Jean-Claude Bajeux

Jean-Claude Bajeux (17 September 1931 – 5 August 2011) was a Haitian political activist and professor of Caribbean literature. For many years he was director of the Ecumenical Center for Human Rights based in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, and a leader of the National Congress of Democratic Movements, a moderate socialist political party also known as KONAKOM. He was Minister of Culture during Jean-Bertrand Aristide's first term as President of Haiti.

In 1993 The New York Times called him "Haiti's leading human rights campaigner". In 1996 the paper called him "one of the country's leading intellectuals". In 2004 the St. Petersburg Times called him "Haiti's most respected human rights activist".

Early life and career Bajeux was born in Port-au-Prince on 17 September 1931. He completed secondary school at the Petit Séminaire Collège Saint-Martial, run by the Holy Ghost/Spiritan Fathers. After this he studied philosophy and theology under the Holy Ghost Fathers/Spiritan Fathers in France. During his time in France, the University of Bordeaux awarded him a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy. He received a PhD in Romance languages and culture from Princeton University in 1977 after completing a doctoral dissertation titled "Antilia retrouvee: La poésie noire antillaise a travers l'oeuvre de Claude McKay, Luis Pales Matos, Aimé Césaire." He began his career as a Roman Catholic priest, as a member of the Holy Ghost Fathers, or Spiritan Fathers, though he later left the priesthood. Duvalier's Tonton Macoutes militia kidnapped Bajeux's mother, his two sisters, and two of his brothers from their home in the middle of the night. They all later died in the Fort Dimanche prison, which The Miami Herald described as "the regime's most infamous hellhole".

Following his time in Santo Domingo, Bajeux traveled to Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, where he spent one year editing a collection of documents about the history of Latin America. In 1967 he became a professor of comparative literature and Caribbean literature at the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan, a position he held until 1992.

In 1977 he earned a PhD in Romance languages and literatures from Princeton University, where he was Assistant Master of Princeton Inn College, later known as Forbes College. His dissertation concerned black Caribbean poetry. and also a relative of some of the 13 Jeune Haiti rebels.

During his years in exile, Bajeux remained active struggling for human rights in Haiti. The World Council of Churches helped him found the Ecumenical Center for Human Rights in Santo Domingo in 1979. He also joined a group based in the Dominican Republic planning guerrilla attacks against the Duvalier regime. He also began his affiliation with KONAKOM, eventually rising to become a central figure in the party by 1989. and against the return to Haiti of Williams Régala and Roger Lafontant, former interior ministers under Duvalier. Bajeux became a supporter of Aristide's pro-democracy movement as did many other Holy Ghost/Spiritan Fathers who worked to elect another priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Aristide was elected in 1990 but forced into exile in a military coup the following year. At first Bajeux remained in Haiti, continuing his human rights advocacy

Aristide was returned to power in October 1994 in the United States-led Operation Uphold Democracy. Later that year Bajeux was appointed culture minister under Aristide. In this office he promoted the "Haitianization" of the national culture at the expense of French elements, a course he had advocated as early as 1986. In 2002 he received the Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.

Bajeux died 5 August 2011 at his home Port-au-Prince. He was 79 and the cause was lung cancer. After returning to Haiti in 1986 he opposed the Reagan administration's plan to industrialize Haiti's heavily agrarian economy. During Bill Clinton's presidential transition following his election in 1992, Bajeux praised Clinton's efforts to aide Aristide's return, and in 1996 he accused Republicans of using problems in Haiti to embarrass Clinton, who was then running for reelection.