“Where is our justice?” As the Parsley Massacre survivors reach their twilight years, Haitians wonder if reparations will ever arrive   

D’OSMOND, Haiti —  In late September and early October 1937, Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo ordered the deadliest massacre of Haitians living in the Dominican Republic. Over 20,000 Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent were brutally killed in what came to be known as the Parsley Massacre, or the “Masak Kout Kouto” in Creole.

Trujillo had sought to “sanitize” the Dominican Republic through a policy of anti-Haitianism, using a simple linguistic test. Those who could not pronounce the Spanish word for parsley, “perejil,” by rolling the Rs were slaughtered by machete-wielding soldiers. Pregnant women were beheaded, children’s skulls were smashed and bodies were thrown into the river separating the two countries, known as Rivyè Masak since the 1700s. Its waters turned red with blood.

Eight-seven years later, a dwindling number of survivors still remember the day they escaped the Kout Kouto, Creole for stabbing and chopping. 

Today, survivors can be found in the towns of D’Osmond and Ferrier, nestled in the northeast commune of Ouanaminthe. Over the summer, some shared their recollections with The Haitian Times, speaking of their trauma and desire for justice in the dusk of their lives also shone through.

Haiti-based correspondents Edxon Francisque and Onz Chery spent five days with 10 survivors between June and September. They researched the massacre and efforts to gain relief for the survivors.

On the anniversary week of the massacre, The Haitian Times is publishing several pieces exploring the aftermath of the massacre and highlighting ongoing efforts to seek reparation and justice for those still waiting. 

In the main story,  “Not gone, but forgotten,” Francisque introduces five survivors.

• Vital Princivil, 111 
• Soirelia Anténor, 103
• Damuscar Bien-Aimé, 102 
• Kirsil Joseph, 89 
• Dumel Saintilnord, 89

A sixth survivor, Marcellus Jean, died at the age of 102 in between interviews. His family allowed The Haitian Times to attend his funeral and produce “Parsley Massacre survivor, age 102, who lived in ‘deep pain’ laid to rest.” Throughout, the family reiterated that financial reparations might have eased his last days or helped them lay him to rest.

In “Due with interest: New reparations demanded for Parsley Massacre survivors,” Chéry explores the recurring theme of financial injustice that has had a generational impact. He details the 1938 reparations agreement between Haïti and the Dominican Republic that amounted to a paltry $37 per survivor that none ever received. 

Francisque, who lives near the survivors’ border town,  also shares his reflections from spending time with them in “Telling an overdue truth for a better tomorrow.”

With visualizations, videos and photos, the series portrays the survivors not simply as relics of history who have been overlooked and re-victimized, but as resilient, lively beings deserving of recompense – legal, monetary and humanitarian. They bring to light how an untold number of lives were devastated, families slaughtered, and generations robbed of loved ones, homes and livelihoods.

As these survivors enter the twilight of their lives, they and their families see reparations — including monetary restitution — not only as a matter of financial relief but as a way to restore their dignity by acknowledging the atrocities committed against them. Their personal stories largely leave out the context of 1937 falling between two world wars, which historians have said caused the U.S. to set up a foster system for Haitians to work in the Dominican Republic and triggered Trujillo’s decision to “de-Africanize” his country. 

The lookback and current conditions beg several questions: Why isn’t the Kout Kouto widely recognized as a genocide? Is it too late to bring the sense of justice that the survivors and their families have yearned for over nearly a century?

“We have waited too long,” says Joseph, her voice croaky, yet persistent. “Where is our justice?”

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