When the Tom-Tom Beats: Selected Prose and Poetry.

• Author: Mujica, Barbara

Political upheaval and poverty keep Haiti in the public eye, but too often eclipse the country's rich cultural heritage. Azul Editions has done readers a service by making available this superb bilingual edition of selected works of Jacques Roumain, one of Haiti's most highly respected writers. Though hardly known in the English-speaking world, Roumain was one of the most prominent pan-African poets of the 1930s and 1940s, acclaimed in Europe and Latin America.

Born in 1907 to an upper-class family, he was educated in Switzerland but returned home to fight for Haitian nationalism. As president of the Haitian Patriotic Youth League, Roumain was instrumental in ending the U.S. occupation of his country. Along with Philippe Thoby-Marcelin, Carl Brouard, and Antonio Vieux, in 1927 he founded La Revue Indigene: Les Arts et la Vie [The Indigenous Review: Arts and Life], a vehicle for new writing in Haiti. Because of his political activity, he was arrested and imprisoned soon afterward. Nevertheless, Roumain remained productive, publishing several collections of stories and poetry. After the departure of the U.S. Marines in 1934, he became deeply involved in Marxist politics, which led to his imprisonment and exile. In his travels in Europe and the United States, Roumain forged close friendships with other writers, notably Langston Hughes, who translated some of his poetry. He came to believe that the poor were inextricably bound together, regardless of their color.

With the change in government in Haiti, Roumain was allowed to return to his native country. In 1943 President Lescot appointed him charge d'affaires in Mexico, where his newly found creative freedom permitted him to complete two of his most influential books, the poetry collection Bois d'ebene [Ebony Wood] and the novel Gouverneurs de la rosee [Masters of the Dew]. Although he lived only thirty-seven years, Roumain created some of the most colorful, dynamic, and moving poetry of his generation.

Much of Roumain's work expresses the frustration and rage of people who have been downtrodden for centuries. The poet calls on the poor to unite, to cease kowtowing to the powerful:

Fini vous verrez bien nos yes Sir oui blanc si Senor. . . We're finished you'll see our Yes Sir our oui blanc our si Senor. . .

By incorporating different languages into his verse, Roumain stresses that privation is not just a black or a Haitian problem, but a global reality. At the same time, the poet draws...