Between us silence covers the wounds with a veil of peace and a soft breeze. (p19) - Évelyne Trouillot

This image of the condemned books remains for me one of the strongest images of the repression, this repression of knowledge and of creative freedom. Isn’t that one of the strongest armies used by dictators everywhere?

The solution for a country is never outside the country; it should emerge, and grow and develop, from within. We can’t all be Baydenns [emigrants]. A whole nation cannot leave. The more people leave, the more the country declines. It’s a vicious circle, we’re going round and round.

While writing Rosalie l’infâme, I rediscovered the history of the revolution, I learned about the struggles of the enslaved women, men and children in their daily lives; their struggles to maintain their dignity. And I truly believe that if the slaves had not fought for their dignity, if they had not managed to maintain some dignity amid the most inhuman system, the Haitian revolution would not have been possible. While doing my research for writing Rosalie, I could empathize with them because finally I saw them as human beings and not as an anonymous mass of victims of slavery.