After the Haitian Army overthrew Professor Daniel Fignolé and sent him into exile in the United States, it became necessary to understand the principal figures who would shape the events that followed. This chapter presents General Antonio Kébreau and Clément Jumelle. The following chapter will turn to agronomist Louis Déjoie and Dr. François Duvalier, completing the portraits of four men at the center of Haiti's political scene during the presidential election of 1957.
Antonio Kébreau
Thrasybule Kébreau and his wife, Thérèse Toussaint, had six children. Antonio, their second child, was born in Port-au-Prince on November 11, 1909.
After completing his baccalaureate examinations, Antonio Kébreau entered the Apostolic School with the intention of becoming a Catholic priest. Illness forced him to abandon that path soon afterward.
On September 15, 1930, Kébreau entered the military school in Port-au-Prince as a cadet. The school had been established by the Americans before the end of the occupation on August 1, 1934. After thirteen months of training, Kébreau was commissioned as an officer aspirant on October 15, 1931.
According to information obtained from members of his family, Kébreau was not originally a supporter of François Duvalier. His position changed after one of his daughters, one of his sisters, and especially his wife placed considerable pressure on him. They argued that Dr. Duvalier had traveled through the countryside treating peasants suffering from yaws, and that if he became president, he would work for the poor and for Haiti's peasants. In this way, they eventually persuaded Kébreau to support Duvalier.
At a time when the Haitian Army made and removed presidents, Kébreau promised Duvalier that he would give him power and help him become president of Haiti.
Kébreau and Paul Magloire
Paul Magloire and Antonio Kébreau attended military school together and belonged to the same graduating class in the Haitian Army. Their friendship was so close that Magloire served as godfather to one of Kébreau's children.
When Magloire decided to stage a coup against President Dumarsais Estimé, he approached Kébreau about joining the movement. Kébreau explained that President Estimé had sent him to a United States military base for training in 1948, when he was a captain. Out of gratitude toward Estimé, he could not participate in a plot to overthrow him.
After the coup that removed President Estimé on May 10, 1950, Kébreau nevertheless received a promotion. On June 22, 1950, he advanced from captain to major and was transferred to Ouanaminthe. It appears that while stationed there, he developed a close friendship with Dominican dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina.
Kébreau was later promoted to lieutenant colonel and transferred from Ouanaminthe to Cap-Haïtien as military inspector for the Northern Department. He had no troops under his command. His principal duty was to make occasional visits to military districts and subdistricts across the department.
With so little to occupy him in Cap-Haïtien, Kébreau could often be found in the afternoon on Rue 11 F, telling jokes in front of the store of his friend Joseph Amary, or inside the store of another friend, Philoclès Andrieux.
Although Kébreau and Magloire had entered the Army in the same class, their careers advanced at very different speeds. Kébreau was still a major when Colonel Magloire became president in 1950. He was still only a lieutenant colonel when General Magloire fell from power on December 6, 1956.
Under provisional president Joseph Nemours Pierre-Louis, General Léon Cantave, then chief of staff of the Haitian Army, rapidly promoted Kébreau to colonel on January 4, 1957, and sent him to Les Cayes as commander of the Southern Military Department.
Fignolé later went to Les Cayes to bring Kébreau back and appointed him chief of staff of the Haitian Army. He replaced General Léon Cantave, who was forced to resign and leave the Army after the events of May 25, 1957.
As is already known, General Kébreau then set the machinery of the Haitian Army in motion. He staged the coup that overthrew President Daniel Fignolé after Fignolé had spent only nineteen days in power.
Clément Jumelle
Clément Jumelle was born in Saint-Marc on November 16, 1915. His father was Théodore Jumelle, and his mother was Clémence Ducasse.
Alapapòt, right from the beginning, it must be said that among the three presidential candidates, Clément Jumelle appeared to possess the greatest knowledge and the most political experience to govern the country.
After completing secondary school in 1934, Jumelle entered the Faculty of Law in Port-au-Prince. He received the diploma that allowed him to practice law, a profession he pursued from 1937 until 1943.
He then traveled to the United States. He drove a taxi during the day and attended classes at Fisk University in the evening, earning a master's degree in economics and sociology. He continued his studies at the University of Chicago, where he specialized in public finance. Jumelle returned to Haiti in 1947.
His American education opened the way to several important government positions. From 1947 through 1950, President Estimé appointed him first as head of a service within the Labor Bureau, and later as director general of the bureau.
From 1950 through 1956, throughout Magloire's government, Jumelle served first as minister of labor and public health, then as minister of finance and the national economy. Magloire placed him at the head of several delegations representing Haiti abroad and entrusted him with special missions for the government.
Jumelle married Paulette Milfort on August 25, 1951.
Having observed presidential campaigns in the United States, Jumelle became the only one of the three candidates, and the first in Haiti's political history, to appear with a written platform. In a small book divided into eleven chapters, he explained what he intended to do if elected president.
The platform addressed agriculture, fishing, livestock, electrical energy, industry, commerce, roads, maritime transportation, air travel, education, public health, justice, social security, tourism, public finance, state revenue, and the administration of the country.
Obstacles to Jumelle's Campaign
Because Jumelle had served as finance minister under Magloire, the provisional government of Franck Sylvain issued a warrant for his arrest. The work of a strong legal team prevented the warrant from being executed. Even so, it created serious difficulties for Jumelle and prevented him from campaigning properly throughout the country.
The Political and Social Divide
Having introduced Antonio Kébreau and Clément Jumelle, the account next turns to former senator and agronomist Louis Déjoie, followed by Dr. François Duvalier.
An lagan, from the very beginning, it is important to recognize that Déjoie and Duvalier did not belong to the same social class. This difference helped divide the country into opposing political camps.
On one side stood what was called les forces du bien, the forces of good. This was the label used for the supporters of Senator Louis Déjoie, who was a light-skinned man. His camp included Catholics, people with light-brown complexions, members of the elite and bourgeoisie, and wealthy merchants and industrialists.
On the other side stood what was called les forces du mal, the forces of evil, also described as the forces of Black people. This was the label applied to the supporters of Dr. François Duvalier, who was himself a Black man.
As a physician, Duvalier could have changed his social position and entered the bourgeoisie. He refused to do so, preferring to remain in the social group situated between the poor and the elite, known as the middle class.
As we will see, the Black-versus-mulatto issue, which had convulsed Haiti since 1804, reappeared with even greater force during the election of 1957.
For that reason, to understand what happened next, it is necessary to present agronomist Louis Déjoie and Dr. François Duvalier. They were the two leading figures on the political stage who were expected to contest the election.