning or
painting afterwards, La Difference sent members to go and help.
But Stephen says that organizing the urban residents into konbit is harder than the rural
konbits: " what were doing here, well, I can say its something that were bringing because it
40 | P a g e

wasnt something in peoples minds because they werent brought up in the countryside. We
needed to work hard to help people understand what konbit is. Its the same way that motivating
people to take care of the trash in Port au Prince is difficult because these people grew up with
trash" [11.1, 3:11]. However, Stephen does see that people are starting to see the "necessity" of this
activity in the absence of state services, and that they are even beginning to see it as "beautiful".

41 | P a g e

SYMBOLIC KONBIT:
Characteristics of symbolic konbit:
There are some konbits which are not for something concrete, but something that a group
of people can use to show something. Those ideas are to looking for the conscience of the
population, those ideas are to make the people understand who they are, those ideas are
some ideas which are not clear to understand anyone can give his or her definition to this
kind of thing. And those symbolic konbits like that, you cant immediately see the results,
but long-term, you can see something come from those ideas.

TWO CASE STUDIES OF SYMBOLIC KONBITS:

1. Kita Nago
Kita Nago are African words or name for a place in our history before we was slaves, but in
the Haitian logic, when you cant do something, you cant go anywhere with an idea, they
say, this idea will not go to Kita or Nago [4.1, 1:18]. There is a man in Haiti his name is
Harry Nicolas, hes very interested in the national production of Haiti, the agriculture of
Haiti, for that the people call him Met Fey Vet that means The Master of the Green Leaf.
He made a lot of things in Haiti to promote the national production, like a song called
Mama Doudou; it was a campaign to remember Haitians about the good Haitian food that
is healthy and help the national production. According to him, he said he has for a very long
time thought about something that can really truly help Haitians understand they need to
put hands together to answer their problems.

42 | P a g e

The idea was: Kita Nago. His definition of

Kita Nago is that Haitians can go from the
Kita to the Nago if they just put hands
together. He had the plan for about 30
years, but everyone thought it was a
hopeless idea until in 2012, he managed
to build a team of respected leaders from
the Voudou community, the Catholic
community, the Protestant community,
etc. [4.1, 10:36]. He collected a tree
trunk that weighed 500 kilogram and put it in the southweatern of Haiti a place called Les
Irois; and he said with the unity, with konbit, the Haitian people need to take this trunk to
to northeastern Haiti to a place name Ouanaminthe, the border of the Dominican Republic.
But, to put it over there, we, the Haitian people, will not put it in a boat, in helicopter, in
truck: we need to carry it with our hands for 700 kilometers(see map to right).
Everyone thought he was crazy, that we will not be able to do that. According to Caleb, a
Haitian citizen who was very interested in Kita Nago: "There were people who didnt want to
believe him, and he said hed show them. He took something that didnt even really have great
significance, which was a tree trunk, he decorated it, and he had people follow him from one end of
Haiti to the other end, to show you that even though hes not holding anything of significance and
just a tree, hes bringing the idea forward to show us something about leadership [4.1, 2:10]

Everyone had their opinion what they thought about this trunk: someone thought it is
voudou, someone thought it was political, a lot of thoughts were floated on this trunk. But
Met Fey Vet kept saying it was a symbol of unity of Haitians.
In January 1st represents a very good day for the Haitians because it is the day we were
officially liberated ourselves from slavery. Despite all the problems of the country, the
January 1st always represented a good thing for the Haitians. Mr. Harry Nicolas launched
this event on this day, January 1st 2013. And the people from all over the countryside in Les
Irois, took the trunk and ran with it to give it to another community and it started.

43 | P a g e

The trunk was very heavy. Normally, it required 32 people to carry the trunk. The people
took the trunk, run with the trunk, play music when someone tired, another takes the
other persons place. This was a very important lesson about collective leadership,
according to Mr. Harry: " Because it was to wake up in peoples hearts their individual and
collective capacity! It is Individual is you that can decide based on an idea to participate, but it is
collective because one person cannot carry Kita Nago, not even 12 people can carry it. It is 32
people who need to carry it to feel that it is light. If 31 people carry it you start to feel the weight...
what did you get out of the experience when you were carrying the trunk? One person leaves, you
feel the weight, [static], and so therefore if someone in society doesnt take his responsibility, youll
feel the weight in the country" [4.1, 15:40-19:00]. This is also something you see in the other forms
of konbit, because in the other forms of konbit, if one person is absent, the work is much harder.

