Dany Laferrière: A Night with Frankétienne in Cayenne

My plane landed at Rochambeau Airport in French Guiana. But who is this Rochambeau? Well, it is the name of the most fearsome executioner France ever sent to Saint-Domingue—the name of Haiti before independence—to crush the slave revolt. Rochambeau is known for having organized that tragic ball in Port-au-Prince where wives danced in one room while their husbands were being slaughtered in the next. He was also the one who brought from Cuba dogs trained to hunt down maroons, those slaves who fled the hellish plantation system. For Haitians, R