Marie Sainte Dédée Bazile: Honor Our Leaders in Death

Marie Sainte Dédée Bazile Died 1816 Photo source : https://www.voicesfromhaiti.com/tag/marie-sainte-dedee-bazile/

Content Warning: Rape and Black Death

There isn’t much detail known about Marie Sainte Dédée Bazile’s personal life, in fact, you’ll notice that this post doesn’t include a real photo of her, like prior posts. There isn’t one.

I stumbled upon Bazile’s name when researching other leaders of the Haitian Revolution. Her information, although brief, moved me to tears so I wanted to dedicate space and time to her.

Dedee Bazile is primarily known for retriving and burying the body of Jean-Jacques Dessalines who was assassinated by his administration. His body was multilated.

She gathered his remains, placed them in a bag, then buried him. If you’ve been following this site since February 1st, Dessalines is a name you’ve seen associated with Catherine Flon and the Mino. His assassination is certainly worthy of much needed space and discourse for another time. I want to keep the focus of the project on the work of Black Women like Dédée Bazile.

Her story is filled with trauma. Bazile is the survivor of rape and a survivor of her family being killed. She is remembered as a”mad woman”. However, in full context of a slave revolt, rape, and losing family, I want to consider that she wasn’t a “mad woman”, but struggled with mental illness as the result of trauma. She is deserving of more care when discussed.

Her action of caring for Dessalines in his death was such an important work. It caused me to reflect on how black communities constantly have their grief interrupted. I reflected on how black leaders and victims, such as Fred Hampton and Emett Till, continue to have their graves desecrated. They certianly aren’t the first to be disrespected in death, there’s an entire song, ‘Strange Fruit’, that conveys the long story of Black People being denied honor and respect in death.

I’ve personally witnessed this post-mortem act of violence. The Ferguson Uprising began as a memorial for Mike Brown; black people making space to grieve and mourn. It was the violent response of local authorities that shifted grieving to organizing.

This is a woman of care who does the necessary community mourning work. Dédée Bazile, we honor you.

Receipts aka Sources

Dédée Bazile – TLP (thelouvertureproject.org)

Marie Sainte Dédée Bazile – VoicesfromHaïti ~ Nou bèl. E Nou La. (voicesfromhaiti.com)