And the people they were excited by it, and no one wanted the Kita Nago to fail in their
community. So the people from a community they ran to take the trunk, and they didn't
stop running until it was in the hands of another community. That community would run
with it to another community, and the trunk traveled many distances in a day. Sometimes
there would be hundreds of people just running alongside the trunk, singing and offering
encouragement. This kind of national relay-race also said something important about the
inter-connectedness of Haiti: "without the people who brought it to Jeremie it couldnt have
44 | P a g e

arrived in Petit Goave, and without the people who brought it to Archaie it wouldnt have arrived at
Gonaives, etc. so it was really the people from Les Irois who brought it to Ouanaminthe" [4.1,
18:20].

There is a slogan in Haiti it

is many hands make the
load light and people from
all over the country, from
the mountains to the cities,
come to see, come to carry
the tree. Even the president
carried this trunk. Some
communities, like Cap
Haitian, let the students
take off the school to come to see the trunk and carry the trunk. But many people thought
that Kita Nago was all about the people who were carrying the trunk. But Met Fey Vet
understood it different: there were women in Petit Goave who ran to the river to get water
for those in the march, there were peasants on the road that opened up their fields for the
marchers to eat, there were small merchants who offered their food for free, and of course
the thousands of people who accompanied the march, singing and dancing [4.1, 12:30]. To
Met Fey Vet, even if you never once touched the tree trunk, you could still be important in
helping it arrive. Just like the reference in the community konbit section, where even the
people who leave their drums are part of the konbit, this shows that it is about
participation in a holistic way.
It took 27 days for them to reach the Ouanaminthe, and according to many analysts,
national and international, there were about 3.5 million Haitians that participated in this
Kita Nago. Haiti has ten departments, this trunk passed through seven. Haiti has 140
communes, the trunk crossed 47. They crossed many rivers, they climbed many
mountains. And in the last moment in Ouanaminthe, it was the women who put the trunk to
its final place. This Kita Nago has a lot of importance for the Haitians after this the Haitians
remember when they put hands together what they can do.
45 | P a g e

But what was the meaning of all this effort, and was it successful? The objective was to do
something that would wake up people's consciences, to show them what Haitians were
capable of, to make them work together. According to Met Fey Vet: " there is an aspect that
succeeded in kita nago and that is that we left Les Irois and arrived in Ouanaminte. But the
ideological aspect, I dont think it surpasses 20%", although he said that it would take years to see
what the impact is" [4.1, 37:55].
But the 20% of change is still visible in the short-term. Caleb gives this testimony: " In my life the
impact I saw was that the impact Mr. [Harry] was trying to make, before he made it I wasnt that
sure of it. I wasnt sure that Haitians truly just needed good leadership, if they could have solidarity
between themselves. But this showed me that there is a possibility for Haitians to put their heads
together, its just that they havent found the idea to unite them together yet, or a leader" [4.2, 3:09].
Another example was in a conversation that Met Fey Vet overheard on the road: " and while were
close to Ouanaminthe, I overheard a young man say to his friends guys, lets go home already, ok?
Because if we keep following Kita Nago well end up in Africa, you hear? That says a lot to me.
Between themselves theyre speaking: if we follow kita nago well end up in Africa, you hear?" [4.2,
21:27]. This is very powerful, because even though this was a joke, it meant that this made the
young people think about their roots, where they were from. This is another powerful part of the
konbit, because it is something that was carried over in the slave ships from Africa, so remembering
the heritage is important.
And in the streets after Kita Nago, many people began to say, "if we can take this piece of wood that
doesn't mean anything from Les Irois to Ouanaminthe, there is nothing we can't do together"
[personal communication, 2013].
But how is this a konbit? Let us take Met Fey Vet's definition of konbit: "It was when a group of
people put their heads together to attain an objective. And konbit it is a group of people who meet
somewhere and reflect together, and they say what they want to achieve as a goal. And then they
decide how they will arrive there, and they all share the load" [4.1, 0:40]. According to this
definition, Kita Nago was a konbit: it was a country that set a goal of moving this large tree trunk
from one point of the country to another, they decided how they were going to do it (on foot), and
they shared the load the whole way. But it is a symbolic konbit because there is nothing concrete
that is happening, because the work is happening inside the people: it is people's minds being

46 | P a g e

stirred, it is their consciences waking up. Because the change is internal, not external, we classify
this as a symbolic konbit.

