"Baskethead" returns!

Incredible news from Haiti! Just when we thought things couldn't get any worse, former dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier returned Sunday, nearly 25 years after a popular uprising against his brutal dictatorship forced him into exile in France.

"Baby Doc" -- known previously as "Baskethead" -- succeeded his father, François Duvalier ("Papa Doc") who ruled Haiti from 1957 until 1971. Papa Doc's misrule was a paradigm of the African "big man" style, based on a purged military, a rural militia, a dreaded secret police force known as "les tontons macoutes", and the use of voodoo.

Papa Doc was elected "President for Life" in 1964, according to the same African-style democractic process which we saw on TV late last year -- mounds of marked ballots thrown on garbage heaps, ballot boxes disappearing, would-be voters harassed, etc.

Duvalier fostered a personality cult around himself, and claimed to be the physical embodiment of the island nation. He also started to revive the traditions of voodoo, which he used to consolidate his power. He claimed to be a houngan, or voodoo priest himself. In an effort to make himself even more imposing, Duvalier deliberately modeled his image on that of Baron Samedi, the voodoo loa of the dead (pictured right).

He often donned sunglasses to hide his eyes and talked with the strong nasal tone associated with the loa. The Duvalier regime propaganda even stated that "Papa Doc was one with the loas, Jesus Christ, and God himself". The most celebrated image from the time shows a standing Jesus Christ with hand on a seated Papa Doc's shoulder with the caption "I have chosen him. There was even a Duvalierist variant of the Our Father. Duvalier also held in his closet the head of his former opponent Blucher Philogenes who tried to overthrow him in 1963.

Turned out the "life term" lasted only eight years, as Papa Doc died in 1971, possibly of natural causes. He was succeeded by his son and heir, "Baskethead", seen here receiving his father's blessing.

Baby Doc was widely reviled for being a spoiled playboy and... errr... a "baskethead" (stupid, empty-headed person), and fled into exile in France shortly after his ascension. And now he has returned.

Those who understand Haitian/African culture and politics will not be surprised to learn that Baby Doc has been welcomed by cheering crowds, in spite of being part of a dynasty that presided over one of the blackest periods of Haitian history.

According to Associated Press, Duvalier's stunning arrival at the airport Sunday was as mysterious as it was unexpected. He did not say why he chose this tumultuous period to suddenly reappear from his exile in France, or what he intended to do while back in Haiti. “I'm not here for politics,” Duvalier told Radio Caraibes. “I'm here for the reconstruction of Haiti.”

It is rumoured that former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide will be the next to return to reclaim the throne [president's chair, surely. Ed.]. M. Aristide, a former priest who embraced "liberation theology", was deposed in a US-approved coup in 1994.

If Duvalier and Aristide see an opportunity in Haiti, how can it escape the notice of Michaëlle Jean, the former Governor-General of Canada? Her Jeanness made herself mighty comfortable sitting on the vice-regal throne and is said to be ready to get on the next plane from her Park Avenue suite just as soon as the presidential palace is suitably refurbished.