When the Hands are Many
Jennie M. Smith
In an ethnography that challenges standard approaches to understanding the poor and disempowered, Jennie M. Smith's descriptions of peasant activity change what constitutes a democratic society. Through their civil institutions and artistic expression, Haitian peasants, widely known as some of the world's most impoverished, politically disempowered, and illiterate citizens, debate the meanings of development, democracy, and the public good.
Smith offers a historically grounded overview of how the Haitian state and certain foreign powers have sought to develop rural Haiti and relates how Haitian peasants have responded to such efforts through words and deeds. The author argues that songs called chante pwen serve as "melodic machetes," a tool with which the peasants make their voices heard in many social circumstances.
When the Hands Are Many illustrates the philosophies, styles, and structures typical of social organization in rural Haiti with narrative portraits of peasant organizations engaged in agricultural work parties, business meetings, religious ceremonies, social service projects, song sessions, and other activities. Smith integrates these organizations' strengths into a new vision for social change and asks what must happen in Haiti and elsewhere to facilitate positive transformation in the world today.
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About Jennie M. Smith
Reviews for When the Hands are Many
British Bulletin of Publications
Smith's humanistic text is an example of the kind of honest, holistic, and humane scholarship that anthropologists are beginning to embrace in 'public interest' anthropology. When the Hands Are Many is a challenge to researchers on NGOs and civic life in Haiti. Hopefully, the donors are reading this book, changing their ways of thinking about Haitian peasants and changing the way they do business in Haiti. The gauntlet has been thrown down.... everyone interested in Haiti should pick this book up.
Mark Schuller, UC Santa Barbara
Journal of Haitian Studies
Interesting and enlightening reading for those interested in Caribbean ethnography; imperative reading for all those engaged in international development efforts.
Choice
Smith has called for an important debate that needs to be built on first-hand, anthropological understandings. Not only political scientists ought to learn this lesson, rather than rely inordinately on World Bank statistics and lessons of failure, but permit Haitians to craft what Haitians can create.
Henry F. Carey, Georgia State University
H-Net Reviews
There is an old Haitian Creole proverb that goes: 'Men anpil, chay pa lou' (when the hands are many, the load becomes lighter). Jennie Smith, by taking this proverb as a guideline for her book, has accomplished its goal of informing us of such a state of mind embodied by the moun andeyo of Haiti. Because of that, When the Hands Are Many is an important ethnological, political and anthropological tool not only for scholars interested in Haitian society but also for Haitians themselves who have the reasons and desire to see the problems of their country solved.
Jeane Ellie
Counterpoise