2. Earthquake remembrance in Cite Soleil

On the 12th of January, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti at 4:53 in the afternoon.
In less than 53 seconds, over 230,000 Haitians were killed and more than 1 million Haitians
lost their homes. The devastation stretched from the capital city of Port au Prince to the
southern city of Jacmel, but the epicenter was in a town called Leogane. The earthquake
was new for Haitians, and it touched the conscience of Haitians all over the world. In the
moments after the earthquake, because of all of the problems Haiti was suffering, Haitians
showed a lot of solidarity: helping neighbors get out of the rubble, sharing food and
temporary shelter, protecting each other. But slowly, as more help arrived from the outside
and the recovery got more complicated and politicized, that feeling of solidarity got
smaller.
Cite Soleil was not as badly affected as other parts of the capital, but the earthquake still
shocked the hundreds of thousands people living in the community, and there was a lot of
solidarity after the earthquake. A young woman in Cite Soleil named Abraham Sterline
talked about her feelings after the earthquake: " for me, here is how the 12th of January
affected me. It affected me morally and made me change internally. And not just for myself, but for
Cite Soleil... ]. I had friends and family that died in the 12th of January, and it made a big impact on
myself and my family. And 12th of January made a change that was positive and negative, because
where it was positive, there were a lot of people who wanted to remember and commemorate, and
the negative thing is that we lost so many people" [4.3, 1:15]. The young social movement

Konbit Soley Leve (described in an earlier chapter) wanted to build on this feeling of
solidarity to help motivate the people of Cite Soleil take more responsibility in their
communities.
Soley Leve held 2 earthquake
memorials, one on January

47 | P a g e

12th, 2012 and one on January 12, 2013. The idea was for multiple communities to work
together to mobilize the community through the use of powerful symbols that would draw
people together. Different organizations from different neighborhoods in Cite Soleil pooled
their money and talents to build a white cross, create T-shirts that memorialized the
occasion, and purchase

Photo credit: Romeal Jean Pierre

balloons (the konbit of

preparation).
In the morning on both
days, representatives
from each block in Cite
Soleil got onto a bus to
take them to Titanyen,
which is where the mass
grave is that the
earthquake victims
were buried in. The representatives held a ceremony with music and then planted a white
cross. Abraham describes the events again as they were preparing: "But this 12th of January
this year, we have something that is very representative that we are going to do in Soley Leve - we
are working on a cross that we are going to bring to St Christophe. Last year we did it and this year
we will do it again. Just as every year we think we will continue it this way so we can have these
people's memories in our spirits and commemorate them" [4.2, 1:20]. Then in the afternoon,

there was a large gathering in the central park of Cite Soleil, and at exactly the moment of
the earthquake, at 4:53, the crowd released hundreds of balloons into the air to symbolize
the hundreds of thousands that died. After the 2013 memorial, representatives of many
different neighborhoods gathered together at a community center to plant trees in memory
of the victims.
This qualifies as a symbolic konbit because there was a collective, voluntary effort to create
something symbolic that would have a greater effect in the community. Abraham confirms
this by saying, "This is what makes us Haitians of faith. We will never forget the 12th of January,
and it's like this that we know that the 12th of January helped us discover something" [4.3, 1:30]
48 | P a g e

OTHER PERSPECTIVES ON KONBIT

Some people were interviewed for this paper whose community efforts could not be
included in the case studies, but who had important perspectives. Many of these were of an older
generation, and they needed to be included in this piece as well.
According to Madame Odette Roy Fombrun, whose life was introduced in the Literature
Review section as an intellectual inspired by konbit, defines konbit like this: "[konbit] stands on
two things: one is called cooperation, the other is called participation" [5.1, 3:17]. She sees konbit as
something larger than an agricultural practice, and sees it as the social contract for Haiti:
" As long as the people believe in putting their heads together, lets put out heads
together, and do everything by konbit. I say that the Haitian social contract, instead of
the political parties using things that other countries developed on their own, these
countries arrived at socialism, communism, and capitalism by their own evolution, and
we, we can say that the movement of the Haitian people that says lets work together
to rebuild the country, this is called konbitism"[5.1, 1:38].
An older peasant in the community of Tyot, which is close to the southeastern border Haiti
has with the Dominican Republic, reflected on the importance that konbit has in development:
" For me, konbit we can put in the place of the first local development. Because it is
with it, everyone who doesnt have a lot of money to buy konbit from people, its with it
that they develop themselves. There are some changes now where people are starting
to buy konbit from people but there is still the idea of konbit that is there, and if there
is no konbit then there is no work. Its the first necessity in the domain of agriculture
that is a true part of it... It represents, how can I say, the first special part of our culture
and in resources that we have in our community. Konbit is the first point, because in
the early days, during the birth of our country, we were born with konbit" [5.2, 2:48].
A woman leader of a rural women's cooperative called ANAM in St Raphael, a town in the
Northern Department of Haiti, described how to them, konbit is an approach that they use for all of
their problems:
" We use konbit because its what weve chosen, which isnt nothing, we do
every kind of konbit. Sometimes if there is a death, we find the person we help him
thats a konbit. You understand? If there if a death, you find the person [affected], you
help them break up the costs of the bereavement, you bring a lot of people, all of that is
konbit. [5.3, 0:43]
Dominique Romuald, the founder of the rural peasant's movement called OPADEL in La
Montagne, a communal section in Jacmel in the southeast of the country, sees konbit in a similar
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way: " the definition of konbit for me is a type of activities that there are many people who dont
have means [money] who work together to realize it without money and in a way that is quicker"
[5.4, 0:15]. But he is concerned about the future of konbit in a world that is more and more used to
money:
" As Ive already said, konbit is starting to lose its value, but if we dont return with it, I
wont say well lose the country, but Ill say that we risk every day declining into a
situation that is more difficult. Because today, if we take the rural environment,
because its there that most uses konbit, a peasant doesnt have enough money to allow
him to produce, and with konbit he never needed money, it was one helping the other,
that allowed they succeeded in accomplishing many things. Today, we think the
importance is that they need to return with konbit to allow the peasants, especially
those that are working in agriculture, to allow them to get things done and save their
money, to spend less while theyre working more, and the conditions of their life to
change" [5.4, 1:44].
Riffin Daceus, an older member of a mango farmer's cooperative called UCOOPEDSA in St
Michel de l'Atalaye in the upper Artibonite Department, is also concerned about how konbit is
losing its value :
" The first thing that comes into my mind when I hear about konbit, is a group of people
that one person cannot lift, and when they work together, they lift it. For example,
when an ant encounters a crab, he cant lift it, so it goes and gets its partisans and they
lift it. For us as people, I feel myself I am vexed in terms of the ant, because we dont do
what we need to do as people, the ant has a greater spirit than us. They do konbit to lift
the load, and us to, Haitians as a people we should do the same" [5.5, 1:24].

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III. ANALYSIS OF DATA

ELEMENTS OF KONBIT
According to all of the research, interviews, and experience as presented in the last section, it is
evident that konbit has a lot of variation and a lot of ways people understand it.
There were many varieties of konbit and many ways that konbit was carried out. There are places
that konbit is done in day-by-day, places where there is a fixed group that helps each other only,
some where you can purchase the day of the konbit, and some where you cannot. These strategies
vary by region, and the names that describe the shared community process vary region, but what is
common across Haiti is the value of shared community process for collective advancement. For
instance, in Gwayavye, people belong to a fixed group that they call a kolonn, but you can purchase
the day of work from a konbit. In contrast, in St Raphael, the konbit is more spontaneous: someone
will say that they have work to do, the word is passed around, and anyone who can come, comes. In
the South, people call it more eskwad (squad), which is close to kolonn in how it is organized; in the
Southeast they call it men kontre, which is closer to a community konbit where people unite for a
common community goal. Other names are tet kole (heads together), kole zepol (shoulders
together), men ansanm (hands together), tet ansanm (also heads together)- these names are all
variations on the idea of konbit and many peasants' organizations use these words in their group
names. Kve is also a common word that is used many times to talk about a large community konbit,
although since the American Occupation in 1915, the word kve has also started to have a negative
connotation meaning "forced work". The research also talked about economic and symbolic
konbits.
Taking the overarching ideashared community process for collective advancementfrom the
evidence presented there can be shown a series of principles and themes that are common among
all of the examples that were in this research:
Konbit means solidarity, collaboration, participation:
Madame Fombrun said that "konbit is participation and collaboration". While this is true, there is
another element in the research that in the evidence appeared again and again: the idea of
solidarity. Solidarity was talked about the interviews with the phrases tet ansanm ("put our heads
together") or men ansanm ("put our hands together"), but these are Haitian phrases that mean
collaboration and solidarity. When participants were asked to define what konbit meant, they
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consistently described working together for some sort of common goal. In this simple idea there are
3 ideas: participation because it is about working (and no one is forcing you to work),
collaboration because you are working together and there is no sense of competition, and
solidarity because there is a common goal. You can find these three elements in all of the forms of
konbit we talked about:

In agricultural konbit, there are a group of farmers participating in a kolonn (for example)
by working together for a common goal, which is to have their gardens ready.

In economic konbit, there are a group of people who are participating in a sol/zabotay or a
mutuelle de solidarite and putting their money together for a common goal, which is to have
their businesses advance

In community konbit, there are a group of people who are victim of a certain problem (like
bad roads or no water) who are participating in an activity (like building a road), working
together to solve this common problem

In symbolic konbit, there are a group of people who are participating in a symbolic action
that are working together for a certain objective, which is to touch people's consciences.

Konbit uses human energy as a currency instead of outside money

Konbit is something that mobilizes human energy to accomplish something that otherwise would
need to be accomplished with outside money.

In agricultural konbit, a group of peasants may not have the money to hire a tractor to
turn the soil over in their field, so they mobilize the energy of the peasants to make a field.
In St Raphael, people's contribution to the konbit is measured by lengths of rope they have
harrowed, and the farmer that benefited from the konbit now owes the worker that same
amount of corn length. There is no financial transaction in this relationship.

In economic konbit, community members don't have access to outside financial

institutions like banks or investors so they mobilize their own money within the community
to make investments. In Vodrey, we see this with the mutuelle system, where the banks
don't loan people money so the community puts their little money together over a long time
to give out better local loans.

In community konbit, communities that don't have the state coming to invest money in
public works projects like roads or schools mobilize local energy and resources to do the

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same thing. In Gan Bad, the community doesn't have the money to hire heavy machinery to
make a road, so they mobilized the human energy in the community so that every Saturday
people work to accomplish a goal

In symbolic konbit, in Kita Nago, it took the human energy and sweat of 32 people at a time
(and 3 million people in total) to lift the tree trunk and carry it 700 kilometers, and no
money was spent to transport it.

Konbit is a system that lets everyone participate, especially the poor

Access to all. Because konbit is based on human energy, everyone can participate - because one
thing that everybody in a society has equal amounts of is human energy. Because of this, konbit is
used more by people who do not have access to money to get a certain work done. Access is a
central theme; all of the examples in this research are from communities that do not have access to
money, and because of that they use a system of konbit, anyone can participate.

In agricultural konbit, farmers with no money can participate, and in Gwayavye, even
people without land could participate, because if they gave their time in the konbit they
could earn money to buy land

In economic konbit, people often need a small amount of money to enter into the system
(enough to make the small weekly contributions of a mutuelle or a sol) but it is often small
enough for even very not-well-off people to afford. In the business konbit of Ravine des
Roches, even women who had never ever been able to have their own businesses could
participate in the shared business and even earn enough to start their own businesses.

In community konbit, people are encouraged to contribute whatever they can to the
efforts. In Fo Oge, people could participate in the community konbit by working if they
could work, bringing water or food if they could bring that, or just coming for support and
encouragement.

In symbolic konbit, people are participating in an event that doesn't cost them any money
to participate in. During the earthquake remembrance in Cite Soleil

Konbit is something that is related to our roots, our culture, our spirituality
One of the elements that defines a konbit is not just the work, but the culture that surrounds it.
Most konbit have alcohol, traditional songs, folkloric dance, prayer (both Christian and voudou),
stories and jokes, and sometimes food. And in the past, all konbit were announced by someone
blowing into the conch shell, something that has been done since the time of slavery on the island.
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All of these are things that animate the konbit and motivate people to use their energy to
accomplish the goal.

In agricultural konbit, the konbit that are carried out in the fields almost always have
alcohol or food, and the work is synchronized to traditional music sung by the workers. In
Ti Rivye Latibonit, the agronomist for RACPABA talked about the importance of
"stimulants" in motivating farmers to do their work.

In economic konbit, there is often a cultural or social element to the money exchanges that
you will never find in a bank. In the mutueuelle solidarite of Vodrey, people spend the first
15 minutes of their meetings singing, praying, telling stories. One of the local leaders said
that the difference between a mutuelle and a mutuelle solidarite is that the latter has all of
these elements of culture in it that help bring people together and really develop solidarity.

In community konbit, there is always music and dancing and spirits to encourage the
people who are volunteering for their communities. At the road konbit in Gan Bad, there
was the conch shell, singing, drums, and dancing, and whenever the music stopped, the
people stopped working, and refused to start again until the music came back.

In symbolic konbit, the action is very much influenced and draws from Haitian culture.
Kita Nago was full of people dancing and singing to encourage the people who were
carrying the tree to keep going, sometimes with thousands of people in the crowd. Mr.
Harry said that without the music and dancing, Kita Nago would not have succeeded,
because it was the excitement and the culture that made people forget the weight they were
carrying.

PERSPECTIVES ON AND CHALLENGES FOR KONBIT

In the last section there are reflected some common elements that make up a working definition for
konbit. However, the konbit still has many ways of looking at its past, its present, and its future:
Konbit is present in Haitian history, even if it wasn't called konbit at the time
According to the definition of konbit as "working together of a common goal" and "solidarity", one
can say that konbit is what founded Haiti. In the year 1518, Spanish colonist under Charles Quin
began to buy slaves in Africa to bring to their new colonies in the Caribbean, especially in the colony
of Saint-Domingue, which we now know as Haiti. History tells us that many of these people came
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from West Africa, from places like Guinea and Dahomey. There was a system of cooperatives in
West Africa, and when the slaves arrived in the colony they couldn't continue to use this system.
But there is a creole proverb that says bos van zoutil men li pa bliye metye'l, or "the mason may sell
his tools but he never forgets his trade". So even though the Africans couldn't practice their
cooperatives because they were in chains, the spirit of cooperation and solidarity was still there.
And in the earliest days of slavery, escaped slaves (known as neg mawon) would use the conch shell
to mobilize people for secret meetings during the night; to this day the conch shell is still a symbol
of konbit.
On the 14th of August, 1791, there was a voudou ceremony held at a place called Bwa Kayiman in
northern Haiti that was attended in secret by hundreds of Africans in secret that came from across
the country to participate. They had a ceremony where they lit a fire, killed a pig, prayed, danced,
and sang together, and in this moment of solidarity they launched the Haitian Revolution that
would eventually bring an end to slavery and colonization in November of 1803. The last battle of
the revolution was not far from the place where the Bwa Kayiman ceremony was held 12 years
before.
Even though the people at the time didn't define what they were doing as a konbit, if we use the
elements that have defined konbit in this analysis (participation, collaboration, and solidarity), we
can find these elements in the Haitian Revolution. Without access to money or arms, the Haitian
slaves risked their lives to participate in the slave revolts, collaborate with each other with absolute
trust (because any traitors could have ruined the revolution), and work towards the common goal
of freedom. Could this be defined as a revolutionary konbit? Answering this question will take
specific research, but noting this point may be suggestive for why (and how) the Haitian Revolution
was successful, the first great modern freedom revolution: our revolution was grounded in
participation, collaboration, and solidarity. These are distinctively different features from fighting
an enemy.
People see konbit mostly as agricultural, not as much in the sense of solidarity.
After the Haitian Revolution, the freed slaves mostly returned to the land and used the same sense
of solidarity and collaboration to farm for their survival and the survival of this young country. In
this sense, the idea of konbit is mostly linked with agriculture.
Today, if you ask someone about konbit (including many of the interviewees in this paper), the
majority will think about peasants farming the land. This is so prevalent, it is even found in popular
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music: a song by Michael Benjamin (Mikaben) goes, "Haiti is a konbit, peasants who are planting
their land". Stephen Italien from La Difference in Cite Soleil referenced how hard it was to convince
urban Haitians that they could do konbit too, because for them, they think of konbit only as
something farmers do and they do not have land to farm.

Konbit hasn't yet been modernized, but can be modernized

Because of the way that people understand konbit as being only for peasants in rural zones,
psychologically people in Haiti do not believe that konbit can evolve and adapt to modern life. The
findings from the research represented here would argue that, to define their future, the people of
Haiti may be missing a powerful resource and vehicle to deliver that resource. Even in agriculture,
people see konbit as an outdated farming method from the 1800s before there were tractors. In his
interview, agronomist Jenel from RACPABA felt that konbit and modern agricultural equipment like
tractors could be complimentary, that tractors didn't have to mean leaving konbit behind.
In 1986, after the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship, Madame Fombrun described that people
suddenly felt they could do konbit for any of their problems: there was konbit to restart businesses,
konbit to build schools, konbit to unblock the roads. At that time Madame Fombrun worked to enter
konbit into the Haitian Constitution, but that was ignored, and the general positive progress of
konbit was lost in the political turmoil of the early 1990s, and konbit faded away to the countryside
again.
If people understand konbit on the level of participation, collaboration, and solidarity, the mindset
is there so they can apply this to other aspects of their lives. Modern problems could be addressed
through the principles and approach. Today, even when certain people are using konbit to tackle
modern urban problems such as trash in Cite Soleil, there are parts of the community that didn't
want to accept that what they were doing was konbit, but in going forward there is a statement
made of participation, collaboration, and solidarity even to the non-participants.
At the national level, for a country that often is claimed by some to lack participation, collaboration,
and solidarity, in a number of events these features can be seen. For example, in the great symbolic
action of Kita Nago, no one in the media called it a konbit, but as the evidence shows, that event
reflected these three defining features. Recently, there was a national fundraiser for the national
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soccer team where Haitians could donate money through their phones (very modern); no one was
calling this a konbit even though it was the whole country participating in a collective action for a
shared goal. After the earthquake, Haitians worked together to pull people from the rubble, feed
their communities, build temporary shelters; no one called them konbits, but it was Haitians
deciding to participate in the collective action of saving lives. Then the flood of international aid
made Haitians forget about what they had just accomplished together.
All of these are examples of modern konbit, but no one recognizes them as konbit. In creating a
future, much of what is needed is recognition of the past. Both the law and society have left no place
for konbit in the modern world, the same way that kreyol, voudou, and traditional dress are being
left behind as "outdated" or "archaic" parts of Haitian culture. The evidence of this study would
argue that there are traditions such as konbit that are presently being utilized but could be utilized
to a greater extent, in a greater number of places, and across a greater number of sectors; this
would cost very little financial capital and would preserve Haiti's cultural capital.

Konbit is often exploited

The argument being made above is that there is an issue of lack of recognition, and yet there is also
a question of mistaken recognition. Specifically, even though konbit is not given recognition in
modern society, the word still brings up strong emotions in Haitians and brings to mind an image of
cooperation. Because of this, many people exploit the word or the concept of konbit to cover up
activities that do not follow the principles of konbit. In this sense, Haitians are gullible and easily led
astray when these words are used.
Many NGOs, including large international aid organizations like USAID, use the word "Konbit" in
their project titles, even though these are top-down heavily-financed activities that do not reflect
the principles of konbit. At the core the principle they reflect is that of the people being controlled
for the objective of the donor; this may be participation, it may be collaboration, and it even may
also be solidaritybut simply being these three is not konbit. Konbit requires that the ownership
and the desire for participation, collaboration, and solidarity come from the people, not from external
control. . If you Google "konbit", what will come up are dozens of organization and project names,
most of which are funded by international organizations, even though self-reliance is one of the
main principles of konbit. Political parties take names with the word "konbit" inside of them, even
though they may not leave the place for the poorest and most marginalized Haitians to participate.
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Stephen Italien of La Difference cited an example of the exploitation of konbit in Cite Soleil: he said
their neighborhood cleanup konbits were so successful that MINUSTAH co-opted the idea with their
"Quartier Propre" program, without acknowledging La Difference or the konbit that started it, and
investing a large amount of money into the program.
This is not something new: since the time of the American occupation in 1915, they used the word
kve (which is a variation on konbit)for the forced labor programs they carried out to build roads.
The approximately 167-kilometer road from Port au Prince to Cap Haitian was built using this
forced labor, and it made Haitians resent the word kve because it felt like slavery for them. Then
during the Duvalier era, this same system of forced labor on public projects like roads was put in
place, all in the name of kve, further reinforcing the idea that kve was just a modern form of
slavery.

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IV. RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION

According to the research that was conducted for this paper, konbit is not only a traditional
cooperative used by Haitians to farm the land for agricultural purposes. It is a system of
solidarity in which Haitians who are motivated by their consciences voluntarily participate
in collaborative action that preserves their livelihoods, their cultures, and their
interdependence, in any aspect of life.
The research also shows that konbit is an essential element in Haitian life that is being lost, but has
not been lost completely. If konbit is synonymous with solidarity, then we can see where the loss of
konbit is a serious threat to our country. Haiti is often accused of being "a country of individuals,
not a nation" because of a new trend of individualism that is taking over the country; the only way
to fight this is with konbit.
I visited Kenya as a part of the Future Generations Graduate School program to learn from
community leaders in East Africa, and met with the Ugandan scholar professor Lutu. After
explaining to him the challenges in my country Haiti, he told me, "the only thing holding Haitians
back is that they don't know the length of their roots".
Haitians are ashamed of where they are from - acculturation has made us ashamed of our culture,
our spirituality, our food, our language. A people without culture is a people without direction, and
Haiti has been slowly losing its culture for centuries. Our ancestors left Africa without clothes,
without possessions, without food, but the one thing they carried with them was their customs,
such as konbit and the spirit of solidarity. Going back to konbit is like going back to our roots,
reconnecting with our past, and using the strength of our ancestors. During the Kita Nago march,
Met Fey Vet overheard some young men joking that, "we shouldn't go any further with this thing,
because if we do, we will end up in Africa", and he was so happy, because symbolically with this
konbit, they were returning to Africa.
According to Dr. Daniel Taylor, the founder of the Future Generations Graduate School, true social
change grows out of human energy which the people control in partnership with the government.
And konbit is the manifestation of human energy in Haiti from the community. For the past three
decades, the world has been trying to solve Haiti's problems with money, and it has failed. It failed
because of the absence of engaging peoples energies from the community. It is time for Haitians to
use their human energy, their consciences, and their willpower to change this country the same

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way our ancestors did at Bwa Kayiman. This will not be done by that energy alonealthough that
energy is central, what drives the processbut it will be done by engaging with the government,
and in so doing reshaping the government, and it will be done by engaging with the internationals,
and in so doing re-directing their external assistance.
Even while Haiti is modernizing, with one-third of our population living in the cities, working in
factories or chatting on Facebook, we cannot forget that it was the sweat of our parents in the
konbits in the mountains that gave us the opportunities we have today. Technology shouldn't
replace konbit; it needs to augment konbit. Haitians today are more connected through phones and
Internet and roads than they ever have been in history. In the time of Bwa Kayiman, people walked
for miles at night in the dark to attend meetings and made announcements through the conch shell.
There is no reason that our generation should be more divided than their; we have no excuse for
the lack of solidarity between us.
And yet we are more divided. In our parents' and our grandparents' generations, people worked
together. Mothers used to share food with neighbors; when someone in your family died, the
community supported you; the nights were spent not watching television but roasting a sweet
potato on the fire and telling stories. These were communities. The progress we have been sold by
the world is one where everyone is racing to own the biggest house, the nicest car, the most money
- we have become a people in competition with each other to race out of misery, and have lost the
spirit of collaboration and sacrifice that this country was built on.
And our ancestors sacrificed for us. Dessalines wrung the blood out of his shirt to give us freedom,
our grandparents wrung the sweat of our their shirts to send us to school, and for what? So we can
abandon the country and live abroad. So we can live behind high walls with barbed wire. So we can
forget who we are. Our grandparents did not know how to read and write, but they knew who they
were; we know how to read and write but we are illiterate in our own culture.
It is our generation's turn to cultivate the spirit of konbit. We saw it a bit after the earthquake of
January 12, 2010, but it was drowned by international aid. In voudou, practitioners summon the
spirit of a lwa in a ceremony, and it possesses them and then leaves; we treat konbit like this, calling
on it in moments of emergency (like the earthquake) and then forgetting about it. Konbit cannot be
brought back by crisis and emotion, it has to be sewn into the fabric of our society.
Here are some recommendations for how to bring konbit back into Haitian society:

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1. Konbit should be entered into the Haitian constitution. As Madame Fombrun said, other
countries might have capitalism or socialism or communism, but konbitism should be
accepted as the Haitian social contract. A clear argument can be made that konbit is the
currency of our social change much as money is the currency of our economy.
2. Konbit should be taught and studied in our educational system. Young people should be
able to reflect about the spirit of konbit and how it applies to their lives.
3. Konbit should be studied and researched by university students and academics; we need a
new kind of intellectual class that does not think only for the elite but thinks for the
peasants, an intellectual class with calluses on their hands.
4. Konbit should not be seen as being associated with only voudou, it is a part of our national
culture that is open to voudouist, Catholics, and Protestants. Konbit should not only be seen
as something for the rural peasants, but also people in the cities. Konbit should not only be
seen as something for the poor, but something that all classes of society can participate in.
5. Konbit should be used as a bridge to connect Haitians from different areas, different classes,
and different religions - the way the Konbit Soley Leve started to connect neighborhoods in
Cite Soleil
6. International aid organizations need to understand that there are 3 kinds of sustainability:
economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, and cultural sustainability. If a
country "develops" and loses its culture, it will remain dependent. Assistance should not
replace the practice of solidarity through konbit, but rather support the ability of Haitians to
rely on each other.
7. Politicians should develop a politics of konbit, which would be the politics of solidarity and
sustainability, where the person from Port au Prince is genuinely concerned about the
person from Port de Paix and advocates for what is good for the whole country. They should
stop paying lip-service to the idea of konbit while pursuing selfish policies.

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8. The Haitian Diaspora should consider themselves part of a broader konbit to reconstruct
Haiti; if they choose to participate in collaborating with their hometowns towards
development, this is a form of konbit.
9.

Against this national frame for konbit as the countrys formative force, we need national
symbols of konbit. The National Palace of Haiti that was destroyed by the earthquake of
2010 should be reconstructed through konbit, collecting the strength and contributions of
Haitians at every level of society. This can serve as a model for how the state can engage
with its citizens through konbit, and something to remind Haitians of the strength they have

10. Haitians should follow the motto which is in our constitution, which is "men anpil chay pa
lou" in Kreyol, "L'union fait la force" in French, and "union makes us strong" in English. This
means practicing solidarity in everyday life, creating interdependence instead of
dependence.
This may be difficult for Haitians to picture now, but it is important that the national vision grows
to include an era of konbit. Imagine the National Palace being reconstructed by Haitian hands, with
Haitian architects and engineers, with buses full of volunteers coming from the mountains and the
cities in the provinces, funded by small contributions from ordinary Haitians around the world.
Imagine a Haiti where our education system is based on the principles of collaboration and
solidarity instead of memorization. Imagine a Haiti where we become a nation instead of a country
of individuals. This is possible through konbit, but Haitians need to take responsibility for our past,
our present, and our future if this is going to happen.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robillard Louino is a Haitian citizen that was born in the year 1986 in the commune of St
Raphael in rural northern Haiti. He raised in Cite Soleil from the age of 3 after the death of his mother,
and finished all of his schooling in Cite Soleil. He studied communal administration in a state program
to help City Hall of Cite Soleil. He never finished undergraduate education because of the earthquake
that hit Haiti in January 2010, but he considers Cite Soleil to be his university as he was taught real life
lessons on peace, conflict, and community organizing there for over 2 decades. Because of this work, he
was accepted into the Future Generations Graduate School's Master's Program on Community Change
and Peacebuilding. He will graduate with the Class of 2013.

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